Rain Rain .... Go Away!

Actually, we feel guilty about asking the rain to go away.  The water is needed so desperately by the folks that live in southern California.  They definitely have been getting their wishes fulfilled for the last two days.  It has rained by the bucket with at least two more days of storms to follow.  It is incredible to see the amount of water that is running down the streets.  As Oregonians, we are used to dealing with large amounts of rainwater, but the folks here in Hemet aren't so inclined.  Streets are overflowing with water running up to and over sidewalks -- drains to catch the water only occur every three or four blocks, and they are often plugged with leaves or trash.  We can only hope that all the excess water is actually being captured somewhere where it can later be used for crop irrigation or other things.

Diane's foot injury healed in three days and she was back on the court after that.  Even with all the rain the last two days, she was able to play volleyball because the rain held off until the afternoons.   Tim was at water volleyball also.  Many people don't come out on days where they think they will be cold, but the pools are nice and warm and, with only five people on each side, provide a great workout of stretching and jumping.

The sand volleyball group are gearing up for their three hit tournament this Friday, weather permitting.  Diane is excited to be participating in her first serious competition.  Within two weeks there will be the Can-Am tournament when the Canadians take on the Americans.  We are pretty sure that the Canadians outnumber the Americans so they have more players to choose from when forming their competitive teams.  Oh well, everyone still has fun.

We finally got to play golf the other day with friends, Ron and Sandy Mountain.  Tim got to score a birdie on the very first tee shot at Echo Hills when his ball hit a duck that was sunning himself beside the water hazard.  The duck was shaking his head and walking as though he had had too much to drink, but soon flew off to join his friends.  At least he stopped Tim's ball from rolling into the pond.  Ron had a fabulous day golfing, even though this was his first game following his second hip replacement.  He chipped in for birdies on the first two holes, then chipped in for an eagle on the seventh hole.  The rest of us just had fun.  There went Tim's hopes of finally beating Ron while he was still recuperating.

We are sorry that there are no pictures accompanying this posting, but we keep forgetting to take our camera with us when we go places, even though it is hanging right beside our door.  Most of what we have been doing are things that we have previously written about and photographed last year.  We spend most nights enjoying happy hour, dining with friends, playing cards or games, going to dances, or participating in other park activities.  Recently on Fun Club night, we enjoyed a wonderful potluck and learned a new game that we will have to teach others called 52 card bingo.  None of the people at our table won, but a good time was had by all.

Last Friday night we went to the Elks Club for dinner and dancing. Tim ended up filing an application to join the Hemet Elks Lodge, sponsored by Mike and Jack.  The Elks have many nice dances and dinners that we like to attend.  We are not certain when Tim will actually end up being inducted into the group as we will be out of town on the next scheduled initiation day.  Oh well, if it works it works.

We will close for now, but as always we plan to update more frequently, although it never seems to work out that way.   We love to hear from you so feel free to give us a call or drop us an email and let us know what is going on in your part of the country.

Wonderful Sunshine!

This is a picture of our site, with the game area in the front and the lounging area in the back.  We have been very fortunate not to have neighbors on one side of us for the whole time we have been here so our view of the surrounding mountains isn't blocked.  The weather here continues to warm our spirits and bodies. It has consistently been in the mid seventies each day. We don't say this to irritate our family and friends in Portland, but realize how much the sun affects our mindset. Also, with the low temperatures at night (in the low 40's), we find we sleep much better than we do at home.

Tim is still having fun at water volleyball. One can hear the group laughing even outside the outdoor pool area. Diane, however, has been sidelined with a foot injury and cannot play sand volleyball. She tried a few days ago and just made the injury worse. To put it lightly, she is unhappy, irritated, frustrated, irate, and darn mad that she cannot play. Hopefully, with a few days off, she can get back to it. We just call her gimpy for now.

Tuesday, our friends Ron and Sandy made dinner for us. It was yummy and quite a step up from blackened lasagne. We then played a rousing game of 3 - 13 with Diane being the winner. We find that having four people in most RVs is about the right number for comfortable entertaining. If we get together with more people, it is much better to use one of the little rooms in the club house which we did for a six-handed game of Pegs and Jokers. The girls really trounced the guys in all three games.

Since Diane isn't walking very well, we took a drive yesterday and did some sightseeing and visited Diamond Valley Lake. This is an incredibly large man-made lake in a beautiful area. The lake water level is down again, as it was last year. There is fishing and boating, but no swimming. Each boat has to go through an inspection to make sure that there are no zebra mussels or other marine creatures attached to the boat that might contaminate the lake. They are very careful to keep the lake pristine as it is the water supply for most of San Diego County.

These views of the boat ramp show how low the water level is in the lake.  The citizens of southern California would much rather not see so much of the ramps.  They actually had to extend the ramps this year so they were still usable by the boaters.

Last night we played bunco with about 50 people from the park. We knew some of the people, but got to know a few more. Did you know that some people are very serious about the game? Really though, it was fun and we would do it again.

Sunshine Here We Come

The Christmas holiday is over! Time to put everything away and head out for warmer weather. As we have done in the past, we will try to keep the blog updated, but it is often difficult to find the time to write. Usually one of us will get things started, then the other edits and/or makes additions so it really becomes a joint effort. This explanation is for the number of people who have asked.

One of the bitter pills we had to swallow before we could hit the road was the fact that we needed all new brakes on the motorhome. We had been noticing some squeaks and squeals for quite a while but it reached the point that Tim couldn't ignore them any longer. After going into shock over the first estimate we received from Murray Chevrolet in Gresham, Tim called his favorite mechanic, Mike who was in Hemet. Mike told us that we were being robbed and to find another shop to do the work. Ultimately we found a wonderful place, Pritchard's Truck Repair, right down the road from from our house. They did all the same work for several thousand dollars less than Murray had quoted. It is really nice to deal with honest people.

We left the Portland area on Monday, December 28, with Diane's sister, Joyce and her husband, Jim leading the way to our first stop at Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, OR. It still remains one of our favorite stops and we keep saying that, sometime, we are going to spend more than one night there. We had a great meal at the casino and even came out a little ahead this time playing the slot machines.

After hearing the Tuesday weather forecast for the Siskiyou Mountain pass we decided that we needed to leave early in the morning to get through before the snows came. By the time we got to Medford and saw snow alongside the highway, we were a little concerned about our timing. However we decided to push on through and made it through with little difficulty. We heard that later in the afternoon, the pass on I-5 was closed and/or required chains to get through. We also found out that it had snowed in Portland and paralyzed the city for a short while.

We stopped once again at the Durango RV Resort in Red Bluff, which is quickly becoming an addition to our favorites list. It was a bit rainy there, but not too cold. We had originally planned to stay here for two days for some Pegs and Jokers games. Good friends, Dave and Barb Schwartz, were going to drive up from Roseville, CA and join us for a few days. Regrettably Dave got sick and they weren't able to come after all. So, we just pushed forward although we did have quite a few games with Joyce and Jim. Fortunately no one was keeping an accurate record of the wins and losses of the boys versus the girls..

On the way through the central California valley we were amazed at the number of Oregon Duck cars that passed us on their way to the Rose Bowl game. All were decked out in full yellow and green paraphenalia. Even though we are devout Beaver fans, we are Duck supporters when it comes to bowl game participation. We regretted that we didn't have at least one sign for our RV to indicate our support.

We were shocked at how low the water level was in Shasta Lake. It could easily be called Shasta Pond. We were also surprised at the amount of good California acreage that normally would be producing crops that lay vacant. The only thing that was vertical were the signs that announced, "Congress Created This Dust Bowl". Since these fields would normally be planted with produce, it can only mean significantly higher prices to come in the grocery stores for the items we routinely take for granted. The lack of water here is very serious. Although we enjoy the warm, dry climate, we will ultimately pay the price for the rainless days.

We made a stopover night in Patterson, CA at the Kit Fox RV Park which we are pleased to announce now has cable TV -- all 12 channels of it. This park has the highest price per night with the fewest amenities we have encountered anywhere. Its location is the only thing that keeps us coming back as it fits well into our 200 to 250 mile per day driving range. It is also one of the few parks with a Starbucks for Tim within walking distance.

Another 250 miles brought us back to the Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield, CA for New Year's Eve. The orange trees were loaded with fruit and we picked a pretty good size load to bring with us. Since J&J are heading off in a different direction we played a last game of Jokers with them and we all turned in early. Edison, CA doesn't seem like a prime New Year's Eve spot so we were asleep by 10:30 p.m. We didn't even hear any fireworks, for which the dog was grateful. We did have a beautiful view of the "once in a blue moon" as it came over the mountains.

Tim's goal for the following day was to make it to the Golden Village Palms in Hemet in time for the Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day. We bid adieu to Joyce and Jim who were now on their way to Needles, CA and we were on the road at 8:15 a.m. and made it here by 12:30. It is such a gorgeous park and coming back is just like moving back to your old neighborhood. Good friends Mike and Judy Dougherty were on hand to greet us and hosted a wonderful Rose Bowl party with all manner of great food. Regrettably the Ducks didn't make such a good showing in the football game. Oh well, maybe next year the Beavers will be playing there.

On Saturday morning Diane returned to her beloved sand volleyball while Tim hit the pool. In both cases it was as though we had finished playing yesterday and the games resumed today. The weather was excellent, in the high seventies. As we were getting ourselves organized and unpacked, we received a call from friends, Ron and Sandy Mountain, who had been at the Rose Bowl game. They informed us that they were coming over to Hemet to stay for awhile and were on their way. They arrived about 2:00 and are parked just two spots away from us.

We enjoyed a quick happy hour, then Diane made a dinner of salad and lasagne- New Orleans style, garlic bread and apple crunch cake for dessert. The dinner was one that we will talk about for a number of years. Let's just say that the RV microwave, which does not have a working LCD display, is not like our home microwave.

We will write more sometime in the next few days.