From Palm Springs to Washington, DC

We took a trip to the Palm Springs area to visit with friends, George & Myrna Beeman. They were staying in a condo in the PS area on what has become an annual pilgrimage for them. The four of us did some walking around the downtown area before taking in the wonderful "Palm Springs Follies" in the historic Plaza Theatre. The show was a fabulous return to the Tin Pan Alley days, complete with showgirls and guys from the era. The youngest showgirl was 61 years old with the oldest being 84 years young. It was amazing to learn they do nine shows each week during the performing season. The women looked terrific and the men looked like they had lots of makeup on. It was a wonderful, fun day spent with good friends.

Following the performance, Diane headed out from Palm Springs airport to return to Portland for one day, before flying to Washington, DC to join daughter Kristen on a special tour of the White House and the Capitol Building. The trip home first was to get her grandkid fix with the ones that were available, to have lunch with some of her Ya-Ya friends and to gather some warm clothes for the east coast cold spell. Tim and Sam stayed in Hemet to enjoy a few days of bachelor life. Both of them, however, are much happier when mom is home.

While Diane's time in DC was close to a whirlwind tour, she was able to cross one item off her "bucket list". She has always wanted to visit inside the White House and the Capitol Building and, thanks to Kristen and her boss,who were there on official business, she got the insiders look at both.

We are sorry that there are no pictures to accompany this blog entry, but a technical problem with our camera appears to have wiped out the memory card. We haven't totally given up hope as yet as we plan to take the card to an authorized factory repair shop that we located in San Diego to see if the images can be recovered.

It is hard to believe that our time here at Golden Village Palms is coming to an end. We will be moving on Saturday, March 1, to Chula Vista RV Resort and Marina, in near San Diego, CA. Since Diane came back to town on Tuesday, the weather here has been spectacular. Temps in the 70's during the day, but still getting very cool at night. The skies up here are so clear that we enjoy seeing all the stars in the universe. Regrettably we were clouded over for the most recent lunar eclipse. We certainly are planning to return here next year as we have enjoyed this park and the people so much.

We're still here!

Wow! Has it really been 11 days since our last blog update? Things are just happening way too fast for us. Just to keep us humble, the weather has taken a stormy turn and we have had several days of rain. The weather at home seems to be better than here. No opportunity for pool volleyball or golf. However, we have still managed to stay busy with games, dances, and visitors.

Randy and Karen Wersch from Kamloops, British Columbia were in town for a weekend as they complete a loop from BC to the Yuma, Arizona area, then over to the coast route to make their return trip home. Randy is a cousin of Diane and Joyce. We visited them for a wonderful, adventurous week at their cabin on East Berriere Lake in BC a few years ago. They are traveling by car, rather than by RV and with one of the new navigation systems that takes all the fun out of getting lost. Where is the spirit of adventure?

Also, Bob and Betty Trappe made the drive from Borrego Springs to Hemet to visit us and tour the grounds of the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. We are trying to convince Bob to bring his motorhome here next year. He says a condo in the middle of the desert is more his style. It turns out that Bob and brother-in-law Jim West, have many common friends that also overlap with a number of Tim's clients and bank contacts. We spent quite a while just saying "What ever happened to .......?" After a great visit and a wonderful lunch, Bob and Betty returned to their desert condo.

On these overcast days, we really get homesick. Since we have now been away from home for over a month and a half, we miss seeing our kids and grandkids. Although the telephone and email are great ways to communicate, nothing beats a good old-fashioned hug. We miss you all! That also goes for our friends as well.

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

We made the trip again today to Anza Borrego Desert State Park to visit with one of Diane's Snow-Cap co-workers, Bob Trappe. He and his wife, Betty, are long time visitors to this area and usually have come here in their RV. This year, they tried something new and are staying in a condo in Borrego Springs for the month of February. Bob and Betty were going to show us around the desert area, but we got hung up at a lunch where the kitchen lost our order. What was supposed to be a quick lunch turned out to be a two hour affair. While the service was very deficient, the company was outstanding and we found we had many acquaintances in common. We saw a little bit of the area - just enough to know that we want to go back, then hit the State Park Visitor Center on our way out of town to get just a taste of what the desert has to offer.


We have been trying to obtain a picture of the area surrounding our RV park that does justice to the colors in the mountains. With the snow covered tops rapidly melting, our opportunities are getting more limited.



There hasn't been much blog updating as of late as we have been simply enjoying ourselves. The weather has finally taken a turn for the better and we are having 80 degree days and pleasant evenings and nights.



Samson enjoys his daily walks and is really happy just sitting outside sunning himself each day. Last night we said good-bye to new friends, John and Joyce Bird from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. We look forward to seeing them again in the future.



We have been attending services at the First Presbyterian Church here in Hemet on Sundays. Although we have been away from the Presbyterian Church for a while back home, we feel very comfortable and have been enjoying the sermons and lessons.

Life under the palms

This picture shows one of the three swimming pools that are available to us here at the Golden Village Palms. There are also three hot tubs. They are hot, hotter, and hottest. We have so much fun at the pool. The pool volleyball is two hours of laughter since we all do our fair share of flubs.

We enjoyed the dance at the club house on Saturday night. The music group played all the songs we liked and we danced the night away.

Tim has played some golf recently and we both have been to the driving range a couple of times. Diane has not yet played her first nine of golf, but hopes to do so soon.

The weather today has been beautiful. We are really enjoying soaking up the sun. It was cool this morning and about 70 degrees this afternoon. Hopefully the sun will stay with us now for a few weeks. Diane and her sister, Joyce, spent the afternoon reading books in the sun and walking Samson, while Tim and brother-in-law, Jim, went golfing.

Our neighbors in the park, Mike and Judy, are from Federal Way, Washington, and spend several months here in Hemet. They also work as camp hosts at Wenatchee Confluence State Park in Wenatchee, WA. We have gotten together with them a few times and hope to arrange for an RV trip to their park in September or October. Mike is on one of the select sand volleyball teams, and they are having a big tournament here tomorrow against a team from an RV park in Indio, CA. The select team are the most serious volleyball players, although they still have their share of fun.

Sorry for the interruption!

We apologize for being offline for so long. We have been experiencing difficulty in staying connected when we have been able to get on the internet at all from our coach. After several days of troubleshooting with different vendors, we seem to have hit on the best solution for us.

We experienced several days of bad weather as you may have heard. Southern California was being deluged with rain and wind and we had to lay low and wait out the storms.

We finally learned to play Mexican Train dominoes, but don't feel we are quite ready to play at the competitive level that the local folks do. Also we aren't quite ready to part with the 25 cents per game that the rest of the group can apparently afford. They must think we are made of money.

On Saturday we were able to get together with Tim's brother, John, his wife, Bear, and daughter Connie in Moreno Valley for dinner. It was nice to be able to connect again and catch up on family happenings. It is hard to believe that Connie is already a senior in high school and her mom and dad are experiencing all the anxieties associated with college decisions.

Diane's sister, Joyce and her husband, Jim were finally able to catch a break in the weather and made it over the grapevine on Saturday from the Bakersfield area. They were as glad to arrive as we were, and it didn't take them long to make the decision to stay here for awhile.

We have been enjoying little trips around the area, locating some of our favorite places. Temecula is about 20 to 25 miles away, but has the Costco and Winco stores as well as just about any other store you can think of. We are amazed at the number of shopping centers there are in the Temecula/Murrieta Hot Springs area.

Except for the rainy days, we continue to do our two hours of morning pool volleyball. It is such a hoot! We talked Joyce and Jim into participating today and we think they enjoyed it. When we finish up we don't know if our muscles are hurting from the exertion or from laughing so hard.

Tim and Jim played 18 holes of golf Tuesday at Seven Hills Golf Course while Diane and Joyce hit a bucket of balls. The course was a little soggy from the recent rains, but very playable. Tim's best claim for the whole day was that he didn't lose a single ball - a record for him.

What happened to the sun?

After avoiding rain during the past few days, the big storm that has been hitting the California coast finally caught up to us. Heavy rains hit us during the night and it is still a bit showery this a.m. We found out that they play pool volleyball here, even during the rain, so we are debating whether to participate. The daytime temperatures are still hovering around 60 degrees, while nighttime temps dip into the high 30's.

We took a day trip to Temecula yesterday in an effort to find a Best Buy to purchase a gadget necessary to boost our wireless signal. Our resident computer expert continues to remain technologically challenged when it comes to wi-fi signals. One minute we have an excellent signal, the next minute we can't be connected. Even the new gadget doesn't seem to have done much to help.

Last night there was a wine tasting followed by a two actor play entitled, "Love Letters". It was a good play and a fun evening. We are still enjoying making new friends.

We are hoping to get out to some of the local golf courses during the next few days. We did find a nice course the other day and hit a bucket of balls, just to see if we could still do it. Actually, this was Diane's second time hitting the golf balls, trying to decide if she can play the game and lie as well as the men do.

Home Sweet Home!

Here is our home sweet home for the next month and a half. We have never been to any other park where people go out of their way to greet you or to invite you to join in activities.

So far, we have tried sand volleyball and pool volleyball twice. We didn't sign up for last night's spaghetti dinner and people said they missed us. We have tickets for tomorrow night's wine tasting and play, "Love Letters", that should be enjoyable.

We are having some trouble with our internet connection so if we haven't responded to an email from you, that may be why. We are now being told that our wireless card is probably obsolete so we need to buy a new one. If it isn't one thing, it's another.

Unfortunately we didn't manage to outrun the rain for very long. The last two days have been showery during the night, but have stayed clear during the day. The temperatures haven't been quite where we would like to see them, but it is clearly better weather here than at home. Since the swimming pools are heated, we do quite fine during pool volleyball until we have to get out. Then it is a little cold.

We need to venture out to one of the numerous golf courses around here so Diane can try out her new golf clubs and see if she enjoys the game. There are many golfers here in the park, but we suspect they are way over our skill level.