Tucson, Az at last

TUCSON, AZ, .  Well, it is April 26, 2015.  We spent 2 weeks at Desert Shadows rv park in Phoenix and I came down with a horrible cold, which has knocked the bejesus out of me.  We got a new windshield put in there and our slides adjusted and then left for Tucson.  While here at the Koa, where we have a long beautiful pull thru site with furniture, I continued with my  illness.  Finally yesterday we went to an urgent care center and it was diagnosed as a cold complicated with allergies, and today I feel a lot better.  This is our second week here and I intend to sightsee if it kills me.  Today it is cool and very windy and a little bit of rain.  Hopefully by the end of the week we will go out and I would like to visit some other rv parks in the Tucson, mesa area to plan our winter next season.  Well, like I said, nothing more to write except that we are getting things organized in our trailer and that is a plus.  Hope everyone is fine.  Signing off for now.

Leavin

Well, it is April 10, 2015 and we have been here at the Fountain of Youth Spa rv park for 6 months.  The time has gone by so fast.  Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Phoenix, Arizona for the start of our summer trip.  We have to get another new windshield(don't ask), fix our sagging slide, a leak in our fresh water tank and other small items.  We will stay there a week unless there is a problem getting parts, or two weeks the most.  We will tour all of Phoenix, looking forward to museums, parks, etc.  And of course, EATING OUT, you see we are about 1 and a half hours to restaurants where we stay for the winter so we are going through withdrawal.  In Phoenix we can get pizza delivered and Chinese food, oh joy. 

Then we will continue on to Tucson, Az where we will visit Tombstone Territory, and all the movie sets for the westerns, lots of museums there too.

I have been to the dr. and had two minor surgeries done at the Eisenhower Center Hospital in Palm Desert.  They are a first class operation (pardon the pun), and treated me very nicely, guess I will be okay till I go back for a checkup next October.  While we were there we ate at the Manhattan Deli, it is the same one that is in Palm Springs, but this one is in Palm Desert.  The food was delicious.  I did all the laundry today 3 full bags, blankets, sheets in our laundry here so we are good to go.  Looking forward to driving to Phoenix tomorrow.  Should be about a 5 to 6 hour trip, and the weather will be great.

STILL AT OUR WINTER HOME

Well, it is March 1, 2015.  Funny how time slips away when you are having so much fun.  The last 5 months have been a hoot and we have done so much.  Where shall we start.  Joel has been honing his tennis skills and has been freaking folks out with his slicing technique.  Also water volleyball has been going full-force and a team has formed which goes to different parks to compete.  Our group even entered a seniors Olympic style volleyball match which they won in the Coachella Valley, we are very proud of them. 

We have of course been eating at many pot lucks and eating out too.  Trying to keep the weight down.  We have done two drama club shows, the first I co-directed which was the xmas one.  Then I took over the direction of our second one which the theme was of the "60's".  I decided to do a live broadcast of "American Bandstand".  The audience went wild.  One of our group made all our props, a television camera on a stand, all signs, a top ten board, etc.  Then we recorded the opening music and set the stage for 8 acts to perform with a lipsync of the original music.  We used clothing from the 60's and we even recorded original commercials and had protestors at the end to break up the show.  All players got their own costumes together and got their dance routines on their own.  We only have 6 week to pull together these two shows so it was a tremendous effort.  I was so proud of them.  We had standing room only, about 200 people and the whole house rocked.  We did the Chordettes, the Beatles, Sonny and Cher, The Angels, Leslie Gore, etc and of course Dick Clark was there to lead the whole show, everyone said it was the best show they ever saw and they now want an American Bandstand 2, whew. 

We are having a cast party tomorrow afternoon, a cocktail party with hot and cold appetizers and beer and wine.  It will be a fun time.  I have even made dvd's of the show for all players.  I am already looking forward to next years shows and have already made plans for them.  I will e-mail all players during the summer to have them get costumes ready.

We had our Can-am games last week.  This is an all day event when the Canadians go up against the Americans, and let me tell you they are some pretty tight competition.  We start with a parade at 10 am, which we were in and our corvette got rave reviews and we got a blue ribbon.  They to the town square for games, cakewalk, chili cookoff, hot dogs and fixings, fresh made tacos, drinks, fortune telling, vendors and such, such a good time.  Then at 1pm the games began.  Joel was on the American team, which he didn't know about, they just put a shirt on him and 4 other folks the games began.  It was a game with marshmallows, filling a jug with a sponge, hula hoop around each other, and passing a ball from one to another without your hands, such a hoot.  A good time was had by all. See all the folks from the pics and some funny photos I took.  We will probably be here for another month, still many shows and fun.  So enjoy the pics.  Today it is raining for the first time so we are indoors, a good time to write a blog.

 

Above is a pic of our friends Gary and Joanne and Willow

which we took in Quartzsite where we went to visit them for a day trip.

 

 

 

Here is me dressed up to look like Leslie Gore

so I could sing "Its My Party"

 

 

 

Everyone lining up for the can-am games

 

 

 

Quite a crowd gathered for the occasion

 

 

 

Getting instructions for the games

 

 

 

Joel waiting for the marshmallow to be passed to him

 

 

 

 

This pic of Joel was caught while he was filling the jug

of water with a sponge, ha ha

 

 

 

STILL IN NILAND, CALIFORNIA

Happy New Years to all on today Jan. 1, 2015.  Well, we made it another year of fulltiming and  believe me it hasn't been easy.  Seems we can't go 2 months without some sort of a repair.  This month it is a completely cracked windshield which was installed 6 months ago.  No one wants to take responsibility for it.  Rv Glass Solutions who installed it is coming over next week.  They will be here for the fmca rally in indio, ca and only 45 minutes from us, so then we will see what to do.  Whatever the case, we still have to get another windshield, or stop moving.  Also our fresh water tank is leaking at the valve and many attempts to seal it have not fixed the problem so we will probably have to get a new tank.  Also our large slide is sagging so much it will not come in without some gentle effort from us.  So when we leave here in April, we will head to Lazy Daze in Tucson and get everything fixed while we are still under our extended warranty. 

Now to nice things, we have been here since Oct. 11th.  Our friends from last year all came to welcome us.  That was so wonderful.  We have been doing a lot of eating out, shopping, one drama play so far, and I am directing the next one on Feb. 13th.  We have been going to karaoke a lot and even Joel got up and sang and no one booed him off the floor.  Last nite was our new years dinner dance and we had a live band and wonderful shrimp dinner and dancing with all our new friends, it was so great.  Today I started a new years resolution and walked 2 miles on the treadmill and intend to do this at least 3 days a week.  People in this park despite being in their 70's and 80's are very trim.  I intend to stay this way for a long time.  Got a new shorter hairdo and it is easier to take care of.

This morning it was 35 degrees.  Our heat ran all night but it is comfy and cozy in here.  Now temps have warmed up at 12:30.  to about 65 degrees and hardly any wind.  I have some new pics for you.
Two weeks ago I went on a bus to the Museum of Natural History in San Diego and saw the King Tut Exhibit.  I was disappointed that it was reproductions but then I realized that the real exhibit is in Cairo, Egypt and is worth millions of dollars.  I went with two friends and then we both had lunch out.  It was fun.  Enjoy the pics.

 

This is our home in Niland, Ca. at the

Fountain of Youth Spa Rv Park

 

 

 

So many gorgeous sunsets

 

 

 Museum in San Diego

 

 

 

Some nice pics of King Tut exhibit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ugh, this mummy looks awful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite movie "JAWS"

 

 

This bell tower was in the movie "Dirty Harry"

He got beat up in there

 

NILAND, CA, FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH SPA

Oct. ll, 2014

Well, here we are back at the Fountain of Youth Spa Rv Park in Niland, Ca.  We have a different site this year due to a new reservation policy.  We love our new site, it faces west and we have shade on our patio almost the whole day.  Our friends from last year came over to visit us almost immediately and helped move our car trailer to the side of our huge site. 

We are involved in a lot more activities this year.  Joel is playing water volleyball and basically hanging our with the guys.  I have now started exercising in our new gym,  playing pickleball which is a a game like tennis but with a wooden paddle and a wiffle ball.  I have helped to write a play for our xmas show and I have a nice part.  I volunteered to work in the activities office one day a week and will probably start ping pong next week.  Have already been to a potluck, lots of great food.

I went to the first karaoke, was a big hit singing rock and roll.  Then I was in a talent show here and had fun.  We are going to be in the Palm Springs huge xmas parade so we went out and got a plug in inverter and lights for the car. 

We are having thanksgiving dinner with our friends Luna and Kent at their house.  I sing with Luna and we have lots of fun.  We had to do a few repairs on the rig.  Joel changed a leaking propane valve, our fresh water tank is leaking, our slide is sagging, and our windshield is completely cracked, but like old folks it has the same symptoms, ha ha.  Looking forward to lots of fun here this winter.

PALM DESERT, CA FINALLY

It is now the first week of Sept and we are in Palm Desert at the Emerald Desert rv park.  It is a very upscale park with lots of pools, hot tubs, and loads of grass and loads of ants.  We get a great double site which holds our coach, trailer and car and is facing north which helps with the heat.  We came here to go to the Eisenhower Medical Center and find doctors and get some checkups done.  We found an internist, a urologist, an opthmologist, had glasses made, had xrays and bloodwork and thank heavens all is fine.  We stay for almost a month, we even go to the dentist and have cleanings done.  I go to urgent care as soon as we arrive, I am still not well and find out I have a raging urinary infection and get antibiotics which clears it up.  We are now ready to travel down into the desert. 

We first go to Sunbeam rv park in El Centro for a week to get our two rugs rebound and fix our flooring.  The company who put it in last year is in El Centro.  We manage to get the rugs done but not the flooring.  They will have to come to us in Fountain of Youth where we spend most of the winter.  We have a few issues with our coach which need attention.  Our large living room slide, the rails are sagging so the slide won't come in unless we help it.  It has to go to a dealer and they have to take it out and fix it.  Our new windshield we just got in June is now cracked again, this time on both sides and the coach cannot be driven this way.  We are trying to get this fixed, also our fresh water tank has a leak by the valve and our propane valve is leaking.  We had a sunshade made for the front windshield, and door and window and that keeps a lot of the sun out, we are now facing west. 

Well, here we are back at the Fountain of Youth Spa and rv park in Niland.  The flooring people have come and fixed the floor.  We are still trying to get other problems worked on.  We come in and discover that they have changed their no reservation policy so we can't get the site we wanted but get an even better one.  We will probably stay here thru February and maybe go to Arizona for March and April, on our way to our summer vacation, north to Wisconsin and Michigan.  Well, will keep you all posted during our winter here.

SPARKS, NEVADA

Well, haven't written for a while.  We finished the Oregon Coast and headed for Reno, Nevada.  Had to go through northern Ca first for a couple of days.  Arrived at Sparks Marina Rv Park.  Gps did alright but by the time we came in it was dark and Reno doesn't have lighted street signs.  It was real hard to see which road we were on.  Finally I spotted the Sparks Marina sign all lit up and way up high for travelers to see.  The office was closed but paperwork was left for us and we settled into a very long pull thru site that had a picnic table and astroturf grass, real nice.  We were to be there for about a week and the next day we were to meet our friends dave and Teresa for breakfast at the El Dorado Casina.  It is about 10 minutes away.  It is right on the city street and it took us a while to find the entrance to the parking garage.  I wasn't feeling well but that does not stop me from eating.  I have had a low grade fever since we were on the Oregon Coast, which was cold and damp even in August.  We had a nice breakfast, we were glad to see them.  Joel had some business in town so I hung around the coach and rested.  From Reno we were on the way to Las Vegas.  I miscalculated the distance and found out we could never drive it in one day.  We found a real isolated park along the way which had a huge pull thru.  We had to drive at least six more hours to reach Las Vegas.  It was so hot when we arrived, 100 degrees or more, we couldn't even step out of the coach.  I still wasn't feeling well so Joel went and did the laundry.  We had a nice dinner with my brother and his wife who live in Vegas about 20 minutes away.  They were so glad to see us.  We only stayed a few days and off we went to Palm Desert, Ca.