Getting Ready

Korey arrives on Tuesday night and Eric on Wednesday night.  I’m so excited to see them and am getting ready for their arrival.

We arrived at our current location, Woods Valley Kampground in Valley Center, California on Friday afternoon in the rain.  It’s been raining ever since, and it’s supposed to continue raining through Wednesday.  I’m not complaining.  For the most part, we’ve had fabulous weather since we left Wisconsin in September.

We get a kick out of the news coverage of weather.  We’re used to Midwest winters where below zero wind chills and snowstorms are the norm.  The news people were speculating whether this “stormy” weather would keep Christmas shoppers out of the stores.  The California Highway Patrol is only responding to injury accidents.  It’s just rain!

This campground reminds us of many Wisconsin campgrounds.  There are many trees and grass throughout.  The sites are pretty big, more like a state or county park. 

The section we are in has only one other site occupied.  The lady in the office told us there probably won’t be anyone else by us for our entire stay.  We’re fine with that.

It’s a basic no frills campground.  We have full hook-up with 30 amp service.  The advertised cable hasn’t worked for 5 years.  There is a pool across from our site which is open and cleaned, but not heated.  Temperatures are in the 60s.  No thanks to swimming in cold water.

As you can see from the picture, the only shot at the southern sky is across the road from our site so that’s where our satellite is.  Luckily, no one will be coming into that site. 

It suits our needs just fine for the month we’ll be here.  We wanted a place close to San Diego so the boys could fly in for Christmas.  Some resorts closer to town are charging $2,000 a month.  This place is $650 with electric included.  That’s still expensive in my book, but better than most other rates in this area.

We really needed to do laundry so we ventured out yesterday on the Saturday before Christmas.  What were we thinking :)  Our previous stay required you to purchase a card for a non-refundable $5 fee and add money to it to do laundry.  Since we were only there for a week, we decided to wait until we got here.  The first laundromat we stopped at didn’t have a free parking space.  We found another one and got the laundry taken care of.  Another interesting laundry adventure.  We were the only English speaking people.  Did I mention this area is very Hispanic.  Many stores and restaurants Mexican with signs only in Spanish. 

Kevin was a saint putting up with me because I then wanted to go to Kohl's to buy a few new undergarments.  They were on sale with a coupon and a rebate.  They were practically giving them away.  Traffic was a nightmare, but we survived.  On the way back, we stopped at a produce stand where I bought a bag of grapefruit.  I ate one last night, and it was sooo good.

Today is football Sunday, and I’m baking cookies and doing some advance cooking so I won’t have to cook much when the boys are here.  Did I mention I’m excited they’re coming :)  Hopefully, the Packers will win tonight, and Kevin will be happy.

Tomorrow I’ll do a good cleaning and then I’ll be ready. 

I spoke to my mom for an hour this morning.  She’s handling the fact that our entire family won’t be home for Christmas quite well.  She has her “special friend”, Richard, and my brother and his wife.  She’s quite the trooper.  I hope I have her health, energy and spirit when I’m 73.

On Thursday we drove through Sky Valley Resort in Desert Hot Springs to check it out.  They had some nice ponds on the premises, and I saw this black swan on one of them.  I’ve never seen a black swan before.  Cool!

I’ve done rambling for today.  Hopefully, we won’t float away this week :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!