Happy Birthday Sweetheart

Today is Kevin’s 55th birthday.  I think he is now officially a senior citizen since the resort we are currently staying at is a 55+ resort :)

We left Cherry Valley Lakes yesterday and had to back out of our pull-through site.  Remember how I told you the sites were extremely tight.  The pull-through sites are short so most rigs are hanging out into the road a bit.  It was too tight to pull out of our site so Kevin did an expert job of backing out.    We will never camp there again!

Our drive to Caliente Springs Resort in Desert Hot Springs was only about an hour.  Outside of Palm Springs we passed a windmill farm.  There are hundreds of them all along the interstate and up in the hills.  I love seeing them.  I figure every time I see windmills there is less oil being used, and that makes me happy for a number of reasons!

We love this new location.  It is by far the nicest resort we have stayed at.  Surprisingly, they are Passport America members so we are only paying $23.50 a night with a 7 day limit.  We needed someplace to stay for 8 nights before our reservation starts in San Diego so the last night is at the 10% Good Sam discount. 

There are 4 hot tub pools and 2 large pools.   The water in all of them comes from the underground mineral hot springs.  The 2 larger pools are at a temperature of between 87 to 94 degrees.  The hot tubs range from 96 to 104.  The temperatures are posted so you can decide how hot you want to be.

We went for a swim last night.  We went into the second hottest tub, and it was hot.  It was too hot for Kevin’s liking, but I loved it.  My arthritic joints were dancing a jig :)

After a bit, we went into the big pool and swam some laps.  It was awesome swimming on my back and looking at the moon and stars.  This life sure is great!!!

There is lap swimming every morning.  I think I’ll swim before Kevin gets up.  I didn’t this morning because it’s his birthday, and I didn’t want to be gone when he woke up.  Plus I wanted to bake him a cake.

His favorite birthday cake is a poppy seed cake his mom used to make for his birthday.  It has a custard filling and cream cheese frosting.  It’s time consuming to make, but it sure is good. 

A whole cake would just be too much for us so I used half of the ingredients and baked one layer and cut it in half.   I cheated and used store bought cream cheese frosting.  I think it will still be quite yummy!

We rode our bikes around this beautiful resort community and then played some shuffleboard.

The shuffleboard courts are behind the clubhouse and pools.  You can see some of it in the background.  There are also tennis courts, a 9 hole executive style golf course, horseshoe pits, a fitness room, a bistro, laundry facilities, a library, and a public room for activities. 

There are all kinds of daily activities scheduled.  There is definitely something for everyone.  The only facility that costs extra is the golf.  After looking over the course, we decided not to play.  The holes are very short and narrow with park model homes all around each hole.  I’m not confident enough in my game to risk hitting someone’s house.

Time to go and see what Kevin has planned to do next.  I told him it’s his day, and we’ll do whatever he wants.  Tonight we’re going out to dinner.

By the way, as you can see in the picture, it’s warm enough to be wearing shorts and a tank top.  Highs are predicted to be in the 80s all weekend. 

We hope all of our Wisconsin family and friends are enjoying the pretty snow they are experiencing :)

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

Not For Us

We attended the Colorado River Adventure sales presentation yesterday.  They own 8 parks in the Southern California, Arizona area.  Included in the packages was free camping at any of their 8 home parks plus Coast to Coast and RPI membership and some time trading for condos in the more expensive packages.

If you stay at the home parks, you can stay free for two weeks and then out for a week and then two free weeks, etc.  You can go to another of the home parks for free the in-between week, but it’s a hassle to move.  You can stay put for the in-between week for $95. 

The park we’re at looked really nice on the video they showed of the 8 parks which makes me wonder how nice the others really are.  They claim they have only owned this park for 7 years, and it is used as a stop-over to the nicer parks.  If they’ve owned this place for 7 years, why haven’t they spent any money fixing the roads and upgrading the electricity to 50 amp? 

The prices were between $5,000 and $9,000 plus $429 a year maintenance.  We did a little number crunching and decided it’s not for us.  We don’t want to be tied down to the same places every winter and plan to workkamp in the future to offset our site fees. 

I got a kick out of the guy’s comment regarding the interstate traffic noise.  He lives on a site right next to the freeway.  He said after a while the traffic noise sounds like waves.  I’m still laughing at that one.  I’d rather be parked next to the ocean and hear the real waves :)

After dark we took a walk in a nearby subdivision and looked at the Christmas decorations on some of the houses.  I thought it would feel weird seeing outdoor decorations without snow and cold weather, but I enjoyed it just as much as in Wisconsin.  I don’t miss the cold and snow one bit.  The temperatures are predicted to be near 80 the next few days.  We’re loving it!

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

Oranges!

Yesterday we drove to Redlands, California which is about 10 miles from the campground.  We stopped at the Kimberly Crest historical landmark.  It’s a chateau style house built in 1897 and purchased in 1905 by J. Alfred Kimberly, founder of the Kimberly Clark Paper Company. 

Below is the view from the front of the house.  I’ve never seen such tall palm trees.  The tall, skinny pine trees remind me of our trip to Italy.  The house has beautiful Italian gardens and many weddings are held there.

The house caught my attention in the tourist literature because Kimberly Clark has a large operation in Appleton, Wisconsin.  There are tours of the house, but we’ve seen so many old houses over the years so we just enjoyed the outside.

I’ve been surprised to see trees changing colors in California.  I assumed there are mainly palm trees.  This Japanese Maple was in one of the gardens.

Adjacent to the house is a city park with orange groves and rose gardens.  I was excited to see so many orange trees with the added bonus of roses growing right alongside them.  It sure smelled nice.  Who would have guessed we would be enjoying roses in December!

Here is one of the groves in this park right in the middle of the city.  Redlands looked like a very nice city.  There were many old beautifully restored Victorian homes, and the entire city appeared to be clean and well kept.

There were signs saying it was illegal to pick oranges, but I found this one on the ground.  I’m going to wait a few days and taste it.  There was also a tree with tons of these nuts on the ground beneath it.  Does anyone know what they are?

I’d never been to a Trader Joe’s so we checked it out.  I was a bit overwhelmed by all the organic offerings.  I guess I don’t know enough about natural foods to know if it was something I should buy.  I did buy some cranberry oatmeal and a bottle of “Two Buck Chuck” white zinfandel wine.  I have read about this wine on other blogs and wanted to try it out.  I like sweet wine, and it was a bit sour for my taste.  I added some grape juice and that made it better.

We ran a few other errands and headed back home to watch a Redbox movie, Grown-Ups.  It had some very funny parts and great one-liners.  I don’t always care for these types of comedies, but I really enjoyed this one.

There is a very nice newer subdivision next to the campground and we have taken some walks there.  This tree caught my attention.  It has red bark and pink berries.  I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never seen a tree like it before.

 

Another tree had five different colored leaves on it; red, orange, gold, green and brown. Gorgeous!!

 

 

 

We’ve put up some Christmas decorations.  I bought some lights to put in the windows.  We should have probably held on to a few of our Christmas decorations, but we didn’t know what we’d have room for.  Oh well, it’s fun picking out some new things.

 

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

We Have Arrived in California

We left Pahrump, Nevada yesterday around 10:30 a.m headed to Beaumont, California.  Our trip took about five hours.

It actually rained about the last hour of our drive and all evening.  It’s been a while since we experienced any rain.

We are spending four nights at Cherry Valley Lakes RV Resort which is part of Colorado River Adventures.  The lady we co-hosted with in Wisconsin is a member and gave us a coupon for four free nights of camping if we take the tour.

I am extremely underwhelmed by this place.  The sites are super close together.  As you can see from the picture, our bedroom slide is inches from our neighbor.  On the other side is a motor home.  Their picnic table is right outside our door (with the red cooler on it).  There is another table, but it is at the very back of our site and pretty useless to us. 

If that wasn’t enough, the place is right next to the interstate.  The road noise is LOUD!  The roads are paved, but full of bumps and holes.  The electric is only 30 amp, and the wi-fi only works at the clubhouse.  There is no cable TV.

There is a nice pool and hot tub and two nice ponds next to the clubhouse.  There is also a laundry room, but the prices are high. 

I’m actually looking forward to the presentation because I really want to hear how they sell this place.  In my opinion, free is the only good thing we have experienced.  I wouldn’t be willing to pay anything for this place.

We finally had to call DirecTV to change our local channels.  We were able to access Salt Lake channels our entire stay in Utah and Nevada.  It was painless making the switch this time as far as our TV with the DVR goes.  It worked great.  When we tried to access local channels on our bedroom TV, they wouldn’t work.  So Kevin had to spend time on the phone with tech support to reset that TV.  We have yet to experience any encounter with DirecTV that was smooth.

Tomorrow we plan to do some exploring in the area. 

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

A Winery in Nevada

Who would have guessed that there would be a winery in the Mojave Desert in Nevada.  Yesterday we discovered the Pahrump Valley Winery.  It is a very nice building with beautiful grounds at the end of a road near the mountains.

They had a free tour and wine tasting.  They grow a couple of different type of grapes and import other grapes from California and Oregon.  All wine is made on the premises. 

We found a blush that we both liked so we purchased two bottles.  One for Christmas dinner with the boys, and one for New Years Eve. 

We rode our bikes for an hour yesterday.  We haven’t done much riding this year because we were either in very hilly areas or high traffic places.  We found some nice paved roads with little traffic near the campground.  There are so many unpaved roads in the west.  We are used to the Midwest where almost all roads are paved. 

We checked out the Pahrump Valley Museum while in town.  Good thing it was free because it really wasn’t much of a museum.  There were a bunch of display cases with old stuff in them.  Things were not very well organized, and many of the items didn’t relate to this area.  I think they just take anything old someone will donate :)

The most interesting part of the museum was the elderly gentleman who greeted us as we came in.  He was very knowledgeable about the area.  He explained how the town really didn’t have much population until the 1990s.  At that time the housing market was booming all over Nevada.  According to him, people in Pahrump were too dumb to figure this out and were selling land and homes at a very cheap price.  Many retirees purchased property at that time. 

He also told us how there are many developments planned, but everything came to a halt with the poor economy.  There are for sale signs everywhere.  We also noticed what look like whole subdivisions of roads, but not a single house in them.

I’m not too impressed with Pahrump.  To me the town appears rather dirty and rundown.  The landscape is brown, brown and more brown with some mountains in the distance.  I think I’m just missing green grass :)

Today we did a major stock-up on groceries.  We found a store called Smith’s with very good prices.  Since we’ve heard California is expensive, we figured we’d fill our cupboards.  I think we’ve got a month’s worth of food.  We shouldn’t have to shop much until the boys come.  Then it will be time to stock up on snacks :)

We also bought a 4 foot pre-lit Christmas tree at Walgreens today along with some ornaments.  Since we’re leaving tomorrow morning, I won’t set it up until we arrive at the next stop.  I have some special ornaments I saved, but I left them in a storage bin in our son’s basement.  I’ll bring them next year for sure.

We’ve rented a movie at Redbox each night for the last three nights.  We watched Robin Hood, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and have Eclipse for tonight.  I love Redbox.  Kevin’s out getting pizza from Papa John’s for supper. 

Although we enjoyed last month in the desert, we did miss being closer to civilization.  We’ve made up for it this week :)

The good thing about last month was our budget.  Since there weren’t many places to go to or shop at, we had our best month so far.  It’s a good thing since I’m sure we’ll be blowing the budget this month in California.

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

Haircuts and Dairy Queen

We hadn’t gotten haircuts since we left Wisconsin in September.  We both go to the same stylist in West Bend, and we really like her.  Getting a haircut on the road was going to be a crap shoot.

Kevin found a barber for $10, and he has a nice new cut.

Being outside more combined with humidity and wind was not conducive to my short cut.  Styling wasn’t going to last very long so I decided to grow my hair long enough to put into a ponytail.  It’s been a pain, but it’s finally getting long enough to look halfway decent.

I tried out the Wal-Mart salon and was pleasantly surprised.  The cost was $15.95 and the lady gave me a nice trim.  So mission accomplished for both of us.

On our way back we stopped at Dairy Queen for blizzards.  We used to treat ourselves every few weeks, but we haven’t seen a Dairy Queen in over a month.  It was soooo good.

On a walk around the campground, I spotted this hummingbird in a tree.  I couldn’t believe how long he just sat there.  I’ve never seen one stay put for longer than a few seconds.  I tried to research what kind it was, but didn’t have any luck.  Maybe one of you can identity it.

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

That’s What I’m Talking About

We took our time getting ready to leave this morning since we were only traveling 30 miles to Nevada Treasure RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada.  So far, this is the shortest distance we have traveled to a new campground.

The campground in Pahrump is a Passport America park.  We were looking for someplace to stay for a few days before we head into California.  They have a four night limit for the reduced rate which is $20 a night.  This place is the nicest campground we have ever been to other than Fort Wilderness in Disney World.

I get such a kick out of campgrounds calling themselves resorts because they never are. This place actually is a resort.  All sites are paved with concrete pads for the trailer and asphalt for your vehicle. 

Behind the truck is a concrete area for chairs and a table.  The only negative I can say is that the sites are rather close together.  The concrete pad next to our truck is the next site over.  If someone pulls in there, they will be right next to us.  It’s pretty tight.

Some of the sites have little tiki huts with bamboo tables and chairs.  Others have gazebos with a table and chairs.  Still others have gas barbeque grills.  We are in an area without these extras, but they are still very nice sites. 

The views on all sides are these mountains.

The pool area is fantastic.  There are three different pools and a hot tub.  One of the pools has a rock wall with waterfalls.  The pool water is quite cold, and I don’t plan on doing any swimming.  The hot tub is very nice and warm.  I’m thinking we may be checking it out.

There is a fitness center with all kinds of equipment.  I’m not even sure what all of it is for :)  They have a cafe and small mini-mart.  There is a putting green, shuffle board courts and horseshoes.  There is also a bowling alley although we didn’t get a chance to see that yet.

I hadn’t done laundry in a little over two weeks.  The laundry here is the nicest I have seen at a campground.  It was $1 each to wash and dry.  The best part is that the dryers actually dried the first time through, and I had some big loads.

Today was a beautiful day with highs near 60.  The forecast for the rest of the week is fantastic.  I’m looking forward to our stay here.

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