Headed for Santee Lakes Tomorrow

We leave tomorrow for Santee Lakes and will be there 3 months. 

 I did housework chores today including laundry (while it's cheap). Sheets, towels, the whole works.  

 Roger spent the day wiping down the truck and rig, airing tires, tightening lug nuts and other guy stuff on the outside.  

We are coming back here for a couple weeks in March before we head east to Pensacola.  

Had a georgeous sunset tonight!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We've had a good day and we hope everyone else has as well.  

We had dinner at the chow hall, so no trying to bake a pumpkin pie in the toaster oven!  That could have been an interesting experiment. 

We expected to be dining with the troops like you see on TV.  Well, there were three guys there that looked as if they might be active duty. In addition there were about 50 retirees from the RV park.  With all the gray heads standing in line for food you would have thought we were on a cruise ship.  We were invited to sit  at a long table with some "regulars" here at the park and enjoyed the company with our meal. 

We definitely found plenty of non-turkey items to eat and indulged in deserts!  Yes, plural!!  Not one person asked why there was no meat on our plates so we didn't have to go through the whole vegetarian discussion. That was nice.  We did have a long walk with Maggie when we got home to kinda offset the extravagance. 

Our thanks to the staff at the chow hall for their hard work on a day they should be at home.  We appreciate the effort and good food!  

Again, we hope everyone had a good day!  

Thinking about next year already!

Today we found ourselves discussing whether it not we wanted to come back here next year and, if so, for how long.  The pro list right now is outweighing the con list for returning.  We couldn't do the whole winter here (we would go totally stir crazy) but are thinking of splitting our time with Santee Lakes.  We would save a ton of money!!!  All we really need to do is figure out the technology issues. In today's world there is an answer for everything - we just have to find it.  Who knows what improvements will have been made by next winter. 

We wandered off base today to a very tiny community, about two miles in the opposite direction from El Centro, looking for a post office.  That's about all it has. Run down housing for farm workers constituted the majority of town. We did see a school and a sign for a library, though. We investigated two RV "resorts."  We have nicer accommodations here.  Most of the license plates on the vehicles we saw in them were Canadian and they both had the typical amenities for "snowbirds."

We have to seriously think about what we want to do so we can reserve a spot. In the meantime we are frequenting the gym, getting lots if walks with Maggie, and sitting out in the sun enjoying 70 degree weather!!   

Sundays are great for napping!

 

The Sun is Back!

The sun finally appeared this afternoon and Roger got his nap in his chair soaking it up!  He had his hat and sweater on, but was outside in the sun!!

We knew we had been in that major storm that rolled through here this week but didn't realize the extent of it until we went to town today.   There were crops  with water still covering them and lots of mud on roads where the water had receded. Some wind damage, too. We went to the library to use the wifi and it was closed "due to flooding."   We peaked in the windows and it was sad to see the piles if water damaged books and carpet.  We are assuming it was a roof leak as the parking lot was dry. It's a really old building that was once a large store.  Anyway, here's what the RV park looked like when Maggie and I took our morning walk.  Still lots of standing water everywhere.  

The movie last night (Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks) was good- very intense!!!   The guys who played the Somali pirates were quite scary and I'm assuming quite realistic. Very emotional at the end.  

This base is small and very quiet except when the planes and copters are training.  We hardly see any people out and about. The first movie we saw there were eight of us in the theater. Last night there were about   twenty.  One thing I'd forgotten about base movies is that they always play the national anthem before they start and show a video of sailors  (at this one) at work.  Today Roger got caught outside walking Maggie at sunset when the base loudspeaker blared "retire the colors".  You are supposed to stop what you are doing and stand at attention and face the flag. But, where's the flag??   Which direction do you face?  Needless to say we always try to be inside at 8am and sunset!!!  

El Centro seems to be a very poor town with not a lot going for it , although we have seen some pretty nice places outside of town on large farms.  A few of the big box stores have moved in and there is a mall with the usual tenants, but I'm  glad we never got stationed here. Two weeks is pushing it and three years here would have not been one of the places we would look back on with fond memories!  The town and surrounding area is 50 feet BELOW sea level which probably contributes to its mild climate. 

We had a beautiful sunset. 

Why can't we play ball?

It rained all night. It's mid morning and it's still raining but not as hard.  We now have lake front property!

Maggie does not like the rain.  At 9am (long past her normal time to go out) Rog had to carry her down the RV stairs and then I had to drag her highness' little butt across the road before she got the idea that I wasn't giving up.  I had my raincoat with hood and could outlast her stubbornness!   She was pretty wet and bedraggled when we returned. Hmmm.  I wonder if she would tolerate doggie rain gear?  I'm guessing not as she doesn't even like it when we put her harness on. 

I'm so glad I am "grandfathered" in on my unlimited data plan!  The 3G signal isn't bad here and my phone is getting a workout.  Ahh, technology - I'm an addict. 

Fix it projects kept us busy yesterday.  Rog tried to fix the black tank flusher that quit on him. I tried to figure out how to get the iPod to play through the sound system. After an hour of messing with it I googled the model number and it took me to several RV forums that said it doesn't work with iPods or iPhones. But, someone said that instead of using the USB port to get a double headphone cable and use the aux plug.  It worked!  With no TV having the music in the evenings helps!!

Going to the movie again tonight to see the Tom Hanks movie about the ship that was captured by the Somalis.  Unlike the one we saw on Wednesday, this one should be good. Can't beat the price - free- for an evening's entertainment.  

Don't know what Rog is going to do this afternoon to keep busy, but I've got a sweater I'm knitting.  

A Regular Day

Not much going on today. Gym. Laundry. A little housecleaning.  

I did get my shoe organizer hung again. It kept falling off the wall in our summer trip.  Hopefully Gorilla super glue will hold the hooks this time.  I feel better now that the shoes aren't piled in bags in the bottom of the hard to reach closet!!  

Rog did some insulating of the "basement" and cleaned up the patio area and played ball with the Magster.  She is being super good about not wandering away so we can let her off leash here at the site. 

All very exciting, huh?   

We are going to the movie tonight to round out our day. . It's free - all we have to do is buy concessions to support the First Class Petty Officer Assn and their charity - whatever it us.  I'm not thrilled about seeing Arnold or Sly but I'm sure it's appropriate for all the guys on base!

Expecting weather tomorrow.  Big rain storm coming through. Will save the window and truck washing for a few days!

That's all the typing my one thumb can handle doing this on the phone😉

We Found the Public Library.....

and it has free WIFI.   It's a bit slow, but it works!!   I've managed in the last hour to add photos and publish what I have written over the last three days.   We probably won't be adding anything for a few days for two reasons - 1) too far into town, and 2) probably won't be much of interest to write about.  I'll continue to make notes at night and then next time we make a trip to town I'll download them.

I had a nice birthday yesterday - heard from all my kids, grandkids and others!  Thank you all for the good wishes.

We found the gym this morning.  It's about a block and a half away from the RV park.  Large gym, lots of equipment, and at the time we went, only two others using the facility.  When we left I mentioned to the attendant that the hand sanitizer was out.  "Yes, we know.  Budget cuts.  We don't have the money to keep it full."   Wow!   So, we picked up a large bottle of it today and will donate it tomorrow when we go.

Maggs is settling in nicely - and sleeping through the night!  Yes! Well, at least she doesn't try to get us up - which is wonderful.  

The original reason for this journal (and those that went before it) was to keep family and friends advised of our whereabouts and that we were OK.  We have had an email from "Feedspot.com" which is some kind of site that pulls together things you are interested in reading and putting them all in one location for you.  Well, it seems that we have some followers other than family!  They said that 27 people were regular followers and that we "added value" to their site and gave us a year's free subscription.  When I investigated, it seems that people from all over the world have made at least one hit on our site.  Amazing!  I can't imagine anyone "following" us other than family and friends, but it's kind of neat (and weird) to know that we are "published."   Thanks to all of you for reading!!!

Monday - 18th - The Fun Has Begun - We Think.

Monday - 18th - The Fun Has Begun - We Think.

Slept well and woke to beautiful sunshine.  It was warm enough today for short sleeves and short pants and sandals!!!   It was even warm enough to buy some ice cream bars when we went to the commissary!  Roger had one Mr. Fixit project which he was able to complete satisfactorily.  He made me blueberry pancakes for my birthday breakfast and it has been a nice day.  

I mentioned that folks have been stopping by to greet us (to check us out).   They are friendly enough and ask if we are spending the winter and when we say we are here only two weeks their interest fades.  It’s quite a clique of regulars here - many of them have come here every winter for over 10 years.  It’s more like the 55+ communities you find in the warmer climates where people come from up north for the winter, stay in the same place, have the same friends and get involved in the same activities to stay busy.  This morning I saw a group of 5 ladies out for a walk and they probably do it every day.  It’s all retired military in this park right now.  I haven’t noticed any active duty.  We are right next to base housing and there are several empty homes so I’m guessing the base is not at maximum staffing.  The Marines are flying trainer jets all day right now.  The Blue Angels and their squadron are not due to come here from Pensacola until January - long after we are gone. 

This base is very small and has a small commissary and exchange and a fitness center available.  Tomorrow we will start going to the gym.  Town is seven miles east.  We went out today to check things out and found a mall, Costco, Target, and Wal-mart - all of which were about 8 miles from the main gate.  

The town is very Hispanic.  We went to the food court in the mall for lunch today and the whole time we were there I heard no English being spoken.  The Costco was the same way.  We are close to the border and this is an agricultural area with lots of workers.  (Lettuce seems to be what we see growing right now.)  

I took the laptop up to the rec center this afternoon to try the internet there.  I got on but it would fade out after a few minutes.  No time to do anything.  Oh, so frustrating.  When we went to the office to pay for our stay this morning I noticed a sign:  “Due to the government shutdown and the budget cuts there is no WIFI available on base.”   They don’t have a library here, either.  I asked a sailor in the commissary this afternoon if there was one and he said no and he didn’t know where I could find a hotspot.  Pretty sad when our troops are having to do without. 

Anyway, tomorrow we will go into town in search of a place I can download this journal into the blog, download photos, and get everything posted.  Fortunately we can get our email on our cell data plans.  Hmmm....could be a very long two weeks.  We tried to find something on TV - about 16 Spanish speaking channels and 5 Asian speaking channels.  We did find the basics - ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.   I guess we will get a lot of reading done and we will go through our crossword books pretty fast!  

Sunday, 17th - A Pleasant Surprise

Sunday, 17th - A Pleasant Surprise

Our Maggie made herself right at home!

We have settled in at the RV Park at the Naval Air Facility, El Centro, CA (the winter home of the Blue Angels) and we will be here for two weeks.   We expected to be sitting in a kitty litter box with RVs lined up side by side despite the reviews of the place being 4 out of 5.   It was awesome to discover the sites have cement pads and are very large, there are trees, and there are grassy common areas.  We have a corner lot at an intersection with an especially large open area on both sides.  Oleander bushes provide some privacy on the door side and we back up to an agricultural area behind the fence that is the boundary of the base.  We are very happy with the site!  Every one seems super friendly and the camp host stopped to tell us about all the perks of staying here.   Within and hour of arriving we had four people stop to welcome us and to warn us about which sites to avoid walking the dog by because of aggressive dogs.  One in particular is a German Shepherd-Coyote mix and not very friendly!   

Now, the downside - no TV signal, no WIFI.  Both are available down the street in the  park recreation lounge so I will probably be going down there to work on this journal during the day.  If that signal isn’t strong enough, then I’m sure the base library will work.  Shall see how it goes.  

We did get up and get moving about our regular time this morning - 9am.  We ALL slept like logs last night.  I don’t think any of even got up in the night to pee, we were so tired.   

We climbed the mountain on CA 58 to Tehachapi Pass.  As we climbed out of the valley we started seeing trees next to stream beds whose leaves were just turning gold - something we have already experienced in Sparks where we raked the leaves and bagged them for disposal already!  Tehachapi has huge wind turbine fields which tells me the wind blows there all the time and it’s not a place I’d like to live despite the fact it is a nice town.  

Dropping down off the mountain into the Mojave Desert is always a downer.  We are desert people - we live in the high desert of Nevada - but the Mojave in this part of the country is just plain ugly.  The only redeeming features as far as we are concerned are the Joshua Trees.  Everything else is brown on brown this time of year and very depressing!  

We connected with US395 and headed south at Kramer Junction.  No rest areas along the way available for our lunch break.  We usually find a shopping center parking lot when that is the case, but today we spotted an even better venue.  Next to the town park in Adelanto is the Little League field.  Hmmm....empty parking lot big enough to pull into (and get out of), grass for the dog to run in, restrooms, and bleachers for a makeshift table!   Voila!   

We turned east on I-10 and passed Palm Springs and the other high end towns along the way with street names like “Gene Autry Drive,” “Bob Hope Avenue,” and “Gerald Ford Drive.”  There were lots of wind turbines in the valley along with solar arrays that we hadn’t seen last time we were in the area several years ago.  It would be a really nice area to live except it is very pricey and it sits on the San Andreas Fault!  

Going south  from I-10 toward El Centro we drove for fifty miles or so along the west side of the Salton Sea.  Now, that area is also pretty ugly for the most part - desert scrub. and dirt.  Awful.  Then, about half way, the agricultural area started and there were date palm orchards and  green fields full of lettuce.   The color of the fields matched my face as we bumped along the road as if we were driving on a washboard.  At one point and I had to have Roger pull over so I could get some Pepto tablets out of the RV!  Between the queasy stomach and the bouncing bladder I almost reached the tipping point and critical mass.  Fortunately Rog found a place big enough to pull over before I lost control!  I was surprised it didn’t bother Maggie but maybe her meds helped her combat the motion sickness as well as her high anxiety.  

I hope to post this and yesterday’s entry tomorrow (Monday) and then be able to get back on schedule.  For now we are glad to be done driving for a while and will sit and enjoy the 70 degree weather and sunshine - the reason for coming!!!  

Saturday - 16th  - Later Than Usual

As you can see by the moon-rise over the mountains, that we got into Bakersfield later than we normally like to arrive.  Setting up in the dark is no fun and we always aim to arrive no later than 4pm.  It was over 300 miles today and we did get a late start and the days are short, so we ended up arriving at twilight.  

If anyone is following us on a map, we left Vacaville, headed east to I-5 through the Sacramento River Delta.  We then turned south through the San Joaquin Valley until we turned east again just north of Bakersfield.  The roads were rough and bounced us around today.  The inside of the RV was a bit disheveled when we finally landed!  Things that normally don’t move, did.   A couple of rough railroad tracks didn’t help matters much.    I just read a book with my book group called “The American Road” about the state of roads in 1917 and the beginning of the highway system.  Well, today there were times when I felt as if I were on some of those roads that were described in the book!  A new route will be planned for the next time we make the trip through central California!  Rog wants to know if we are having fun yet!?!

Our late start this morning was due to a night as equally rough as the roads today.  We got to bed late after returning from dinner and had stuff to do which put us in bed around 11pm.  At 3am a neighbor’s car alarm went off and the dog decided she needed to go out.  We kept trying to ignore her but she was insistent.  She did do her business when I took her out so it wasn’t a wasted effort.  So, with all that going on, a different bed, different light, different sounds and not quite getting the correct weight of blankets for the temperature, we didn’t get much sleep.  

There were no adventures today, thank goodness.  Neither of us was in the mood to deal with any.  In fact, we were so selfish this morning, we double dosed Maggie so she would sleep most of the day.  We needed the break!

No matter how many times we go from northern California to southern California we are always amazed at how large the San Joaquin Valley is and how long it takes to get from one end to the other.  Orchards of citrus, almonds,  and pistachios dotted the landscape.  The grape vines were in abundance - table grapes and raisin grapes, not wine grapes.  There is one very large and stinky cattle feed lot that always grosses us out when we pass it.  We saw what Roger thought was a prairie dog town near the rest area we stopped for lunch, but I think it was ground squirrels because their tails were so long.  Are there prairie dogs in California?   Late in the day as we were turned east off of the interstate and onto a two lane state route we drove through rose bush farms. It was so pretty and a nice respite after all the nut orchards.  

We are settled in and more comfortable tonight hoping for a better night’s sleep.  We are in the middle of an orange grove outside of town and it is fairly quiet and there are no street lights.  Tomorrow we have abut 350 miles to our destination - Naval Air Facility, El Centro, CA.  It will be another long day but we will be up and moving earlier - or so the plan goes!   We are having WIFI issues right now - I hope to get this posted tonight, but will have to wait until late and everyone else stops streaming their movies!  

I took this on Sunday morning before we left.
Unfortunately the oranges aren't ripe yet.
When we usually stay here in late Dec they allow
the guests to pick all they want.  They are
very good oranges!!

No wifi

We are without wifi access here so haven't been able to post.  I'm doing this on the phone tonight.  I've been writing the journal but unable to upload it. Tomorrow we will go into twin and search for a hotspot strong enough.  We saw signs on the base today that read:  due to government shutdown and budget cuts there is no WFI on base.  Pretty sad. Wish us luck tomorrow.

Easy First Day

I tried to publish this last night (Friday) but it wouldn't go so am trying again this morning. 


Last night we enjoyed a long, leisurely, hot shower before going to bed. With a 10 gallon hot water tank in the RV we won't have that luxury again for a long time!  

It was a pretty easy first day of our trip - only 130 miles or so. Not as much traffic as we expected for a Friday - hardly any going over "the hill (AKA Donner summit over the Sierra mountains)" and Sacramento traffic was heavy but steady going.  We made good time after a late start.

We had packed most stuff into the RV yesterday which only left meds, toiletries and food for this morning.  Well, there sure seemed to be a lot of food bags being hauled over to the RV this morning!  We left Sparks around 10:30am and got to Vacaville, CA around 2:30pm.  We figure that if we forgot something we can always find a store, but we did forget to pac  ourTilley hiking hats :-(    Will have to figure out some way to get them - too expensive to buy again.  

Rog spent an hour or so de-winterizing, i.e., draining all the antifreeze and putting water in all the lines while I put stuff in their proper place.  One thing about living in 324 square feet - every thing has a place and everything needs to be in its place or it is chaos.  

We then went to my sister's for dinner and had a very nice evening visiting with her, her husband and our nephew who stopped by.  I was surprised with a birthday gift and cheesecake. The amaryllis is going to be a perfect plant for the RV and will bloom about Christmas.  Thanks!!   (Sorry, about the dog peeing on your freshly cleaned carpet, though!)  

Speaking of Maggie - she did well today on the drive but we don't know weather to attribute it to her finally becoming used to the truck or the medication! 

It's late and we still need to put sheets on the bed.   Tomorrow we drive south to Bakersfield, CA and sleep in an orange grove! 

Leaving for Warmer Climates!

It's that time of year again when we pack up the RV with a great deal of our earthly possessions and point it south for the winter! We will be back mid-May!!

We decided this year that we wouldn't wait until January to leave and have to dig the RV out of the ice and snow for departure.  What a relief it was today to hook up the RV and park it in the Sparks Marina RV Park with the sun shining and the temperatures in the 50s!  It was wonderful compared to years' past when we wore coats, gloves, hats, etc. and slipped and slid on the ice and snow.  

We hooked up,  gave it a bath (There's a new RV bay at a car wash near the storage facility), and then took it to get new tires. Yes, the tires are only one year old and have about 6K miles on them, but they are the cheap Chinese tires that come with most RVs and are famous for blowouts.  We put some good tires on for this trip as an insurance policy against an incident on the road since we will be going across country on this trip.   Once we got the RV hooked up at the RV Park, we unloaded our "stuff" and put it all where it belonged which will make our first day out so much easier.  Tomorrow, when we leave, all we have to haul over there are our meds, toiletries and the refrigerator/freezer food.  This method of loading up is so much easier on us and the cost of a night's lodging is well worth it!

So, we are off tomorrow for a short day's ride - to Vacaville, CA. We will stop there for the night, flush out the antifreeze and get the plumbing working, and then have a nice dinner with my sister and her family.    Maggie has packed her toys and we have meds for her travel anxieties so I think we are all set!    

We hope you enjoy the our journal!