Thursday, March 27, 2014 (Indio, CA)

After the last two days of eating out it was definitely time to make sure we got to our Walk Away the Lbs class this morning.  After a nice sweaty workout we headed back to the 5er to get cleaned up. 

The plan today was to run to Home Depot and pick up a long handled screwdriver.  One of our blinds in the bedroom has a broken string that needs repaired and none of our screwdrivers are long enough to reach under the valance to get the blind down.  Well I made the mistake of telling Rich that I would wait for him in the garden section.  I had fun walking through and checking out the different flowers.

Well very rarely can I look at plants and not buy something and today was no exception.  I've decided that my lettuce box should be turned into an herb box.  With the higher temps the lettuce has gotten bitter and so it was time to change it out.



Planting my treasures



End result - pretty nice don't you think?  And functional since most of the herbs are culinary herbs.

Before we headed home we stopped at Shields Date Farm to try out their date shakes.  They were much bigger than the ones we had in Yuma and they were pretty good.  My vote would be for the shakes in Yuma for the best taste.  Our visit at Shields was marred by the horrible sewer smell that was inside the gift shop...so we didn't stick around very long. 

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Date Palm Orchard - these palms can get pretty tall.  I'm glad I don't have to climb them to pick the dates.

Later in the afternoon we met at  Madeline's and drove into Palm Springs in her car to visit the street fair that is held every Thursday evening.  When we first got there the vendors were just starting to set up so we visited the shops along the street.  I was pleasantly surprised at the prices which were pretty reasonable.  We mostly window shopped but I did buy a dress.  There were tons of people on the streets, maybe because the statue of Marily Monroe was being moved somewhere on the east coast at the end of the month and they were having a goodbye ceremony.

View of street and vendors

lots of fun clothes

Crowd was so thick around Marilyn you couldn't even get any closer

Madeline, Roger and Kelly - street fair

Theater where the Follies perform

Another street view

Line Dancing boots?  no I didn't buy them, I couldn't even find the price, I guess if you have to ask you can't afford......



Madeline & Kelly doing more browsing



We stuck around until around 8:00 p.m. and headed back to the car.  We checked out the food vendors on our way out and they were so crowded that we didn't want to stand in line waiting.  Once we made it back to the car it was decided that we would go to the Loco Pollo to grab a quick bite to eat before heading back to Madeline's.  We'd never eaten at a Loco Pollo which is a Mexican chicken fast food restaurant.  We enjoyed our meals and then headed back to Madelines where we said quick goodbye's.  We usually don't like to leave Gracie more than 6 hours at a time and it was time to head home to the 5er. 

On our way home we decided we had better fuel up the truck and pulled off on an exit but couldn't find any diesel.  We had a tense few minutes while trying to navigate unfamiliar streets and find a station that had diesel before we ran out of fuel.  Whew, we finally found a diesel station, what a welcome sight.  Now we can make it home to Gracie.  It was a long and fun filled day.  We're sorry to be saying goodbye to Madeline & Roger but will see them again this summer in Oregon.

Tuesday - Wednesday, March 25-26, 2014 (Indio, CA)

Tuesday

After our morning routine which included going to the Walk Away the Lbs class here at the park we got ready to meet Rich's sister Madeline and Roger at the Soup Plantation for lunch.  If you ever come across a Soup Plantation restaurant I would recommend trying it though they are mostly in Southern California.  It is an all you can eat soup & salad buffet but the ingredients are all fresh. We had a nice long leisurely lunch and another nice visit with Madeline & Roger.

After lunch we said our goodbye's and headed to Costco to get stocked up.  We haven't been near a Costco since we left Oregon so we were due.  After Costco we found a Trader Joe's and got stocked up on cranberry juice and a few other items.  Then it was home to unpack the groceries and find places to store all our goodies.

View from Trader Joe's parking lot - very pretty mountains

Wednesday

We skipped our Walk Away the Lbs class because we were invited to a breakfast at Madeline and Roger's clubhouse.  The drive was pretty windy with just a bit of dust blowing around but the winds were forecast to be much stronger as the day went on.

We had a nice breakfast and got a tour of the park that Madeline & Roger live in and then went back to Madeline's for some more visiting.  While we were visiting every once in a while a strong gust of wind would shake the house and you could hear the sand/grit hitting the windows when a big gust came through.  Here are some pictures of the dust on our drive home.  These were just on the back road to the freeway, once we got on the freeway it was so much worse and it was kinda scary, so scary I forgot to take any pictures.  That night on the news the weather man said that he'd been in the area for 12 years and hadn't seen winds this intense.  Our poor truck and 5er are covered in a layer of dust.....yuck.

Dust cloud in the distance

Just before entering dust cloud

Driving in dust - you could hear the sand hitting the windows

The dust was so thick it was like driving through a thick fog except you could hear the sand hitting the truck and windows.....

Saturday - Monday, March 22 - 24, 2014 (Indio, CA)

Saturday

We got up earlier than normal because we were targeting 8:00 a.m. to be on the road to our next destination of Indian Wells, CA.  It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive and we wanted to arrive before it got to hot outside.  The temps have been in the high 80's to low 90's lately.  Well it always seems to take a bit longer than we plan to get all packed up as we weren't on the road until shortly after 8:30 a.m.

Our drive was pleasant and uneventful and the scenery was anywhere from farming to sand dunes to desert.  We also could see Salton Sea in the distance.  As we got closer to Indio we could see the smog haze in the distance.....yuck I guess that's because Los Angeles is only about 2 hours away.

We arrived at our new resort Indian Waters RV Resort around noon.  We took a few minutes before checking in to check out some of their grass sites which looked cool and inviting but upon closer inspection realized that our slides would overhang the concrete pad and get wet from the sprinklers so we stuck with our original plan of a gravel pull through site.

Our site at Indian Waters RV Resort

After we grabbed some lunch we gave Rich's sister Madeline a call and let her know we had arrived and were ready for a visit.  She and her friend Roger arrived about a half hour later and we had a wonderful afternoon of visiting.

Rich, Madeline & Roger

We were sitting inside because the angle we are parked we get the late afternoon sun and it was pretty warm outside and the air conditioning felt pretty nice.  Before they left we made arrangements to meet them tomorrow morning at their church in Desert Hot Springs.

We did a little BBQing for dinner and then had a relaxing evening sitting around reading.

Sunday

We got up and got ready to attend church.  We didn't quite realize when we chose this rv park that we were about 30 minutes away from Madeline, oh well.  We jumped on the freeway and headed to the Christ Lutheran Church in Desert Hot Springs.  In our travels we have yet to visit a Lutheran church so this will be our first.  They were having a special service today which included an Easter Cantata.  They did the cantata early because several of the choir were headed back to their summer homes.  The choir did a nice job on the cantata considering there were only about 11 members singing and one piano player.  After church they had a potluck which we stayed and ate way too much. 

After church we drove over to Madeline's house and visited with her and Roger for a couple hours.  Madeline has a very nice home on the edge of the park overlooking the desert and the mountains. 

Once we got home we took a little walk around the rv park, without the camera so no pictures today.  I some how have developed a rash around my neck which was starting to give me fits so we cut the walk short and headed back to the 5er.  I'm not sure what caused the rash, whether a reaction to some rosehip oil I started using, sunscreen, too much sun, or ?????  Anyway Rich suggested making a baking soda paste and applying it, I finally got some relief from the itchiness.   One nice thing was that Rich made dinner and did the dishes which was very thoughtful of him.  I'm a blessed woman!

I had a nice long chat on the phone with my mom and got caught up on all the family news.  And that was pretty much our day.

Monday

When we checked in we noticed that this park does the Walk Away the Lbs on the weekdays....sweet.  So we got up this morning and headed over to the clubhouse to do our exercises.  This is the first time we'll be doing exercises on carpet.  =)  It was a very good workout and we both noticed that it is definitely more humid here than Yuma or Lake Havasu because we really worked up a sweat. 

Today was a pretty laid back day at the 5er.  We did some household chores like laundry, balancing the checkbook and some research on places to stay over the next couple of weeks.  Nothing very exciting to write about....

It was a very hot afternoon again, in the low 90's but because I have this rash, I've decided to stay out of the swimming pool and sun for a couple of days to see if that helps.  I'm bummed to miss my pool/reading time....oh well I guess I can manage without for a couple of days.  =)

Poor Gracie is a little under the weather today also.  She has a sensitive tummy and we have to be really careful that she doesn't pick up any stray crumbs on the floor or when we are out walking because she will get sick.  Well yesterday afternoon she threw up a couple of times and today is laying pretty low, I wonder what she got into this time....sigh.  It makes us feel bad when she gets sick. 

We have some more adventures planned over the next couple of days and hopefully we'll remember the camera so you have some pictures to look at.  Until then......

Wednesday - Friday, March 19-21, 2014 (Yuma, AZ)

We've really been enjoying our stay here in Yuma.  We like the resort we are in and it's nice to be around a farming area again and green grass and flowers.  I especially love the flowers.

 

Wednesday morning Rich got up and headed back down to Algadones to pick up his new glasses and I'm happy to report the glasses have turned out well.  Rich was back around 10:00 a.m. so it was a quick trip with no waiting in line like yesterday.

I went to the exercise class and did a 4 mile walk, it was a very good and sweaty workout.  By the time I got back to the 5er and got cleaned up, Rich was back from Algadones, so what to do with the rest of the day?  We decided to go and check out some of the produce stands we saw when coming into Yuma. 

We visited two stands and both of them were closing up shop this weekend.  The farmers are switching from their winter crops of lettuce and vegetables to the summer crops of alfalfa and cotton.  We came home with a ton of veggies like tomatoes, avocados, romaine lettuce, dates, grapefruit, lemons, strawberries to name a few.  It was a lot of fun.

After lunch the afternoon was spent at the pool swimming and reading.  We BBQ'd for dinner and then had a relaxing evening watching American Idol. 

Thursday

Was a pretty kick back day.  We did our exercise class and did a little exploring of some of the other RV parks in town and definitely decided we made the right choice to stay here at The Palms. 

After our afternoon at the pool, I came back and made some fresh salsa and fresh guacomole with some of the produce we purchased yesterday.  It was sure yummy. 

The resort was having a Mardi Gras dance this evening so at the last minute we decided to check it out.  The Palms has a lot of concerts and dances that the community can also attend and this was no exception.  They had a live band that played very well and we really enjoyed.  We sat at a table with a bunch of Canadians from the resort, we were the only Americans at our table.  We have met quite a few Canadians this winter, I'm surprised at how many winter down here.  We enjoyed the dance and were glad that we decided to attend at the last minute.  In talking to one of the couples at the table, the dance was pretty lightly attended because a lot of people in the resort have already headed north. 

Friday

Today after our exercise class we were headed to visit the Yuma Territorial Prison.  It was a very interesting visit.  Things are sure a lot different now days as far as comfort compared to what the prisoners experienced back in the late 1800's.  The prison was only operated for 33 years before it was closed.  I will attach a bunch of pictures we took today and let them tell the story.

Guard Tower, water cistern is located underneath the flooring of the tower to help keep the water cooler.

View of Colorado River from the guard tower

some of the prison cells

Entrance to the museum

cells held six inmates, the white bucket was their toilet

more cells

read the sign to see why they went to iron bunk beds instead of wood.....yuck!



I think it would take a long time to saw through the iron on these doors, they were pretty sturdy.




This is where you went when you misbehaved in prison.  They stripped you down to your underwear and in you went with only one meal of bread and water, no bed or toilet. 



Standing just inside the doorway of the dark cell and it was very dark....

Inside of dark cell - and I have no idea what the metal in the center of the floor was for.....this is with a flash from the camera which is why you can even see anything.  The only light in the cell was from a tiny hole in the ceiling....trust me, you didn't want to misbehave in this prison.

Empty cell but you can see a prisoner etched their name in the stone on the back wall.

I believe this is a woman's cell and yes, they did house women at this prison

Trail to prison cemetary

Prison cemetary grave sites, the piles of stones were the graves, yikes they look pretty shallow but luckily we didn't see any bones or anything like that..... 

Ocotillo bush - notice the bright orange blossoms at the tips and the rest of the plant looks like dead sticks with lots of thorns

Look how big that cactus is

Blooming cactus

more cactus blossoms

After our visit to the prison, we decided we needed a date shake.  When we were at the produce stand on Wednesday we asked where we could get a good date shake and the answer was "Martha's Gardens".  If you've never had a date shake, you should try one, even if you don't care for dates, they are wonderful.

Date orchard

Home of the best date shake, they were very yummy

After we got home we cooled off in the pool for a bit and then came back to the 5er and got ready for some visitors.  We invited Doreen and Sandy to come by and help us eat up the fresh salsa and guacomole I made yesterday.  Again, we had a very pleasant visit and hope to keep in touch.  They are planning on coming back here to Yuma next year so we'll have to see if our paths cross again.  If anyone is planning on visiting the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, they have a "suite" for rent - you can see the info here VillaNara Vacation Suite.  They are a very nice couple and we enjoyed getting to know them a bit. 

Tomorrow we are heading down the road, so our next post will be from Indio, CA. 

Sunday - Tuesday, March 16-18, 2014 (Yuma, AZ)

Sunday

Being a Sunday, we were going to check out a new church in the area.  Rich settled on church called Stone Ridge Church that was only a couple miles away.  As we were getting out of the parking lot, we saw this guy on a motorcycle that was set up as a World War II style military motorcycle including the rifle in a scabbard on the bike pull into the parking lot.  The rider was even dressed in a military coat and boots. We later saw that his license on the bike was from Oregon.  Very interesting set up, we wondered if the rifle was real or not.....Anyway, we enjoyed the church service.

After church, we stopped and got a few groceries and headed back to the 5er.  It was a beautiful afternoon, so we spent time lounging at the pool with our books and swimming in the lap pool.  A very relaxing and peaceful day.

Monday

This morning we got up early and went and checked out the fitness room.  They have some really nice workout machines.  We weren't sure if it would be crowded, but there was only one guy working out when we got there and one that came after we were working out.  We enjoyed having some new equipment to try out.

At 8:00 a.m. they had an exercise class scheduled, so we stopped by to see what that was.  Cool....it was Walking Away the Lbs.  the same as we were doing in Havasu.  They held the class in the ballroom and it was huge, both the room and the class.  In this class the ratio of men was about 50%.  In Havasu it was mostly just Rich and then sometimes one or two other gents, the women definitely outnumbered the guys.

We stayed for the class and boy it was another good workout.  It was a video that we hadn't exercised to in Havasu with a couple new moves that added a new complexity to the workout.  We met a lady in the class from B.C. and we struck up a conversation and she invited us over for drinks at their RV at 4:30 p.m.  

After exercising and going back to the 5er and getting cleaned up, we decided to just hang around the resort today.  The temps were expected to be in the low 90's, so the pool sounded a lot better than doing some site seeing.  It's suppose to cool down after today so we'll go visit the Yuma Territorial Prison later in the week.

So the afternoon was spent lounging by the pool and doing some swimming.  These pools are much cooler than the pool in Havasu, so it is definitely more refreshing.  While we were at the pool we saw a couple and I thought it was the lady, Doreen that we had met at exercise class, but I wasn't 100% sure so I didn't say anything.  At 4:30 we left the pool and headed over to Doreen and her husband Sandy's RV site.  Yep, it was the same couple.  We had a nice chat over some cold drinks and got to hear about the new RV they just purchased as well as their life in Naramata in the Okanagan Valley in B.C.   They have a "suite" that they rent out in the summer months to summer visitors.  They are only a few blocks from the lake and it looks like a beautiful spot to vacation.  We enjoyed our visit with them. 

Tuesday

Our plan today was to go into Algadones, Mexico which is just across the border and get our teeth cleaned and check out an eye doctor.  Rich dropped his glasses awhile back and scratched the lenses pretty bad and needs a new pair and we hear you can get them pretty cheap here. 

We left the 5er a little before 8:00 a.m. and stopped at McDonalds for a quick breakfast sandwich before heading down the road.  It's only about a 20 minute drive from our resort.  Boy was it windy out today, the dust was a flying, good thing we aren't pulling the 5er.

We got to the parking lot and there was already a line waiting to enter the parking lot and it was only just around 8:30.  We heard this was a popular place for people to come and it sure appears that way.  We got parked and walked across the border with everyone else.  It sure is a different world from what we are used too.  The minute you cross the border, there are people trying to get your attention and direct you to whatever medical profession you are looking for.  We already had made appointments with a dentist, so could politely decline the offers being thrown at us from every direction.

We had to stop and take a look at our hand drawn map and try and get our bearings and find the dentist we were suppose to see.  Our appointments weren't until 10:00 a.m. and it wasn't even 9:00 a.m. yet, but we wanted to make sure we knew where we were suppose to be.  We did take up a locals offer on directions and he actually did direct us to the correct spot. 

We went in and checked in and asked if they could take us early.  The answer was yes, so we got the paperwork filled out and only had to wait about 10 minutes.  There was another couple in the small waiting area from Montana and they had been coming to this dentist for years, so that was a good sign.  We chatted until we got called for our appts.  They asked who wanted to go first, and Rich volunteered me, so I went first. 

Now dentists are never really that much fun, and being in Mexico and going to the dentist in another country had me a bit nervous, but I have to say, the dentist did a fine job and I have no complaints.  They did do a few things a bit differently, but I came away with my teeth feeling nice and clean and it only cost $30.00.  Rich had the same experience - no problems and we would definitely go back again.  Now it was off to see the eye dr.

The couple in the dentist office we were chatting with used Algadones Optical and so we decided since the dentist worked out ok, let's try the same eye dr.  Rich signed in and we had to wait about an hour before he could be seen, so we left and did some site seeing and visited some shops.

I'm smiling now that we are done with the dentist

One of the colorful buildings in town

Purses anyone?

Most people walk across but there are still those that drive and the streets have lots of cars parked along side them

After doing some browsing, we went back to the eye dr. to wait.  There was a bakery next door, so I walked over and got two pastries to snack on while we waited...yummy.  Soon Rich's name was called and in he went.  The exam didn't take long and the eye dr. said that instead of buying new frames, they would just put new lenses in Rich's existing glasses.  So even though we didn't have to buy new frames, just the lenses, the glasses cost about $200. We expected them to be cheaper from the stories we had heard, but I guess if you consider those same glasses cost about $600 in the U.S. I guess they are cheaper, now we just have to see about the quality.  We could have waited around 3 hours for the lenses, but because we had Gracie waiting back at the 5er, Rich decided that he'd just come back tomorrow morning and pick them up.  We'll let you know if he likes them or not.  We've heard both good and bad stories about the glasses down here, so we'll see how our story ends up.

After the eye dr. we did a little more browsing and came across this outdoor restaurant and decided to stop and have a little lunch. 

Check out the huge tree trunk in the background, there were two of these huge trees that shaded the whole outdoor seating area. 

Of course, there were vendors wandering through the tables selling their different wares, watches, jewelry, clothing, hats, etc. etc.  I did succumb to a vendor selling rings and ended up with a very pretty blue opal ring.  I think I ended up with a bargain, which I'm sure the vendor/s always want you to leave feeling that way.  =)  It would be interesting to know how much they actually do have to pay for these items and the profit they make, even though they say they don't.  

After lunch we decided we best head back to the 5er before the lines to cross the border back into the states got too long.  

This is the landmark to look for to get back to the border crossing which is just behind the purple pharmacy.  Most people coming across the border also buy some of their prescriptions here because the cost is so much cheaper. 

Looks like we waited a bit too long to get in line.  This shot is looking forward to the line in front of us and

This is the line behind us.  Notice they provide a shade covering which really helps and they have people passing out free bottled water.  The medical facilities paste some advertising on the bottles so that must be how they can hand them out free. 

It only actually took us about 30 minutes from the time we stepped in line until we were through customs and back on U.S. soil.  While in line, we started chatting with the lady in front of us and found out they were staying in the same resort we are.  They are from Illinois and this was their first time to Algadones also.  It felt really safe the whole time we were there, though we did see a couple Mexican soldiers with their guns hanging out on the streets.  We did not take their pictures.  =)  So all in all our experience was really positive.

We were back at the 5er by 2:30.  The wind had died down to a nice breeze, but it was only about 78 degrees today, so we decided to take a break from the pool and just hang out and do some reading.  I did take Gracie for a nice long walk in the green space they have around the perimeter of the park which is about a mile I'm told.  

Another days adventure ends well.  =)