Snow in the mountains around Pahrump!

Yesterday was really cold. At 7:00 a.m. it was 50 but by noon it was in the low 40's and windy too. We took off and went to the Mountain Falls golf course for lunch! Our friend, David Hawkins, had mentioned it was a good place to eat. It wasn't raining yet but even with the cold and wind there were golfers out on the course! We had a yummy lunch in the nice warm restaurant!

After lunch we went over to the Terrible's Lakeside campground to check it out. It is on a little lake with nice grassy spaces and concrete slabs for the RV. We stopped in at the casino and gambled awhile. Ted had a couple of good runs but I wasn't hitting anything. Finally played one last machine and built it up enough that we broke even. That's what keeps you coming back!

The rain had started while we were inside the casino and it rained into the evening and was very cold. This morning when I took Max for his walk I took a couple of pictures and then some more on his afternoon walk. It's clear and cool today and as usual in the afternoon, a bit windy. 

Tomorrow we head back to Vegas for 4 nights. We have to start figuring out where we are headed from there!

Planning a road trip..."Ain't Life Grand!"

An afternoon in Death Valley!

Thursday afternoon we drove over to Death Valley. I made appetizers for happy hour. Since we were supposed to be there for 5 days I had gotten groceries to make appetizers for the week. During the day everyone sort of goes their own way. One couple play golf (which we had planned to do also), a couple of others go four wheeling in the mountains looking for geo-cache, some read their books and relax in the sun. There is also the Furnace Creek Inn to check out; the restaurant and gift shop. In the village there is a general store and a small museum. There is Scotty's Castle and lots of sights to see in the valley. Everyone is usually back at 4ish for happy hour! I actually made three dips and only cut the tip of my thumb once! I made a spinach dip with lots of fresh veggies, a tomato cheese log with crackers and a hummus with pita bread. The onion in the log were a bit spicy but okay and the hummus was also so-so! But hey, I tried!

Yesterday we visited the casino to gamble, have lunch, and since gambling wasn't good, played bingo! That was the fastest bingo callers ever! If you bought a 4-pack they gave you a 4-pack free (because we were new we had a coupon). I thought no big deal - wrong! I had to put it aside! We wouldn't know if we won or not it was so fast!

Gotta go get ready for more adventures today..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Back on the Road!

Wednesday the mechanic arrived around 1:00 and got the new bearing on the axle and put on our spare tire.  We think we may be able to fix the tire but we will have to buy a new hub cap, it sorted of melted!  You can tell that from the bearings that it got pretty hot!  They aren't supposed to be flat or scratched up!

We got to Pahrump Wednesday afternoon. We got the RV set up and walked over to the Pahrump Nuggett for dinner and a little gambling. They had a 2 for 1 buffet! The only thing I can say about it is that I got full! Ted was pretty lucky with the gambling but I couldn't get anything going on!

This morning we walked over to Terribles Town Casino. Today I was luckier and doubled my money! It sure is a lot more fun!

This afternoon we are headed over to Death Valley to visit our friends that we were supposed to be camped with. I made some appetizers to share with the group.

Today it is pretty windy and there is still a lot of snow on the mountains around Pahrump!  It's very pretty!

Safe and sound in Pahrump..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Ted & Susan's Latest Adventure!

We left Las Vegas for Death Valley Sunday morning as planned. We got about 25 miles west of Las Vegas on Highway 160 when a tire on the trailer blew. Ted was able to turn off the main road and pull over on a fairly level shoulder of a side road. We called Good Sam to change the tire, but Ted was concerned about the axle, it just didn't look right. About an hour later the mechanic got here and pulled the tire. The sealed bearing had failed. We were lucky the tire didn't fall off because there was nothing to hold the wheel on. Our 5th wheel is less than four years old and apparently the bearings don't normally fail like that. Being Sunday, we had to wait until Monday to order the part.

Monday morning rolls around and guess what, it had snowed! Yes we had a small amount of snow on us but a lot of snow on the mountain between Pahrump and us and the mechanic could not get over the pass for awhile! He finally got here a little before noon and took off the bearing. The good news was that they "don't think" there was any damage done to the axle itself. He went to Vegas to order the part and was told it would be a week by ground. To overnight was an additional $130, and really meant Wednesday because it was past 9 a.m. on Monday!

We cancelled our Death Valley trip because we were only staying until Friday and the RV wouldn't be repaired before Wednesday at the earliest! Something seems to happen to our RV everytime we go to Death Valley. Getting a bit superstitous at this point!

On Monday when I went to take Max out in the morning, he put his paw down on the snowy step and quickly pulled it back, looking at me like I was crazy! Fortunately the snow melted quickly! It stayed very cold all day and windy at times.

The adventures of RVing..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Ted's Home!

Yay, Teddy is home safe and sound!  Saturday morning Ted woke up to about an inch of snow (yes fortunately only an inch) which melted before he had to leave for the airport! Max and I were happy to see Ted.  I took Max with me to the airport and he went crazy when he saw Ted walking towards the truck!  He gave Dad a great big welcome home kiss!

Today we leave for Death Valley.  We are meeting a group of people we met through Jim and Della Crownover who are classmates of Ted's.  We will be dry camping but I will try to do the blog at least once while we are there.  We will be there until Friday the 26th.  Can't believe February is almost over!

We are getting ready to get on the road again..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Still in Vegas!

Ted is still in Illinois and Max and I are still in Vegas!  Had a fun day Wednesday at the casino.  Played for several hours without losing anything, had a bite to eat and then lost $30 straight and came home!

Yesterday was laundry day!  Max and I just hung out at the campground all day.  We leave for Death Valley on Sunday and will be dry camping which means no electricity, water or sewer.  That means we can't do laundry or watch tv and to use the laptop we will need to run the generator.

Ted is doing well, visiting relatives.  There were some cousins at the funeral that he had not seen for a long time so he enjoyed visiting with them and catching up.  He said it's not been snowing but very brrrrr cold!  Looking at the weather today, it is supposed to snow there today and tomorrow.  We are hoping he won't get stuck in Champaign or Chicago!

Praying for sunny skies..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Snow!

Monday we ran some errands to get Ted ready for his trip to Illinois.  Banks were closed so we hit the ATM Sunday and Monday!  Friends David and Debbie Hawkins took us out to dinner Monday evening at the Red Rock Casino.  We had a wonderful Italian dinner.  Max stayed behind and David and Debbies and was a good boy!

Took Ted to the airport yesterday morning.  He landed in Champaign, Illinois around 4pm.  He called and said "it's freezing here"!   Ted doesn't really have any heavy clothes but took lots of layers and his long johns!  He rented a car and drove to his cousin's dad's house, Bill & Suzy.  He called and let me know he made it.  He said he only had one incident, the car started talking, asking him if he wanted a weather report.  It startled him and he was trying to turn it off and veered into the non-plowed lane!  It was mushy snow but he said he stayed calm and got the car back in his lane! If he can help it, I doubt he'll drive again until he has to go back to the airport!

The funeral was this morning.  Ted was said it was very nice.  It's in the low 20's so very cold and snow on the ground.  They are at his cousin's Tricia's house where he took this picture of the snow:

Meanwhile, back in Vegas where the weather is nice, Max and I were invited back to David and Debbie's for dinner. David's mom is in town for surgery so I visited with her. I hadn't seen her for many years. It was nice to see her.

Today is "senior day" at the Boulder Station casino (near the campground) so being over 50, I will head over this afternoon and see if I can win anything! Wish me luck.


More later..."Ain't Life Grand!"

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Ted and I wish you all a Happy Valentines Day!

We got on the road this morning (after I took the following pictures from Dog Beach at the campground) and got to Las Vegas around 1:00.

We thought our Las Vegas campground was fully booked but after calling this morning, found that we could get in. Ted's plane to Illinois for his Aunt's funeral leaves on Tuesday morning. The funeral will be on Wednesday. After we got here we took off to find a cheap (I mean inexpensive) duffle bag for Ted since our suitcases are all in storage! We found one on wheels for $29. It only has to last 5 days LOL! We also got him a pair of black shoes and hopefully he is all set for his trip. It is very cold in Tuscola, Illinois and according to the news will be snowing today and tomorrow with light snow flurries on Tuesday. Wednesday through Saturday look like they will be sunny but cold (in the teens at night).   I'm in Vegas and it's sunny and 70!!!!!

After running errands we went over to Boulder Station Casino for dinner and a little gambling. We gambled about an hour and came out a little ahead so we were happy about that!

I thought I'd mention a website that my friend Jeri Gutowski told me about for making airline reservations: Kayak.com. All the normal websites I checked for airline tickets were about double of what I found on Kayak. Kayak checks Expedia, Travelocity and the rest of the discount travel sites.

Finding some bargains..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Valentine Eve!

We've been here at the River for a couple of days.   We've gone over to the Avi Casino and gambled a little bit, leaving a small deposit.  We have run some errands and tonight we had "Valentine's Dinner" at the campground.  Steak and shrimp, salad, veggies, potatoe and dessert.  It was a good meal.  After the dinner they had a couple doing Karaoke, some country and some other oldies.  We didn't stay too long.  Ted's Aunt in Illinois passed away this morning and we needed to make some airline reservations for Ted to get back there in time for the funeral on Wednesday.  He is leaving out of Las Vegas so we planned to go to our campground in Vegas but it is booked.  We have another one in Pahrump.  Thought I'd call the Vegas campground tomorrow to make sure there wasn't a cancellation.    He will go on Wednesday and get back on Saturday.  Then on Sunday we will head on over to Death Valley.

We did see his Aunt in October when we were back in Illinois and she was doing pretty well.  She was 94 and really didn't suffer so that was a blessing.

I still have to check on a car rental but just wanted to blog what is going on.  More later... 

Colorado River

Yesterday we did a little casino time.  I was a little lucky so we played for several hours and had dinner pretty much on the casino!  That's alway fun!

This morning we left Palm Desert.  Fortunately it had stopped raining and got sunnier as we drove along.  Along side Highway 62 is a train track and for miles and miles people (probably kids) have placed rocks spelling out names or other things, along the bank of the track.  We saw it a couple of years ago when we went to Joshua Tree and were surprised it was still there.  There is also a shoe fence along the other side of the road with many shoes stuck in the fence.  Don't have a clue what that is all about!

We are camped at a California River Adventures campground, North Shore.  It is right on the river.  We were excited to learn they do water aerobics here also, but discovered that they are at 9:00 a.m.  They are on Arizona time here (even though we are in California) and that means they are at 8:00 a.m. our time!!!!!  We may go later and swim laps!

Tomorrow night they are having a lasagne dinner with salad and dessert for $4.00.  We thought we would try it and see how it is. 

Another adventure..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Last Day in Palm Springs

Yesterday we did "bath" water aerobics.  It was a beautiful sunny day and it gets you off to a good start!  After aerobics Ted fixed one of our day/night shades.  I had hit it with the chair and broke it.  Poor Ted always cleaning up after the bull in the china shop!  We took off and ran some errands, a nice easy day.

This picture was taken on sunny Monday at the campground, notice the snow on the mountain in the background and more date trees.  The campground has a company that takes care of the 875 date palm trees, keeping them fertilized and trimmed.  The last harvest yielded 800 lbs of dates.  The company splits the dates with the campground.  Peggy bought two pounds of dates (actually a small box).

Today we are thinking about a little casino play to round off our stay.  Tomorrow we leave heading for the Colorado River.

Sunny days in Palm Springs..."Ain't Life Grand!"

More fun in Palm Springs!

My friend Peggy Price and a friend of hers, Mark, came over to Palm Springs Friday afternoon for the weekend.  Mark has a timeshare condo so we went over and had taco salad with them Friday night.  Peggy and I decided we needed a "coffee" so we headed over to one of the casinos, Fantasy Springs, as they have a starbucks in it and it's only a mile from the condo!  Peggy and I did a little gambling, but again, no luck :(

On Saturday we were going to the Flying J for sweet cream pancakes and if you could believe it, this flying J doesn't have a restaurant.  We were all bummed.  We had told Mark how good they are and we couldn't back it up!  We went to another casino across the street, Aqua Caliente, and had breakfast, checked out the gift shop, but no gambling!  After breakfast, we headed back to our homes and rested up to go out for dinner!

Peggy's birthday is February 21st and we had eaten at Melvyns here in Palm Springs before.  We thought it would be a nice restaurant to celebrate her upcoming birthday.  It is a very old hotel but still pretty elegant.  They have really good food and excellent service.  I had Saffron Shrimp, with salad, sweet squash, pea pods, asparagus and wild rice.  My dinner was great.  Ted had Filet Mignon and Peg and Mark had Veal Oscar with crabmeat.  They brought Peg a Flan for a birthday dessert!  Everyone enjoyed their dinner.

Today Peg and Mark packed up and headed to our place in the afternoon to watch the Superbowl.  I actually made Peggy a birthday cake, granted I used a box mix and canned frosting, but she was still impressed!  We had put up signs all over the RV for her 60th birthday, a necklace with 60's on it, 60 sucks suckers, a spring loaded bra to hold up her tata's and a couple of nice presents too!  I know there will be a payback for the 60's presents! 

A good Superbowl game, lots of munchies and good friends..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Having fun in Palm Springs!

Yesterday we managed another day of  bath water aerobics.  It's fun and you really do get a workout!

After dressing and lunch we took off to take Max to the groomer for a bath and haircut!  (He has to compete with all the Palm Springs puppies so we wanted him to look nice too)!  We then took off to Spotlight 29, a casino and hotel with a golf course near the groomers.  We spent the afternoon there but weren't a bit lucky!  Had fun but no luck!  We picked up Max, he's looking pretty handsome!

This morning we opted for golf instead of aerobics!  It was a par 3 course that Thousand Trails books.  We had a group of about 30 people.  I didn't play too well but had a lot of fun. Ted did better.   There is water, sand and hills to deal with.  A pretty but difficult little course!  After we played golf, we had lunch at the grill with the other golfers.

When we got back we took a dip in the hot tub to make sure the old muscles didn't tighten up!

Warming in the hot tub..."Ain't Life Grand!" 

Water Aerobics!!!!

Last night the park had "Card Bingo".   Each person receives 13 playing cards and the "caller" uses a deck of cards. As he calls the cards, you remove them from your pile and the person who runs out of cards first bingos! They play 3 games at a nickel each, 3 at a dime each, 3 at a quarter each and the finale is $1 each. There were almost 60 players so the last pot is pretty good! Not that Ted or I would know, we won zip!

At 10 this morning Ted and I did water aerobics at the pool. There were almost 30 people (mostly ladies) for an hour of aerobics. It was fun, but not as easy as I thought and it's hard to keep both feet flat on the bottom for some of the exercises since there so many people we were out pretty deep. Our legs felt so heavy when we got out of the water. We'll see how the body feels tomorrow! We are going to try it again!

In the afternoon we went to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It was 72 degrees in the valley but 59 degrees at the start of the tram and the sign said it was 43 degrees at the top with 4 feet of snow! We didn't go up today because we weren't prepared for the cold. We are thinking about doing the ride and dine on Friday afternoon. We'll see because we are also going to play 9 holes of golf on Friday morning. The snow does seem to be melting since we've been here and today it was up to 78 degrees at noon! Here are some pictures I took up at the Tram Station:

Bath water aerobics..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Enjoying the lifestyle of the Rich & Famous!

Today we ran some errands and came across a beautiful RV bus! I couldn't resist taking a picture of it and sharing it with everyone! I also thought I would take a couple of pictures of our RV squeezed in among the beautiful Date Palm trees!

I forgot to mention the snow on the mountains as we drove here yesterday. There was a lot of snow on both Big Bear and Mt. Baldy mountain tops, it is beautiful! Today temperatures were in the mid-70's, very nice!

Exploring the lives of the Rich and Famous..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Palm Desert!

We left San Diego this morning for Palm Desert.   This is our first time in this campground and we found that spaces are very "tight".  There are 875 Date Palm trees and the trees make it hard for the RV's to manuever around to get in your space.  Ted did such a great job backing in our space between two trees and one behind us, a narrow street filled with cars and other RV's.  He is amazing!  Our truck is pulled right up to our door, like a carport, which means no rooms for chairs or anything else!  Otherwise it is a nice campground, with some grassy areas and the trees are pretty!

I was texting with my nephew Stephen yesterday and he asked where we were.  I told him we were in San Diego and leaving for Palm Springs.  He texted back, "and I'm just leaving biology for physics"!   He's pretty funny and I'm happy to be in Palm Springs.

Hanging out in Palm Springs..."Ain't Life Grand!"