Cherry Valley (Beaumont), CA

On Tuesday we left Las Vegas and are back in California at our Cherry Valley campground!  We arrived in time to play bingo.  We each got a win but didn't quite break even!  It's always fun anyway.

When we left Death Valley we asked our friends Jim and Della Crownover to go to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada with us.  It is a small but beautiful park and a great campground.  Unfortunately it is first come first served campground and we almost didn't get in!  We each got a spot without any hookups and it's so pretty we didn't care.  We relaxed, had a campfire, did some sightseeing and of course played games.  We played Po-Ke-No and Jim was the big winner.  I think he won all the pennies!  We did get some more wind while we were there but it didn't stop us for enjoying the park!

As you can see in the pictures, we had a great time!

Loving the Nevada red rock..."Ain't Life Grand!" 

Catching up the blog from Las Vegas!

Since we've been in Las Vegas Ted got a hair cut, Max got a rabies shot (and much needed) haircut will be done today, took the tire that lost the tread in and got a new tire at half price ($300 tires of course for the big truck) so that was great and I learned something about tires.  They have a DOT (date of tire) on the inside.  Our one year old tire from Arizona (replacement tire for tire destroyed in bearing failure) was actually 5 years old!  Which they told us was probably the reason for the tread problem.  If the tire had really been a year old it would have been 100% replacement.  Apparently tires (especially the large ones) aren't sold as quickly and go to distribution centers where they may or may not be rotated by date!  Something to look out for.  Our new one was made the 7th week of 2011!  We also bought another new tire for the RV which will be put on before we leave tomorrow.

We have visited our friends David and Debbie Hawkins that live here in Vegas.  They had us for dinner last night.  Debbie made an awesome "poached turkey" and great trimmings!  It was fun to catch up on what they've been doing.  Max loves to go visit them, he has the run of the house and gets a few "goodies" to eat!  David is busy with the end of tax season so we appreciated getting to see them.

To catch up after we left Lone Pine we headed to Death Valley over the huge Panamint Mountains on March 19th:

We had a great time in Death Valley.  On Thursday we had a great St. Patrick's Day dinner at the campground!  My dessert wasn't pretty but tasted good.  Made a HUGE mess in my refrigerator!!!  On Friday we took  a drive through Titus Canyon visiting Leadfield Ghost Town.  It was really cold in the mountains!

On Saturday Jim, Della, Ted and I went to the Furnace Creek Inn for lunch.  We had a delicious lunch, checked out the gift shop and stayed out of the wind!  Then we went over to the Village and looked in their gift shop.  All that shopping made us hungry again and so we had dessert in the cafe!  YUM!

In spite of the wind we managed to have happy hour in our RV's.  There were 14 of us camped there so that was cozy!  We all had a good time and enjoyed the Saturday evening full moon!

On Sunday we had a professional tour guide (a friend of one of the campers) take us to Gold Point for lunch.  We left Death Valley, through Beatty Nevada and as we climbed higher, saw more snow!  This place was in the middle of nowhere!  You have to phone ahead because they don't get people passing by, you have to know where you are going.  It was so rustic and so cool.  We head great hamburgers and fries!  The owner was quite a character and salesman.  You never saw so many antiques as in that place!  We found out they have an small RV park, maybe a day or two there next DV trip - or maybe not!

While in DV we had temperatures from 31 degrees to high 80's!  We had some sunshine, lots of wind, some clouds and a sprinkle or two!  No matter!  Our last night we got together and barbequed our steaks.  The wind died down but was a bit chilly.  After dinner we sat around the campfire and told some stories!  It was a fun ending to a fun week!

Our Death Valley curse hit before we got to Lone Pine with the tire tread, still have to get RV fixed!  We think our curse has spread to our friends.  Jim and Della lost their awning (it wasn't doing too well since it got frosted in Montana anyway) and Bill and Sally lost their hot water heater mid week (cold showers brrrrr).

Next blog will include stories from Valley of the fire!

Happy to have made it to Death Valley without any further trouble..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Back in land of cell service!

We are in Las Vegas and finally have cell service!!!!!  We spent 6 days in Death Valley an 4 in Valley of Fire!  More info and pictures to come.  Have appointments today but will catch up soon!

"Ain't Life Grand !"

Sightseeing in Lone Pine!

Yesterday we took a ride in the Alabama Hills heading toward Whitney Portal.  Unfortunately the road was closed because of the "winter storms"!  It is such a pretty area:

It was Sandy's birthday yesterday, so we went to town for dinner at the Seasons Restaurant!  We had a fabulous dinner.  Three people had Elk in a cranberry sauce, one had Pork Tenderloin, Ted had a Fillet Mignon and I had Roasted Duck in a Merlot sauce.  Everything was delicious!  (I have part of my duck left for lunch today - yum!).  Of course a nice wine was flowing to top off the dinner!

We are getting ready to leave for DV!  I don't think we will have cell service/internet in the valley.  We leave the valley on the 22nd!

Celebratory dinners..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Lone Pine Film Museum

Yesterday afternoon two couples of the DV group arrived in Lone Pine.  We caught up with what we have been doing since the last DV trip.

This morning we all went to breakfast at the Alabama Cafe (the hills in front of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range are called the Alambama Hills).  We had a great breakfast and then four of us went to the Lone Pine Film Museum.  We watched a 15 minute movie and we could not believe how many movies were made here.  They started making films here in 1920, beginning with the old "silent" westerns.  Such westerns as Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne were made.  They have made more than 300 films here.  Other familiar names filmed here such as: Clint Eastwood, Jack Palance, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Gregory Peck, Spencer Tracy, Alan Ladd, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon and Natilie Wood, just to name a few.

 Actually the Alabama Hills, the Sierra Nevadas and the Owens Valley are still being used in movies and countless car commercials.   Such as scenes for the Academy Award-winning "Gladiator", Disney's "Dinosaur", "G.I. Jane" with Demi Moore, "Maverick" with Mel Gibson and "The Shadow" with Alec Baldwin were shot in the Alabama Hills. Star Trek 5 and the Tremor movies were also made here.  The most recent movies were Iron Man in 2008 and Transformer 2 in 2009.  And for good reason. The natural scenery remains unspoiled and unchanged since that first film in 1920, a silent Western for Paramount called "The Round Up" with Fatty Arbuckle. 

This afternoon we went out into the area where many of the films were made.  You drive down "Movie Road" a very nice dirt road and they tell you where some of the movies were made.  The film makers left no sign of where they filmed (nothing was left behind) but some of the spots were recognizable.  There is also an arch that is about 1/4 mile hike from the road that you can see Mt. Whitney through.  The six of us Jay and Lucy, Mike and Sandy, and Ted and I hiked back there.  The area is pretty amazing!

A fun day in Lone Pine..."Ain't Life Grand!"

The Death Valley Curse!

Well the DV curse continues!  We left Hemet yesterday headed for Lone Pine located right over the Panamint Mountains from DV.  We were on 215 almost to the 15 merge when we felt something odd.  A car then went by to let us know we had a tire problem.  Ted pulled over on the side of the Freeway because the exit was over a mile away.  Our rear tire on the RV (door side) had shredded and of course it took out part of the lower side of the RV with it.

Will have to call insurance again.  I'm sure they will be thrilled to hear from us!  We didn't use it for 4 years now twice in 2011! 

We arrived in Lone Pine around 5:00.  It was a delightful 70 degrees.  The campground is next to the Owens Dry Lake on one side and Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the continental U.S., on the other.  In 1872 Lone Pine had an earthquake that leveled Lone Pine and caused the landscape fault to shift as much as 20 feet!  Kind of scary to think about with what happened in Japan.    Today we will go into town and look around.  Here is a picture from our campground of Mt. Whitney:

Viewing Mt. Whitney..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Great weather in Menifee!

So sad about the deadly earthquake and Tsunami in Japan.  The photos have been devastating.  It makes you stop and think when you wake up and find out something like that happened.  Life is very precious!

On Wednesday we had a good time at the casino, two free buffets and three hours gambling and only lost $15! 

On Thursday we played nine holes of golf.  We realized we need to practice more but had fun and enough good shots to make us want to play again! 

Tomorrow we head for Lone Pine.  I called today and they said it was in the 70's up there yesterday, should be beautiful!  Not sure if we will have internet or not.  Then on Thursday we head to the Valley not to be named.  We have no hookups there so will run the generator to keep battery charged up, not sure if we have any internet over there either!

Appreciating each day..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Spending a few days at Wilderness Lakes

We enjoyed the last few days at Pio Pico.  On Sunday we went to Trent's baseball game, he is the son of our friends Jeri and Stach.  What a great game.  He is 10 now and has been playing baseball for several years and we have sure seen him grow and improve.  The kid really has an arm.  He was the last player on their team to pitch and we were surprised at how fast, hard and accurately he pitched.  I know we are predjudice (he is our nephew), but his head is always in the game and such a team player.  He's also the first one to congratulate or soothe his teammates.  It was really fun.  Oh yeah, and we went to dinner with his nana and papa!

We drove up to Wilderness Lakes, Menifee, California yesterday.  It's about 2 hours from Jamul.  We will be here until Sunday when we leave for Lone Pine.  The weather has been good up there so we are hoping it continues.  We haven't taken our RV up there before and are looking forward to going some place new.

Last night we went over to Cherry Valley Campground, we snuck in to play bingo!  There weren't very many people playing last night so the pots were small but it was fun and I managed 3 bingos (including the last one), Ted had 1 bingo!  Two times I needed 33 to bingo and both times I held up my 33 to the bingo caller and the first time, it was the next number up and the second time it was the second number up!  It was pretty funny.  I could tell by his smile that my number was up!

Today we are going to wash the truck and then head over to Valley View Casino (hopefully my luck will hold out) to meet our friends Jeri and Stach.  Jeri is recovering nicely from her hip replacement.  Mostly using a cane now with the walker for only longer walks.  Doctor said she is healing well and quicker than most.  We will have a little casino time and dinner there.  We have free buffets so will probably stuff ourselves!  LOL

We had very good news yesterday, our tenants were supposed to move out (we had given them 60 day notice to move).  Apparently they weren't able to find another place where they could have their big dog, two trailers, boat and a couple of trucks so they have paid up all the back rent and paid through April!  They said they will try and pay a month in advance.  We hope they can do it this time!  It was a relief to get the rent.

Thankful for rent payments..."Ain't Life Grand!"  

Back to the campground!

Yay!  We are finished with "parking lot camping"!  Two days turned into three but we are good to go!  They did a nice job on the body work and fixed the step so it will open easier.   The great thing was that they didn't find something else wrong while they worked on the RV!   Max liked it because he got to go everywhere with us.  He had to wait in the truck when we went in, but he was excited to go!

While we were waiting yesterday we sort of worked out our camping schedule for the next few months.  We will be back to Pio Pico in the beginning of April.  We leave here on Tuesday the 8th and will be going to Lone Pine, the Valley not to be named and then over to Nevada for a few days!

RV body work finished..."Ain't Life Grand!" 

Spending the night in the RV Service bay!

Ted and I have been fighting our colds most of the week. Ted finally got a good nights sleep last night (no coughing)!

Last Friday we spent the late afternoon with our friends Jim and Della Crownover playing Tripoley! Ted and Della were the big winners! Then we went to Napolean's Pizza (known as Mike and Joe's when Ted's high school group would go there). Dan Shinn and his friend Adrianna had come over from Arizona and suggested the get together. I think there were about 20 people that attended. It was fun to catch up with everyone. I took these pictures of a few of the attendees:

We had a lot of rain Friday night and the creek behind our RV filled up. It is usually bone dry. The water rushes across the road and only the larger truck and cars were going through. I was able to cross the road on Saturday to go have lunch with a friend from my days at the CPA firm and my friend Peggy. We met at the Boat House on Harbor Island. We had a great lunch and it was fun catching up with them.

On Sunday Peggy came over for dinner and watched the “Oscars” together. We had an enjoyable evening.

Today we brought the RV to the shop to get the damage fixed from hitting the parked car.  We are spending tonight in the shop in our RV.  The good news is we have great internet/cell service!!!!

Tonight was girl's night out (GNO), we had a missing person, Adma, but we managed to have fun without her!  It is great being with my girls!  Lots of laughing so I would say that GNO is good for our health!!!

Getting over colds…"Ain’t Life Grand!"