Visit to Pechanga!

We met our good friends Jeri and Stach at Pechanga Casino yesterday!  We had at least a two hour lunch catching up.  Jeri and I talk or text all the time but we always have a lot to talk about when we see each other!  We did a little gambling but it was really crowded and not a lot of great machines available, and then we all had a snack together and talked some more!  It was really good to see them.

Today we washed the truck!  It was really dirty and had lots of bugs on the front.  It looks a lot nicer now!  Tomorrow we take it in for a regular service and for them to check a few things.  We still really love the truck!

Seeing good friends..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Wilderness Lakes in Menifee, California

On Wednesday we had a great dinner with our nephew Chip.  He is a math teacher at the High School he graduated from.  This is his first year as a full time teacher and at this school.  Last year he was a substitute at a High School in Madera and worked most of the year as a sub but now he has his own regular classes.  He teaches Algebra 1 and II.  We had a good visit with him.

We left Fresno early Thursday morning so we could get through San Bernardino and Los Angeles area before traffic gets too bad.  At Tehachapi we fueled up and changed drivers.  As we got down in the Mojave Desert area Ted was having a good time watching all of the aircraft.  He saw a C130 and a B-1.  You don't see the B-1's very often any more.  The next thing we saw was Space Shuttle Endeavor!  We knew it was coming to California but had not paid attention as to when it would be coming here.   As we got closer to Edwards AFB we could see it really well and there were throngs of people pulled over everywhere along the road and the off ramps!  I usually take the pictures so we got none since I was driving!   I did take a couple of pictures off the tv yesterday when she took her farewell tour flying around Sacramento and San Francisco before landing in Los Angeles. Her final stop is the California Science Museum in Los Angeles.

We continued on and made it to our campground without trouble and we will be here for a little over a week.  We will get truck serviced and we have an appointment at Camping World to get the air conditioner looked at that was repaired in Indiana in July. 

Tonight we had the steak dinner at the campground.  It was a huge steak, very tender and cooked perfectly!  We had a good dinner.  It's hotter down here than it was in Las Vegas or Fresno but we are managing to keep the RV fairly cool!

Closer to San Diego..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Enjoying get togethers with the kids!

We enjoyed our lunch with Ernie and Linda (Claire's Mom and Dad) on Saturday.  The kids couldn't believe we didn't talk about them!  We had dinner with Craig and Claire.  It was a cute little place with a really nice wine list and interesting food choices.  I had a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich that was really delicious!  We had a good evening with them.

Sunday evening we all made it to dinner:  Craig and Claire, Chip, Stephen and Marissa and Ted and I.  Fortunately we were at a noisy place so our extra noise didn't seem to bother anyone!  LOL.   Here is a picture of the three nephews:  Stephen, Craig & Chip (on his birthday)!  It is a better picture of a picture I already posted.

We have really enjoyed spending time with the kids.  They get along so well together, it is just fun watching them interact with each other. 

Yesterday I had a Pedi, Mani and a Vanilla Latte...ahhhh so relaxing!  We also ran some errands.  The kids are all back to work and school so they keep pretty busy.  We are going to have dinner with Chip tomorrow night and maybe lunch with Stephen tomorrow!

Since we had a free day today, Ted and I drove out to Table Mountain Casino.  Since we had not been there before, they gave us each a free buffet and $20 of free play!  We brought a little of our money home and had a good time.

When we left we went around to the back of the casino.  Not sure if all of this halloween stuff belongs to the casino or someone who lives right behind it.  I have never seen so much halloween stuff.  Some of the "monsters" looked like real people under a mask and wig!  YIKES!  They made sounds and some of them moved.  It is very well done!

We will leave here on Thursday and will be down at our campground in Menifee.  It is called Wilderness Lakes.  We will be there for a few days more than a week!

Ghosts and goblins, oh my..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Fresno, California!

We can definitely tell we are back in California!  The diesel prices were up 30 cents and higher, a lot more than every where else we have been recently!  But we are happy to be in HOT Fresno seeing the kids!  The temps have been over 100 every day so far. 

We got here on Thursday.  After we got set up and cleaned up we took off to do an errand for Craig (the oldest nephew).  He needed nine frames for a project he was surpising Claire with!  They had seen this done at an Ethan Allen Store.  Claire had a map of Paris that she loved.  Craig had it blown up by a company who does this kind of duplication for his law firm for trials.  They did a wonderful job with perfect detail.  They then cut it in 9 pieces of 11 x 14 inches each.  We got black frames for him and he put the pictures in and arranged it on the wall.  Claire was sooo surprised when she got home and loved it!  It looks great.

Yesterday we met Craig for lunch at Max's.  We had not been there before.  It is a bistro and was a bit expensive.  We did have a yummy lunch with Craig and then he took off to get things ready at the house for the birthday party for Chip (the middle nephew).  We took off to get a gift for him and run a few errands.

Chip turned 26 yesterday, really hard to believe!  Craig and Claire hosted an open house.  Their house is really great for entertaining.  The older folks, us and Claire's parents had the comfy living room while most of the younger folks were in the dining area and kitchen.  Westin had the run of the house and was a pretty good boy.  He is seven months old, is pretty well behaved and adorable (oh by the way, he's the dog)!  We left around 9:30 as the party was really just getting started with the younger crowd!

One of the couples brought him a "beer tree"!  The cans were full of beer and it was a really cute idea!

Today we are having lunch with Claire's Mom and Dad, Linda and Ernie.  They are a nice couple and we are looking forward to getting to know them better! 

Being with the Meredith family..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Fun in Las Vegas!

We left Valley Verde early Sunday morning.  It is quite a climb north to Flagstaff and we averaged less than 6 mpg!  Of course when we were headed west of Flagstaff we had a nice ride downhill and we were up to 13 mpg for awhile!  We averaged about 9.5 which is really pretty good for us. 

In the Flagstaff area the wildflowers were really blooming.  I took the first picture, then found a prettier area and then found a beautiful area of yellow flowers!  They just got prettier and prettier!

Since the bridge over Hoover Dam is complete we were able to go that way this time.  This was our first time over the bridge with the RV.  It sure cut off a long and boring part of the drive.  It is amazing to me that they didn't build this bridge a long time ago. 

The Lake Mead Recreational area is very pretty!

We got to our campsite pretty early, got set up, showered and headed over to Boulder Station for dinner and a little gambling.  We were up and down but I think Ted came out even and I donated about $15!

Yesterday we were invited to lunch at friends' David and Debbie Hawkins.  It was great seeing them.  We ended up going out to lunch and went to "Red Velvet".  I had a delicious shrimp and avocado salad.  We all ate half of our meal and shared a piece of Red Velvet cake!  It was warm and the frosting was soooo yummmy!  We ended up sitting around their house talking so long we all ate our leftovers for dinner!  It was an enjoyable afternoon.

Today we went to the Sunset Casino and neither of us was doing very well.  We were thinking about giving up rather than feeding the machine and I sat down at a machine I had not played before.  It was 50 cents to play all lines and it was only paying me 15 or 20 cents.  Just before I gave up I got the bonus.   It spun just the wheel that had the cat on it and it was loaded with dollar amounts.  The first wheel spun $4.00, the second $1.25 and then the third spun the "Minor" which ended up being a $179.00!  I came out with $215.00!  I even bought lunch today!  While we had lunch we noticed it was pouring so we played a little after lunch and I still had some good luck. 

Tomorrow we leave Las Vegas but before we get out of town, we are going to Camping World for a new tire and will have them move a couple of tires around.  When they are finished we will head to Bakersfield for one night and then on to Fresno to see the "kids" for a week! 

The weather has been hot, between 90 and 105 degrees until today, the rain cooled it down to a delightful 70 degrees and now that the rain has passed its 75.  Wish we could bring it to Fresno with us!  We will be there to celebrate the middle nephew's birthday on Friday!  It will be great to see them, Claire and Marissa!

Winning at the casino..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Gaming in Valley Verde!

Wednesday night was card bingo.  You take a deck of cards for every four people.  Each person gets dealt 13 playing cards.  There is a caller that calls the cards from a deck and the first person who gets rid of all of their cards wins a bingo!  Each person will ante before each game.  The first three games are a nickel each, the next three games are a dime each, three games of a quarter each and the last game is a dollar!  I won a dime bingo.  Didn't pay for all my games but still enjoyed playing.  They also mix it up by removing all red cards or all black cards, playing with your five best or worst cards.  It was fun!

On Thursday we went over to the Cliff Casino.  It is fairly small and the minimum bet on most of their penny machines is fifty cents!  Ted was very lucky and won enough to cover my losses and buy lunch!  He was lucky the entire time and I was unlucky the entire time!  They have a Johnny Rockets in the casino and we had lunch there.  We both splurged and had a milkshake with our lunch...Susan drinking to her losses and Ted celebrating his wins!  They were really creamy and delicious!

The Friday game was Pokeno at the club house at the RV park.  There were enough people to have two tables full.  It is a bingo type game but played like poker.  You have a premade card with five rows of five playing cards on it and you use playing cards (like in card bingo) to call the numbers.  In addition to Pokeno (or bingo), you can get a full house, four of a kind, center card, four corners and diagonal Pokeno!  We play with pennies and this time I came out a winner and Ted, well not so lucky!

We leave the Valley tomorrow and will spend three nights in Las Vegas.  We have plans to visit my former boss David Hawkins and his wife Debbie on Monday.  I think it will be pretty warm but should get us ready for the heat in Fresno after we leave Las Vegas!

Game playing..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Made it to Valley Verde

On Sunday we left the Grand Canyon behind and headed south and a little east.  When we got to Flagstaff we hit a thunderstorm with lots of heavy rain.  When we turned south we could see blue skies ahead!  We are camped at a Thousand Trails campground.  We are about 8 miles west of Camp Verde near the town of Valley Verde and Cottonwood, Arizona.  Sedona is only about 15 miles away.  It is a bit warmer here than at the Grand Canyon.  It's been in the mid 90's in the day and high 60's at night.

Yesterday we had quite a rain storm with lots of thunder and lightning and things cooled down.  It started just before we were scheduled to go have a little wine and cheese and hear a Sky Med presentation.  Both Ted and I had been thinking about a Sky Med type of program because of our traveling, but had not mentioned it to each other.  Sky Med is a company that provides medical transportation and more.  For example, if something were to happen to Ted or I, we would call 911 and probably have to go by ambulance or by air medical transport to a hospital that will meet our needs.  Our insurance may or may not cover all of the costs.  We call Sky Med and they take care of what our insurance doesn't.  But not only that, if we have to go to another State, they will provide a bonded driver to drive our truck and RV to whereever we are going.  They would also fly whoever we require, such as our nephew, to us by commercial airlines.  They also provide medical transporation globabally if we are on a cruise or a trip somewhere out of the US.  Anyway, we signed up for it for our piece of mind.   There were 14 people signed up to attend, but we were the only ones who braved the rain and showed up  We brought home two bottles of wine and cheese that he had opened!  We also got 2 Dairy Queen gift cards!  Such a deal!

Today we drove over to Sedona and had lunch.  The red rock in Sedona is unbelievably beautiful.  Unfortunately my pictures don't even begin to do it justice.

We walked around some of the shops, Ted bought me a turquois neclace to go with the earrings he got me in Tombstone, Arizona in May.  We had a nice lunch and then headed back toward the campground.  We made a detour through historic downtown Clarksville and up to mile high Jerome.  Jerome was a copper mining town and when the copper ran out the mind just closed down and the town died.  Eventually people started coming back and it has a cute little "artsy/fartsy" town.  It is built on the side of a very steep mountain with tiny roads and is not a place where you want to have a big truck driving around it!

Tonight we will be playing "card bingo" here at the campground.  It is a lot of fun!

Beautiful red rock mountains..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Still at the Grand Canyon!

We are still enjoying the Grand Canyon.  Yesterday we took the shuttle to the Market Plaza and had lunch at the Yavapai Lodge cafeteria.   We looked around the gift shop before heading over to the canyon!  We walked around the Village, the Kolb bookshop and then decided we needed ice cream!  We sat on the porch at the El Tovar and ate our ice cream watching two Hopi Indians do their native dance and play the flute in their native costumes!  All that and the Grand Canyon backdrop to boot!

We took the shuttle back to the campground before the rain started and then jumped in the truck and headed out of the park to the Imax Theatre.  They are showing the "Grand Canyon Movie".  We had not seen it before.  It depicts the trip Powell took 277 miles down river through the canyon with a group of boats.  I think three of the boats made it.  One group got off the boat after a bad rapid and never made it out.  One boat was lost in a rapid.  The pictures of the canyon are breathtaking and definitely worth the price of admission (especially at the senior rate...lol)! 

This morning we've been a little lazy!  We saw a doe at the campground and I took a picture of her:

It really is a doe, the first picture looks like she had horns but it is just the bush on the side of the road!  Usually we see lots of deer here but not this trip.

We are going over to the Market Plaza and probably a last view of the Canyon in a few minutes.  We leave here tomorrow and will go south to Verde Valley which is south of Flagstaff.  We hope it will be cool there.  We've had beautiful weather here at the Canyon.  Can't remember if we have good cell service there or not! 

Wildlife, canyons and ice cream..."Ain't Life Grand!"