My Wii is set up, moving on this week

I've learned more about The Palms in the last three weeks, and feel more comfortable with the systems. Still lots to learn, though.

I took my car to CarMax on Friday, and they offered me a price within the range I was looking for.  Low in the range, but acceptable, so I'll bring it back on Wednesday and sell it to them.  My son mentioned maybe wanting to buy it from me for the same price, so either way it will be sold Wednesday.

The site on one side of mine has remained empty since Larry left over a week ago, but I have a new neighbor who arrived on Friday.  Paula is an older woman with a little dog, who arrived with her son and his friend to help her get set up.  The kids have had such a good time, they stayed until Sunday afternoon, and she is leaving this morning.  Katie loved her dog, Roxie, they got on really well.

I thought it was funny that we had three older ladies with their dogs, traveling solo, all in a row. Paula has a friend camping here who has a new kitten, three months old. She is leash training it - so cute. 

Mary and her dog, Ginger, left again Sunday for Arizona and will be back on Thursday.  We have become fast friends.  I got my Wii Fit Plus set up the other day, but I wasn't very careful packing the console and it wouldn't work, so I went to Wal-Mart and got a new one.  I was telling Mary about it, and she wanted to see how it worked, so she came over and tried it out and loved it. Saturday we went to Wal-Mart and Mary bought the Wii console and Wii Fit Plus.  She got it all set up and when I was walking Katie Sunday morning, I could hear the faint sounds of the Wii coming from her rig. : )

When we went to Wal-Mart, I left Katie in The Palms alone for the first time, and asked Paula and her kids to let me know if Katie barked while I was gone.  They said she was good, she only barked when they walked near The Palms, so maybe I'll be able to leave her by herself.  I closed everything up, lowered the shades, and turned on the Endless Breeze 12V fan, and that seemed to work.  I have her crate, just in case, and will use it if I need to, but I'd rather leave her loose in The Palms if she's quiet.  

I haven't done anything on my Wii Fit for a long time, and I've lost a lot of the balance, strength, and endurance I had built up, so I'm working on that again.  I'm going to try to put in at least 20 minutes every day. It's amazing that I actually have enough room in The Palms to do most of the things.  The running I have to do in place, of course, but everything I've tried so far I was able to do. I'm horrible with the Yoga, and that would take more room than I have, so that's my excuse.  No Yoga. Since that's so hard for me, though, it's probably the exercise that I should do. : (

I'm getting The Palms ready to travel Thursday afternoon, and plan to leave around six am on Friday.  I plan to go back to my beach spot in Carlsbad to spend the day Friday, dry camp in my usual place Friday night, and spend some time Saturday with my son and his family. (They get back from vacation Friday night.)  I want to have a sleep over with Kennedy and Gavin, my 8 and 6 year old grand kids, on Saturday night in their driveway.  Sunday I'll leave to start the drive to Vacaville to visit my daughter and her family, arriving on Monday.

Katie has been a little sweetheart, and is enjoying this lifestyle.  She is getting socialized with the other dogs here at the park, and is actually going over to some of them now.  She is getting even more attached to me since we're spending so much time together.  I don't know if that's good or not, but it is what it is and she seems happy.

 Katie and Buster

Katie and Roxie

Since I'm leaving on Friday morning, I'm already feeling like I'm in departure mode.  I'm going to get out my departure checklists and cut and paste them into one that will work for me.  When I was stealth camping before, I didn't have much in The Palms, and I wasn't hooked up, so it was pretty simple to stash things and drive away.  I don't think I'll have much more to do now, but want to make sure I have everything covered.

No photos today except the ones of Katie and her new friends.  I've pretty much snapped everything of note that we've been doing here.  I don't usually take advantage of the amenities like pools, gatherings in the rec room, etc., but maybe today when we take our walks, I'll take some photos of those things so anyone coming through this area will have an idea of what's offered.

After the first few days with the kids bugging me, things settled down and have been really nice and quiet.  The park is beautifully maintained and the volunteers (workkampers) are all really friendly and helpful.  They had a sign up in the office looking for volunteers, so if anyone wants to stay here and work, you might check it out.  They have volunteer sites in each area, I'd guess they have a lot of volunteers working, especially through the summer months.    The weather has been beautiful, cool in the mornings, warm to hot in the afternoons with nice breezes, cool again the evenings.  Full hookups and free wi-fi.  $690 a month in my size site which includes electric and pet fee.  Santee Lakes Regional Park and Campground.

NOTE:  I am adding this after reading my first two comments - $690 (monthly rate) is only $23 a day, and for San Diego I didn't think that was bad.  I was originally going to stay here while I was working - through December - and would have been bringing in a full time salary.  I thought that was a bargain at about 1/3 of the cost of my condo.  Now that I'm retired, that will all change and my "frugal" lifestyle will start in July.  (I had pre-paid for June.)  But - it seems like a lot of bloggers I follow pay more than that at the RV parks they stay in.  And they are not in California, or especially San Diego, which is really expensive.  I was surprised at the comments that this is expensive.   And happy - if you guys think this is expensive, then I probably will be paying less than I thought for future camp sites in other areas.  : )  What do you all think is reasonable for a night with full hookups?  I'm hoping to overnight free a lot by stealth camping and Wal-Mart, etc., but will occasionally stop at a park for a couple of days, or longer if I really like it and can afford it.

From Me and My Dog, have a nice Monday, everyone!  : )