New curtains for The Palms!

This is a short post to show you my new curtains.  I have the regular accordion pleated shades that you grab from the bottom to pull down or push up.  When they are down, you can't see through them, and there are times I'd like a little more privacy without closing up shop and having no view at all.

I've been thinking about getting curtains lately, and when Hazel posted about Delores' new solar screening shades it started me thinking again.  While I was in San Diego, I checked Target, Walmart, Home Depot and finally Anna's Linens. 

Anna's Linens (click on this link if you don't have an Anna's nearby and want to check them out through amazon.com) was the only store I could find that had sheer window curtains short enough to work for The Palms and these were perfect.  They also had a lot in stock, so I was able to get exactly what I needed.

Because of the colors and all the palms in the motor home, I had to get a plain white sheer curtain, but they  had others.  The link above goes to another curtain that I originally bought for the kitchen. I loved it, but the colors and patten just didn't "go" with my palms, so I had to return it.

I think they look pretty good and I'm really happy with them.

Also, remember the Amaryllis bulb Hazel gave me in Quartzsite before Christmas?  It totally outgrew The Palms, and I gave it to my DIL, Trish, while in San Diego.  (Sorry Hazel, but it was SUPER TALL! and it hadn't even started to flower yet.  Hopefully it will be blooming when I travel back to San Diego in a few weeks.  I'll get a picture if it is.)

I loved having a green, living plant in The Palms, so while in San Diego I got a couple of smaller plants for the kitchen and dinette table.  I'm really enjoying them, too. 

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

We're visiting in Vacaville, CA :)

My last day in San Diego started out cold and foggy - this is the view out my window.  Just beautiful.

After visiting with my son and his family in Diego, I decided to travel north to visit with my daughter and her family in northern California.  Last time I traveled to Vacaville, there was snow on the Grapevine (Highway 5) and I had to take the coast route. I checked on-line and the road was clear this time, so I went up that way.  There was still some snow visible, but not much and it was really pretty.

While I'm here, for three or four weeks, I'll schedule my medical, dental and vision appointments which will be in San Diego.  Then when I travel south I'll take care of all those things and be free to head east to Arizona again.

It was a grueling 9 3/4 hour drive from San Diego to Vacaville. I used to make the drive in 7.5 to 8 hours in my car, not a bad drive, but with The Palms, it's just a longer drive.  California's rest stops don't allow overnight parking and their Walmarts aren't always as welcoming as other states I've traveled through, so that kind of leaves casinos for stop-overs.  Next time I'll check my casino listing and see if there are any about halfway to Kristy's house, but this time I just pushed through until I got there.

I was surprised at how bad the 5 freeway was; even before we got to Los Angeles, the 5 was in such bad shape that I actually had a cupboard open, a drawer open and spill contents on the floor, my computer fell into Katie's bed on the dinette seat, and a couple of other things.  I have things pretty well buttoned up by now when we're traveling and haven't had any problems like this in a long time, but those freeways were so bumpy, before, during and after Los Angeles, that I finally took an off ramp and pulled over to put things back where they belonged.  I think Katie was afraid to move for fear of something falling on her. 

You'd think that with all the taxes we Californians pay and the high price of gas here, some of the taxes would be spent keeping ALL of our roads in good repair.  I guess I'll go around The Palms with a screwdriver to make sure some of them having gotten loose during that trip.  I'm not looking forward to driving back along those roads, that's for sure!

I wanted to add a little warning to RVers on the road to watch out for the way some gas stations are posting their prices.

I pulled off the 5, I'm sorry I don't remember which off ramp it was and there was no identifying address on my receipt.  There were lots of gas stations, all with their prices posted.  I like Shell and their price was the same as some of the other lower ones, so I pulled in.  After filling the tank I checked my receipt to log the numbers, and found I had paid 20 cents more per gallon than the posted price.  I checked the big sign again, sure enough, it said $3.59 and I was charged $3.79 per gallon.

I went into the store and told the cashier I wanted my 20 cents per gallon back, because I wasn't charged the posted price.  She kind of snickered and said I'd have to contact the owner if I wanted to complain, but the posted prices WAS $3.79 - but only for cash.  When I went back out, I noticed the "cash" on the sign, but it's small enough that I never saw it, even when re-checking the sign after filling up.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, would you have noticed it?

I told her both prices should have been shown on that sign, and she said there IS a sign at the corner of the gas station that clearly shows both prices.  This is the sign, in the middle of the others signs - the one with the very small numbers in black on a yellow background strip:

I had to walk closer to it to read it, and never even noticed it the entire time I was there before having it pointed out.  Which, I guess, is the idea.

I CALL THIS A BAIT AND SWITCH - AND TOLD THE CASHIER I WAS GOING TO PUT THIS IN MY BLOG TO WARN OTHER RV'ERS.   She couldn't have cared less.  So, be warned, check to make sure you are paying the CREDIT price if you are using a credit card, which I always do in order to track the expense.

Anyway, we're here, parked in the street with an electrical cord hooked up to Kristy and Matt's garage, so we have electricity.  It's been really cold, so I've been going out early in the evening and turning on a space heater so it's warmer when Katie and I return for the rest of the evening, and then to sleep.

On the evening of the 19th, when I had gone to The Palms for the evening, there was a knock at the door, and this is what I found when I opened the door - Drew had just lost his first tooth.

It was pretty wiggly for a few days and was bothering him when he ate, and now it's gone.  I think he looks pretty darn handsome without his bottom tooth!!  The Tooth Fairy left him $5, which he was pretty happy about!  :)

Friday we had a ladies day wine-tasting. Kristy and I went with one of her friends, Deanna, and her sister-in-law, Alison, and mother-in-law, Marie, up to the wine country in Amador County.  Allison and her husband belong to a wine club at one of the wineries that has a free lunch every Friday, so we went with her to have lunch and taste some wines at other wineries, too.  The lunch was delicious - this photo was from Villa Toscano's website.  It was a beautiful day and we had our lunch outside - right where the umbrella is in the photo.

We had tastings at four other wineries.  I think I've re-acquired a taste for red wines, some of the reds I tasted were very good. I know a glass of red wine in the evening is good for us, but I've been enjoying white wines more for quite a while.  I'm going to go back to reds, I think.

It was a really nice day, but boy were we tired when we got home. I went back to The Palms at 7 and was in bed by 8.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos, but it is really beautiful country.

WELCOME to our newest followers:

Gay and Joe, who are traveling with four - yes that's four - dogs, and have completed their first year as full-timers.  You guys must take a lot of walks!!  Check out their blog, good-times-rollin,

Jo, who is married to Rick, has a blog entitled Rick and JoAnne's RV Travels. There is one scary photo of their motor home in 2000 - it's on January 14's post - you have to see this.  Unfortunately the blog doesn't go back to 2000, so I guess we'll never know how that happened!

Katie and I are happy to have you all following along with us - Welcome Aboard!  :)

And that's about it for now. I have new curtains in The Palms - they look pretty good and I'll post photos next time.

From Me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

Happy New Year from San Diego!

It seems I'm staying much longer in San Diego than originally planned.  I  was going to be here from Christmas Eve until New Year's Eve, but we're still hanging around.  Not a lot to blog about and I've been very lazy, but I've kept up with all your posts each day so I haven't missed a thing. I've enjoyed spending time with my family and having the grandkids on overnights in The Palms.  I've taken a bit of a break from posting and carrying my camera everywhere, and have enjoyed my mini-vacation here in San Diego.

We parked across the street from my son's new house for a week so that we could visit when all the family was there and still sleep in the motorhome and have the grand kiddles over for the night.  We then moved The Palms to his old house, which is empty right now, waiting for escrow to close and the new buyers to move in.   So now we have a gorgeous yard with lawn, palm trees, flowers, etc. right out our windows, a car to use and stores nearby.  And electric hookups, too.  That's what I call comfort!

What a great campsite - Tom and Trish's old house

I've had a few overnights with my grandchildren, even the 3-year old for the first time, who was quite talkative during the night.  I finally had to tell him to go to sleep, and he did.  I was afraid he'd be scared without his mom and dad, but he did fine with me and Katie and Gavin, his 8 year old brother.

Big brother Gavin and sleeping Graydin watching movies at Grammy's

I've gotten a lot of things done while we've been here.  Today I met my son for lunch at his office, and got to visit with the women I worked with for three years while I was there.  It was really nice to see them, and also to meet Tom's new personal assistant. 

Sunday he and Trish are taking me out for breakfast for my birthday.  The plan is to head back to Hot Springs LTVA early next week, hopefully after the winds and cold weather are gone.

In the middle of their move to the new house, Tom and Trish had Tom's dad visit the week before I arrived, then while I was there my daughter and her family arrived, as well as Trish's friend's dog, Lola who they took care of for a week.  Lola is a very large dog with a great personality. She was so easy to get along with, except for Katie, who wanted nothing to do with her and let her know it anytime she got close.  Poor thing.

Tom and Trish have a lot of patience - can you imagine moving into a new house during Christmas AND having family and an extra dog or two?  While you both work???  Somehow it all went like clockwork and everyone had a great time and some great meals. :)

Lola and Trish on Christmas morning.

I've taken some photos during the past couple of weeks, here are a few of them.

Graydin, Drew, Gavin, Kennedy, Lauren at The Palms for a movie. Those are their popcorn bowls on their heads. :)

 

 

 

Drew and Lauren having popcorn at Grammy's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drew and Lauren over-nighting at Grammy's

Gavin and Drew loved their new books. They are both great readers.

Cousins just hanging out.

Kristy, Lauren, Gavin, Drew, Graydin, Kennedy, Tom at lunch with Grammy

Son-in-law Matt with Katie

Katie's new Squeaky Duck toy

As I was leaving Tom's house one day, we saw this beautiful bird on his lawn - we watched it for a while and Tom got his camera out of the car.  These are two of the photos he e-mailed me. I'd never seen a bird that looked like this.  We called him the Bandit Bird:

Common Yellowthroat

Common Yellowthroat

WELCOME to our two newest Followers:

Encourage One Another, who has a non-RVing blog, but the posts are interesting - check it out.  He/She has over 5,000 Followers - WOW!  Thanks for following along with me and Katie, I appreciate it!

JoanneG, who says in her profile info, "Looking forward to half-timing in our Roadtrek! Still working full time but getting out to the wilds as often as possible!"  Sounds like you have a good plan, there, Joanne.  Do you have a blog?  If so, let me know so I can check it out.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

Merry Christmas 2012!

Merry Christmas to all our readers.  Katie and I are happily visiting family in San Diego and hope you are with people you love over the holidays, too.

Here is my Christmas Card - from me to you:

  Here's the beautiful Christmas tree in the new house - it was partially up when I got here, and the grand kids and I finished it while presents were being wrapped in another room.  Shhhhh.

Gavin wrote the letter to Santa, and he replied.

And here is Katie's Christmas Card - from Katie to your pets:

We hope Santa was good to you, and that you have a joyous Christmas Day. :)

Hot Springs LTVA for a one-night stopover

Last night we had a little lighted VW parade through our campground.  This was the second parade, there was also one a couple of nights ago.  Both times I was already buttoned up for the night.  The first time, I heard all this honking outside and when it didn't stop, I thought there might be an emergency, so finally raised my shades and took off the window coverings I put up when it's really cold overnight.  And here they came - it was super fun to watch them drive through. I got my camera out, but not in time.

Then last night when I heard honking again, I grabbed my camera and raised the shades fast, and got a "kind of good" photo.  They looked great!  I should have run outside and asked them to stop for pictures.  :)

Katie and I left Imperial Dam LTVA this morning, took care of water and tanks and then drove to Yuma to the Walmart.  We drove the back way; I hadn't been on these roads before, and it was really scenic.  Next time I'll take the freeway, much better roads, but this wasn't too bad.  Lots of farming and beautiful fields being watered in the warm sunshine, with large stands of palms along the way.

I've seen nurseries in San Diego County with huge palms for sale.  I wondered if these were for sale:

And then I saw this business:

So I guess all the mini-forests of palms are here for the dates.  If it was later in the day or warmer outside I would have stopped for a date milkshake - they are delicious and were sold at some of the businesses I passed. 

As we neared the freeway, I saw all these birds just hanging out on this structure over a canal and all the wires:

And the Cormorants (thanks heyduke50 and Karen, I originally wrote "vultures") - I was a good distance away, so this is as close as I could get, but there were probably 30 total hanging out on these wires:

I love birds-on-a-wire shots.  :)

And so on to Walmart.  I was out of so many things and doubled up on some items that I have trouble finding when I'm not near a Walmart.  $250 later, OUCH!, we were on our way to Hot Springs, which is right off Highway 8 West on the way to San Diego.  We are only here for one night, and will drive on tomorrow to my son and DIL's new house.  I can't wait to see everyone and the house, too!

Along the way we passed Imperial Dunes, which must be a wonderland for people with dune buggies and ATVs.  Here's the best shot I took along the way, look at all the tracks.  Some of the large dunes had tracks going straight up to the top of very tall, steep dunes, and, I assume, over the other side and down.

Some of the dunes off in the distance with the canal along the freeway:

And an hour later we were on the bridge - which has been repaired - going into the Hot Springs LTVA.

Last time I was here was after leaving Santee Lakes RV Park where I stayed for a month. I was recovering from major surgery, and was just getting back on the road.  I drove here to find the bridge out and a difficult washboard road along the canal to get in and out of the campground. There is only trash pick-up here, no dump or water, so you have to drive into Holtville, a town close by, to dump grey and black tanks and get fresh water.  I wasn't very excited about driving those canal roads in and out, so when it was time to get more water, I just drove out and continued on to Quartzsite.

This time the bridge has been repaired and that makes such a big difference, plus the fact that I'm healthy again.

Katie and I walked down to the Hot Springs after we got a campsite, and walked all over the place.  I wasn't able to to that last time. I did walk to the springs once, but it was too far in my condition. Today it was a breeze, and we continued on walking.

Katie made some new friends, or enemies, I don't know which.  Three tiny Chihuahuas, one was 2, one 6 like Katie, and one was 16.

The older dog got too close to Katie and Katie went after her.

Poor old dog, she wasn't doing anything wrong, but there was too much going on and she was just a little too close.  Katie would never bite, but she snaps, growls, barks and jumps at the dog, all at once it seems, and then it's over.  The few times she's done this, the other dog has always backed off.   You can see the poor little dog running away and Katie  kicking up some dust.
 

Nice way to make friends.  Here I am talking about how nice it is that the dogs all get along, snapping away at them taking lots of pictures, and suddenly there's an "issue."  

We continued on our walk - and I saw something weird on the side of the road between the RVs.  I walked up to it and a woman came by and told me it is a large bee's nest that was under a tree near her rig where they had put a box that they use as a step from last season. People put things under the tree when they leave because it's large and overhangs to the ground, with a nice hiding place inside where it's pretty sheltered from the weather. When she took out the box after they arrived this season, she was attacked by bees and dropped the box.  It flipped over and that's when she saw the hive inside. She was stung about 25 times, as was her husband.  Both were stung on the face and head.

The camp hosts roped off the area and put up a sign attached to the rope to keep people away.

An exterminator came out and killed the bees and dumped the hive on the side of the road where they can keep an eye on it. There were still bees flying around it, but most of the thousands of bees were dead, and the poison on the hive will kill the ones that were still around.  It must have been really awful for the woman and her husband.   And, of course, the bees.

I'll bet there was some good honey in these hives. They were lined up row after row in the box, each row covered with bees, and the inside rows filled with honey.

Quite an exciting day after a very quiet week at Imperial Dam.  Tomorrow we drive the hour or so to San Diego, actually Carlsbad is where Tom and Trish's new house is.  I'm sure looking forward to seeing everyone and having a week's visit with my kids and grand kids.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve.  From me and Katie, have a great Sunday evening, everyone!  :)