Saturday, December 31st - Sam Cobb Date Farm

 Some people look forward to a New Year's Eve celebration today, I looked forward to going back to Sam Cobb's Date Farm after 11 years.

It was cool (low 50's), damp (90+% humidity) and FOGGY this morning. Not at all what we expected to encounter in the desert.

Photos taken on the way to the date farm. I don't know if you will be able to pick it out of the photo but there are mountains that form a dark line between the fog on the ground and the cloudy sky.

Seeing the windmills, not turning, in the fog was almost eerie. At one location all we could see was the upper blade of a windmill sticking up through the fog. The base and generator section weren't that far away but they were totally obscured by the fog.

Kathy standing by some of the date palms. The bags protect the unpicked dates from birds and from any rain that might fall.

Unpicked dates on the ground. Kathy picked one up and ate it. She said it tasted as good as the ones we bought.

I'm not sure why the dates up in this tree weren't picked. They were kind of randomly spaced up in the tree.

Closer photo of the bags protecting the dates.

Their web site shows them planting 7 year old "seedlings" at another farm they now have. Mrs. Sam Cobb told us that it takes another 14 years for the tree to be mature.

They have hour long tours on Saturdays but neither Drew nor Kathy were interested in doing the tour. I may drive back there next Saturday, its only 20 miles, for one of tours.

We had a late lunch at an In N Out Burger, another thing on our list of things we wanted to be sure to repeat.

Below is the line of people waiting to order. Two efficient, and very pleasant, ladies were taking orders. It didn't take all that long before we had our food. I could see 15 people working behind the counter. One young woman spent the entire time we were there doing nothing but peeling the skins off onions. I didn't see here slice them, she just peeled them.  No one happened to be cutting potatoes into french fries while we were there today. Last time we were out here I watched a young man spend the entire time we were in the restaurant picking up one peeled potato after another, inserting it into a device that reminded me of a can crusher and pulling the handle to slice the potato into french fries ready to be cooked.

Kathy checked out a Food 4 Less grocery on the way back to the campground. I took a mile long walk and that was our day. Not totally, she warmed up some of the left over prime rib we had for supper last night. It was very good last night and just as good tonight.

I forgot to mention the earthquake. Drew texted us a 4:19AM, to send us a link to a USGS site that reported a 4.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred 70 miles from us, at 4:12AM. The text woke both of us, but we slept through the earthquake. He is a mile from us and said it woke him up.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Friday, December 30th - An Uneventful Day

 Another nice day here. Last nights low was in the low 50's and today's high was a partly cloudy 68. With the sun jeans and a tee shirt were comfortable in the afternoon.

I worked several hours this morning dividing my time between the console in the Ford Flex and gluing another one of our drawers. 

The latch for the "lid" on the console has always seemed loose, until it fell out a week or so ago. When I tried to put in back in place I learned that several of the plastic "lugs" that were supposed to hold it in place were broken. I also learn that the plastic receivers for two of the six screws that hold a plastic insert in the console lid had broken off. I didn't see a way to repair the latch but though I could glue some magnets at locations that would hold the lid closed, it didn't work. Plan B was some pieces of adhesive backed velcro, that seems to work. I mixed up some JB Weld epoxy putty and rebuilt receivers for the console lid screws, so far that seems to be working.

While I inside the Flex working on the console I also removed the glove compartment and changed the cabin air filter. It wasn't terribly dirty but since I had things apart I went over to a local auto parts store and got a new one.

The drawer was just another case of the staples that held the masonite bottom in place loosening over the years of use. This one wasn't nearly as bad as the one I fixed previously. I didn't take the drawer apart so that I could properly put glue in the "slot" in the drawer front, sides & back; I just added glue to the joint area hoping that it was enough to hold the drawer bottom in place so that it keeps the drawer square.

A late afternoon nap fit nicely into my schedule.

Looks like we are in for some cooler weather. Tonights and tomorrow nights low are forecast to be mid 50's, then overnight lows are forecast to drop into the mid 40's for the rest of the 10 day forecast. Highs will still be in the mid to high 60's.  

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Thursday, December 29th -

 Not much going on today, just an enjoyable day. Kathy folding "napkins" from a roll of paper towels.

This evening we had a great prime rib dinner at Doug's, they made it back home.

Wiley, Drew, Hicham/Hixam, Kathy & Doug.

A few days ago I received an email offer containing a great offer on some campgrounds in southwest Texas. We are pretty sure that we will head back east when we leave here and take advantage of one of them, preferably the one in Donna, TX.

God is good. I  pray that He blesses you and yours.

Tuesday & Wednesday, December 27th & 28th - Living Desert & Lowes

 Tuesday - Highlights were more nice weather, excellent pizza from place just down the street from the campground & the light show at the The Living Desert.

The clouds during the early afternoon were "feathery" looking.

3 hours later they changed to look foreboding. I think it was raining in the mountains when I took the 2 photos below. We got a small amount of rain overnight.

The light show at the Living Desert was interesting. Lots of people. It started at 6PM we old people are ready for bed by then, its already been dark for over an hour.

Wednesday -  When I tried to pull out the drawer containing our silverware it wouldn't come out. I thought something must be lodged so that it was hitting the frame. I got a fork out of the dishwasher and a plate out of the cupboard and proceeded fixing and eating eggs and Smokey Links for breakfast. After breakfast I played with the drawing some more, the playing included some serious pulling on the handle. I finally realized that it wasn't something in the drawer that was the problem, the bottom of the drawer had dropped and was wedging against the frame. It was easy to push the bottom up and remove the drawer.

After a trip to Lowe's for 2 bar clamps and some glue and I glued the bottom back in place and added some half inch quarter round to help hold it in place.

Clouds are interesting. I took the photo below while standing in the Lowe's parking lot. There were some clouds peaking over the mountains but the low ones in front were the most interesting. 

The drawer is back in the cabinet. We will reload it tomorrow afternoon, after the glue had 24 hours to dry/cure.

A couple of blocks from Lowe's, on a corner empty fields all around, was a guy selling Tamales. I couldn't resist. I bought a couple of pork ones for me and a chicken one for Kathy. Mine were great but hers was to hot for her. It will be interesting to see if I end up with food poisoning tomorrow 😀. If I don't I may make another trip for Tamales in a couple of days.

The highlight of campground activity today was a BIG bucket truck and wood chipper. They cut down a good sized dead tree. The campground maintenance guys were also doing a lot of tree trimming today. The campground needs it. If it had been done several years ago the stress on the trees would have been much less.

During my walk around the campground this afternoon I noticed: 3 plates from Canadian provinces, 2 from Washington, 1 from Wyoming, 1 from Idaho, 1 from Missouri (our neighbors who have a home near Branson), several from Arizona, 1 from Utah, and a lot from California.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. 

Monday, December 26th - Day 22 - Another Day in Paradise

 The overnight low was in the 50's and today's high was a sunny, low humidity 79 degrees. Shorts and a tee shirt were the attire of the day.

We just did some busy work this morning after a great breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits. Kathy had the gravy ready and the biscuits in the oven when I got up. After that it was doing "housekeeping". After coffee on the patio, and my daily scripture reading I dumped and flushed the black water tank. I also started some water/salt brining so that I could recharge our water softener tomorrow or the next day.

I called Sam Cobb, of Sam Cobb Date Farms, he answered the phone, to see if they were open for retail sales today. He told me that they are picking dates today, and I think the rest of the week. They will be open Saturday.

Kathy called to see if the Tram (https://pstramway.com/) was running. It was but was full up for today. Later in the week we may have to just go there and stand in line for "stand by" tickets. 

Drew picked us up and we went to Bongo Johnny's for lunch. The food was great, the wait not so much fun. We waited 15-20 minutes to get seated and when the waitress came she warned us that the kitchen was way behind. We waited 45-60 minutes for our food. The staff could not have worked any harder. Apparently they just didn't have enough kitchen help to keep up. My patty melt, a half pound, medium rare hamburger with swiss cheese and grilled onions, on rye, was great. Kathy and Drew had salads that were also great. My hamburger came on a plate that was almost to hot to touch. Kathy and Drews salads came on chilled plates.

Kathy & Drew heading to Bongo Johnny's.

Bongo Johnny's was on the upper level, there was another restaurant on the lower level. We were seated inside, but the outdoor patio was full. (We took first available).

On the way home we stopped at the big Ace hardware and bought a few things. Then we stopped at the Manhattan (a restaurant we had previously eaten at) and Kathy bought some of their desserts, to go. Sadly no macaroons today.

By the time we got back to the coach the sun was well behind the mountains. Being out in the fresh air all day, even though we aren't doing anything physically demanding, seems to flat wear us out. It was to late to take a nap but I'm guessing we will be in bed early.

My Old Testament reading for the day included Psalms 139:13-16 (New Living Translation) You (God) watched me (not a lump of tissue) as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. Comments in italics are mine.

This sure seems to indicate the personhood of a baby as he/she is being formed in the womb. Until someone shows me scripture that states something different I will continue to believe that a soul is bestowed at the point of conception.

PS. Hey Lydia, your parm pasta, carrots and sugar cookie plate looked great.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Saturday & Sunday, December 24th & 25th - Merry Christmas

 Saturday - Today was supposed to be the big day, when Andy, Kelsey, Lydia & Nolan arrived in Cathedral City, at 9:20PM. Sadly it didn't happen. Even with all the bad weather, and the frozen pipes in their home, they made it to Kansas City in plenty of time to catch their flight. After being told the flight was delayed, and sitting around, they were finally told that the flight was cancelled. During the next two days the closest airport to us that they could fly in to was 400 miles away. They gave up and drove back home.

Sunday - Santa at the neighbors, in his helicopter.

We spent the day at Drew's friend Doug's home. 

Looking down Doug's street. All of the homes in the subdivision are the same color, and a lot of them loo alike.

Doug's pool.

There is an 8' plus hedge around Doug's property. It is about 6' between Doug's house and his neighbor's, on the other side of the hedge.

Drew made us breakfast and Drew & Kathy made us a great late lunch.

The weather was beautiful again today. It was sunny and in the low 80's. Drew and I took a 1.6 mile walk around the subdivision after lunch. There are many fruit trees along the streets, many them were loaded with hundreds of ripe grapefruits. Drew picked this one.

We had hoped to have our entire family together for the holiday, We knew Doug and Anthony were going to make it from Indianapolis and weather prevented Kelsey & family from making it. All of us are safe and we all had a good holiday even though we weren't all together.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Thursday & Friday, December 22nd & 23rd - Enjoying the Weather

 Thursday - I was up early and watched the sun come up. 

And light up the hills.

The start of another great weather day in southern California.

Drew came over (in Doug Browning's car, Doug is out of town and letting Drew stay at his home, and use his stuff) and we went to Elmer's for breakfast. Great food. I took the photo below as we were leaving. We sat inside, it was still a little cool when we arrived.

Other than washing the outside of the coach windows, except for the windshield. I didn't get a lot accomplished.

In the evening the three of us went to another restaurant for supper, another good meal. (Not as good as I get when Kathy cooks, but good for restaurant food.😀)

Friday - After breakfast I made a first pass at washing the coach windshield, to get the bugs off and most of the road grime. I need to use softened water and go over the outside again. After that I can move to doing the inside of the windows.

I also adjusted the latch on one of the bay doors. It appears that latch adjustments will be an ongoing maintenance item. 

On my way back from putting trash in the dumpster I visited with a lady who was out walking. She and her husband have a home in Wyoming, but travel the south during the winter months. They had decided to sell their home last spring but she felt like they waited a couple of weeks to long before putting it on the market. With interest rates up she isn't sure whether it will sell now. The homes in her area are all on 20 acre acreages. They are going to be here two weeks and then go to Arizona.

While we were eating lunch we saw a truck and looong (35'?) travel trailer go by. For the next 15 minutes we heard the truck engine tempo change as the guy tried to get it backed into the site he had been assigned. We could see his truck completely blocking the roadway as we watched him walk back to the office. A few minutes after he returned to his truck multiple golf carts showed up. Eventually it was agreed that there was no way he could get his trailer off the road without major tree trimming. They assigned him another site and he drove away.

After lunch at home we drove over to Doug Browning's home and spent the afternoon with 

Drew and Kathy relaxing. 

Supper was cooking while they relaxed. We ate supper there and then headed home.

One downside of here is the time zone. Right now it feels like it should be 8 or 9 PM, its actually 6PM. The official sunset is at 4:42PM but since it sets behind the hills the perceived sunset is significantly earlier. It gets dark EARLY.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Tuesday & Wednesday, December 20th & 21st

 Tuesday

Monday we got checked in at the Palm Springs Oasis RV Resort with no problems. We then shoe horned our way into a spot that required tree trimming before we could get the coach off the street.

Once Kathy got backed in, I had walked to the site and had directed her into it, I opened the door and the steps would not deploy. The site is sloped. To get level required 2.25" of blocks under the front tires and 3.0" of blocks under the front jacks, so that they could raise the front of the coach enough to get level. The elevation of the bottom of the door is about waist high on Kathy. I set up our step ladder so that we could get in and out of the coach.

Photo taken Wednesday, after I got the steps deployed. The tree in front of our car is the one I trimmed.

Pile of branches from tree trimming.

The photo below shows the size of limbs I had to remove. When a neighbor across the street saw that I couldn't back into the site because of the branches he brought over a hand saw (I couldn't find the blades for my cordless recip saw). A neighbor behind us saw me up on the ladder with  the hand saw and came over with with his recip saw. Today (Wednesday) when we put out our main awning I had to do more trimming.. 

I spent a lot of Tuesday under the coach, the good news is that with the front jacked up so high I had plenty of room 😀. The rest of the day I was digging through manuals and trying to locate the fuse/s for the steps. After a half hour wait to talk to a Tech at Tiffin I learned the location of the correct fuse. I am amazed at what those guys seem to know off the top of their heads, and how customer service oriented they are.

Below is the fuse block at the front of the coach. There is another at the rear of the coach and another panel with both fuses and breakers inside the coach.

Wednesday - On our way to Aldi's, a 10 minute drive. Note the dust between us and the "mountains."

Don't know if the lighter sections in the photo below are bare rock or snow.

Definitely snow on top of this one.

The electrical panel at the "Resort". Don't they have Code people in CA? There are open slots for missing breakers.

Note the front tires of this Class C. They are at least 6" off the ground.

This Class A is up on 8 or 9 blocks that are 3/4" thick.

I have our coach front tires on 3 blocks, 2.25", and 4 blocks, 3.0", under the front jacks. If I had a lot more blocks I would have stacked 5 blocks high under both the front tires and the jacks. I can see no reason why the sites are graded so that the slabs slope this drastically. The units behind ours, that face the other way, also slope down to the street in front of them.

After returning from Aldi's I called Lippert and talked to a Tech about their steps. From some research I had done it appeared that I could cut the wires between the stop controller and the step motor and apply 12 volts directly to the motor, thus by-passing all the interlock features. He agreed that what I proposed would work. If I could deploy the steps in this manner I would know that the motor was good. It worked, I got the steps out. In order to get them back in I have to get back under the coach and apply 12 volts to a different wire. Since we are supposed to be here a month I hope I will have the problem solved before we leave.

Weather is beautiful. I think it was in the high 40's this morning but the sun warmed it up quickly. The high for the day was in the low 70's. The heated pool was almost to warm for me but Kathy was in it for quite some time. The water feels warm when you get in it, they also have an unheated pool and a jacuzzi. Getting out of the pool was a little cool, with the slight breeze. It wasn't bad, I sat on a chaise lounge for awhile and got a little sun, before heading back to the coach for a great 2 hour nap.

Drew, out son who lives in Oakland, made it to his friend's Condo, a mile from here, a little after 8 PM, after his 490 mile motorcycle ride down from Oakland. We are meeting him for breakfast at 8 AM. (His friend is out of town for the holidays.)

A couple across the street from us (the guy who loaned me a handsaw yesterday and a tree trimmer today) are from near Coeur d'Alene, ID. They spend the cold months here and the rest of the time in ID. They leave their 5th wheel unit here all year. The couple behind us left this morning for Phoenix, pulling a sand car/buggy behind their motorhome. They have a spot here for the season but are off to visit their son in Phoenix, and play in all the accessible federal land around Phoenix.

So far I can't imagine spending more than month here. It is just way to urban for me. I do like how warm the 70 degree sun feels. Our great-grandkids should LOVE the heated pool when they get here. They are scheduled to arrive late Saturday, assuming they can get out of Kansas City Saturday morning.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.

Sunday & Monday - December 18th & 19th - Phoenix Mystery Castle & Traveling

Sunday we toured Phoenix's Mystery Castle. It was very interesting. Below are about half of the photos I took. Read about it at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Castle 

The road into the parking lot is on the right. We didn't inquire about the mule wagon rides but others who did said that they were offering short rides or an hour long tour of the area.

Boyce Luther Gulley moved here, from Seattle, and built this place. He came to die in seclusion after being diagnosed with TB in the 30's. He was given 6 months to live. He died in 1945. 

Modern facilities available for tourers.  Mr. Gulley's daughter, and her mother, moved here after Mr. Gulley's death. She had indoor plumbing installed in the Castle in 1992. The castle contained 13 fireplaces. I saw no evidence of any central heating.

The bed in the photo below is

 the guest quarters, it is on rollers. It rolls out using the tracks embedded in the floor.

From the parking lot.

After a stop at for gas and groceries we headed home for the rest of the day.

Today we traveled from Phoenix to Cathedral City, CA, 265 miles. Traffic wasn't bad and pavement surface was mostly good. When we left Phoenix we were at elevation 1,100. After a series of ups and downs we hit a high elevation of 4,750'  (east of Tucson we had been up to 5,000'). Than, after more downs and up, we reached a low point of 30' below sea level. Cathedral City is about 330' above sea level.

We topped off with fuel in Quartzsite, AZ, about 20 miles from California. We paid $4.17/gal. We have seen fuel prices in CA from $5.39 to $6.19. 

Something quite foreign to us Midwesterners is the "inspection stations" at state lines, one between TX & NM and this one between AZ & CA. 

The dust was interesting. It looked clear as we were driving along but the dust clouds dimmed the "mountains" in a distance. Our noses detected dust infiltrating the coach, even with the heater set to recycle, but it was not terrible. There actually are two distant "mountain ranges" partially obscured by the dust.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.