Tuesday, January 17th - Day 47 - Last Full Day in Cathedral City

 It was a beautiful day here. Temperatures were a little on the low side but the sun was so brilliant that it felt warm. I took the selfie below mid morning. We were sitting with the sun on our backs. The temperature was in the high 50's. I was contemplating whether or not to take off my flannel shirt.

We did go out for lunch, to a Mexican restaurant that we had not tried. Kathy said her food was great. My Chimi was huge, but bland.

The high for the day was 61 degrees. In the afternoon we were outside again. It was warm enough that I was wearing shorts and took off my tee shirt for 20 minutes to get some sun. I got hot! I took a nap and Kathy went to the pool.

The plan for tomorrow is to drive 400 miles to Tucson. We plan on staying in Tucson 2 nights before heading to Anthony, NM (basically El Paso, TX), another 300 miles. We aren't sure if we will spend 1 or 2 nights in Anthony. Anthony is almost half way to Donna, TX, where we have reservations for a month. It is difficult for me to grasp that it is 1,500 miles from where we are to Donna, TX.

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

Monday, January 16th - More rain in the desert

 Officially we received 0.37" of rain overnight. The total for January is 0.79" so far. That's not a lot, and I guess it is about average, but it seems like a lot for the "desert". It sprinkled on and off during the morning. This afternoon we had some sun for awhile, then we had some fairly strong winds. The weather was still nice enough that there were a lot of people, including us, spending time sitting outside.

This morning I tracked down some distilled water. I had to go to a Target about a 25 minute drive from us. (The Target 10 minutes from us didn't have any.) I picked up 3 gallons. I didn't want to be a hoarder but I knew it was past time to add water to the coach house batteries. We had new ones installed in July so it had been 6 months. The plates were still covered in all 4 batteries but it took about 3 quarts of distilled water to get the water levels back up. I put a reminder in my  calendar to check them 4 months from now.

That was pretty much our day. I did stop at a Del Taco, on my way back from Target, to pick up 2 chicken tacos for Kathy and a fish taco for me. (I had eaten oatmeal and half a grapefruit for breakfast, Kathy doesn't eat breakfast so she is hungry by mid-morning.)

Tomorrow we pack up and get ready to head east, and then south, on Wednesday morning.

Yesterday I mentioned the Pastor's sermon was based on I John. One thing he pulled out of the first chapter and a few other scriptures, was that we have the light and we are to be light for those who don't. The point that stuck with me was that the important thing that others should see revealed by my "light" is that I care about them. I can do that because I've seen how Christ cares for me. My "light" might also reveal that I don't do some of the things I used to do, but that is less important. 

Hey Lydia, I miss you to!

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

Sunday, January 15th - Church & the Fair

 We went to the 9:00 service at NorthGate this morning. The Pastor started a series on I John. The church reminds me of Cumberland Fellowship in Crossville, a place Kathy and I love to attend when in Crossville.

We often see the windmills shown in the photo below. They are near the church. We have never seen any of them turning. I can't imagine how costly the electricity they produce must be, assuming they ever produce any.

We went to the early service so that we could check out the Street Fair at the College of the Desert. It was disappointing. It was big enough but I've never seen so many clothing booths, hat booths, multiple booths for watches and sunglasses, etc. We went because we heard they had some fresh fruit. There was one stand. It had a fair amount of items, but no citrus.

On our way home we stopped for an In N Out burger and began our quest for distilled water. I use it in my CPAP machine. Also, its past time to check to see if I need to add distilled water to the coach batteries. Kathy had looked at a grocery last week but it had none. I went to a CVS, we went to a Food 4 Less (Kroger) and I went to a Walgreens. None of them had distilled water. I checked online and found that Walmart did not have any. Is this the latest of the "new normal" shortages? Will we ever recover from the damage done by the government when it shut down all the businesses? How many future generations will have to pay for the shutdowns, and the massive debt incurred by all the free money that was printed and given away?

I think Jefferson nailed it when he said, "The government you elect is the government you deserve." What is sad it that future generations will have to pay the price for the damage caused by the government we put in office.

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

Friday & Saturday, January 13th & 14th -

 Friday - We didn't do much. Just enjoyed being where it is relatively warm. Kathy spent a LONG time enjoying one of the heated pools.

Saturday - Kathy had seen an ad for a Farmer's Market that was about a 15 minute drive from us. We left with  intentions of checking out the Farmer's Market and then heading back out to Sam Cobb's Date Farm to buy some more dates, and enjoy the scenery during the drive. 

For some reason there was no Farmer's Market today. No signs, just an empty parking lot, so it was on to Sam Cobb's. It was cloudy but the scenery was still very enjoyable.

The Mc Callum Trailhead into the Coachella Valley Preserve is an area similar to the photo below. Hiking only, no motorized vehicles are allowed. When we drove by the trailhead at 10AM there were 39 cars parked along the sides of the road, apparently all people who had headed off into the desert. 

This is kind of a high point, elevation, for the area. The area is called Sky Valley. There is a small subdivision and an RV resort that you don't even notice driving by. 

There are also some low income properties in the area, but they do have some high dollar views.

Below is a blow up  of the above photo. Notice the clouds that are trying get to this side of the mountain.

Enlarged more. It almost looked like someone had put down a mat of cotton on tope of the mountain.

We were back home by noon. Mike and Tillie, the  neighbors who are parked in the site next to us, and who are from Branson, MO, bought us lunch at the clubhouse. Bill, the guy who loaned me the handsaw when we first arrived, cooks hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch on Saturdays. I think the cost for for a big hot dog is $2 and a nice size hamburger is $3. They had macaroni salad for a side and lots of fixins to put on your hot dog or hamburger. Both the hot dogs and the hamburgers were good. It started sprinkling just as we walked over to the clubhouse, it hasn't stopped. My Weatherbug app says that after 11 hours we have received 0.33" of rain. If anything I'd guess that was high.

We set outside, under our awning, for awhile during the afternoon but with the rain/damp it was a little cool. We both ended up coming in and taking naps.

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

Thursday, January 12th - Coach washing

 The couple next door had someone come and wash and wax their RV this morning. Ours needed washed but I've been putting off doing it. It is dumb to put it off because this campground lets you use their water to wash vehicles and the water is relatively soft. Many campground don't allow it.

The guys who are working on our steps came around noon. They had installed the motor and controller yesterday while we were gone. They  knew we wouldn't be here but wanted to get it done. They came back today while we were here and they could open and close doors to check out the step operation. All seems to be in order.

In the afternoon I washed the coach. I still have to do the wheels and will probably have to wash the windows again, but the coach is clean.

It was cool today, last night it got down to 44 and todays high was a partly cloudy 72. It didn't seem that warm but that might have been because I got quite wet while washing the coach. Even though it felt cool we sat outside a fair amount.

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

Wednesday - January 11th - Day 41 - AWESOME DAY!!!

 Today we rode the Palm Springs Tram. Praise God for the breathtaking beauty that He has provided for us.

To begin the day we were a little concerned about getting to the Tram. According to the news flooding had closed two of the streets we would travel to get to the Tram. We had only received a slight amount of rain at the campground but apparently rain up  in the mountains came down the "wash" and flooded streets.  The street closures did not impact us.

Tramway Road takes you from city streets up to the Tram parking areas, it is a little over 4 miles long. Most of Palm Springs is below elevation 500'. Valley Station, the beginning of the Tram is at elevations 2,643'. Mountain Station, at the top of the Tram, is at elevation 8,516'. We we started up Tramway Road the temperature was 64 degrees. It was in the mid 50's by the time we arrived at Valley Station and in the mid 30's when we arrived at Mountain Station.

Looking into the mountains from the beginning of Tramway Road.

Looking back down Tramway Road from our parking area. We parked in Area F. Areas A-E were closer to Valley Station. I think there were three more parking areas further from the Station. A trolley/bus ran continually so it was a short wait to get a ride to the Station.

I walked up a path to an observation area and took this photo of Valley Station. A Tram car is just entering the station. There are two separate sets of cables and two tram cars. When one is at Valley Station the other one is at Mountain Station. It takes 12 minutes to unload people, then load a new batch, and travel the 12,800' to the other end of the tramway.

Looking up the tramway from the observation deck. I think you will be able to see at least one of the five towers that support the tramway cables. All the material used, and the workers, to build the towers and Mountain Station were transported using helicopters, it took over 23,000 flights.

Then it was our turn to get on the Tram and head to the top of the mountain.

Looking back. Valley Station is down there somewhere.

This is looking down from Mountain Station. Valley Station is actually visible in the original photo.

One of the Mountain Station observation decks.

Not all of them were accessible.

Looking down on the city side.

Looking north from Mountain Station. When we were here 11 years ago, about this same time of year, I don't remember there being quite this much snow. At that time  walked down this path over a quarter mile. It is beautiful.

At the bottom of the photo below, the block with holes in it, is a suspended 61 ton block of concrete. The yellow arcs are section of idler pulleys. The cable that support and move the tram cars run through these pulleys and as the tram cars move up and down the tramway these move up and down to maintain a constant tension in the cables. The photo below shows them in the highest position I say.

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The track cables are tensioned by two 120 ton counterweights at the Valley Station.

Less than 10 minutes later the block had slowly moved up and down, but trending lower, until it had moved down 5 or 6 feet.

On the way  home we stopped at a Del Taco to try out their tacos. Drew recommended that we check them out. I hope we can fit in another meal at one of their places before we leave.

Back at the campground Kathy went for a swim and I went for a nice walk.

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

Monday & Tuesday, January 9th & 10th - Still in Cathedral City, CA

 Not much happening here. Yesterday was nice but I've been fighting a cold since Sunday afternoon. I felt poorly all day yesterday. PTL I felt much better when I woke up this morning. Still have some chest congestion but nothing like yesterday.

Kathy hit a few stores today; Aldi, Costco, Walgreens, etc. Nothing to exciting. I just stayed at the campground. I did get to help a lady set up her coach. Some other guys helped her get it parked and I helped hook up the utilities. Say a prayer for Adrian and her family. She and her husband are here from AZ. Their sons, and at least one daughter-in-law were in a sand buggy accident. The roll bar failed and one of the sons suffered severe head injuries. He is now awake, which is good news. The daughter-in-law had some type of injury to her carotid arteries. The other son suffered only minor injuries. Yesterday her husband was feeling bad and was admitted to a different hospital. While I was helping her hook up her utilities she was on the phone with him as they were preparing to take him to have his gall bladder removed. I'm not sure why they made her move her coach this morning. 

It was nice enough to sit outside today, for most of the mid-morning to mid-afternoon, they came wind and a little rain. The amount of rain we have received since coming here has been an eye opener. The total has probably been less than a half inch but, after all, this is the desert. Today it sprinkled two different times. The first time the sun was out and brilliant. The neighbor played golf this morning and said he could see a rainbow during most of his game.

Dave, the guy who is going to do our step repair called to say that he is having a rough time with the Service Contract people. I'm going to his garage in the morning so that we can both be there to call them and fine out the problem. The repair is covered under the contract but I suspect they don't like thinking about $750 for the parts. PTL for the Service Contract. 

In the afternoon we have tickets to ride the Tram up the mountain. We are looking forward to that.

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