A Few More Days Here at Wilderness Lakes

I don't know how much I will get done on this if my computer loses stuff like it has done recently, but here goes.  
On Friday, the 7th, we reluctantly left Silent Valley to go to the Garden Grove Elks lodge for a three day visit.  It had been quite a long time so we had forgotten what a NIGHTMARE the 91 freeway is, and it's much worse on a Friday.  A drive that shouldn't have taken more than an hour took well over two hours!!!  The site that was reserved for us was too narrow to get into and put out our slides, so Larry asked us to take #18 along the wall next to Newhope St.  Unfortunately it didn't have working electricity, so we had to move, yet again to site #17.  In order for the electric to reach us, we had to partially impede entrance into site #1 in front of us.  Once we got in and leveled, we began setting everything up.  That process usually takes at least one hour or more, but we had Pastor Paul and Aiko coming over for lunch in LESS than an hour, so we hurried.  We were almost ready when they arrived.  Again I forgot to take pictures, but we had a very lovely visit and lunch together.  After they left we finished setting up.  
Then we began getting ready to go into the lodge for dinner and dancing with Sherrie & Ron Parker.  Sadly, the table that was requested to be "on the dance floor" was not that close to it.  It was also disappointing to see that the prices of the foods have gone up, but quality has not.  Sherrie had warned us and she had not been mistaken.  Service was fair, but certainly nothing to rave about.  We were disappointed by the band, which we used to like but now plays music we didn't really care for.  We all left well before 10 pm.............which never used to be the case for us.  We were happy to see a few old friends, but didn't know as many of the people there as we used to.  Such is the way of life as we get older.

 Saturday we had to go on a few errands, and were horrified by how bad the traffic had gotten, and how rude drivers in Orange County seem to be.  OMG we miss New Mexico, and the slower pace we enjoy there.  

On Sunday we went to church and it was wonderful to see so many of our beloved church family here.  We do miss seeing them more often, but we can't "do Orange County" too often.

On Monday we thought we could take our time packing up to head down here to Wilderness Lakes, however, around 8:30 a.m. Jim saw a familiar site.  On the second Monday of each month all the local school bus drivers meet at the lodge (we had forgotten about that!) and the parking lot started to rapidly fill up with school buses.  With little time to spare we packed up and were out of there by 9 am!

The drive down here was uneventful and we found a fairly nice 50 amp site that was a pull-through.  YAY.  By about noon we were pretty well set up.  Jim went down to check in at the ranger station and found out we had a couple packages to pick up.  Whoopee!  We have been using a paper towel holder in the bathroom to hold three rolls of toilet paper, and last week I found this online.  I just can't get enough owls around here!  😉
The other package was our new combination washer/spin dryer in one.  The ones I had before were separate, but we are very happy with this unit.  It is a little bigger than we had expected, but still good because we don't have to keep the spin dryer unit in the closet anymore.  LOL  My dryer has come out of the closet!!! Next we have a navy blue laundry bag coming, maybe today, that can stand next to the washer or hang from the tension rod we hang wet clothes on.  

Yesterday we had to go up to the Loma Linda VA to pick up some medications, so we made a little side trip to Camping World in Redlands.  Our tired, old, decrepit microwave has been dying over the last year or so.  It takes twice as long to heat anything up (and the dogs hate the long wait for me to warm their meals up).  We had been shopping around for a new microwave...........that could withstand the rigors of RV travel.  We ended up choosing a Dometic (made for RVs) combination microwave/convection oven that should fit the space of our old one perfectly.  Greg came over and took measurements as he will be building us a shelf for it to sit on AND installing it with LED lights below it to illuminate our stove top.  Pictures of  that should be in my next blog post.

Last but not least was a small project that Greg helped us with.  The year before last we had Greg take out the carpeting in the living room, dining room and the hallway back to the bedroom and install oak-like vinyl flooring.  We are very happy with the results except for one small thing.  The strip of carpet in front of the couch and dinette that is attached to the slide-out room hangs over and can get caught when the slide room comes in.  We found a carpet tape at Home Depot.  I was a little scared of cutting off the excess, so we got Greg to do it for us.  He and Jim did it and attached the carpet tape over the edge and secured it to the top and the bottom of the carpet so it won't fray.

It's not easy to see but at the top of the picture is the front of the couch.  The light colored strip is the tape on the edge of the carpet.  In front is the oak like vinyl flooring, and the small item on the left is the edge of the area rug that is under Jim's recliner....the rug with the lighthouses and sailboats on it.

Here is an older picture of Millie that shows a little more of that area rug. As you can see, we used to tuck the edge of it under the carpet edge that is now no longer there.  We think it looks much better now!!!


While we were in Wal-Mart this week I was forced to realize it was more than time to replace my July 4th owl towels on the front of the oven door............so we got these.  I guess after Thanksgiving we will HAVE to get Christmas owl towels next!

I'm not sure if I posted this picture before, so please forgive me if you've seen it already.  The handle area on the door to leave our motorhome is all black so often visitors can't see where to take hold to open the door............so I did the ONLY thing I could do to help them find the door handle.

  I guess the message here is "Owl show you the way to go home."

I haven't talked about the vertigo in a while, because we do believe God has showed us the way and given us the means to cure it.  It has been over two weeks since I have had to deal with the terrible, debilitating dizziness.  Thank you God.  I was even able to dance as much as we wanted to the night we were at the Elks lodge!  My feet gave out but I wasn't dizzy.  The truth is that I still get occasional brief episodes of dizziness, but we know how to deal with it.  Although vertigo is a very unpleasant thing to experience, maybe God wants me to remember that millions of people in this world suffer with much worse afflictions than vertigo.  It's very easy to feel sorry for yourself and say "why me?"  But it's a little harder to put it in perspective and realize that despite whatever we might have to cope with, most of us are much more fortunate, and yes, I do mean Blessed, than so many other people in the world, even in our own cities. Despite the affluence of many, there are many MORE people who go to bed hungry every night.  Despite the pain some of us live with, many others live with far worse pain than we can imagine.  Despite most of us not having the money for things we would love to have (and maybe think we really NEED to have) there are so many people living lives of abject poverty without any roof over their heads at night.  Millions of people right now are without electricity or clean water because of hurricanes and typhoons and fires both here and in other countries.  

In places with colder climates than here in southern California, winter is fast approaching, and some people may die from cold and exposure during the winter.  Please think about what you might be able to do to help at least one person to have a better future this year.  Maybe you can donate food to a homeless shelter, or your time to help feed the homeless.  Maybe you can donate warm blankets to homeless shelters or animal shelters.  Maybe you can invite someone less fortunate than yourself to share a meal in your home.  Remember to do unto others as you would want them to do unto you.  I hope you will ask yourself "What would Jesus do?" and try to act accordingly.  

Have a grand day and spread a little love around!

Good News

We are still up at Silent Valley and having a grand time.  Somehow I just lost everything I had written, so I will try again.  

I'm sure you know that I have been through a nightmare-ish time with vertigo for two and a half months.  The wonderful people at the Hill Top church here at the park prayed for me to have this vertigo taken away, and God healed me.  I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is to KNOW that God healed me.  He loves me, and also each of you.  He wants to take care of us if we just ask Him to.  I always tell you to pray daily, and really talk to God.  We all need to have a real relationship with our Heavenly Father.  There is only one God, and He is an all-knowing, merciful God.  Please take time each day to ask Him to show you the way, and He will because He loves you.
We have been able to spend a lot of time with our dear friends Diane and Jim Hubert.  Again, I must praise God for the chance meeting that lead to this wonderful friendship. Her Jim works in the adult snack bar five days a week, but on his days off we get to do things together.  One week we went to see a movie called Crazy Rich Asians.  It was a good movie, but my Jim called it a "chick flick".  When her Jim is working, Diane often comes here and we have fun playing games and talking.  I will really miss her while we are away from here, but I will talk about that later.

 The first night that Natalie said I could sleep back in my own bed, instead of sitting upright on the couch, Diane sent me this cute picture.  I loved it.

These are some owls Diane got for me.  On the left is a purple glitter owl with eyes that light up. The copper colored ones are about as pretty as any owls could be.  The gray one in the center she gave me for my birthday.  It is beautiful and regal looking.   

 This glitter covered owl is about 12 to 15 inches tall and has the most adorable eyes.  He is another owl that Diane gave me.  I can't believe how cute he is! 


While we have been here, we have made some small improvements on the motorhome.  The first one was under the kitchen sink.  The storage space was limited, and we had things stacked on top of other things.  It may not seem like a big deal, except we always needed something in the back and had to take everything else out to get to the item we needed.  
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The cabinet had a raised floor that we decided to remove.  There was a perfectly good tile floor below which gave us an additional six inches of height for storage.  We purchased a chrome shelf with a basket on the bottom to keep things from falling over.  We added an open front storage bin on top of the shelf to hold smaller items.  It has worked out very well.

Our next project was in the bedroom.  There was a vanity with a bench across from the foot of the bed.  We NEVER used it as a vanity.  We tried to store things under and on top of the bench.  It was really a poor usage of the space, but we kept doing it.  Last week I gave the bench to Diane and purchased a shelving unit that was sold as a shoe rack.  We got four covered storage boxes to be on the shelves.  Now Jim has a place for his shoes AND some space for several of his tee shirts that were overflowing from his drawers.  
YAY!!!  It also sits back three inches farther than the bench did so we have a little more room to walk past the foot of the bed.  All good.


Last, but not least was the storage ottoman for the living room.  Whenever we have a guest stay over night we have to open out the couch to make a bed.  However, it's not long enough for a person to be comfortable.  We bought the ottoman to extend the length, and put an air mattress to lay on top of the couch and ottoman to make a full size bed.  Here's Millie, she has taken over the ottoman as her personal seating space, but I have told her she will have to share it when we have an overnight guest.  LOL.  

We stopped at Ray's RV in Banning when Jim had to pick up a part for the coach.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of these cute campers.

I couldn't live in anything that small, but they are cute!  We even saw a tiny teardrop trailer for sale up here yesterday.  The inside is only a bed, and the back opens up to reveal a tiny kitchen, cute but not practical.  We older folks NEED a bathroom close by, and at night, I do NOT want to have to go outside to find a campground restroom!  

It's time to sign off for today.  I wish everyone a grand day and a wonderful week ahead filled with many blessings.  Life is a gift, but the next life will be heavenly, if you have truly let Jesus into your heart and into your daily life.  Please realize that being a Christian is not just about going to church on Sunday.  It's about the life you live.  If Jesus is the center of your life, He will help you to make better decisions and have a better life.  

When we leave here on Friday we are going to the Garden Grove Elks lodge for three days.  We are looking forward to seeing Joan & Jim, Ron & Sherrie and Cindy as well as going to see our church family including Pastor Paul and his lovely wife Aiko.  Then we will be at Wilderness Lakes for 16 days before coming back here for 30 days.  Bye for now.  Love and prayers to all of you.