Good afternoon Everyone,
I'm sorry it has been so long since I have written, but there never seems to be enough hours in the day for all I plan to do each day.
First I would like to ask everyone to send prayers to the victims and families of the terror attacks in Brussels last week. It just seems to get worse and worse. I pray that someone will put an end to all of these awful deeds.
We didn't get to go to the Annenberg Retreat while we were in Palm Desert because it is only open on Thursdays through Sundays, and we just couldn't rearrange our schedule to allow us time to go on those days.
Thursday was, of course St. Patrick's day, and we had invited Judy and Frank over for a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner, with all the fixin's. Jim made his wonderful Irish soda bread, and it was awesome!!!! Judy is, if I didn't already say so, a vegetarian, so I planned on making extra side dishes to allow for her not eating the beef, but she said not to bother because the bread smelled so good she'd just have an extra slice. I made the dinner of corned beef, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and celery in our Ninja 3:1 cooker. I cooked her some cabbage by itself, and she enjoyed that too. I also made salad, and a lovely green cake with chocolate frosting. We had a wonderful evening together.
This is Judy & Frank's Roadtrek van camper. They have it fixed up really nice inside.
The next day, being Friday, the park has an arts and crafts sale at which campers can sell goods. We had a table and tried, without much success, to sell our magnetic jewelry. Unfortunately there were two other campers who were also selling magnetic jewelry. Better luck next time!
Saturday, we had to do some shopping, and on the way home we saw a warning image on the dash of the car that indicated low pressure in one of the car's tires. Jim discovered that one tire had a leaking valve stem, and he spent a while trying to find someplace we could take it for the repair. We ended up having to take it into a shop on Sunday morning. Despite it being beastly hot, Jim unloaded the back of the car and got out the stupid little "donut" spare tire and put it on the car, so we could drive to the repair shop. When we got home, Jim wanted to go out and put everything back in place, but I asked him to wait until it cooled off more. By the time it cooled down enough, the shop had closed, and Jim discovered that when they repaired and put the regular tire on the car, they did NOT put our spare back into the car! Monday morning I had to call to make sure it had not been thrown out, and then we went and picked it up. More running around!
This is one of the cute campers we saw while at Palm Desert. Not big enough for us, but still cute.
This was the set up of an elderly couple we met while we were there. She was wheel chair bound, and he did everything for here. What amazing people they were!
Not all the people who come here leave after two weeks, like we do. These people must be staying for the whole season, until the park closes on May 15th.
Here's another beautiful Palm Desert sunset! The windstorms and the blowing sand can be awful at times, but I can still appreciate the beauty of the desert!
We spent much of Monday getting packed up to travel on Tuesday, and left by 9:15 am to come back to Wilderness Lakes. Jim did an amazing job driving the RV through terribly high winds coming back on I-10. We got into a nice big 50 amp site, and got hooked up, and set everything else up..................and then we tried to set up the satellite TV. It went all wrong for the longest time. Finally Jim took the portable dish out behind the RV and voila! we had great reception. This was the ONLY 50 amp site open that day, so we were really grateful when we finally were able to get a signal.
Later that day, my very dear friend Joan called from Orange county and wanted to know if we would like a visit the next day. We were delighted and said we would love to see her.
We got up early and set to work putting up the screen room. OMG what a nightmare that turned out to be. It had been well over a year since we had attempted this, and things did not go well! Eventually we did get it up, but the entire front panel needs to be replaced. I can't go into all the details, but the part that goes through the slot in the awning rail is badly frayed, and when we tried to tape it, then it didn't want to fit inside the track. Also one of the door zippers is no longer any good. We have colored clips holding that side shut and the zipper on the outer edge of the screen door. Once it is all up, we are very happy with it, but OMG it was rough getting it up!
Thursday morning Jim went to see if he is eligible to use the VA for his medical care, and, YAY he is, so that will save us a lot of money from now on. While we were there, one of the employees was admiring my magnetic necklace, and she placed an order for one. YAY again. After that, we shopped for our Easter groceries and then came back home.
Friday we ended up doing laundry, and I made a nice pork roast for dinner. Yesterday we tried again to sell the magnetic jewelry here at this park. We had a LOT of people come over and ask about them, but sales were still really poor. I don't know how I'll ever pay Mary back for all these supplies if the sales don't improve, but we'll keep trying.
Today we drove out to Garden Grove for Easter church service with our wonderful church family. It was great seeing everyone again, as we haven't been there since the Sunday before Christmas. We took the dogs with us, and we had them both in harnesses and seat belted for safety. About half way there, Millie came walking up front, without her harness on!!! We have NO idea how she got out of it, since it was still fastened, but not on her. We parked under the shade of a nice big tree, and left the windows down enough to keep them nice and cool. The drive out was nice, but traffic was awfully bad on the way back. Soooooo glad to be home again!!!
That's all for now. Happy Easter, and have a wonderful week everyone! Keep the shiny side up, and enjoy life.
Hi Everybody,
It's nearly the middle of March already and we are looking forward to St. Patrick's Day soon. It's good to be Irish! We had a great drive out here, with no high wind problems and just about perfect weather all the way. I was surprised to see as much snow as I saw up in the mountains when we drove east on I-10. I'm happy for the skiers, and even happier that we weren't in it.
We found a really nice site, not the one we had last time, but still great. At first we couldn't get a signal for the satellite, but we waited a bit, and all of a sudden, it said acquiring signal, and we were all set. We have enough space to put our awning out, but in the afternoon, we have to pull it in because of the high winds. The ground wasn't level enough to put out the screen room, but we plan to do that when we get back to Wilderness Lakes on the 22nd. Today we had a bit of a sand storm.
Jim had to go out this morning and sweep the sand off the car and the front of the RV. Since then it has been better here.
We got here on Tuesday and Mary brought over the magnetic beads and supplies for me. I was floored when she told me the cost, so I have got to get busy making and selling these bracelets. On top of that, Jim was having some trouble with dizziness and his blood pressure was way out of whack. After learning to make a single strand bracelet, I made him a four strand bracelet that he has been wearing since Wednesday. He started showing improvement the next day. Thursday night I remembered that Mary had said wearing a magnetic necklace has relieved her of a headache one time, and since I was experiencing one, I put one on for no more than 45 minutes, and the headache was gone. Last but not least, Friday night I was experiencing restless leg syndrome, which I have from time to time. I was walking the floor with leg spasms. I sat down and made myself a single strand anklet, and ended up sleeping through the night! Now I've been told that I cannot make any claims of medical benefits from these magnets, so I won't promise anyone else the same results if any of you want to purchase these items from me. I was told I must only say they are attractive costume jewelry, but if you find they do for you what they have done for us, they are much more. Also, we are no longer taking ANY medications for our arthritis pain. Here are pictures of these lovely bracelets.
This single is my ankle bracelet.
For most people, I would suggest the double strand like this one, unless you have really, really bad pain. I have already sold two double anklets to a man who has gout. He said he will most likely be encouraging relatives of his to order bracelets for their various types of pain.
This is my quad bracelet, and I have remarkable news to report on this one. Many years ago, a patient broke my left index finger, and I've been unable to bend it down more than half way. Much to my surprise, Thursday I discovered I can now bend it all the way to make a fist with no pain at all! Since I'm not supposed to make any medical claims about these magnets, I guess I'll have to say it is just a coincidence that after wearing the bracelet on my left wrist for several days, this finger has become flexible and pain-free. You decide for yourself. As for me, I think these bracelets and anklets and necklaces have helped US and maybe they can help you too. This the last time I will mention magnetic jewelry in my blog, so it will be up to you if anyone wants more information or to place an order.
Our newest friends, Judy & Frank went to see the Annenberg Retreat today, and she brought me a brochure about the place. It looks like a place we will want to visit, so my next blog will include news and pictures of this free attraction. We were invited to go with them, but declined as I have been under the weather with a cold for a few days. With a salt lamp beside me here on the table, and another in the bedroom, I know I will be as right as rain soon.
Happy Travels and blessings to all. Keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down. Enjoy America everyone!
Hi Folks,
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but we have been really busy. Now I'll try to bring you up-to-date. The day after we arrived, we attended one of the coffee and donut meetings with the park manager. We found out that among the things they want to put an end to is using the quilted foil window covers on any of the windows or front windshields. We had the foil on our front windshield, which I thought looked OK, but they think it looks bad. We went online and ordered a vinyl windshield cover from Camping World that is designed specifically for our make and model of motorhome. It got here in just a few days, and we really like it. It has a "one-way" screen so we can see out during the daytime, but people can't see in. However, at night we have to put up the attached cover because with it dark outside, and lights on inside, people can see everything in here.
In the daytime, you can also open the panels on the driver and passenger windows, but we have not done that yet.
The dogs love being able to see outside too. We also got covers for the mirrors and wiper blades too.
As many of you know, we have two tablets that we had not yet learned to use. About two weeks ago, we went to the Verizon store to find out when they would have a tech class we could attend. It turned out they had one, with two seats left, on Sunday, 2/28. Since we've been paying for the service every month, we jumped at the chance to take the two hour class. We learned a lot, but also found out we have SOOOOO much more to learn.
We also found out about Fitbits. They weren't actually trying to sell anything at the class, but someone asked questions about the Fitbit, so afterwards we asked more questions about them, and ended up getting one for each of us. We can now track our heart rates, steps taken each day, and even monitor our sleep each night. These have encouraged us to be more active. Yea! We are so competitive, and that's good. Later, we found out that the tablet Jim has been using (the one we got last year in March) is unable to support the Fitbit, so we ended up investing in a second new tablet for Jim to use. So if anyone would like to buy an Ellipsis 7 tablet, let me know. We also bought cases for the tablets, because it was kinda tacky to walk around carrying them in red cardboard boxes! All good. We have ended up going to the store eight times in the last six days! OMG.
Wednesday, we thought we were all done, when Jim spotted a box called HUM. He asked what it was, and when Jesse explained it, I said "we don't need that, we have Onstar." He asked me what it is costing us. It turned out we could save over $6.00/month, AND this offers even better service AND we don't have to BUY minutes every year from Onstar. After telling us all this can do, he told us that it is being offered right now for free......we'd only have to pay the sales tax on it, and they would wave the first month fee! I couldn't find a single reason not to sign up for it and did so immediately. I cancelled Onstar, and we are very happy with the new HUM in our car. It is much easier to use than Onstar, and sends auto health reports to my tablet daily. WOW!
On Tuesday we drove up to Yucaipa for lunch with Donna (my sister) and her husband George. Thanks again for lunch George. It was a lovely day and we had a great time. We had our lunch at Denny's. It was very nice, and our waitress was great.
We had planned to go birding with Almita & Rueben on Thursday, but Jim was not feeling well enough to go, so we had to pass this time. We are looking forward to doing this as soon as we can. I had hoped we could go next Monday, but it's supposed to rain on Sunday and Monday, so we will have to wait a little longer, but we will go, and post pictures when we do.
Last Saturday we were sitting outside, when a lady stopped to ask us about our Anser satellite dish for DirecTV. We got chatting with Judy and thus began another campground friendship. Yea. Later that day we stopped by their site and met Judy's husband Frank. They ended up coming over here Saturday night. We all went to a seminar the next afternoon at the Family Center on the subject of electrical and fire safety in the RV. They had to go to LA from Monday until Friday morning, for Frank's cardiac rehab, and just got back today.
They got home to find their electricity was not working. They ended up calling out the same guy we had called when we had the leak from our shower. They just called now and said Brad has their electric working again. Yay!!! It turned out to just be a GFI outlet that went out, and some switch was off, so thank God it wasn't anything major wrong. Judy asked Jim to come over and help them move some stuff so they could set up their bed, and he has gone over there now. They have a cute little 1994 (I think) Roadtrek van camper. Next time I'm over there, I'll take a picture of it to post.
Tomorrow morning the four of us are going to check out the Winchester Swapmeet. Our former neighbor, Ron told us about it last week. We've been coming here for YEARS, and never knew about it before. That's why it's so great to meet and chat with other campers. Who'd have thought a guy from Washington would tell us about a place near here that we'd never heard about???
I love to tell you about products we have found to work well and to be inexpensive. I have arthritis in my hands, wrists and more. Mary made me a 4 strand magnetic bracelet, and I've been wearing it on my right wrist, because that one seemed to be worse than my left wrist. I wasn't sure just how much it was helping, but I wore it anyway. Since that was on my right wrist, I put the Fitbit on my left wrist. Tuesday evening my left wrist and hand became VERY painful. It was so bad I couldn't move my fingers or thumb and it was just terrible. In desperation, I moved the Fitbit to my right wrist and put the magnetic bracelet on the left. Within 30 minutes, I could move my fingers, and flex my wrist with NO pain at all. I was amazed!!!! Mary is going to teach me how to make these bracelets, and I will be offering them for sale to anyone interested in purchasing them. If you are unaware of the health benefits of magnets and magnetic jewelry, you can do a Google search for information. As for me, I'm convinced and the first bracelet I make will be for Jim.
I think that's it for tonight, so I'll sign off, wishing everyone good health, happiness and safe travels.
This is Judy & Frank's Roadtrek van camper. They have it fixed up really nice inside.
Not all the people who come here leave after two weeks, like we do. These people must be staying for the whole season, until the park closes on May 15th. 
