Our Latest Visit to Garden Grove Elks

Hi Everyone,  
I have so much to share that I may divide this into two blog postings.  
Before we left I had to get a picture of this cute little vintage travel trailer.  Too cute!!!  There was another one that was black, silver & white, but they left before I got a picture of it.

Last Wednesday we finished getting rid of the things we didn't need, and began packing up to leave on Thursday.  We got on the road by 9:30 am for what SHOULD have been no more than a 90 minute drive.  However, we got bogged down where the I-15 goes into the California 91 freeway because of ongoing construction.........OMG.  Due to this delay, we didn't get to the Elks until almost noon!  Set up was not too bad since we didn't put anything outside except our extra refrigerator.  We had lunch inside the lodge, hot meatball sandwiches.......yummy.  We were so full that we didn't even need dinner that night.  Later we took the car to our service place, Imperial Auto, to try to find out why our low tire pressure light was staying on, even though all tires had sufficient air in them.  Turned out to be a defective sensor.  He didn't have one, but said we can get it at any auto parts place, and any tire shop can install and re-program it for us.  YAY.  We haven't done that yet, but will take care of it very soon.
I cleaned house (with my new Electrolux vacuum cleaner that is so awesome) on Friday morning, and answered some emails.  Friday afternoon we went to visit some dear friends, Irene & Don.  He is 93 years old and although she won't tell anyone her exact age, she had to be over 85.  They are amazing, and inspirational.

 They live in a place called Emerald Court.  She has an apartment in the Independent living section, and he is in the Assisted living area.  They are quite happy, but miss seeing all their friends at the Garden Grove Elks lodge.  We had a lovely visit, but had to leave when they went to play bingo!

Later Friday afternoon I got an email from the mortuary that had handled Jim's brother's cremation.  To make a long story short they had received a request for information from a woman who wanted to post an obituary notice in the Buffalo newspaper, but they wanted to check with me about it.  He gave me her phone number, and she turned out to be the daughter of the woman Norm had been engaged to, who was his one true love, Jeanette.  We had a wonderful conversation, albeit tearful at times.  She sent me a picture of Norm and Jeanette, which we will treasure always.  She told us things about Norm that we had never known.  We knew he was a fine person, but she shared more details about nice things he had done.  Norm was not one to brag so we didn't know how much help and love he had given to all of Jeanette's family, and how he stood by her to the very end of a terminal illness.  If I can figure out how to take that picture from the email and post it on my blog, I will include it in my next entry.

Friday night we went in the lodge for dinner and dancing.  The entertainer was a man named Jerry Benton, that we have known and loved for many years.  It was great to be there for his final performance before retirement. 
He's quite a guy.  He is 62 and is retiring to go to Kansas City, Kansas to take care of his 93 year old mother.  He has bought a house there, but intends to also buy a small motorhome so he can take her to see places she has always wanted to visit.  Because this was his farewell performance................the place was packed, and we got to see many people we had not seen in several years, as well as friends we see every time we come down to the lodge.
This is our friends Ron & Sherrie Parker.  They are great dancers, and good friends we like to get together with to play Mexican Train.  It seems like she always wins......but she said she lost last time.

 To the right is a picture of our friend Alice Salinas, who was Emblem Club president several times and did many wonderful things for the club.  With her is her hot new guy, Joe De La Luz, who is a past exalted ruler of the Elks lodge.  Don't they make a gorgeous couple?  She is really sweet too.  It has been several years since we saw her, so I was really delighted that we ran into them Friday night.

 This picture is of Vince & Patty.  I don't know their last name, but we've known them at the lodge for many years.  He must be about 90 by now, and I won't guess at her age, I'm too polite to.  LOL.  He used to sing with the band Breakaway, and everybody loved his version of "Margaritaville".  Until recently, they used to show up at the lodge on Saturday nights on their Harley "hog".  But they reluctantly gave that up and now have gotten a motorhome to travel around the country in.  We wished them many happy travels.

The picture on the right is our very dear friends "Big Fred" and Marla.  We met Fred many years ago when we joined a Good Sam club and went camping together every month.  I met Marla in the Emblem club.  For those of you who have been in our motorhome, she painted the picture of my beloved Yorkie, Mitzi on a piece of petrified wood that hangs in my living room, and also the beautiful lighthouse picture that hangs in our bedroom.  She also painted a wonderful picture of a standing Elk that hangs in the social area of the lodge.  It is really beautiful.  There were many others we were happy to see, but I don't have pictures of all of them.  We danced our feet off (hahahaha) and had a really nice evening there.

Saturday morning, my very dear friend Joan came over.  We had a really nice visit.  I have known Joan for about 35 years, and it is always great to see her.  She and her husband, Jim ran a board and care for many years.  Now they are retired and travel some in a small van camper.  She said they are considering moving out of their condo and I suggested that they might like to get a larger RV so they could travel more comfortably.  I also told her about Thousand Trails zone memberships, which would give them a chance to camp in Thousand Trails preserves over a 12 month period, to see if they want to become long term members.
Saturday night Sherrie & Ron came over for dinner.  She made a fantastic salad, and I made BBQ chicken.  Jim did French fries in his T-Fal Air fryer.  After dinner we played "Train" which Sherrie won.  It was another wonderful evening.

On Sunday we went to church and saw all of our dear friends of our church family.  That afternoon Marla & Fred came over to visit us at our RV.  She looked over several of Jim's drawings and said he shows real talent.  She encouraged him and gave him some tips to help him improve his art work.  I truly hope he will be inspired to do more drawings and paintings because I already knew he was good at it.

I'm going to close this blog now, and will write some more next week.  I'll report on our guests that came over on Monday, what we saw on Monday, our travels up here to Silent Valley, and what has been going on since we got here.  I'll probably write the next posting on Monday or Tuesday.

Stay well, stay warm, and stay happy.  Life is an adventure, so enjoy it, and savor every blessing God gives you.  As Walt Wille always wrote:  Keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down.