Life at Silent Valley

This has been a rather busy week.  As I mentioned before, Donna & George were here on Monday.  Tuesday was fairly quiet.  
 Wednesday I did three loads of laundry.  Thursday the park began to really fill up with folks who wanted to get in before July 4th.

Jim took this picture because I usually take the pictures (thus I avoid being IN the pictures) but he wanted one of me on the blog occasionally.  The second is, of course, one of my favorite subjects, resting up after a tough morning of barking at the new arrivals.   We now have a big 5th wheeler in front of us and a huge motorhome in the site behind us!   On Thursday we had Bennett up here to clean out the water heater and replace the anode rod.  Jim was going to do it himself, but he couldn't get the "nut" off it.  Bennett had a hard time with it, and he had a much larger wrench than anything Jim has.  He's not too expensive, and he always comes when we need him, and does a good job.  Sadly, he told Jim he will be moving to Arizona, but Jim didn't ask just when or where in AZ he is going.  We will surely miss him when he leaves here.
Yesterday we went down to Wilderness Lakes, by car, to visit Almita and Rueben.  

 If you look closely, you can see some of the beautiful new flooring they had Greg install this year.  We may have to have him do that for us too.  The rug is threadbare in places!

 She made a lovely lunch of chicken salad sandwiches on croissant rolls with grapes, olives and potato chips on the side.  Knowing what a choco-holic Jim is, she had chocolate cake AND chocolate ice cream for dessert!   Almita & Rueben are devoted bird watchers, so if possible, they try to get a site on or near one of the canals at Wilderness Lakes so they can watch the water birds.  Soon after we arrived, I got a chance to take these pictures.
 

Isn't he absolutely magnificent?  I loved the picture, on the right, of him fluffing his feathers!  We couldn't stay there as long as we would have liked to because we had left the furry kids up here in the motorhome.  They have an older dog who is deaf and cannot do much, and it would be unkind to bring our dogs there since they are so active and playful.  

We left BOTH air conditioners turned on, and left each of them TWO bowls of water, and left the window curtains closed so the sun would not be shining inside.  But I still worried because this place has had power outages more often than most.  When we got back here, I opened the door and was relieved to hear the air conditioners running!  The kids both came rushing up to greet us, and we took them outside for a comfort break.  Happily for us, neither one had an "accident" in the house while we were gone!

If you remember a few blogs ago, I had gotten Jim what I though was a nice lounge chair just before we left Arrey......the one Millie enjoyed sitting in.  It turned out not to be a good purchase.  A few days ago the whole front edge came apart!  Jim tried to repair it with white Duct tape, but it tore as soon as he sat in it.  This morning we drove down the hill and went to Camping World in San Bernardino.  Since it gets really hot around here really early, we left here a little after 7 am and got there by 8 am when they opened.  
We got another chair for Jim and matching fold up ottoman.  It swivels like many office chairs do.  He is pleased with it.....for now, but only time will tell if it was a good choice.  He got to sit in this one before Millie did, but she promptly laid claim to the gray ottoman!  
I had Jim take some pictures of the area to include in this posting.

This is a couple views as we drive down the hill to Banning.

 This is a shot of a local prison at the bottom of the hill.  We've been coming up here for many years and only found out about there being a prison there a year or two ago!  The KOA campground at the bottom of the hill is less than 1/2 mile from the prison.  I wonder if the campers who stay there know about it.

This sign along the road amuses me.  It means the road ahead has a lot of curves, but to me it looks like one is expected to drive up over the rocks.  LOL
 
When we got back to the park we were amazed at just how full it has become. 
And here is our home in our site.

This is a very large site, and has room for a guest to park his car behind ours.  If someone wanted to, they could tent camp on our site too.  We actually have two lovely shade trees on the street side of our site and many mature trees beyond our screen room.  Despite the trees, we were able to get a good satellite signal as soon as we got set up.  On the one hand, I wish we were closer to the store and the adult swimming pool, but those sites were all taken before we got here, and they aren't as large as this site is.  
If we were down in one of  those sites on the main road, we would be closer to "Puppy Paradise".

This cute dog park area is new since the last time we were up here last year.

Tony was planning to come up to visit on Monday, but he texted me today that he would like to come up tomorrow.  YAY!  It's been way too long since we've seen him, and we have a really nice surprise for him when he comes up.  Since he also reads this......I can't share the surprise until next time.  Sorry folks.  He wrote that he and his wonderful dog, Woody are going kayaking this afternoon.  Sounds like loads of fun!

To those that we told about using Tank Tech in our holding tanks, we will use up what we have of it, but then we are going to go back to using Happy Camper.  We just don't think Tank Tech is as good as Happy Camper was.  It seems like there is more odor with the new product.  Nope, don't need that, especially in the summer heat.

This year has been full of unexpected turns and changes of plans, but we feel each has presented more blessings than problems.  May I suggest that you keep your mind open to new ideas, and view changes as new opportunities?  As we continue along life's path, we are amazed with all that we can see and learn from our adventures.  More than one person has commented that when life is over, nobody ever says "I wish I had spent more time working", but many have said "I wish I had spent more time with loved ones" or that they wish they had taken advantage of more new opportunities.  However, if we wake up each morning, looking forward to all God has to offer us, maybe we won't have as many regrets when we get older.  This life is short, and without a doubt the next life WILL be glorious and wonderful, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy all there is to enjoy in this life first.  Call someone you have been meaning to talk to.  If there is someone you need to make amends with, why not do it today?  None of us know how many tomorrows we have, so don't waste any of your todays.  Life is a blessing from God, and He wants us to be blessed every day.  
Bye for now.  I've spent enough time today sitting here in front of my little computer.  We're going swimming this afternoon!  :o)