Here is a better picture of the fire truck Silent Valley has to protect us in the event it would be needed.
It's been a beautiful week here, and we are enjoying it to the fullest, as you can see. Millie tolerates her sun glasses, but I don't think Willie would stand for them! She totally loves being outdoors. Poor Willie thinks he must be on guard duty, and never really relaxes outside.
I mentioned birds here, but I forgot to tell you that we also see many gray squirrels and bunnies here too. The squirrels are everywhere, and Millie thinks she can catch one. Yesterday she even tried to catch a robin.........who just looked at her and then flew up into a tree. We have seen some woodpeckers, but never when I had my camera ready, alas. I will keep trying to get a picture of one or more.
In my last post, I wrote about the drive up this mountain to get here. You drive from the level on I-10, eight miles up on Highway 243. It would be another 16 miles up to get to the lovely little town of Idyllwild, and I believe the elevation up there is probably over 7000 feet above sea level. We've gone up there by car a few times, and it is nice, but much cooler than here. There is a Thousand Trails RV Park up there, BUT there aren't a lot of sites that look level enough for an RV as big as ours. We've never camped there, but Sylvia & Steve used to go there occasionally, with their 27 foot travel trailer. Getting back to the drive to get here, you ONLY go up to an elevation of about 4100 feet, then drive down into Silent Valley, on Poppet Flats Rd one mile, to an elevation of about 3500 feet. If you don't have an over-powering fear of heights, it is a beautiful, and scenic trip, so we took some pictures the other day to include here.
We took this one on Wednesday, before coming back up, because you can see that there is still snow on some of the mountain tops around this area.
This was taken on the way down the hill on Friday, looking out over the area.
We thought this gives a good view , with the town of Banning waaaaaaay down below.
This shows how green it is up here in the spring time. Sadly, many years brush fires will destroy much of the hillsides around the area, but it grows back, thanks be to God. This also shows how the road winds back on itself as you go down the hill.
Here is a pass through some of the rocks along the roadway. They must have used many tons of dynamite to clear away the rocks to make this road!
Speaking of rocks, this road does have areas noted as rock slide areas! Sure hope that never happens, but some large rocks really look like they are just barely balancing there. We would not want to be on that road if an earthquake happens!
Then finally you make it down to the town, and level roads again. The first time we went up there, I swore "never, ever again". But I'm so glad we didn't listen to me. This area is soooo very worth the drive, and the drive has become more of a pleasure than a danger. Highway 243 is also called the Idyllwild-Banning Scenic Byway, and it truly is a beautiful drive. Wild flowers bloom in many areas too. One should have good tires and brakes, and if there is snow, I believe chains are required on the road, but we just don't come up here when that is the case.
Since it is Sunday, I guess I feel like I want to give some praise today. Many of you have heard me say I wouldn't have the courage to get out of bed in the morning if I didn't know that God, our heavenly Father is watching over and protecting me. We can never forget for one minute the many blessings he has given us. The greatest gift, of course was his Son Jesus Christ who died to save us from our sins. He promised us this in John 3:16. After promising us everlasting life, He also gave us a wonderful world to enjoy each day that we are here. Jesus taught us to love and to forgive others, in the Lord's prayer. Sometimes we may feel like we can't forgive someone, even maybe ourselves for something that we, or they have done. BUT if God can, and does forgive us for our sins, who are we to think we should judge ourselves, or others more harshly than God does? That's all I have to say for now, but I hope it will provoke some thoughtful consideration if there is anyone you need to forgive today.
Life is short, so make the very most of it. Be happy, be healthy and know that you are wealthy because you have so much to be grateful for. Keep the rubber side down and enjoy America!!!!!
We arrived in Silent Valley last Tuesday, and as usual, we love being here. Some people ask us why we would drive all the way up here to camp so far from "civilization," but I think one has only to see this place to understand the appeal. The very first time we came up here with our former camping club, I couldn't believe ANYONE would want to drive this far, but then we began to explore the many acres of this wonderful campground. I believe you just cannot view such beauties of nature as we see here without seeing God's hand at work.
Yes, the drive up the mountain (eight miles up on Highway 243 and one mile down on Poppet Flats Rd to the entrance) can be a little daunting, but it really is worth the drive. This picture is a view from outside our RV. The second
picture is an area we walk with the dogs each morning. There are many very old trees in this park, and the sky is an incredible blue up here. I think that is because we don't have all that urban smog here. By the way, the altitude here is about 3500 feet above sea level.
Every morning we do a walk of about a mile and that's just on one side of the park. We know how far we have walked because our Fitbit records the distance, and the number of steps, as well as how many calories we have burned with the walk. The walk takes us past the Miniature Golf course, then the family pool and family activity center.
There isn't much going on here YET, but this place will be full of people and activity later next month. As we continue our walk, we come around by the trout pond, where they have a fishing derby a few times a year. I remember reading that the pond is stocked about twice a year, so those who fish have a good chance of catching a few! Not our "thing" but many people do come here to fish.
However, it was nice to see the mallards that come here and hang out at the pond. There is also a baby, but I didn't get a picture of him today. We have also seen a red-tailed hawk, some woodpeckers, robins, mourning doves, nuthatches and other beautiful birds here. I forgot to mention that this park has areas where the wild flowers bloom.
I only got a couple pictures of these pretty flowers, but I will keep looking for more shots of the beauty we get to see every day.
Besides the natural beauty, we also have a couple nice play ground areas for kids. Here's a picture of one of them.
And since we are nine miles away from the nearest town, we have our own fire truck to protect us, in the event of a fire in the park. I also believe that God watches over Silent Valley, and keeps us safe from fires. We have camped here a few times when there were fires raging higher up the mountain in the area of Idyllwild and also when there were fires below us on Highway 243. However, there has only been one time I know of that fires actually came within Silent Valley, and even then, no campsites were burned.
This park has not only a family center and pool, but also an adult center, and an adults only pool. During the summer, the adult pool is open until 12 midnight, and we really enjoy that! There is also what is called the Village Center. Within that area is the camp store, the Chuck Wagon restaurant, and a bar called the Watering Hole. During the summer time, there is family entertainment on Saturday nights in the open area between the buildings of the village center, and live music for dancing in the bar. There are many great activities during the summer, especially on holiday weekends. Another thing we like is that because of all the wooded areas, they do NOT allow any fireworks on July 4th. Since our dogs are very afraid of fireworks, we are glad they don't have them here.
They provide kids crafts every Saturday (during the season) at the Family center, and some adult crafts at the village center. I forgot to mention that there are also snack bars at both the family center and the adult center too. Is it any wonder we look forward to our month long stays up here three or four times a year? They also have a Thanksgiving dinner, a Christmas dinner and a New Year's eve dinner and party, with a live band for dancing..............but I just can't take the cold of being here during the winter anymore.
Several years ago we came up for Thanksgiving, and we even had SNOW on the ground. It wasn't much, but we made a little snowman of it. Then I laid down on the ground a took a picture, shooting upward at the snowman so he looked to be much bigger than he was! Back then we had a Yorkie named Gypsy who had never seen snow so it was really funny watching her try to figure out how to walk in the fluffy white stuff.
This evening we walked up to the adult lodge and pool. It's all UPHILL to get there, but that means the walk back is much easier....down hill all the way, except that Jim decided to cross over the pedestrian bridge and come back on the other side of the area.
I could hardly believe my eyes when we saw these ducks happily swimming in the adult pool this evening. It was such a hoot! They were just making themselves at home.
Many years ago, a dear friend named Herve Collette and his wife Pat introduced us to Silent Valley. He has since passed away, but his memory lives on in the hearts of ALL who knew him. I just spent time trying to find a picture of them to include here, but I couldn't find one. Back in 2012 I bought an external drive to store pictures in. Our dear friend Robert White helped me to install it, and to transfer pictures to it. One day I hooked it up and tried to show someone some pictures that were on it...................but it would not open and asked for a password. I have no recollection of establishing a password, and Robert doesn't remember it either. I tried several of the passwords I have used for other things, without success. So for now, all of those pictures are safely stored where I CAN'T GET TO THEM.
That's all for today. Happy travels and many blessings to you all. Stay well and keep the rubber side down!
This has been an interesting and busy week. On Monday I had invited Almita & Rueben here for dinner, and Tony wrote saying he could come here on Monday too. We figured the more the merrier, so that was the plan. I made a yummy split pea and ham soup with the ham bone from our delicious Easter dinner. Almita brought over some Hawaiian dinner rolls to have with it, and I made sugar-free peach jello with diced peaches for dessert. It was a nice evening, and everybody got enough to eat. Later, after Almita & Rueben left, I was helping Jim move back some boxes we store under the table (that we had moved into the bedroom to allow us more space for dinner). I apparently pulled a muscle in my shoulder resulting in a painful spasm in my left trapezius muscle. I tried to deal with it by myself for two days, but on Thursday I had to go to the local Urgent Care center, where we sat and waited 3 hours before being seen by a nice PA. He ended up having the nurse give me an injection of decadron and an injection of toredol, and sent me away with prescriptions for a 5 day course of Prednisone, and another for 30 tablets of Flexeril. I slept like a baby that night! What a relief.
On Wednesday Almita & Rueben took us birding. It was a grand outing and we had a marvelous time, but some of the roads were rough, and I had to take a pain pill and a nap when we got home. I will include a few pictures of birds we saw that day.
I can't remember the names of all the wonderful birds we saw, but the ones to the left are called stilts! As you could see, Jim was having a good time too. The last ;picture is just to show you what a beautiful area we were in, and it was a warm and perfect day too. Later that day we went over to Almita & Rueben's RV for dinner of delicious cheese burgers with all the "fixins" and potato salad. I brought a dessert of Oreo Ice Cream pie. While we were there Almita showed me the first of four books she has produced of her photographs. She CALLS herself an amateur, but her pictures are INCREDIBLE and the books are really AWESOME. She let me bring home three of them, that we have been pouring over. They are a marvelous expression of her passion for nature, and all the wonders of this great world God has given to us. I could never produce anything as beautiful as these books, but we are very grateful she shared them with us.
Thursday night Jim sat down to watch TV in his easy chair, and it broke again, dumping him on the floor. So on Friday we went looking for another, better chair.
We brought this one home, and set it out. Before Jim could sit down, Millie was in it! She decided it was a good choice, and Jim has had to move her out of it whenever he wants to sit there.
Right now, Jim is on the couch, and Millie is in the chair!
Today we went to play Candy Bar Bingo, and Diane and Steve showed up to join us. The last two weeks we have had no luck winning candy bars. Today we made up for it winning six bars. It was a good day!!!
I have a tip to offer to some of you RVers out there. I read a recent tip about cleaning kitchen and bathroom faucets using water and vinegar. I don't deny that the solution works, but I have another one that I use. If you have dentures, and soak them clean with tablets like Polident or even the generic tablets from Wal-Mart, here's an idea to re-use the solution. In the morning after you brush and rinse the dentures, you can dump the solution into a sink half filled with water. Using a soft cloth, you can clean the hard water stains off the faucet and knobs, and also clean the sink bowl.
It's so good not having pain today. Truly a good day, even though it has been overcast and it's going to probably rain all night. Hopefully there will not be any rain on Tuesday when we travel up to Silent Valley, where we hope to stay for a month. Since our screen room has seen better days, and is in pretty decrepit shape, we have decided not to keep it after we take it down Monday. We have found a free-standing screen room we are going to buy next week, so that will be part of our next blog.
Take care and stay well..................and enjoy this wonderful world.
All day long I fully expected someone to call me or play some kind of prank on me Friday. Happily it did not happen. I'm not crazy about pranks, so I never try to play one on anyone else.
While we were still at Palm Desert, I was sitting outside with my camera one evening, waiting to take a picture, when Millie jumped into my lap, and then turned to look at me. I'm sorry if any of you folks are tired of my pictures of her, but she's just so darned cute at times.
Later, we went for a walk, and she romped and played the whole time. I don't know where she gets all that energy! LOL
There was a beautiful RV that I meant to take a picture of while we were there, but I kept forgetting to do it before we left. Much to my joy, they showed up here at Wilderness Lakes this week, and I not only got a picture, but I also got to talk to the man who owns it. He and his wife lived in New York City in 2001 and had close friends who did not survive that terrible day. He drew this on paper, and found someone who could recreate it as a permanent remembrance on the back of his motorhome. We had an interesting chat, and he seemed like a very nice man.
I have often reported on products, or services that we have been very satisfied with, and I realized today, that I have failed to tell most of you folks about a pair of products we have been using for 15 to 20 years, and continue to be very happy with. Jim used to have to use an anti-dandruff shampoo, and never got completely satisfactory results from it. I tried using a number of brands, often whatever was on sale. Many years ago, a girl friend of mine asked me if we had ever tried using "Mane & Tail" brand of shampoo and
conditioner. I actually laughed and said "No, I don't have a horse at home". She said she and her husband had been using it for years, and it was wonderful. Her hair really looked great, so I was thinking about it, but I reminded her that Jim was using a dandruff shampoo. She asked me if I'd ever seen a horse with dandruff! You can get it at many grocery stores, many drug stores, and Wal-Mart and Target carry it. In Wal-Mart, you'll usually find it in the pet department, but it is still great for human hair too. It comes in a 32 ounce bottle for $5-6, but it lasts a very long time. Often we find it on a "buy one get one free" sale, so that's great too. As for the conditioner, you use only a very small amount. If you have long hair, you would want to use it in the shower, and rinse it out. But for those of us with very short hair (or guys with thinning hair too) you can use a tiny dab of it on towel dried hair and then just comb it through. Don't use too much or it will be a problem, but a tiny dab is really all you should need. We love how well it conditions our hair, and it smells great too. We also, of course, use it on the dogs too. I bathe Millie in my over-sized kitchen sink with the pull out hose faucet, and it does a great job, and easily rinses out too. Jim has to wait for warm weather so he can bathe Willie outside, as our RV has an outside shower with hot water, and he used a fold-up tub to wash him in. We really love how clean and fresh it smells (kind of like fresh apples). Anyway, if you aren't afraid you'll start to whinny, I suggest you might try this economical and wonderful product soon. It's cheaper than any salon product I know of, and since you use small amounts, the bottle lasts a long time. Today I gave Millie a haircut, bath and manicure/pedicure.
I'm pretty sure that is NOT how she had planned to spend this day, but once we were done, and she was blow dried, she seemed happy....maybe because it was over, but just maybe she was glad to be cooler and clean again. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the last time we took the canine kids to their doctor, he showed me that she has a congenital knee defect. At present it is not serious, but some day she might need to have it operated on. When I bathe her, or cut her hair or do her nails, I try very hard not to take any chances that I could hurt her knee, or further displace it. Just to be on the safe side, I made her a magnetic necklace this week, and let her wear it whenever we are around. I think the single magnet would release if she got it caught on anything, but we just can't take a chance on it NOT releasing and she might get hung by it. So when we go out, or at bedtime, I always take it off her. She looks cute with it on, and it doesn't seem to bother her to wear it.
Willie gets nervous when Millie has a "spa day", and he has to supervise the whole process. He is close by watching while I cut her hair, and he stands on his back legs at the sink consoling her throughout her entire bath!! Then he supervises my drying her and dressing her. By the time it's over, he is EXHAUSTED and needs to rest for a while. But he IS a wonderful big brother to her.
Please folks, I need to remind some of you to be even kinder than you think you need to be. Others may be suffering stresses, or fighting issues you have no idea about. Please try to always give others the benefit of the doubt, and be kind even when they may not be able to be kind to you.
I had a very long phone call with my son Matt last night. He is a wonderful, and kind young man. He and his amazing lady Shannon, are devoting much of their lives to saving and finding forever homes for abandoned dogs. One message I want to share is that if there is any way you can find it in your heart to give a dog a FOREVER home, please do it, AND PLEASE ADOPT A SHELTER DOG if you can. Many, many dogs and cats desperately need a loving home. You won't regret it, and they will give you so much more than you can ever hope to give to them. Please do NOT support puppy mills, and always please get your pets spayed or neutered to prevent more little animals from ending up in over-crowded shelters, too many of which are forced to euthanize animals if they can't find them homes quickly.
Another thing he reminded me of, and for which I am again grateful that he is such an incredible person is this. I was venting about a friend who had hurt and disappointed me, and I was having trouble getting over it. He reminded me that as long as I held onto negative feelings, I could never be at peace myself. He told me very gently that maybe she and I might not be able to be friends anymore, but that I MUST let go of the negativity I am feeling. I knew he was right and I thought about how to do what he said. I am on the right track now, and I slept better last night because I knew where I am going from here, emotionally. I will not let the events of the past, spoil my happiness in the future. Thanks again Matt.
Stay well, and be happy. Life is as great as you allow it to be. Keep the rubber side down and enjoy America.
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.
Here is a better picture of the fire truck Silent Valley has to protect us in the event it would be needed. 
Here is a pass through some of the rocks along the roadway. They must have used many tons of dynamite to clear away the rocks to make this road!
Speaking of rocks, this road does have areas noted as rock slide areas! Sure hope that never happens, but some large rocks really look like they are just barely balancing there. We would not want to be on that road if an earthquake happens!
