It was a 213-mile trek from Earp to Wilderness Lakes, in Menifee, California, a little longer than we prefer, but it was easy and uneventful. We left fairly early and gained an hour by returning to Pacific time (though it is in California, the Emerald Cove Resort uses Arizona time since Parker is the focus of everything nearby) and arrived around 10:30 AM. We got a perfect site on one of the canals and close to the entrance.
Wilderness Lakes is the first RV park we ever visited (in 2002) and we like it a lot.
After setting up, our first order of business was to call Beverly Newhouse, who has asked to see us once we arrived. She lost her beloved “Dr. Bob” in November and wanted to chat.
In keeping with tradition, she treated us to a nice early dinner at Coco‘s Restaurant in Sun City. She’s a delightful person.
Since the first weekend included Super Bowl Sunday, Becky took off in the early afternoon on Thursday to spend her annual weekend with her buddies from the Organization Of Women Executives at the Terranea resort in Palos Verdes, on the site that used to be the location of Marineland, which shut down many years ago.
She took the truck, naturally, so I was stranded until late Sunday afternoon. I passed the time walking the dogs (an average of six times a day) and catching up on a lot of reading. I finished Mark Styne’s After America, a very cleverly-written, revealing, and worrisome account of the social, political, and policy mistakes that have brought us to our current financial and cultural mess. I also read Bill O‘Reilly‘s Killing Lincoln, a fast-moving, very detailed, and excellent account of the last days of the Civil War and the 16th President’s life. And I started reading Dick Cheney’s autobiography In My Time.
On her way home from the weekend, Becky visited her Dad at his home in Pasadena and both of them then stopped by her brother Pete's Super Bowl party in San Gabriel.
She returned in time to watch the fourth quarter of the game with me. Terrific game. I’m glad the Giants won, even though I’m not a fan of New York, generally.
That essentially ended the weekend. One highlight was that in a welcome break from all the annoying political noise recently, I watched absolutely no news on television the entire weekend.
For several months, we have been having a strange dispute with the IRS regarding our 2009 tax return. On Monday, we received a letter from them acknowledging that we had been right all along. Yea!!! Naturally, we immediately headed to Costco for a shopping spree. Tuesday was a normal day of pickle ball for Becky
and dog walking and reading for me, topped off with a stop at Wal-Mart and Jiffy Lube. It’s hard to believe, but we now have 188,000 miles on our truck and it just keeps chugging along. (I hope saying that doesn’t spook it.)
On Tuesday, we rented (at the Red Box, of course) an odd and sometimes gory---but riveting---movie called Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. That was the highlight of our day. Wednesday was errand day. Thursday was “pay bills” day and I also traded in my old cell phone for a new one because the battery was losing its ability to hold a charge for very long.
It's a strange phenomenon of the electronics business, but new batteries are more expensive than new phones, which are free. We had lunch at Hana Sushi, next door to the Verizon store. Yum!
Late Friday morning, Becky headed for Glendale for a visit with her chiropractor, Mark Adachi. She didn’t return until after 5:00 PM. It took her 2 ½ hours to get home in the Friday afternoon traffic. I’m so glad we do not have to deal with that any more.
Sunday was Becky's day to visit her father again. This time, her dad's cousin, Jean Hawthorne from Santa Barbara, joined in lunch.
Becky reported that her dad is doing quite well. I, of course, stayed back to deal with the dogs and my reading material. Quite relaxing and informative.
On Tuesday (Valentine's Day) we ventured out in the late afternoon to nearby Murietta to have an early dinner at the Asia Seafood Buffet. It had been highly recommended to us by our fellow RVers. And we certainly love Chinese buffets.
What we weren't prepared for was the dual problem of heavy restaurant traffic on Valentine's Day and the fact that the Asian Seafood Buffet has Senior citizen half-price day every Tuesday. We had to wait an hour to get seated, but it was well worth it. The food was excellent and the entire bill was only $20.01. And we saw a bunch of people we knew at the restaurant.
On Thursday, we went to Beverly Newhouse's home in Murietta to strip her wine and booze collection of stuff she doesn't drink (we scored some terrific finds). We also visited the gravesite of her husband, Dr. Bob.
Then, the three of us went out to dinner at The Captain's Cabin in Temecula. Excellent food. A bit pricey, though.
My big accomplishment on Friday was to get a haircut.
On Saturday, we visited John and Sherry Phelan at their new home in Irvine (Shadow Hills). We last saw the place two years ago when it was still in the framing stage. They moved in last September. In a word, the home is spectacular.
We brought sandwiches from Panera Bread for lunch. Very tasty. The drive back to Menifee (about two hours) was notable only because of the excessive traffic.
On Sunday, we journeyed to Pasadena to celebrate Becky's dad's 86th birthday. (He will be 86 on the 22nd.) The whole family showed up at Wendy and Kai's. It was fun seeing everyone, and Bill is doing much better.
Monday was a recovery day, and I rested and dealt with the dogs while Becky ran off to Rancho Santa Fe to have lunch with her pal Roberta Ruddy, an old buddy from Citigroup days who now works for Royal Bank of Canada (but lives here).
On Tuesday, I actually played pickle ball (one game) for the first time in months, and, later, we returned to Hana Sushi in Menifee for a delicious dinner. Then prepared to leave for Palm Springs the next day.
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