Wednesday, February 22, through Wednesday, February 29, 2012: At Palm Springs:
As expected, the 69-mile drive to the Palm Springs Thousand Trails preserve on Wednesday was uneventful. We got an early start so we could get one of the pull-thru sites. We arrived before 8:00 AM, and got the only available site that was long enough to handle our rig. (Later, several more opened up, but we were happy with the one we had.) We discovered after completely setting up, though, that our satellite reception was blocked by one of the zillion palm trees.


We solved it by re-connecting to the truck and moving the trailer six feet further west.

That evening we attended a home-made jambalaya party, hosted at Bill Wheeler's site. (Pat is still in Michigan visiting her dad.) Good food, and we had a good time with Becky's pickleball buddies.



Earlier that afternoon, I had gone to the RV dealer next door to verify that they were ready to fix two warranty matters the next day. They said they had the two necessary replacement parts and were ready. The next morning, the RV tech showed up with only one of the parts. I learned that the other part they thought was for me was actually for another customer. These people have a well-earned reputation for being flaky. Fortunately, the one new part the tech installed worked just fine. We have to wait and see when (if) the other part shows up.

The next evening, we had another potluck dinner with the pickleball crowd at Rick and Linda's rig. Fun.

The excitement on Monday was my getting bitten by Ramsey when he freaked out after being surprised by two little dogs while we were out for a walk in the desert. My right hand was bleeding in two places, so Becky---being the careful one---insisted on taking me to the urgent care facility at the Eisenhower Medical Center. Two hours later I emerged with a band aid and a prescription for some antibiotics. The medical staff and I were convinced I would recover.

Becky's sister Wendy had sent her a message asking Becky to see if Wendy's missing reading glasses were at the Jackalope Ranch restaurant, where we had met accidentally several weeks ago. Tuesday afternoon, we ventured there and---Surprise!---found them in the "lost glasses" box. To celebrate, we had a drink at the bar, which turned into an early dinner of delicious nachos.

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The rest of our stay in the desert was essentially Becky playing pickleball and me reading. (For a change, I read one novel, a 12-year-old John Grisham thriller, The Bretheren. It was pretty good.) And, of course, we took the dogs out for numerous walks. Very nice.