Wednesday, February 6, through Tuesday, February 26, 2013: Back to the Desert:
To get a decent space at the Palm Springs RV Park, we
left Menifee at 6:30 AM.
We made the 69-mile trip in easy fashion (notwithstanding some fog and blowing sand), arriving at exactly 8:00 AM, and getting a perfect site.
The principal focus of the first week here for Becky is preparing for her first pickleball tournament. The 13th Annual Palm Desert Senior Games & International Sports Festival is this weekend. It's a big deal, drawing players from all around southern California. Several months ago, a fellow pickleball player here at the Palm Springs RV Park, Clinton Brownell, recruited Becky to be his partner for the mixed doubles competition.
We spent the first few days here doing the usual---hitting the Costco, of course, and some other minor shopping. We also picked up the tire pressure monitors we ordered for both our truck and our trailer. (We don't want a repeat of grinding up a wheel the way we did a few weeks ago.) The instructions are written in Sanskrit, I think; I'll have to get some installation help from the guy from whom we bought them---another RVer here at the RV park.
Becky also played a
lot of pickleball.
Becky and Clint were not scheduled to play until early Sunday. So, on Saturday, we spent most of the day at the tournament venue, just watching some friends play their rounds and getting psyched up.
I had earlier dropped off Ramsey at the Grand Paw Pet Resort in Indio, where he would spend the next two days to give us the maximum flexibility regarding the tournament. We arrived at the courts at 7:30 AM Sunday morning. Los Angeles friends, Ron and Marcia Levinson, and their son Brad, who were down in the desert for the weekend, stopped by to watch Becky play in the tournament. It was nice to see them again.
By 10:30, Becky and Clint had lost all three of their games, and were eliminated from the competition. It was very sad. They played well, but were simply overmatched.
Since it was so early, we decided to pick up Ramsey a day early, and return to our normal routine. That included a stop at Walmart and a delicious lunch at the Elephant Bar, which is fast becoming our favorite restaurant here.
Monday was devoted to getting some work done on our truck: The climate control system has been acting up (the source of the intermittent dead batteries, I believe) and the headlights have become very glazed over after 215,000 miles. Palmer Automotive Repair in Indio took care of both items. I think they did a good job.
Monday night at 10:00 we were awakened by a knock on our door. The ranger announced that he had turned off our water because we had sprung a substantial leak. It was too dark and too late to do anything about it until morning. I hardly slept, wondering what kind of horror I would find in the morning. It turned out that our water filter (made of plastic, naturally) had developed a crack and was shooting water out the side.
I soon learned that nobody within 2,000 miles of us carried the replacement part, or the entire unit for that matter. Since we weren't that excited about the filter anyway, I decided to bypass it instead of fix it. I got the necessary parts at Benlo RV, the place that fixed our refrigerator, and took care of the problem for less than $10.00. That made it a great day. (Of course, I had to make two trips to Benlo because I mis-measured the size of the internal pipes.)
Ramsey did not feel well on Tuesday, and was throwing up and worse. We took him to the vet, who gave us some medicine for Ramsey. We don't think it's serious. We should find out in a couple of days.
Tuesday evening, we passed on the State of the Union Address so we could watch the Westminster dog competition. That was much more interesting than listening to the President.
On Wednesday, we met Steve and Lillian Frank at their vacation home at the Indian Ridge Country Club in Palm Desert and then went to lunch at the clubhouse. I had a cobb salad. A little dry.
Becky met Lillian through her work at First Interstate Bank. Later, they got better acquainted through their membership in the Organization of Women Executives. Steve was Chairman, etc., at Southern California Edison. The Franks are now retired and live in Reno. Becky and Lillian had lunch when we were in Reno two years ago.
Thursday (Valentine's Day) we made the 240-mile roundtrip to Pasadena to take Becky's dad out to lunch. We had Ramsey with us. We had intended to leave Ramsey in the truck while we went to lunch in Bill's car. When we got to Bill's house, we found that his car was not there, so we had to pile Bill and his caregiver Romeo into the truck along with Becky, Ramsey, and me. It was quite a sight.
We went to the Green Street Restaurant (which is
not on Green Street, by the way), and I had its signature Dianne Salad. Bill ordered a hamburger, which was so big he had to break it down into small parts just to get it in his mouth.
On Friday, Becky won the women's division of the pickleball tournament here in the RV park (Yea, Becky!!!)
and the Wheelers and Van Dusens returned from their stay at the Colorado River near Parker, Arizona.
On Saturday, I played some pickleball (miserably) in the ongoing tournament here.
Sunday involved spectator sports: I went to the Oregon State/UC Riverside baseball game at the Palm Springs baseball stadium with Bill Wheeler and Larry Van Dusen, while Becky went to a polo match in Indio with Pat Wheeler and Claudette Van Dusen.
That evening, Becky and I met with my brother Bob and his wife, Elise, at their vacation home in Palm Desert, then went to dinner at Matsuri, a nearby Japanese restaurant. I had Sukiyaki for the first time in years. It was great. Elise's niece Susie and Susie's 18-year old son, Wil, were with us. I had never met Wil, and hadn't seen Susie in more than 30 years.
On Monday, we made the 250-mile roundtrip to Coto de Caza (to Brent & Carrie Carroll's home) to celebrate the Shelton family's six February birthdays. As usual, there was a mob. And of course we all had fun.
The rest of the week was pretty mundane for me---a little pickleball, a lot of reading, walking Ramsey a bit, and a stop at the doctor's office on Tuesday for a little procedure to see how my prostate gland is doing. (It's fine.) Meanwhile, Becky was playing pickleball at various venues, walking Ramsey a lot, and having lunch with Barbee Carver, a former sorority sister at UC Santa Barbara.
I also installed the tire monitors we bought, and am enjoying watching the readout as I drive places. Watching the readout is probably more dangerous than talking on a cell phone.
On Friday, I picked up our mail and found that our Italian friends, Francesco Giganti and Silvia Rutigliano, whom we visited in Florence five years ago (and again, two years ago) sent us a pillow containing two pictures of the four of us from the 2007 trip. Really cute! Thank you, guys!
Late Friday afternoon, Becky made reservations for us to take a Princess Cruise in August from Copenhagen to St. Petersburg and back, visiting seven countries in the process.
Saturday, Becky and Claudette hit the street fair in Palm Desert and came home with some goodies.
We also rented two movies at the Redbox,
Robot & Frank and
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Both were complicated. I didn't watch
Robot, and thought
Perks was just OK. (Teenage angst doesn't interest me.)
Sunday involved Pickleball in the early morning, a propane refill in the late mornng, a Costco run in the early afternoon, a potluck gathering of the Pickleball gang in mid-afternoon,
and the Oscars in the evening. Quite a full day. I'm exhausted.
Monday was essentially a day to rest up after the weekend (although Becky played some more Pickleball, of course). And we had dinner with Stephen and Karen Sloat at the Mario's Italian Restaurant in Indio. (Stephen is the pastor of the Coachella Valley Chrstian Church and the Chaplain of the Indio Police Department; Karen is a Palm Desert attorney who was my secretary in the early '80s.)
I had a delicious clam linguini. Tuesday, we basically got ready to leave for Arizona on Wednesday. We topped off the desert stay with dinner from the Panda Express.
