Thanksgiving in California

We had the pleasure of spending the Thanksgiving holiday with Alex's daughter Karyn and son in law Brian at their home in Perris, CA.  Above is the view from their back deck, a nice orange/grapefruit grove next door and a mountail (little one) in the background.  At night you can hear the wolves howling at the moon, they are hybreds belonging to a neighbor.

Oliver met a new friend, her name is Tater and she followed Oliver everywhere. The pals and Alex and I are pictured above.  Other than a few spats over toys they got along very well and slept  like rocks when they weren't busy playing.

We did some brief sightseeing and some shopping, but mostly saved ourselves for the big feast on Thanksgiving day.  Karyn cooked a 20 lb. turkey and all the trimmings, while we sat back and watched.  After eating ourselves into a come we had time to visit with Brian's sister and her family.  This is Karyn holding a new great neice.

We headed back home on Black Friday and steered clear of any shopping establishments.  Passing through Palm Springs you go by several windmill farms, I took a picture from the car.
Now we are back to work, our hours have changed because another workcamper couple had to leave.  Alex still works in Guest Services on Saturdays and Sundays and I work Mondays and Fridays.  It interferes with the amount of golf we play, but not too bad.  But it pays the rent :). 

Work Camping and Pickle Ball

What is Pickle Ball???  Well we are now among the informed on this subject, having taken a lesson.  Pickleball is a combination of Ping Pone, Tennis, Hand ball and Racquet ball.  It is played on a court that looks like a tennis court only a scaled down version.  It is played with a racquet that looks like a racquet ball racquet and is scored kind of like Ping Pong.  Anyway after our first lesson we were confused for about a week and so were our sore knees and back.  We decided the sport just wasn't for us.  We are sticking to golf where you can ride up to your ball, wack it and jump back into the cart and ride again.  Picture is Alex playing Pickle Ball

We have been working for about one month now and really enjoy what we do.  Our job is Guest Services and mainly we sit at the service desk and answer questions, like where is the ice machine and where did they move the newspapers to.  I take a buzz out to the pool area and straighten the furniture a couple of times during our shift.  Below is Alex taking care of our customers.

On our days off we play golf or go exploring or just hang by the pool.  There is a "Happy Hour" twice a week with live music and snacks, it's BYOB most of the time.  They have box lunches every day if you want to partake and numerous hamberger nights, steak frys and potato bakes.  We have learned to get there early, as in at least half an hour before it starts to get a table is the shade and to make sure they don't put away the food.  We are making new friends and so is Oliver, he really likes the chocolate lab next door, her name is Bella and she is from Van Couver. 

Below is our parking space for the next 5 months.  Bella lives on the right.

How we got here.

We started ot Sunday Sept 25, 2011, in the rain at 6:06 AM.  First stop Meijers on Holton Rd. to top off tank.  We followed US 31 to 96 west, to 94 and then to 55 south.  We picked up 55 in St Louis. 
Alex had printed out a list of fuel stops and noticed they were on 57 not 55 so we for some unknown reason  headed back east to pick up 57 which as it turns out connects with 55.  Well anyway we stopped for the night at 9:00 PM in the Welcome to Arkansas rest stop.  We only had to make one U turn when we got back on the road going back north in stead of south.  We chalked up to being tired and the rain.

Sept. 26, 2011, second day on the road and all is well, but for one thing, ARKANSAS HAS CRAPPY ROADS, sorry AR. but its is true. As we keep on trucking, we also find that we don't fit into many gas stations, so now we are looking for only truck stops at about half a tank.  Where is a Meijers Gas station when you need one.  Today we went through a lot of construction and a huge traffic slowdown in Dallas.
We stopped for the night in Whetherford, TX. at Serinity Pines RV resort, just west of Fort Worth.

Sept. 27, 2011, we started out early around 6:00 in nice warm weather, about 75 degrees.  We are heading west on Highway 20.  The temperature is rising as we go.  We just passed a sign in Pecos, TX. that had a temp. of 97 degrees.  Texas has a lot of land with nothing on it.  We crossed 2 time zones today, now I have to change all those watches I brought.  We saw our first Palm trees coming into Las Cruces, NM.  We spent the night in the Las Cruces, NM Walmart parking lot with a 18 wheeler and another motorhome.

Sept. 28, 2011, we started out early again, had to go through an imigration check point, complete with drug or alien sniffing dogs. Very warm this morning. We are now on 10 west and nearing AZ, and it is HOT, about 97 according to our thermometer.  We arrive it Mesa, AZ. at about 2:00PM and at out RV resort Tower Point at 2:30.  We find out that the power is out as they are doing upgrades, but should be back on by 4:00 PM and it was.  We got all settled in and headed for the pool.

We are Here!!!

Have arrived in Mesa, AZ.  September 28, 2011 at approx. 2:00 PM Mountain time.
More on trip later

Getting Started

Sunday IS the day.  The rig is nearly all packed, and will be totally on Saturday night... a cup of coffee, and we are on our way!