Shopping with Joanie

Joanie and I went off to Costco to get her a Cybershot camera just like mine but alas, you could only order them online, so we went off to Gottschalks where we met Sandy and Peggy from the Park. Still lots of time on our hands so we checked out the thrift stores near El Paseo Drive - the ritzy part of Palm Desert. We picked up new sets of 3 orange name brand golf balls, still in the box for $1.00 ad I got some Ralph Lauren navy golf shorts, with the $69.99 tag on, marked to $9.99. Because it's now winter here and they have too many shorts, they'd been marked down to $2.99.
Now that's my kind of shopping.

Golf Cart Parade

We have finally got rid of the smoke from the fires today. We've been surrounded by it for 3 days but it rained on the coast last night and we can see our mountains for the first time since Thursday. The 29 separate fires are down to about 9 still burning at present.
We had Don and Lila, and Van and Edie over for happy hour yesterday. It was fun to sit outside visiting and catching up.
We went down to Palm Desert today and watched the 43rd annual parade. It's hard to imagine that there are only golf carts under these. This started as a Celebration when golf carts were made street legal is the early 60's and now is a tourist attraction.
Then because we were half way there, we carried on to Shields Date Farm and had a date shake for lunch. As usual - delicious!

New Neigbours

Most of the people coming in right now are fire evacuees. Two couples arrived at 11 p.m. last night across from us. Dad and mom work for Allstate Ins.on the National Catastrophe Team. Son does too, so all fulltime RVand grandchildren are with them until school interferes? They're from Alabama. The people behind are from Redlands and schools are closed so a 4 day weekend. A couple with 4 teenagers are here from Lake Arrowhead and may be able to return home in a few days but 1 school burned down and there's no power. These are only the ones we bumped into.
Thank goodness the Santa Anna winds quit today at the coast so hopefully they can contain most of the fires.
However, for the first time we smell smoke today. The ocean winds are now blowing everything inland and it smells here. The sunset is clouded by smoke and the Pass to LA is filled with it. The moon was amazing tonight, bright orange from the fire.

Fire Disaster in California

What a horror story. The Santa Anna winds are blowing from east to west and flaming fire infernos that defy any firefighting. We're 3 hours east but all you see on the news is devastation with over 28 fires burning from San Diego to Los Angeles and beyond, now coming inland. There are helicopters scooping water and large DC 10's doing the same, including a couple from Quebec. Our Mars Water Bomber from Sprout Lake on Vancouver Island arrived tonight and will be fighting by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Over 1 million people have been evacuated from their homes, many freeways are closed, the rest jammed with evacuees, the sparks are spread by the winds for miles starting new fires, the National Guard are here helping in every capacity. We've even seen the flames and coverage on BCTV. This exhausted firefighter shows it all.

Santa Anna Winds

Edie and Van are here in the park and Don and Lila are at their mobile.
California is being battered by incredible winds out on the coast with wild fires springing up. We're here safe and sound with no worries. I talked to a couple in the pool and they were at the Thousand Trails Resort in San Diego and had to evacuate, so came here. It took 6 hours at 10 -15 miles per hour due to the jammed highways.
We went for a Sunday drive today for shopping and lunch at the Sizzler but felt guilty when we read this sign.

Arrived at Catalina Spa

Finally 'home' again for the winter. We're back at our home park and one of the first to arrive, so many empty spaces. The volunteers are just arriving and as this is the earliest we've ever been here, it is amazing to realize how much work is done by the volunteers to make this park such a nice place. It was a shock to see the brown dirt where grass will soon be. No water in the summer just killed it. The pruning, cleaning, gardening, office work, entrance guard etc. are just starting. It's great to see familiar faces again. I practically have the pool to myself.

Into Central California

We got through the mountains finally, after the signs of 'downhill grade 7 % for 7 miles and entered Central California. I was getting a bit dizzy so very glad to get flat again. Went through Sacramento, then Stockton, with the old part a very historic area. There was the Stockton Locomotion Works and the Mechanics Exchange all in very old brick buildings. We left I 5 at Lost Hills and headed across 46 through Kern county to Bakersfield. This is farming country with grapes, cotton, almonds, fruit trees, plus fields of roses and pansies. We even passed a truck with pup, full of garlic, a new sight for us. Very pretty scenery. Fueled at Flying J and stopped overnight at the A Country RV Park. We haven't boondocked this trip as we wanted heat in cold ORE, but putting the slides in and out has been a pleasure with our new folding coffee table that CJ made for us.

25th Wedding Anniversary - to Dunnigan

We drove up and down the mountains of Oregon and through the Siskiyou Mountains into
California. We were absolutely stunned when we drove through the Lake Shasta area. Mount Shasta was shrouded with fog so no view there but the Lake was so extremely low that you could see the lake bottom in the smaller arms of the lake and the bottom of the boat ramp was about 90 feet above the water. This is when we went over the bridge of the main lake - the bridge lane was being reconstructed so we were on the inside one but this shows where the water should have been up at the treeline. This is simply astounding and I fear a terrible disaster and really worry about the drought conditions in California. We celebrated our 25th anniversary by buying $200 of Diesel and having lucn at a truck stop. Got down to Dunnigan and the rain started and the wind was really blowing so we stopped at Happy Times RV Park at 2:30 in the middle of nowhere because there wasn't anything else for many miles. Enjoyed a cocktail and memories of 25 years of fun together.

Wilsonville to Phoenix, ORE

We got away in a light rain today, clearing by noon. We passed Harrisburg where we had a great time in the spring at Camp Monaco, and Cottage Grove where we drove through 2 covered bridges and saw 6 more. Here's a picture of one we went through with the tow connectors still on the car. Note the high windows on the sides. Wood bridges are less expensive to build and last well when maintained. Nice steady driving day. Oregon is so green and filled with trees, just like B.C. and lovely fall colors now. We climbed up and down the mountains and arrived in Phoenix, below Medford by 3 p.m. Ron said, I'll buy you dinner and you can buy breakfast - a treat for our 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow. While we were having dinner at the Iron Skillet at the large Petro Truck stop beside the Peartree RV Park we're at, the couple beside us were celebrating their return home after a 2 week vacation when their kids reno-ed their house as a present for their 60th anniversary. The kids said they'd just updated it by about 40 years. So they celebrated with their strawberry Sunday and we had chocolate.

A Visit with Sharon

We met Sharon in Woodburn today, 20 minutes down the road and enjoyed a great visit during lunch at Elmers.
We returned to the RV Park which does great Halloween decorations. It's a very pretty place with summer hanging baskets about 2 and a half feet in diameter, still surviving with large blooms.

On The Road Again

We got to the Main Border at 7:06, backed way up to the Duty Free on the Canadian side. We finally inched our way through at 8:16. The guard asked where we were going, if we owned a house in Canada and said, go ahead. What a bonus, no checking out the motorhome. Mind you, there's nothing in it, we shop when we get done south. So much easier. With the Canadian dollar actually above par at $1.02.46 many people are cross border shopping. It's never been this busy early in the morning, the 25 years we've gone south in the winter.
We had a pleasant driving day, sunny but low, light fog for a brief time, every time we got near water. Lots of traffic through the cities, even on a Saturday. Pretty fall colors are nice to watch as we go down the road.
We arrived in Wilsonville at 3 p.m. and are checked into the Pheasant Ridge RV Resort where Mike stays. He came to visit and we went out to Wongers, a funky bar and grill where you get peanuts for appies and just throw the shells on the floor. Quaint, I guess and certainly a popular spot..

Thanksgiving Family Dinner

Well, we had the best family dinner for Thanksgiving at Brenda and Peter's in Vancouver. The Wallachs from Nelson, Merritt and Kamloops couldn't get down so we missed them and send love but the lower mainland crowd of 20 adults and 7 kids were together. The most fun to Hana and Lexi is seeing their cousins, Josh, Zack and Isaiah, whom they adore, and now Maya and Trey are added to the group. The turkey was superb, our cooking was great, the company was a pleasure and we were delighted to have Floss and Ken with us.

Fun with Grandkids

Aanother great day in beautiful weather here on the Sunshine Coast. They really do have good reason to call it that. Deer in the front yard, a visit to the ocean and a playing at the park. Here's 3 fun kids together.

Trey's Book

I found this cute little cloth Woodsy Wonders book on insects in Armstrong this summer when Myrna and I went putzing around. So here it is all put together. He loved it!!!

Hana's Ladybug Quilt

We went to Gibson's today and and enjoyed a delicious prawn lunch with Vickie and Pete in Halfmoon Bay. Vickie and I ended upstairs in her swing room where we pinned the small quilt that I'm making for Hana. Then we went down to Susanne and James where we visited with Jame and kids as Susanne was in Vancouver for a business meeting. Ron went off to the ferry and Suzanne arrived home about 9:30. Here's Hana with her Ladybug quilt.