Charlston Peak RV Park, Pahrump NV 11/30/2010 - 12/13/2010

When we moved a couple of miles to the Charleston Peak RV Park, we met up with Terry's brother Ron, and Alice, and his sister Lolita, and Bob. After being on our own since we left in August, it was nice to have family to do things with. We shared some meals, played some cards, and caught up on news of friends and family.

Charleston Peak Park shares their property with a winery. The clubhouse is actually connected to the offices and sales room of the winery. It is about the prettiest clubhouse I have seen at a park. Of course, it has a fancy bar where they sell alcohol and wine from the winery. The park is right at the edge of the town and up on a hill from Pahrump. Each day on our walks around the park we would see lizards along the wall of the Park.

Once a week they had a jam session at the Park where any one who wanted could come and join in with their instruments and play music. Most of them played guitars and there was one who played the harmonica. They would go around the circle and take turns choosing a song and sing it. Some of them were really good.

Bob, Lolita, Ron, Alice, Terry and I all went down to listen to them one day. We figured if we weren't musically talented, we could at least be the audience.

One day Lolita and I went to a fashion show where a local shop owner had ladies from our park (older ladies that wore at least a size 14) come pick out four or five outfits and then they brought them to the Park and put on a luncheon and modeled for us. It was lots of fun. Later, Lolita, Alice, and I went to the shop and I actually bought a really cute skirt. We dressed up a little (about as much as I ever do, except on Sunday) for the program.

One day we all got together and went to the China Ranch Date Farm. It was started a long time ago by some people from China. It was about 50 miles away from the Park and the last part was a dirt road that wound down a very rocky mountain into a valley. It was quite a site to come out of the mountains and see all of the green palm trees.

They cover the ripening dates with all kinds of pieces of fabric--from just pieces of cloth to towels to actual clothing. This is to prevent the birds and other critters from getting into the fruit. Lolita shows us what is under the coverings.

I am not sure how close these are to being ripe, but they ripen right on the tree and then they are picked and are ready to eat. There was a small store where they sold the dates and other things. I had to have a date shake--it was yummy. We all bought some dates, but we had so many tastes of the samples that we didn't eat any of them for a couple of days.

There was a fun, "modest," little museum that told the story of the date farm. It was really interesting.

We could walk or drive through the date orchard and see all of the different varieties of dates. Some of the trees were very short and some were very tall.

Many of them had dates that were ripening and were covered by different articles of clothing or fabric to keep them safe until they were ready to be picked.

We left Pahrump after being there for four weeks and headed to Apache Junction, AZ. We also left Ron & Alice and Bob & Lolita. We probably won't see them again until the middle of March. Happy travels to them!

Preferred RV Resort, Pahrump NV, Thanksgiving at Grantsville 11/16/10 - 11/30-10

It is always fun to go to new parks. There are two in Pahrump, Nevada, about 60 miles west of Las Vegas, that we hadn't been to. So we headed that way from Yuba City.

Preferred RV Park was the first one we stayed at, for two weeks. We were lucky to get in for two weeks in a row . It is an ROD park--not an ROD Plus park, so we were only supposed to be able to stay one week. Well, they made an exception--which we heard about several times--and let us stay a back-to-back second week through Coast-to-Coast. But, don't tell anyone because they say they will not do it again!

It was a nice park and we had a good spot, with a view of the mountains out our big window.
There were lots of activities in the park. I got five boxes of Scentsy product delivered, so we got to know the office people quickly. We went to a MASA dinner (from which we finally decided to join MASA), we displayed Scentsy at a craft fair, and we played card bingo. They have a really nice cactus garden (but I didn't get pictures) and nice craft, game, woodworking, and exercise rooms. They also have a swimming pool that they put a bubble roof over when the weather gets cool.

One day we sat out in the sunshine and finally got our walnuts from Yuba City all cracked and bagged up. We did save some out for Terry's brother Ron and sister Lolita that we thought we would give them and let them have the enjoyment of cracking themselves. We now have nice sealed packages of walnuts to share with our family.

One of the nicest things about this park is that it is right in the middle of town, along with being on the edge of one side so there is not much traffic. We were able to ride our bikes a lot. We rode them to get groceries, to the bank, to eat cheap buffets at the casinos, and most everywhere else we wanted to go. The big flag in the background of this picture is at Terribles Casino, right behind the Park.

We drove up to Grantsville, UT, where Sarah and her family live, and had Thanksgiving with them. We had a great time. Ryan is carving the Thanksgiving turkey, with Jenna watching closely to make sure he does it right!

Sarah inherited Grandma Howard's china (they could have even been her mother's, Grandma Lukehart,s, but we couldn't remember.) She has meant to use them on special occasions, but always forgot until this year. What fun to see and use them again. Our family had them for many years and used them a lot when all of our kids were still home. Jenna, Luke, and JT set the table.

Jill and her family came late Thanksgiving night and the next day the kids all put on their snow clothes and headed outside. The drain pond for the neighborhood is in Sarah's back yard and it made a great little sledding hill. Boe is getting ready to go down the hill!

Jenna made it to the bottom without falling off of her sled!

Kamber is all bundled up and ready to climb back up the hill!

Luke ended up with as much snow all over him as there was on the hill!

JT looks like he is having a great time!

While the kids were outside playing in the snow and Ryan making homemade noodles, Jill and Sarah were busy with some "Cricket" projects. Before they were through, there were fun sayings all over the house--the kitchen, the living room, the bathrooms, and the bedrooms! Good job, girls!

Terry was doing his own thing!

The girls and I went to some Black Friday sales and finished up our Christmas shopping, plus a little more. We are modeling our new clothes!

Later, on Friday, we all went to the movies and then decided to go to the Salt Lake Temple and see the lights. They lit them that night. The kids thought the funnest part was riding the trolley car from the library to the Temple, which would have been several blocks of walking. Here is Ryan, Lindee, JT, Boe, Luke, and Sarah.

Jill is sitting with Kamber and Jenna while Dan tries to keep his balance standing up!

Terry and I also had a good time riding the trolley. Any time we can go someplace and leave the driving to someone else, it is a good time!

We walked around the Temple grounds and listened to the the story of the birth of Jesus and we went inside the Visitor Center and saw all of the sites. While we were walking around, we ran into four of the Smith girls and their families. They all grew up in Emmett with our kids. It was so fun to see them!

JT, Kamber, Jenna, Boe, and Luke all posed in front of the fountain next to the Temple.

The Temple was beautiful, especially with all of the Christmas lights and displays around it!

We left Grantsville a day early because I came down with a bug and wasn't feeling too well, and there was a storm expected that night and the next day. We had pretty good roads going home, unlike the roads we had traveling up to Grantsville. We could hardly tell the Hippo was red and the windshield washer froze up on us so every time we went by a truck, we couldn't see, and sometimes we would have to pull off the road to clean the windshield. It wasn't too fun, so we were glad we had good roads traveling back to Pahrump.

Lake of the Springs, Yuba City CA, Lake Minden 10/21/10 - 11/15/10

It was our first trip to the Lake of the Springs Preserve. It was really nice. It has many, many acres in the park and about six different areas where people park. Out of six area, only one has sewer hookups. We were lucky enough to get into one of them. The park has a lot of hills to climb so we got a lot of exercise. But, we didn't even unload our bikes. There were deer and turkeys everywhere and they had a really nice clubhouse. We went to dinner there once and watched the line dancers one evening. (I can't believe I didn't get any pictures--I will get some next time we are here!)


The road was a little rough in places coming in that first day. Sometimes thing don't always stay where they are supposed to be as we travel! At least everything that fell on the floor was dry--no liquids!


We were so busy going back and forth to Yuba City to see the Beutlers (Terry's sister, Barbara) and family) and trying to get our fried converter and microwave replaced that we didn't really spend very much time at the Park.


Then Barb and Wayne talked us into leaving the park about a week early and park in their back yard. We had a really nice time with them. We got to play pinochle three days. The girls were ahead after the first two, then the guys kind of caught up the third day. Barb and I both agree that they still owe us another game to call it even!

Barb and Wayne said they have never had problems with little sugar ants in their home, but we fought them the whole time we were there. I think we sucked up a full vacuum bag full and took them with us when we left. We sprayed them, mashed them, and poisoned them, but they are still there!

Yuba City is a very pretty place. There are a lot of orchards and lots of rice fields. After the rice is harvested, the fields are filled with water and the birds migrate there for the winter. The fields are now beginning to fill with all kinds of beautiful birds. This is a picture of some white swans.

The day before we left, we went to cousin Gary and Val's home with Barb and Wayne and had a great barbecue. The Beutlers all own a bowling alley and they allowed us to set up the Scentsy there twice. They were long days, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks to them!

We spent the last two weeks in a park 20 miles from Yuba City, so we were still able to see some of the family.

We have been to this park before and enjoy it.

It is on a really pretty little lake that they stock with catfish. I think if they stocked it with bass, perch, or crappie, Terry would have been more interested in fishing. But, it is about a mile and a fourth around the lake so we enjoyed riding the bikes again.

The closest side of the lake has sites with sewer. The ones on the other side do not have sewer, and that is where we parked. We are getting pretty good at being able to not have to dump our sewer for two weeks at a time--especially when we are parked across the road from the restroom and showers!

Terry went to school with Ken from 1st grade through high school. I have known him through high school. We all graduated from high school the same year. We have seen him only once or twice in the last 45 years, but we knew he lived in this area. Through the help of the Internet, we found his phone number, called him, and went to visit him and his wife, Julie. He took us to dinner and we had a great time reminiscing. Then the next week, he came to the Park and had a barbecue with us and we talked again about the "old days." He committed to coming to the next class reunion and we tentatively made plans to get together next summer if he makes it to Idaho for a family reunion. What a great time!

Seaside, Seaside OR 9/30/10 - 10/20/10

Well, we crossed the Columbia River into Oregon and went 15 miles to Seaside!

We stayed 3 weeks in Seaside and I took very few pictures, so I am going to have to just tell you stories. I didn't even have a picture of the park. (We have been here several times, so if you want some pics, just go back to last year and the year before and you can find some.) The only pictures I could find on the Thousand Trails Internet site that I could "steal" was this one of the entrance. . .

. . .one of their pool. It is a beautiful pool and we did get in the hot tub a couple of times. We even got my brother, Bill, in it once. But, we had only enjoyed it for about 10 minutes and they kicked us out! We hadn't noticed the sign that said they had started closing an hour early!

We had a couple of Scensty shows. This park even put invitations in the welcome packet they gave people as they came in. They were great and let me put up signs all over the park--I just couldn't hang fliers on doors. So, we met lots of people in the Park and sold quite a bit of Scentsy product.

We spent lots of time on our bikes, even going to the grocery store several times and hung our sacks of groceries on the handlebars! We rode a lot on the Promenade downtown and almost everywhere we went. (It saved a lot on fuel.) We did make one trip back to Emmett during the three weeks we were here. Terry had a Dr appointment for his knee at the VA hospital in Boise. All turned out okay. They told him to "keep on truck'n" until his knee got so painful he couldn't walk on it and then they would do surgery on it! So far, even with all of the bike riding, it is holding up well.

One of the funnest things at Seaside was that my brother, Bill, came and spent a couple of nights with us. He brought his son's bike and we wore him out bike riding. Besides going on the Promenade, we took off one day to Fort Steven's State Park. They have a great paved bike trail. We stopped along the beach for a rest and lunch.

Terry and Bill found a great old driftwood log to sit on while we ate.

It didn't take long for the seagulls to find us! Bill practically had them eating out of his hand!

There was part of an old wrecked ship on the beach.

It is ship of Peter Iredale. I won't bore you with the details, but it has been there for a long time. They had to take part of it away when it got too dangerous--possibility of part of it falling on curious visitors.

We rode our bikes back to the visitor's center and looked around Fort Stevens. It was really interesting. We had been there with all of our kids over 20 years ago. Apparently, the Fort was all set up to protect us from an invasion, but not a shot was ever fired. I think that was not a bad thing!

We had a great time with Bill. I hope he didn't go home too sore from all of the bike riding. I actually think he may get himself a bike and do more of it!

There was a family of raccoons in the park and we caught site of them one day.

Our friends, Larry and Elaine, from Boring, OR, have a house in Seaside. They planned it so they would be there while we were here. We had a great time with them--meals at their house and playing dominoes, a meal and games at our house, and . . .

. . . going to see the tide pools. Hopefully we can get together with them in Arizona in the Spring!

At 2:00 in the middle of the night before we left Seaside, we had sparks flying and smoke billowing in our Condo! The neutral wire in the park pedestal we were plugged into went out. We are not sure what caused it, but it was sure scary! It totally burnt our plug-in and fried our converter and microwave. Terry got a replacement plug, put it back on our cord, filed a report with the Park, and headed for one night at South Jetty before heading for northern California. We plan to get the converter and microwave replaced when we get there. Hopefully, it will at least partially be covered by insurance! Aaah--the joys of RVing!