Wednesday, January 04, 2012

1/4/12 Happy New Year Everybody! We have been staying at the SKP park called Jojoba Hills which is located in Temecula, CA. We came here in late Dec. in anticipation of having a fun New Year's party, and also seeing some much-appreciated Boomer friends. Immediately we encountered sunny and warm weather and that has been continuing. Yesterday and today was in the 80's. We have been staying in the boondocking area which is pretty nice, although there are no hookups. There have been lots of social occasions, such as Happy Hours and group meals. Unfortunately, I have fallen into the mode of "kick back" and I have not been taking many pictures.
Vicky & Terry Webb, and Dick and Carole Schneider came over one evening for drinks and appetizers. Laurie & Odel arrived on the 30th and they were here for the New Year's Eve party at the Ranchhouse, and also a traditional German meal at Carole & Dick's site on New Year's Day. Other Boomer friends were there as well. Elaine and I have been trying to clean up and organize our rig, and also diagnose our electrical problem. Yes, the electrical problem we thought we had solved in Yuma is still with us. We have power to our plugs for the 2 TVs and my computer power strip when we are on the inverter, but when we run our generator, these plugs don't work. Hopefully, we can get this fixed when we go to Quartzsite later this month.
The other drama has been Elaine and her new tablet. She got a Samsung Galaxy Tab but when she was using it she was having great difficulties and being very frustrated. Luckily, Sarah Blackwood had her IPad2 at the New Years Eve party and she showed Elaine some of her apps and websites. Elaine realized how much easier her tablet was to use so yesterday we took her Samsung back to Costco and returned it. Then we drove directly to the Apple store in Temecula and got an IPad2 for Elaine. I think she is much happier with it and so am I because I don't have to listen to all her cursing when she can't figure out what to do, and I don't have to drop whatever I am doing to try to help her. I have never had a tablet, so parts of it are a mystery to me too!!! I am sticking with my Toshiba laptop!
Monday we drove to San Diego where we had a great visit with our son, Darran, and his new wife, Marielle. Both of them are such Sweeties! What a surprise when we walked into their place and he had a beard! Here is a picture of them with Elaine:

Darran's good friend and guru, Brian Lowe, and his wife Jen & 2 year old daughter Mckenna, joined us and we all walked on the path beside Mission Bay. Then we walked along the Pacific Ocean walkway down to the Crystal Pier and had lunch at a very good restaurant near there called Fat Fish. And Darran & Marielle picked up the check! It was so much fun to be with young people who are in the throes of starting their families and working hard on their careers. Here is a picture of the whole gang which was taken by a passing person on the beach walk:

Today we cleaned the inside of the rig and packed for tomorrow's departure. We will be heading for Anza Borrego for one night and then be visiting Mary & Rich Baughmann at the Salton Sea. By the 14th, we will be in Quartzsite, camping with our friends Mike & Marilyn Harrison and waiting for all the Boomers to show up for Boomerville. It runs from the 14th to the 30th. See you there!

1 comment:

CaliforniaGrammy said...

Love the pictures, Mary. I can't get over how tall Darran is next to his mom! It's amazingly warm these last couple weeks here, too. This time last year we were getting ready for snow ... so we've been enjoying this trend while we can! Have fun with the boomers in Quartzite, we have great memories of our times there.