A Fun Morning Walk In Downtown Palm Springs

One of the things I’ve always wanted to do while staying in this area for the winter is to make more visits to downtown Palm Springs in the morning.  We don’t do enough of it so I think I’ll make an effort to see if we can change that for our last month here this year.  It’s a beautiful spot for an outdoor breakfast, coffee and a muffin or just for walking along the sidewalk looking at all the people.

What got me thinking about this was when Paulette left for her day with her Quilting Club up at the North Hall just after 9am.  That left me and the muttzo’s to come up with something to do rather than the nothing at all day I really enjoyed on Tuesday.  I felt like getting a cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin for some reason so we piled into the truck and headed for Palm Canyon Drive.

It’s never too early for a bottle of Champagne in Palm Springs!

Another one of the nice things about the outdoor sidewalk cafe’s and coffee shops in Palm Springs is they are all pretty much dog-friendly.  At most, you are able to sit outside at a table for breakfast, lunch or even dinner with your pets along as they are on a leash and under control.  Strangely, Molly and Rylie in the few times we’ve taken advantage of this have been very, very good.  A few treats help!

Wednesday morning downtown was perfect.  Around 10am it was already close to 70F and the sun was shining, as usual, with not even a whisper of a cloud in the sky.  Right smack downtown on the corner of Palm Canyon Drive and Tahquitz Canyon Way there are 2 popular coffee hangouts – the ever present Starbucks and The Coffee Bean.

I decided to try the Coffee Bean because I can get a Starbuck’s coffee anytime or anywhere it seems.  I went in and bought a coffee and a blueberry muffin then returned outside to grab the last available table to sit for a half hour and watch all of the folks wandering down the sidewalks enjoying the beautiful morning.

One of the busier places for breakfast was a place called Pinocchio’s – it was packed.  In fact, whenever I go downtown this cafe is always doing a booming business.  I made a note to make Pinocchio’s our very next breakfast stop.  Walking by, I couldn’t help but notice people were enjoying a bottle of Champagne with breakfast.  It made me wonder if that was some kind of a special deal here and maybe why Pinocchio’s was so popular!

I was back at the Sands well before noon and did a little, not a lot, of regular maintenance work around our site.  I emptied the holding tanks and treated them.  Paulette finally found a store that sells Calgon water softener powder here – it was Kmart.  Calgon is great for making the tank sides slippery and slick so nothing can stick to them.  I mixed a cup of Calgon in a about a gallon of water for each of the holding tanks.  It does a good job.

Other than that, it was just another day relaxing in the sun.  I never even got up to the pool for a swim.  For dinner, I just drove into Desert Hot Springs and picked up a pizza from Rocky’s New York Pizza place.  It was good as usual!  Thursday, all the quilting ladies are off on a Shop Hop for the day.  I’m not driving – yahoo!!

Have a great Thursday, and thanks again for visiting!

The Biggest 5’er I’ve Ever Seen – 46 Ft. In Our Park

When I sat down at my computer last night to write this blog, I didn’t have any particular topic in mind.  I suppose the main reason for that is I didn’t do much, in fact, I never left our RV Resort at all.  Golf was out too as I don’t really care for golfing two days in a row and especially not after our desert hike on Monday. 

New Horizons Majestic Motomover – 46 ft. long

Then, I suddenly remembered a big topic of discussion amongst our morning ‘Dog Park Cabinet’ members that many of you might find interesting – or simply amazing!  A few days ago, some guy wheels into the Sands driving a big Freightliner Chassis truck pulling a huge 46’ long New Horizons Majestic Motomover.  This is one big rig.  It’s a luxury 5’er and a Toy Hauler all in one.

Just like in a house, open the garage door and walk right in

Finding a site that could accommodate this sucker was a real challenge for the staff at the Sands.  But, after some measuring, twisting and turning a pie shaped site at the end of a cul-de-sac was deemed suitable.  It’s a tight squeeze as the 5’er hitch is right up to the curb and the back is right against the fence.  Luckily, there is parking adjacent to the site for the big Freightliner tractor tower.

This is one of the floor plans

In fact, this rig took up so much space on the site I couldn’t really get a good photo of it without disturbing the owners, so I did a few Google searches to find this model.  Apparently, the guy who owns this rig is towing some kind of ATV’s in the garage.  I can’t imagine what kind of mileage this rig gets when it’s full.

If you think this is just the rig for you then your probably wondering how much it would cost, right?  The closest I could come to a price was a MSRP of $137,300 with an average retail cost of $112,000.  Then, on top of that, you’d need a big diesel tractor tow-vehicle to pull it.  I think it would just be too much trouble finding a park that could fit us in so I’m not going to bother with it.

A few more photos from our desert hike on Monday

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Paulette had a quiet day here as well with her only out of the park venture a drive to the local post office to drop off some mail.  At least she did something productive for the rest of the day as she kept busy with some sewing projects broken up by some sun time outside.

As for me, I finished another e-book, took a few spins around the park on our little red bike and spent some time up at the pool in the afternoon.  That was in addition to my usual morning and afternoon trips to the dog park. 

That’s it – I made it, another blog is in the books!

Have a great Wednesday, and thanks again for visiting!

A Hike In The Desert And A Hike On A Golf Course

Our week got off to a fairly busy start under bright, sunny blue skies, no wind and temperatures in the mid-70s – nothing wrong with that at all.  We took advantage of the beautiful weather by driving up Banning Pass and taking the road into the Whitewater Preserve.  Once there, we parked the truck and headed out into the desert with Molly and Rylie for a 2 hour hike.

Whitewater River

Whitewater is one of the nicer hikes in this area because it’s a mix of desert trails, an actual river which is a real rarity in these parts and great vistas of multi-coloured mountains.  This hike is also fairly easy as there are no steep inclines unless you actually go looking for them.  We chose not to and instead stayed on the beaten path.

This is a good example of the beaten path we trekked along

The trail was pretty popular yesterday.  We must have met up with at least a dozen other hikers and quite a few dogs as well.  Once out in the desert, most of the dogs were off leash but that didn’t cause any problems at all as they were all well behaved, most importantly, so were Molly and Rylie.

Everywhere we turned, there were beautiful vistas

The trail we were on goes on for miles and miles but after about an hour of walking the trail, we stopped for a rest before turning around and heading back to the Ranger Station where our truck was parked.  We were only out for a nice, morning walk in the desert.  From there it was only a 20 minute drive back down to Desert Hot Springs and the Sands RV Resort.

We got back a little after noon and I found an email from my friend Mel asking if I wanted to go golfing at 2pm.  Sure, why not!  By the time I had a quick rest, a bite to eat and got changed it was time to walk up to the clubhouse.  In the meantime, Paulette was off to do a bit of grocery shopping as well as Staples to do some photocopying.

Golf was fun, I was in a foursome with Mel, Roger and Don and while none of us threatened to break the course record we had some good laughs and it was a beautiful afternoon.  We finished up our game a little after 4 and I was pretty happy to be heading back to our rig for a rest in my Lazy Boy!  I figured, off and on, I managed close to 4 hours of walking yesterday.

It was such a beautiful evening we decided to BBQ hamburgers for dinner.  I fired up our Weber Grill and it didn’t take long to grill up some tasty burgers to go with the salad and corn on the cob Paulette whipped up.  No plans for Tuesday yet so it just might turn out to be a day of taking it easy with some pool time.

Have a great Tuesday, and thanks again for visiting!

Biscuits Are Just Fine, But Hold The Sausage Gravy

One thing I like about reading a lot of blogs first thing in the morning is that it often leads to good ideas for my own daily blog.  That’s what happened again Sunday while reading RV Days with Jessica and Harry when Jessica wrote “This morning we started out with breakfast at a local place. Sausage gravy and biscuits – yum.”

Why would anyone spoil fresh biscuits with white sausage gravy?

At the risk of offending all y’all southern folks (and you too, Jessica), instead of using the 3 letter word ‘yum’ I would have chosen the 3 letter word ‘yuk’ to describe that white, gooey, disgusting looking and worse tasting sausage gravy.  The only thing worse is that wallpaper paste y’all call ‘Grits’.  Biscuits and Gravy with a side of Grits – yee-haw!

Grits – or something akin to wallpaper paste

I’ve heard several different explanations of what Grits are so I decided to Google it and see what they said:

Grits is a food of Native American origin, common in the Southern United States and mainly eaten at breakfast. Modern grits is commonly made of alkali-treated corn known as hominy.

Maybe it’s the alkali that gives Grits that wallpaper paste quality.  Whatever, it’s sure not something I’d want to risk first thing in the morning.  This goes in the ‘white sausage gravy’ trash bin for me.

This is my all-star #1 favourite breakfast anywhere, anytime!

I’ll take a good ole “2 eggs with hash browns, bacon and toast – a perfect way to start the day.  Unfortunately, that’s my dream breakfast while my usual one is simply cereal – Raisin Bran.

Homemade Biscuits with Blackberry or Raspberry Jam are #2

Now, we’re talking!

Now, if you don’t happen to like eggs, bacon, sausage gravy, grits or hashbrowns then how about just biscuits with homemade blackberry or raspberry jam and freshly brewed coffee?   Sausage gravy is a terrible way to spoil a really good oven baked biscuit. 

Pancakes are a great breakfast too – with sausages/eggs, no gravy

Another of my favourite breakfasts are pancakes with eggs, bacon or sausages.  I love sausages but the white gravy makes me gag!  So, how about you?  What’s your favourite breakfast? 

Argo won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year last night.  Since it was the only one of the 9 films nominated that I’d actually seen, I was happy to see it win the award.  Paulette and I had given it a 9 out of 10 in our estimation.

As for the Academy Awards show itself it was probably one of the most boring we’ve watched in years.  it dragged terribly with lame productions that went on forever and left only a few minutes to cram all the major awards into at the end of the show.

Also, one of the worst supposed jokes I’ve heard in a long time was when the host Seth MacFarland (who is he anyway?) thought it was funny to make a joke about President Lincoln’s assassination.  It was unbelievably bad.  Doesn’t he know that jokes about killing a President are sick and never funny no matter how long ago they occurred?  What an idiot!

Have a great Monday, and thanks again for visiting!

Local Bloggers Visit And A Good Day For Bargoons!

Paulette, Sandy and a couple of other ladies drove out of the park just after 8am Saturday morning and that’s the last I saw of them until 3pm!  It was the usual Garage Sales in Palm Springs day and from the load of stuff Paulette hauled in, it was a “bargoon laden” day.  But, more on that stuff later! 

First, we had some company – fellow bloggers Allen and Lolita popped in for a quick visit just a few minutes after Paulette arrived home.  It was great to see them again.  The last time we visited with Allen and Lolita was last summer when they spent a month on Vancouver Island.  We enjoyed some great hikes in the Victoria area and also up in Parksville when we went with them to Little Qualicum Falls.

Fresh California lemons and oranges courtesy of Lolita and Allen

Allen and Lolita were in Palm Springs so they sent us an email first and then came over.  We had a great chat talking about their first year of owning a fifth-wheel and what their future plans were.  Right now, they are living in Corona, about an hour from Palm Springs, but are still planning a permanent move up to the Vancouver, B.C. area.  We’re hoping to get together again before we have to head home.

A handmade clock made to look like a Patchwork Quilt - $2.50

Now back to the garage sale bargoons!  First up – a square clock that works and is made to look like a Patchwork Quilt.   That’s an item Paulette could never pass up.  I imagine this will end up on her sewing room wall at home.  She paid $2.50 for it so it was less than a cup of Starbuck’s coffee.  What’s to complain about?

A “real stained glass leaded lamp” not a fake, I’m told - $7

The next item even looked good to me.  It was a beautiful leaded, stained-glass lamp and it works too.  After some bargaining, I’m told Paulette got it for $7 – that’s a steal in my books.  Right now, it’s sitting on our kitchen table in the 5’er and the light from it is just perfect for working on our computers.  So, far – two for two!

This is a Quilt Holder that works by clamping the material

Things took a bit of a downturn for me when I saw Paulette and Sandy hauling a 5 ft. long finished “board with knobs” out of the car.  My first thought was “I hope this is just one of whatever it is and not some huge piece of junk I’ll have to haul home”.  I was thinking “firewood” before Paulette said this “Quilt Hanger” is something she’s always wanted and it was only $10.  She said they normally sell for around $60 for one this size.  Really??

A Quilt Holder this size normally goes for $60 – it was $10

This Quilt Hanger is actually two finished wood boards with 4 wooden handled screws to attach them.  To hang a quilt(s), just undo the wooden handles, place the quilt between the boards and screw the handles back in to clamp the material firmly.  The back of board even has hanger brackets for the wall. 

A small bribe for me – a pack of Coke Zero’s – I’m easily bribed

We just stayed home last night and watched another Netflix movie.  It was an old one, The Sum Of All Fears with Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman.  It was o.k., but time hasn’t done it any favours as some of the techie stuff was pretty old and hokey!

Have a great Sunday, and thanks again for visiting!

Out For A Mexican Dinner And In To Watch ‘Argo’

When I asked Paulette on Friday afternoon if she would like to go for dinner and a movie, she did a double-take!  It wasn’t the dinner offer that surprised her, instead it was the movie!  I seldom go to a theater - the last James Bond movie I saw was Goldfinger!  So, I had to confess that dinner would be at a Mexican restaurant but our movie, a good one, would be on the widescreen HD TV in our 5’er.

I’m a big fan of watching movies on our wide-screen TV’s either at home or in our 5’er.  To me, it sure beats getting in a car, driving for miles and then sitting in a crowded theatre full of coughing, hacking people that usually end up blocking my view.  Then, some joker decides he/she has to go to the washroom half way through the movie so the entire row has to stand up/sit down…..stand up/sit down.

So, last night, just before the big Oscar night Sunday, we were able to download and watch one of this year’s nominated films – Argo.

The movie starred Ben Affleck who doubled as the film’s Director.  We rented the HD movie from iTunes for $5.99 which is a lot less than going to a movie theater.  Our popcorn and cokes were also way less than what the theater charges which is usually more than the price of tickets!

As advertised, the movie was excellent and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it ended up winning an Oscar.  But, I haven’t seen Lincoln or any of the other nominated movies so what do I know!  The movie Argo is drama based on the 1980 joint Canadian-CIA secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran after they’d hidden in the Canadian Embassy.  I’d give this movie a 9 out of 10.

The Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant in Desert Hot Springs

Earlier in the evening, Paulette and I went out for dinner to the Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant in Desert Hot Springs.  We discovered this excellent little restaurant, close by our RV Resort, just last year.  The food is terrific, prices are very reasonable and the service is absolutely great.  Paulette had Quesadillas while I stuck with my regular Chicken Enchiladas – both were delicious!

My 3 Chicken Enchiladas dinner with rice and beans – $8.99!

We enjoyed a beautiful day here Friday.  Paulette drove her friends Sandy and Jennifer up to Yucca Valley to do some thrift shopping in the morning.  I stayed in the RV park all day doing a few chores in the morning and then going for a swim, hot tub and some lounger time in the sun in the afternoon.  Another nice, relaxing day.

Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting!

Canadian Snowbird News And O’Reilly’s New Book

The B.C. government just announced that B.C. snowbirds (that’s us) who holiday out of the province will be able to stay away longer without losing their basic medical coverage.  The proposed change would allow residents — who can currently be out of the province for up to six months and still maintain coverage under B.C.’s medical services plan — an additional 30-day absence or now seven months.

This is Riley’s “I want to go to the dog park look”

The move aligns B.C. with Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador in allowing residents to maintain their medical coverage while out of the province for more than six months.  The Canadian Snowbird Association welcomed the move and said it would let B.C.’s 144,000 snowbirds travel south during the cold months without fear of losing their medical coverage when they return to Canada.

“O.K., then I’ll play dead until you say yes”

While it’s probably good news for many B.C. snowbirds, I doubt we’ll ever have to worry about staying away from home for more than six months at a time.  After just 4 months in the hot southwest sun and desert climes, Paulette and I are more than anxious to get back to our home on Vancouver Island.   

“Hmmm…that didn’t work.  How ‘bout  if I let you rub my tummy”

In other snowbird news, The Canadian Snowbird Association (yes, there really is such an organization) released a statement to members advising that the Governor of Florida has assured them that the recently passed law requiring all visitors to have a Florida International Driving Permit, issued in English, will not be enforced.  Thousands of Canadians vacationing in Florida were worried that in addition to fines, their car insurance might be invalid.

“Well, I’ll just tear Mom’s new quilt to pieces, then”

Immediately after learning of the requirement to obtain an IDP, the Canadian Snowbird Association (CSA) contacted the Governor of Florida's office and expressed VERY strong concerns.  They stressed firm opposition to the requirement and noted the significant impact it would have on Canadians who are so critical to the economy of Florida. They were assured by the Governor's office that changes to the legislation would be made.

“I put things back together – can we please go now?”

Still concerned that an immediate short-term solution would need to be put in place as the Florida Legislature would not be in session until March, the Governor’s office made sure the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) issued a statement confirming that the FHP would defer enforcement of the law.  I wonder whose bright idea this international drivers’ licence was?

Faux News commentator Bill O’Reilly is really into killing these days.  His publisher confirmed yesterday that O’Reilly’s third co-authored book in his “killing” series will be “Killing Jesus: A History,”

This new book will be released September 24th and according to a press release, “Killing Jesus will tell the story of Jesus as a beloved and controversial young revolutionary brutally killed by Roman soldiers.” 

I’m not so sure how describing Jesus as a “revolutionary” will go down with O’Reilly’s far right-wing fans.  His publisher, Stephen Rubin, said "I can think of no one better than Bill O'Reilly to write this story in a way that has never been told before”. I’ll bet!  As for O’Reilly himself he said “I have uncovered some amazing things about the execution of Jesus and how it all tied into Roman power".  Ha!  He’ll probably say he has proof it was President Obama’s fault!!

Have a great Friday, and thanks again for visiting!

A Drive Down A Box Canyon & MS Outlook Aliases

It was windy here in Desert Hot Springs yesterday but the skies were clear, the sun was shining and as long as you were inside looking out it was just perfect.  The big topic at the dog park yesterday morning was all the snow up on the mountains.  The top 2/3 of San Jacinto had snow on it and that was as low as most of us had ever seen the snow around here.

All the photos in today’s blog were taken on Box Canyon Road

It was Paulette’s Quilt Club day so I spent most of the morning doing some work on my computer to get rid of a lot of old programs and junk I didn’t need anymore.  While on the Dell Computers’ site I happened to check and found out my laptop is 7 years old!  Wow!  It’s a Dell Inspirion 6400 I bought back in 2006 but it still runs fast and I even have Windows 8 running on it.  Still……..!

The wind was still gusting at lunchtime but I knew out towards Indio and La Quinta it was probably going to be quiet.  I got Molly and Rylie in the truck and we took off east on I-10 with no particular place to go.  I flew right by La Quinta and Indio soon finding myself out in the desert heading towards Blythe.  It was then I remembered that I could turn off onto Box Canyon Road to take us back to La Quinta.

Box Canyon Road has always been one of my favourite drives in the entire Coachella Valley.  The road itself is a two-lane flat highway that winds through some great canyons, mountains and rock formations.  It’s also a great area for hiking too.  Paulette and I have taken a few great hikes here including the beautiful Painted Canyon hike.

There was no hiking yesterday though even though it was a perfect day for it.  I made a few stops along the way and it was amazing how nice it was when I got out of the truck.  The wind was absolutely zero.  Amazing!

After a nice drive, a few stops to let Molly and Rylie stretch their legs, it was time to head back to the Sands to meet Paulette at the North Hall to load up her sewing machine and all her other gear.  The quilting group at the Sands has now grown to more than 20 quilters – that’s a big jump from just a few years ago.

Judging by the comments about my blog on Hotmail yesterday, there are mixed feelings about this old email web service.  Some folks hate it while others still use it and like it.  Like it or not, the format is being switched to Outlook.com sometime in the next few months.  There were a few questions about converting and, in particular, about how to setup an Outlook Alias.  So, I thought I’d just show a few quick images showing how to convert and setup an alias.

Step 1.  Click as shown to upgrade from Hotmail to Outlook

The above image shows the standard Hotmail display.  You should now see a blue sidebar allowing you to “Upgrade to Outlook.com”.  Clicking on this will instantly convert you to Outlook.com and open the display shown below:

You will immediately see this new Outlook display

That’s really all you have to do to convert to the new Outlook.  If you want to you can continue with no changes to make whatsoever.  Your email address will continue to be the same xxxx@hotmail.com you’ve always used.  If, however, you would like to a nice new @outlook.com email address while still making sure your friends, relatives and anyone else can still contact you using your Hotmail address, then creating an ‘Outlook Alias’ is the way to go.

Step 2.  Click on the Wrench icon and “More mail settings”

To create an alias, click the wrench as shown above and then “More mail settings”.

Step 3.  Click on ‘Create an Outlook alias’

Step 4.  Type in your new Outlook name

Then just type in your new Outlook name.  You can actually use the same prefix name you use for Hotmail.

Step 5.  Select options as shown below

Last, just select the option to have all of your @outlook.com mail sent to your inbox.  All mail addressed to your old @hotmail address will also appear in the same inbox.  But, from then on, every time you send an email message it will be using the @outlook.com name.

Have a great Thursday, and thanks again for visiting!