Doggie art at another site

The sun is back

After two days of rain I was about to get cabin fever. Today the sun is out and we took a nice morning walk through the resort. The plus side of the storm was that the mountains around us now are covered with snow and very, very pretty to look at. It is really hard to believe that this is the desert as the park is extremely green, and lush with colorful flowers and fruit trees everywhere. We like it so much we are actively looking for a lot to rent for next year. We think we will leave Tacoma around November 1st and spend all of November around the LA area. The weather seems to still be nice and warm at the beaches then. December, January, and February we plan on spending here in Cathedral City and then heading west to the beaches again in March and working out way north up the coast as the weather permits. If we stay with that plan we won't be moving the rig much. We are looking at the idea of taking our Sebring convertible with us on a dolly and selling the Wrangler. The little jeep is fun but not good for foul weather and is limited in comfort, taking people with you, and you can't really lock up anything while you shop. Three cars is one too many and the Sebring would be perfect for the area. We'll see how all this shakes out but that's our plan at this point.
We ordered a thermo-electric cooler from Coleman online last week. This is to handle the beverages that we have been keeping in an ice chest and having to load with ice every other day. It is able to run off the cigarette lighter or the house system when we are plugged in. Our fridge is fine for food but we are always running low on room for drinks. We have been thinking about doing this for some time and decided to go for it. Hopefully, it will work as advertised...more to follow.
I'm going to drop Susan down at the laundry room in a few minutes then maybe lay around the pool and read for awhile or maybe sit in the sun here at the campsite and enjoy a cigar while I read. Decisions, decisions, it never stops.
We had a light breakfast over at the cafe this morning. I had two pancakes and two patty sausages with coffee and Susan had a pancake, an egg, and two link sausages with coffee. Total amount $11 plus tip. Not bad. Its the nice thing about the site owners running the park as it is not so much about making a profit from every aspect of the park. It also insures that the food and service are good and the price reasonable. Same thing with the nice, spacious lots. If this was a full rental facility the sites would be much smaller, and the amenities more pricey. The economy is evident here as well with a quite a few sites for sale, and not every site is full or rented. We are hoping to get a decent deal on next years stay by renting from an actual owner rather than from the office here at the resort. The office takes a nice big cut for renting our the sites for the owners. I know that the Outdoor resort in Indio charges the owners 40% for renting out their sites. Seems that we could cut out the middleman and have a win-win situation for us and the owners.
Well, off to the laundry and the pool in that order.

Carol Z, this site is you......

Walking the golf course here

Walk throught the grounds

The two days of rain means whiter mountains

The outside of the park is pretty too.

Remember to click on the pictures to see them full size. Click the back arrow to return to the blog.

Walking outside the park

Another view of the entrance to the park

Another angle of the 11th and 12th holes

More of the course

Teeing off

It must be 5pm somewhere.

Margaritas are served at the cocktail hour!

The other end of the road

At the other end of Tennis Court Lane is one of the 27 holes of par three golf here at the resort.

Our site #202

To the right of our site you can see the gate to the pool in the back of the previous mentioned clubhouse. As you can see we are only one slot away from the pool, the cafe, the store, and the spas. It makes going over to the pool quick and easy and therefore you tend to use them more than sites further away.

The Clubhouse

Tour continued.... Main Clubhouse

After making a turn you pass by the main clubhouse. We are just a slot away from the left side of the main clubhouse, in site 202, on Tennis Court Lane.

Tour continued.....

After turning in you drive down the entrance road toward the security gate. To find us you have to take a right turn in front of the main clubhouse.

A short tour of the new place

I'll take a few seconds to give you a quick tour of the RV park we moved into on Super Bowl Sunday. The entrance pretty much sets the stage for the rest of the park. It is on Ramon Road, a major exit road off Interstate 10. A nice brick facade, fountains, and flower beds are the first thing you see as you drive in.

As the night settles.....

Our new home....Site # 202

Lots of fruit trees here....Orange tree behind us.

The Super Bowl

I can't believe I was watching the Super Bowl outside with the compartment TV, getting a nice tan, and eating ice cold watermelon from the ice chest.....in February? We also had hot dogs just before the game started. It was a good game, close, lots of momentum changes, a big comeback, and two touchdowns in the last three minutes. What more could you ask for. I hated to see the Steelers win again, mostly because they beat my Seahawks in the Super Bowl three years ago. Still it was entertaining and Bruce Springstein was The Boss again during halftime.

We are really captivated by this park! It is very green, and the lakes are beautiful. The mountains in the distance are gorgeous and the sunset silloutes the ever present palm trees. Lots of flowers and fruit trees.

A Lazy Day

Right now it's five minutes past five pm and officially the cocktail hour. The sun is just dropping behind the distant mountains and I'm planted outside under the awning typing and sipping a margarita on the rocks (rim salted). I'm wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a pair of Croc's on my bare feet. We spent the last couple of hours floating around the pool using our "water noodles". Ou site is within 30 yards of the pool and the two spas. The pools/spas are open from 7am to 10pm every day and since they are so close we plan on making really good use of them. It was over 80 today and the pool was super nice.
This morning we took the jeep for a drive and had breakfast out at Mickey D's, sausage biscuit, with egg and cheese, hash browns, and their very good coffee. It's been awhile since we've been to McDonald's and I have to admit I love that breakfast sandwich. We shopped at a Von's Super Market on the way back home picking up a few things we were low on. Last week I ordered some patio lights from Camping World online as it gets dark down here around six and it's hard to grill things in the dark. These lights are 10 globes that hang in a string from your awning and each has a 40 watt bulb inside so it should make patio living in the evening more enjoyable. The lights did not come with bulbs so we picked those up at Von's as well.

We set up our little two person table with the red checkered tablecloth and a hurricane lamp with a fat red candle and plan on eating outside in comfort. Tonight's menu at the Lee Bistro is grilled pork chops, au gratin scalloped potatoes, fresh asparagus, and a fine red wine (Two Buck Chuck).

Will miss the little pool at Happy Traveler, We had lots of fun here.

Your blog meister, checking the spread for the Super Bowl

MMmmmmmm good

Lunch after shopping

Mexican resaurant we had lunch at

Lots of purchases today

Nothing says it better

Susan shopping for an Italian Charm Bracelet

College of the Desert Street Fair

Ollie, up close and personal

Ollie, bathed and clipped

Leaving Happy Traveler RV Park

Today we left the Happy Traveler RV Park that we spent the month of January in and moved to our new location at the Outdoor RV Resort, in Cathedral City. We have not had to move the rig in over thirty days so it was a real change of pace for us, having to pack up everything move eight miles down the road and set up again. We will be here until March 3rd and then we head back to the coast. I will write more about Outdoor tomorrow and will be better at posting pictures in the future.

This is dedicated to the last couple of weeks we spent at Happy Traveler. We had lots of company the last couple of weeks and that's the main reason I haven't been posting...too busy.

Larry and Rose were here for a few days and we met up with Paul and Michele, who we had met at Larry and Rose's wedding last year. Carol drove over and spent Thursday through Sunday of last week with us. Unfortunately Mark had to work and could not make the trip. Ed and Pat arrived in their Lazy Daze for a week and they were parked across from us.

We went to "Village Fest" on Thursday night and met Betty & Ken, friends of Pat & Ed's that have a place down here they spend a few weeks a year at. We had a nice Italian dinner then browsed the stalls again before walking home. We also spend some time in the spa that stays open until 10pm. We also play some cutthroat "Uno" games going on. Saturday morning we went to the College of the Sun street fair and shopped there. There must be a bazillion booths but there is a lot of variety so it is fun.

After everyone left at once it seemed to quiet down a bit and we settled into life in Palm Springs.

We bought a couple of "water noodles", which are actually foam tubes that support you in the pool so you can float effortlessly. The weather has been in the high seventies and low eighties and should stay there for at least the next ten days. We took Ollie in and had him bathed and clipped. They did a nice job on him and he really seems to like it. We think it makes him look quite a bit younger than his 12 years. He has settled into Palm Springs very well. The restaurant we have breakfast at on occasion lets dogs into the patio area so he loves that. He always gets a bite or two of pancakes, eggs, or both. There are lots of dog people in the park that make over him on his walks and offer him cookies. No wonder he has adapted so well.

Yesterday we took another trip to the street fair to pick up some fresh produce, sunglasses, wind spinners, a flag for Pat and Ed, and a purse holder for Carol. We stopped at a nice Mexican restaurant on the way home and had a really nice lunch. We took a lazy siesta when we got back and then watched some tube that night as we wanted to get up early and get packed up.

We could not check in to Outdoor until noon so we took our time packing things away at Happy Traveler. When we pulled out into the side street at 11am to hook up the Jeep the side street had about half a dozen rigs lined up to pull into the park as we were leaving. February 1st and since you get a better rate monthly today was the big turnover day.

Outdoor is very pretty and we selected our spot several months ago. It is close to the cafe and the main pool and spa that is the hub of the park. There are seven other pools in the park as it has about 1200 sites and the satellite pools are position so everyone is fairly close to a pool. Our site is large and has several citrus trees on it, orange and lemon, and there are palm trees all over the park. We are closer to the desert floor here and so the sun is not blocked by the mountains at 3:30 pm as was the case at Happy Traveler. We do have a great view of the mountains around us though. There are 27 holes of par 3 golf here at the resort, 14 lighted tennis courts, a restaurant (ironically called La Palma. which is the model name of our rig), a convenience store, and seven lakes on the 140 acres here. Very green, lots of flowers, and large sites. The sites are privately owned and subleted when the owners are traveling. The nice thing about a big park like this is they are lots of places to walk without leaving the park. Walking around the lakes on the golf course is really nice what with all the palm trees and you don't have to do the same walk each day. The sites are fun to look at and about half the people here have golf carts to travel the park in. We will stick to the Jeep, thank you. We still have all the windows out of the Wrangler so it is nice and cool with the top for shade but the sides all open and very airy. It is very suited for this climate. We will be shooting some pix the next couple of days of the park as it is so picturesque that it cries out for pictures to be taken.

We had hoped to find an area in the SW that we really enjoyed and could make it our home away from home and thought some artsy little town in Arizona would eventually be our pick but it seems that the Palm Springs area turns out to be our choice. We are already considering when and where we will be staying in the Palm Springs area next year.