July and August have brought a few new adventures.
While we are not traveling at this time our life continues to be a great adventure. 

One of the many views we enjoy on a daily basis.

Paul is learning the many different aspects of being the Assistant Manager at both Sky Valley and Caliente Springs resorts. Both resorts have a total of over 1800 sites.  Over the last few weeks he has done everything from: IT/having to reset the WiFi and company-wide network systems, plumber/tracking leaks in the pipes, electrical engineer/power outages and all around "Fix-it" person. He also has to deal with neighbor/neighbor disputes, landscaping issues, new construction approvals, waste management and environmental rulings, laundry equipment failures, and even legal litigation notices from the local and state governments that affect residents, but not our sites. It's amazing how, somehow, a dead Palm tree on one property seems to migrate to be the neighbors problem, not theirs.  However, Paul still has to smooth all those things over. Even simple things, like laying a 4x6 concrete pad needs his approval. He's getting pretty good at that :) He also seems to be getting the respect of the local community and contractors that they hire.  All in all, he's doing what he does well ... keeping the peace while maintaining resort rules and regulations.  In the Fall, he'll only be responsible for Caliente Springs, that is when the other Assistant Manager comes back for the winter season.
Me? I'm learning all the aspects of Front Desk: Reservations, Sales, Mail, answering whatever questions the residents ask.  I am also in the process of learning the billing system which can be quite complex. Tracking who is here, who is leaving, who has cable who wants it put on hold and not be billed for a month or two while they are traveling.  Summer may be the "slow season",  but it has been anything but slow!  The phones are always ringing with questions from travelers and residents alike, there is always something that needs attention and also preparing for the onset of the returning snow-birds has kept us both very busy.

Some desert landscaping.

Even with our busy schedule we have still found time to enjoy the area and people here.  We play water volleyball in the evening after work and on most of our off days.  It is a great way to relax, enjoy the pool and get to know people.  Some of the comments during the games will set off a contagious laughter that brings a stop to the game while we all try to compose ourselves. (After being hit in the head with a ball, someone exclaimed "Thank God for Fixadent!")

Water Volleyball

I have had the wonderful opportunity to make a trip back up North to spend some time with my girls and visit with my grandson.  It was a delightful visit that brought the added bonus of seeing a great-niece who happen to be visiting from the Mid-West.  We did a Trolley tour of San Francisco which I found to be very good and would recommend to anyone visiting that area.  I never knew that the old Victorian houses located in San Francisco had a 25 foot limit on their width when they were being built, or that there is a old Fort located under the Golden Gate Bridge.  We enjoyed walking the Farmers Market and getting free sample of chocolate from the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.  We did take a bit of time to relax and have tea and tea-cakes at a tea house.  Is was fantastic!  My visit with my grandson reminded me how fast time goes by.  He is ready to start crawling and responds to everything around him.  He enjoys going out for walks, playing on the floor with his toys and loved to be included in whatever I was doing, whether it was making dinner or folding laundry.  The best part is his smooches, when you say "I love you"  he immediately turns his head to give you a big wet kiss.  I guess it's his way of saying "I love you too!"  Time spent with my girls always creates "special memories" for me to treasure.

Love that smile!

My daughter and great-niece

My daughter and grandson.

We have had visitors big and small over that last month.  My cousin Mary and her husband John came for a visit.  We played slots at the local casinos, played in the pool, enjoyed the hot tubs and just had a fun time with them.  John is very tall, and quite heavy set ... but in a good way,  and "made-do" being in our RV, even though he had to duck his head every morning when coming out of the bedroom!  Hummingbirds continue to visit on a daily basis, well as long as the hummingbird feeder is filled.  They tend to come in the morning and evening, seems the days are too hot for them too!  We have even spotted a beautiful Hawk who hung around for a couple of hours.  He didn't seem bothered by all the comings and goings near the pool.

John in the bedroom doorway

Hawk atop the WiFi receiver

Our daily visitor

We have enjoyed exploring here, from a new Armenian church going up in Palm Desert to discovering Lake Hemet while driving around the mountains on the Palms to Pines Byway up in the mountains. 

New church, really like the design. 

A road trip while geocaching, the Highway.

Lake Hemet.

Thank you for stopping by and sharing our adventure.


Jo


"There comes a precious moment in all of our lives when we are tapped on the shoulder and offered the opportunity to do something very special that is unique to us and our abilities, what a tragedy it would be if we are not ready or willing."  — Winston S. Churchill

Many happenings and a new place to call home!

Over the last few weeks we have done some traveling: Spring Arbor, Michigan, Mesa, Arizona, Las Vegas, Nevada and back to our new home in Desert Hot Springs, California.

Spring Arbor, Michigan was the celebration of education.  We actually flew from San Francisco, California to be with Paul's daughter Jennifer and attend her graduation.  She graduated, with Honors, from Spring Arbor University with a BA in music. This is one very talented young woman.  Her mastery of music is incredible! The celebration included her Uncle Robert, Grandmother Barbara, boyfriend Jason and many of her friends.  We shared meals, played video games on the TV, Apples-to-Apples, went swimming and had a wonderful time.   Her future plans at this point are undetermined, but we are sure that whatever she aspires to do, she will be a success!  

Proud dad

Congratulations!

After arriving back to Bethel Island, California, we packed up the rig and headed down Highway 5 through the desert, over the hills and mountains to Desert Hot Springs where we parked our rig, set up and  plan to stay for a while.  We accepted a job at Caliente Springs Resort [http://www.calientesprings.com/]. It will be hard to leave my daughters and new grandson, but in reality I'm only a few hours away instead of being on the other side of the U.S.   More on that later...

Kevin, Elizabeth and Gage

Ajim and Coren

Mesa, Arizona: We visited with my cousin Mary and her husband John.  It was great to spend time with them.  Great home-cooked meals, sharing memories, laughter and went to Fort McDowell Casino to play one of our favorite communal slot machines “Reel Em In” or as us four call it “Here Fishy, Fishy”.  While there we even had lunch with their son Kevin and his wife Josie and congratulated them on the announcement of a new addition who should be arriving next year.  They are expecting their first child and Mary and John couldn’t be happier at the prospect of being grandparents.  This comes bittersweet for them as Kevin will be accepting a job in New Zealand.  Sometimes this world seems so small with all the mass communications and super jets able to fly anywhere in the world but when your first grandchild is being born half way across the world, it can also seem too big!  We wish Kevin and Josie all the best on this new adventure and hope that Mary and John will be able to make a visit to see them in the future.

An old picture of Mary and John taken in 2010

Las Vegas, Nevada: We drove to Vegas to meet up with our friends Terri and James after our visit in Mesa, Arizona.  It was an uneventful drive through more barren desert and shrub-filled hills.  We crossed the new bridge at Hoover Dam.  It was a different experience from what I remember in the past.  The old road took travelers directly down to the dam where there were always crowds of people sight-seeing and traffic backing up as cars would stop in the middle to snap pictures and bikers would be pulling in to parking areas to don their helmets before entering Nevada.   Things sure have changed with the new by-pass bridge.  But, since Paul had never been to Hoover Dam we decided to do a little sight-seeing.  We turned onto the road leading back down to the dam.  It was amazing how much the creation of the new bridge changed the atmosphere of Hoover Dam.  Yes there are still tourists and a few bikers, but the crowds are much thinner and the awe of driving down the original road and seeing the dam as you come out of the hills has a different feeling.  We parked the car and as Paul put it “We strolled, skipped, walked and drove” over this majestic monument.  One thing we did notice is that the water is very low.  Not sure if this is due to "global warming" or if it's a natural occurrence for this time of year. Paul had to take a picture of the men's restroom latrines.  He said he had never seen any like them in all of his travels. One more thing crossed off his “Bucket List” (the Dam, that is).  I must say this, I was in complete awe of the new bridge when seeing it from down on the dam. It is massive and since I had visited many times in the past, I just could not help repeating to Paul how amazing the new bridge looked!    

View for the top of Hoover Dam

One more thing checked off the "Bucket List"

The new bridge

Latrines

Back to Las Vegas: The last time we visited Vegas was on our trek from Colorado to California.  It was in November and the weather did not cooperate at all.  It was cold, raining and very windy, and there was no chance of walking up and down the strip to enjoy seeing the lights or any of the outside shows.  This time was completely different, the weather was warm and sunny.  We watch the “Battle of the Sirens” outside of Treasure Island, the “Volcanic Eruption” at the Mirage and enjoyed the “Dancing Fountains” at the Bellagio and rode up to the top of the “Eiffel Tower” for a skyline view of the famous Vegas Strip!  Vegas never ceases to delight the senses as the street musicians play their music, the hawkers constantly try to give you flyers advertising “girls” for your pleasure and the giant lighted billboards advertise shows and meals at the various casinos.  It was good to spend some time with friends Terri and James and catch up on where life has taken us over the last few years.  We may not have come out “Big Winners” at the casinos but our latest travels proved once more that we are rich -- loving family and friends are priceless!

Terri and James

Paul and I at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Desert Hot Springs: We have planted ourselves in this small green oasis out in this desert wasteland to take jobs.  Paul will be the Assistant Manager at Caliente Springs resort and I will do Front Office, cleaning or anything else they can find to keep me busy.  The resort, actually two resorts, Caliente Springs and Sky Valley, are owned and have been operated by the Manthei family since the 1970’s. All of the Manthei family are very involved in running the Resort from dad Tim to daughters Christy and Rachelle and son Garrett.  They also have a few cousins, Adam, Austin and Luke helping to make this oasis in the desert a warm and welcoming place to live!  They are all very outgoing, friendly and diligent at keeping the resorts running smoothly with a focus not only on the business aspects but in keeping their guests and residents happy.  We are looking forward to this new adventure and hope to contribute our past experiences to enhance both resorts.   If you are ever in the Desert Hot Springs area, don’t hesitate to stop by for a visit and enjoy the warm relaxing mineral pools and spas, exercise room, a game of billiards, ping pong, shuffle board and wildlife.

View of the nearby mountains

Billiards anyone?

A daily visitor

Peeking out behind the RV

Relaxing pool and spa

I think that's all for our latest updates.  As we continue to explore this new area I’ll be sure to post our adventures.

Thanks for stopping by.

Jo


"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
— Confucius

From Mother’s Day to Mountains

It has been an exciting month since I last wrote on our blog.

BBQ and family gatherings started the weekend before Mother’s Day.  Paul grilled burgers, brats and some chicken legs and breasts on our two grills.  Homemade potato salad, some corn on the cob and we had a feast fit for kings!  My son happened to be in the area working which was a fantastic treat for me. It’s not often that I have the opportunity to have my children gathered together as they live all over this beautiful nation. The girls drove out from the San Francisco area, and my son made the trip from where he was working in Sacramento.  Being in a campground seemed to bring back some very fond memories of old childhood camp songs.  Listening to the laughter and friendly brother/sister teasing brought joy to my heart and a smile to my face.

Playing Wii games

Mother’s Day:  We gathered together again at my youngest daughter’s house.  She had prepared a “Mother’s Day Brunch” which would have put the fanciest restaurants to shame.  Two types of quiche, stuffed pancakes, yogurt and fresh fruit parfaits and enough snacking foods to get us through the 3 hours of playing different games on her Wii!  We danced, bowled, boxed, raced and laughed so hard our sides hurt!  Who knew you could do all that in a living room filled with the people you love most! It was a great Mother’s Day for me and the first official Mother's Day celebration for my daughter with her new baby who blessed our lives in February.   

Our family's newest blessing

A wonderful day spent with my children and grandson

Caliente Springs Resort

On to the mountains. We had planned on spending our summer in the beautiful pine treed Colorado Mountains, but we received a call from Caliente Springs Resort which is located very near Palm Springs, California.  They contacted Paul regarding a long-term position.  So we were off once again to explore a new area and possibly a new job. Life changes and sometimes its best not to question why, but to go with the flow!  Caliente Springs is a 55+ resort that offers many activities for the 55+ age group.  Not only are there four natural heated (volcanic) mineral spas and  two pools filled with the same natural flowing hot mineral springs, but also golf, tennis, a fitness room, shuffleboard and many groups to fill our hours including everything from cards games to quilting.  Of course, we had to spend one evening enjoying the relaxing hot bubbly spas and a dip in the warm pool for a swim.   It was marvelous!

Caliente Springs has a sister resort, Sky Valley.  Sky Valley is an all age group, and offers much of the same resources, mineral spas, pools, tennis courts, a restaurant, and activities. In the off-season (Summer) Paul would be Assistant Manager for both resorts. In the on-season (Winter) the work toll would be so high and the resorts filled to the max with snowbirds, that Paul would just manage the Caliente Springs Resort.  I would be working in the office and doing whatever they find for me to fill my days.  

Tram cables and towers

While in the Palm Springs area, we explored some of the desert, the surrounding city of Desert Hot Springs, the mountains and of course the casinos!   We did visit a couple of the many casino’s in the area and even came home with some of their money!  Now that’s a great way to feel good about a new adventure.  We also went up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the San Jacinto State Park which took us through four temperate zones within a 6000 foot, upward, ride! They say it's like going from the Caribbean beaches to the Canadian tundra in just 10 minutes.   The State Park offers novice hiking, a one and half mile loop with incredible views of the Coachella Valley to hiking for the expert hiker, a 12 mile round trip to the top of the second highest peak in southern California.   We shouldn't have been surprised  at the amount of snow still on the mountain; there can be up to a 40 degree difference in temperature from the Valley Station which is at 2,643 feet to the Mountain Station which is at 8,516 feet. 

Paul standing near the Cable car

Cable car going up as we descended

We plan on doing a lot of hiking up there and hopefully will spot the abundant wildlife that the Ranger spoke about.  Bluebirds, Bighorn Sheep, hawks, owls and Mule deer are just a few of the many animals that roam the mountain. The city of Palm Springs offers everything we will need from the big box retail stores such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart to small specialty shops where you can find those “one of a kind” creations!  Yes, we know it will be a HOT, HOT summer.  But, can you imagine a winter day when it's 60 or 70?  

A view of the San Jacinto Mountain Range

We also had the delight of Paul meeting up with his in-laws, Norb and Barbara, who graciously invited us to their home for dinner.  Barbara is a very amazing woman as she cares for her husband who is recovering from a very bad fall. She is full of good cheer and even shared some of her life experiences and stories with us.  She and Norb have lived in the Palm Springs area for many years and are sure to be a great resource of information as we head into this new part of our lives.

  

I never realized that so much of California is mountains!  If we weren’t driving up and down, we were gazing into the near and far distance in awe at the wonders of the majestic landscape.  For several hundred miles, without even a home in sight, just an occasional farm warehouse, we drove through acres and acres of fruit trees, crops of tomatoes, corn, lemons, oranges, even pistachio and almond trees.  The amount of food grown in this region is amazing and most don’t really give it much thought.  But after this last trip, it made me more aware and appreciate all the hard work that goes on before walking into the local market/store and picking up the food needed to feed ourselves.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jo and Paul




"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity."
— Gilda Radner

A visit with our granddaughter Rio

It has been a very busy couple of weeks.  Planning a flight to Michigan for Paul's daughter's college graduation, mapping our road trip to our next workamping stop in Colorado, getting the RV and truck ready for the 1900 mile plus trip.

My granddaughter came to visit for a week.  She spent some time with my daughters and then some time with Paul and I.  We did Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, which was a rainy cold, windy day.  You could barely see the Golden Gate bridge.  The seals at Pier 39 where enjoying the weather a lot more then we were.   Off to have dinner at Bubba Gumps and then a night of making plans to visit Yosemite.

Life is like a box of chocolates!

The seals at Pier 39,
 San Francisco, California

It was a three hour drive up into the mountains that gave us some breathtaking sights!  We drove through fields of freshly planted crops, orchards of a lot of different fruit bearing trees, small towns and pastures filled with "Happy Cows".  After all, this is California, the place for happy cows as the television adverts tell us.

Making memories at Yosemite National Park

El Capitan and  Half Dome Rock

Yosemite has a natural beauty that can be found in things big and small, from the towering granite cliffs and giant sequoias to the smallest of wildflowers.  We spotted deer, squirrels and saw many different birds flying overhead. We climbed trails, roads and the rocky edges of waterfalls.  The waterfalls were at their peak as the cold winter snows have started to melt.  There were still walls of snow packed on the side of the roads, in some places it was at least 6 feet high.

Wildflowers on the road up to Yosemite

Paul served as an excellent tour guide and chauffeur, taking the time to stop every time I squealed "Oh, look at that!"  He even made it a point to make sure that the two days we spent in Yosemite took in as much as one can see for that short period of time.  We entered the park at the Big Oak Flat entrance and discovered that the entrance fee was waived as this was National Park Week.  Yea, no fees!    The next free days to visit the National Parks will be June 21, "The First Day of Summer" and September 24, which is "Public Lands Day".  Also free is November 11-13, which is "Veterans Day Weekend"   After the first day of exploring "Bridal Veil Falls", yes, we did get wet, we exited  the South Entrance past the Mariposa Groves.  We drove into the town Oakhurst to find a motel for the night.  One place that advertised vacancies looked much like the "Bates" motel from the old Alfred Hitchock movie.  We decided to pass on that one and make our way to a Comfort Inn.

On our second day, the weather warmed up and we were on our way to seek out the awesome sights of small creeks turned into massive waterfalls created by the melting snow.  We were not disappointed!    The road to the Mariposa Great Sequoias was closed to cars when we arrived, so we decided to hike it!  What would have been a 15 minute car ride turned out to be a 3 hour hike up the side of a mountain.  Worth every step.  We were about half way down when the road was fully opened to automobile traffic.  But the exquisite and stunning sights we saw would have been missed if we drove instead of hiking. My granddaughter took to climbing rocks and realized she had the freedom to venture out and discover the art of exploring.  This made me a little nervous and I watched her climb out of site, but my heart was in joy at seeing the smile on her face as she turned popped up from out of the rocks and waved to me.

Enjoying the waterfalls close up!

We left the park along the Merced River.  The river was in all it's glory, rushing over rocks and flowing freely down the mountain, fed by the numerous waterfalls and the warmed melting snow.

Precious time spent with a wonderful granddaughter

Yosemite never fails to leave me in a state of awe, it's beauty and wonder is there for all to see.  If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend a visit here.  But plan for a few days or even a week to really experience it majestic splendor.

Thanks for taking time to stop by our blog.  Hope you are enjoying our journey!

Jo

"Yosemite Valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space"  - Ansel Adams