pond at thousand ponds contains pupfish and minnows

Sand dunes in thousand palms- frindge toad lizards live here

Trail in thousand palms-Skirts of Washington palms

Jan 30 Desert HotnSprings-Tuesday. Today I do walk away the pounds at new park . We find out the people who were on our Africa trip are here in the park too so we have a visit. Then I go to Catalina Spa 3 blocks away to attend a computer class in blogging as I was having trouble posting pictures. After the class we drive to down town Desert hot Springs to see what was new. (not much) After dinner I went and played Pokino.

Jan29 Monday Today we move to Desert Pools just outside Desert Hot Springs. We get all set up and after lunch I go to Catalina Spa RV park as Sue has a computer coarse. Shannon sends an e-mail they will be leaving Costa Rica Feb 6 and are heading for La Paz Mexico until they go back to long Beach Cal.

Jan28 Desert Hot Springs-Sunday- Today I go hiking at the Coachella Valley preserve we do the Mcallum trail and Moon country.(3and a half hours) 13 people.

red splatters on rock are fire retardent,it made for an interesting sight.

View from the oasis. We hiked up to here. great view.

Burnt Washington palms after the burn 1-1/2 years ago foilage nice and green and healthy-snow creek

Jan27 Indio-Saturday-their was a meeting with Jim Logan the owner to Western Horizons. It was very interesting and informative . He is hoping to put in free WIFI, free long distance phone calling including Canada and he wants 50 amp power in all the sites. He set us straight on some rumors-he and his wife are not separating and Western Horizone’s has not gone bankrupt or sold. There are 28 thousand members. After the meeting we went shopping getting ready to move to Desert Hot Springs. Lyn and Larry from Powel River game over in the afternoon and in the evening a couple who went to Australia with Fantasy and who have signed up South Africa came over so we could swap stories. We showed each other some highlight in pictures.

Jan 26 Indio-Friday-I take a group to the bird scantuary after doing walk away the pounds. We meet a couple we did the 2nd Mexico trip with(Dona and Orville) We have a good visit.

Jan 25- I am met at 7am in front of our gate to go hiking. There were 17 people . We hike to Snow Creek near Whitewater, west of Palm Springs. We visit a recently burnt oasis. The palm trees have black trunks but the foliage is completely healthy after 1 and a half years. Our weather is 75-45.

Jan 22- 25 Indio-Bill takes the truck back and they put in a higher pressure pump and they think we got gas in our aux. tank so they said to keep filling it up and run it through before you do hills. I go to help knit squares for needy children’s blankets. We get a surprise. Richard who worked at the Gibson’s marina store and office was parked behind us. I had given him a card years ago to try Western Horizons for 5 free nights plus dinner and they honored it. Wednesday I go on the tag along again to consignment stores. What fun. Bill gets some Mexicians to wash and wax the RV 160.00. Thursday I get up early to go hiking.

Jan18,19 20,21- Indio-We try the 2.25 breakfast at the park. It was good. We go to the new 99 cents store . It has fresh produce and dairy. Everything is 99 cents. We head to the visitors center and I pick up all the latest. Next we drive up the big hill towards Idyllwild to test the tanks. The auxiliary tank is acting up. It is cloudy and tries to rain. Saturday we go to an art show in La Quinta. I forget my camera so no pictures. We go for a walk in the bird sanctuary. Sunday we go to the COD fair. We buy our years supply of socks. We sign up for the Austrailia trip . on stand by or 08 with Fantasy for Sept 23-Nov 9 from LA. Time will tell. Bill takes the truck back in Monday

Jan 17- Indio-Wednesday- Our park is very active since they have a new manager (Roger) Cory is in Verde. Evening games are active, even pokino in the evening as well as the afternoon. They have a tag along once a week, this week we went to thrift shops way out in Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage. It was fun I found some nice blue glasses (7) I guess one got broken. They have a camera roundtable and computer class. There are lots of crafts too . Calligraphy,beading,and knitting , crocheting and quilting, plus scratch art to name a few.. They have exercise in the morning and water aerobics. They teach you new card games including bridge. A bike ride around the park 2.1 ) miles is offered in the morning. Mcbride RV maintence and Fantasy RV tours including wine and cheese in the afternoon. They also go to Ivey ranch for golf. Friday is Movie night and Saturday they bring in entertainment. Oh yes don’t forget pool tournaments. Yesterday we went to the Fantasy tour thinking we would sign up for the Austrailia tour in Sept 07. Would you believe it they were all booked up. Do we go with another company or wait for 08???? Bill took the truck in this morning we still haven’t heard anything so we are without a truck.

Jan. 14 Monday Moving day-8am 37’ windy but sunny. We turn the clock back one hour. It takes us 3 hours to get to Indio. The truck was acting up again but we made it. Something to do with the transfer pump we think. Lots of new changes at Indian Waters RV park as they got a new manager. More activities and they serve breakfast and lunch Mon-Fri for very reasonable prices-1.00 for soup,1.00 for breakfast burrito,2 eggs hash browns and toast 2.25 and more. I don’t think I have to cook. We quickly get settled even the satalite dish worked on the first try. I walk to the new Albertsons only 2 large blocks away. A great new store.

fields and fields of vegetables Yuma area

Sand dunes just past Yuma







an ATVer's paradise

Jan 12,13 14- Yuma-not much happening Bill finishes with the dentist in Algodonas a little over 3 thousand dollars, 2 root canels and replaced all the old fillings. He still has one to do but ran out of time ,so next year. I help make blankets for the Mexician cardboard families just across the border. Last year the park made 600 blankets. We did our last bit of grocery shopping and Bill filled the fuel tank as we get ready to leave for Indio Monday. Bill is already hooked up. The weather has turned cold especially at night (38) but goes up in the daytime (73) but the wind doesn’t help.

Jan 11 Tucson-Thursday-We get good news today . Shannon got her green card and spousal visa. She had to fly to Montreal to get her interview. Bill and I go to the movies. The matinee, we see Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto. It was pretty blood curdling. A little to much violence for me. Sunny and mild but it changes tomorrow.

Jan 9 Yuma-Tuesday-Today is RV show in the park where they bring in 5-6 RV to view. They give coffee and donuts so that bring a crowd. We do not see anything we liked in our price range. We do laundry today. It get up to 80’ beautiful. They have a limited time for laundry as they have a septic tanks so they decided not to open the laundry until 2pm so that people can take showers in the morning. It is a good thing that we arrive early. I play pokino ton
Jan 8 Yuma Monday-Back to Yuma again to have lunch with Ron & Pat. We go to Happy Chief in Old town.4.95 buys a complete meal. It was ham today. We see Vancouver is getting another storm snow and all.


Jan 7 Yuma Sunday- We go back to Yuma to go to another swap meet. Here I buy 10 lbs of grapefruit for 8.00 and I buy a queen size bed cover for 18.00. We try to visit Wolf and Barb at Country Roads but they are not home. They phone when we are on the road and we are going to meet in Indio, but they gave us Linda and Brian’s new address in Yuma as they are no longer in West Winds as they raised the rent

Jan 6 Yuma -Saturday-It is still very windy here. Today we go to Yuma ( 5 miles)from park. We go to one of the large swap meets. Again row upon row of venders like Apache Junction. I buy some fresh vegetables and some candied ginger (yum). We decide to visit Ron and Pat from Medicine Hat. They are in Sun Vista RV park. It is huge over 1 thousand sites. Lots of activities, including an indoor and outdoor pool. They are there for 3 months.( about 1400) They have a grapefruit tree in front of their site. We went home with 2 grapefruits

Jan5 Friday-A day of rest. I have a cold or hay fever. It is very windy and dust flying everywhere. The park had a RV show. There was the new Alpinlite there. We asked about the rummers that the factory was sold or had gone bankrupt. Yes it has been sold. We have an appointment in March to have the damage done by the blowout last year. They said that should be OK. The new Alpinlite was a great disappointment. Many thing missing that we enjoy in our rig.

Jan 4 Thursday-I am finished at the dentist. Bill has more work, so he returns to Algadones. We get an e-mail from Shannon and Ethan. She has her date for the interview in Montreal. She will leave Costa Rica Tuesday Jan 9 for Vancouver then Montreal Jan 13. Hopefully everything goes well.

The courtyard where Bills gets his root canal in Algadones 

Jan 3 Wednesday-We drive to Yuma for a ATM machine, as the dentist only takes cash. Problems ,problems problems, none of the ATV machines will give us money. Are we asking for too much at a time????? Are the machines empty?? Its getting late and Bill has an appointment at 10am, so we head for Mexico and try the ATM machine there(at border ). It only will give you $200 at a time. We use both cards so it cover the work for today. We return to RV then Bill goes back to Yuma and the bank straightens us out. Apparently we got new cards and they didn’t give us the amount we wanted to take out increased. We now have money to pay the dentist. The joys of traveling.

Jan 2-Tuesday Sunny and warm Today we drive to Mexico, only 10 min. away from our RV Park (Pilot Knob). $3.00 lets us park all day in a large Indian Parking lot (secure). We walk across into Mexico. Algadonas here is where we get our teeth checked and cleaned ( 25.00 each) They have all the modern conveniences the newest thing is a TV scanner that shows your teeth so X-rays are not necessary, except for hard to get at areas. You look at a flat screen TV. I have only 2 small cavities. Bill has a lot of work to do. I had mine done last time. They have time to do some today he finishes at 4:30 I go and get my hair coloured and highlighted $50.00 We go to cross the border and it looks like a long wait someone said about 1 hour, so we have supper in town. It only takes half an hour to cross now.

Yuma guest- roadrunner

got his prize-wiener I think he comes every day 

Jan.1 Monday- Today we have a leisurely drive to Yuma. 180 miles 3/1/2 hours. We travel with our friends from Medicine Hat Alberta (Ron & Pat) who were also in Casa Grande for 3 weeks too. They are staying in Yuma for 3 months we are staying for 2 weeks. We pass numerous feed lots, very smelly. Yuma is an agriculture area, the lettuce and winter vegetable capital of the world. We pass many RV’s pulling ATV’s coming from the sand dunes for the holiday just outside of Yuma. We have a special guest for lunch, a road runner. Apparently he comes by every day bumming.