October 30 Tuesday 2012 Yesterday I walked around the complex (Palm Desert Greens) and found the club house and the recreation center,check out for any rentals too. a new duty that has been put upon us-we have to play vet to both the dog and the cat. The dog needs drops put in her ears and the cat needs suave put on her chin and drops in her mouth. We will try doing it ourselves tonight. The BC earthquake made the Palm Springs news paper . Tonight Sherri's inlaws are meeting us at Kenny's and we are going out for dinner at the Elephant Bar. REMEMBER-Believe you are destined to achieve

October 28 Sunday 2012 Ken shows me where to take the dog for a desert free run. After breakfast we go to Wal-Mart to get a US phone. Then we go and get my Verizon internet stick so I am now on line whenever I want and will put it on vacation mode when I head South. It took 2 hours to download everything. We visit and Ken and Linda show us about where everything is etc. REMEMBER-Possibilities always outnumber problems

pictures if the Oregon coast

October 26 Friday 2012 You won't believe this neither did we,as we get a phone call from Sherri to say we left our front door of the house opened. One of our neighbours phoned Sherri and she quickly remidied it. Know you know you are really getting old when you forget something like that. Today we have a wonderful day with John and Midge in sunny weather as we drive up to mount Diablo, 3949 feet. views featured San Francisco, the Sacramento Valley, and the Sierra Mt. All in all you can see 40,000 sq. miles and about 35 of California's 58 countries. John and Midges 2 daughter are coming for dinner . We havent seen them in ages. We hope to leave when we wake up tomorrow for Palm Springs will send pictures from there

October 24 Thursday 2012 Travel Lodge had a full hot breakfast included. We are on the road by 8:15 am temp 10(50) heading from Ukiah to Antiach. we fuel up in Williams $4.37 a gallon (diesel $4.35)10:15am we leave hwy 20 and are on I-5 a beautiful sunny day. We arrive at John and Midges at noon. I am using their computer. We will be here another day then off to Palm Springs.

Oct. 24 Wednesday 2012 We leave FLORENCE 845AM IN SUNSHINE 7'(58). We have a mixed day - sun,fog, light rain very heavy rain even a touch of snow. all ends with sunshine. The scenery was beautiful ocean views,and large red woods. Stopped at McDonalds for lunch and fueled up in Booking Oregon. 3.97 a gallon . The temperature climbs to 16(64). Gas in California is 4.47 a gallon and diesel is 4.29. We stop at Ukiah and book into a Travel Lodge for $59 including taxes and a full breakfast of scrambled eggs sausages etc. Now I have a disaster as I go to plug in my computer and discover I left my electrical cord at Cliff and Ruth Ann's so I have to use the Travel lodges computer so no pictures. I phone Cliff and he will mail my electrical stuff to Kenny's. I hope I do not do this again

oregon visit

October 23 Tuesday 2012 Cliff and Ruth Ann take us for a drive all along the ocean. What a view. It was not raining. We stopped and had lunch at the Adobe. Highly recommended. Another great dinner and great reminiscing REMEMBER-Determination outlast doubt. Believe

October 22 Monday 2012 We are on the road by 6am 3'(36)We had frost on the windshield so it is time to head South. 6:20 we cross the border with no hassels. 8:30 we are on the South Side of Seattle. The seat warmers in our car are wonderful. 9:45 we stop at Denny's to split an omelet in Centralia. It pours all the way to Florence. We fuel up at 3.91 a gallon in Salem. It took 9 hours to get to Florence. We have a great visit and dinner. REMEMBER-Even when you have pain you do not have to be one

October 21 Sunday 2012 starting again A new lifestyle is in it's beginning. We look back at last winter as a real learning experience. Getting Bill home was a good step forward. We had the excitement of finding the right home ( we found one that met all our expectations-no stairs,close to shopping and restaurants 1379 sq. ft.Our patio overlooks a park so no street traffic. Furniture buying was both exciting and frustrating. We still do not have a kitchen or dinning room table , a good Spring project. This home even had special spots for our travelling treasures. Seeing Carter and Madison was a real bonus, they are growing up sooo fast. With a mixture of heavy heart with no 5th wheel and the extreme excitement of a change of lifestyle in travelling we moved on to driving a car only and renting. Bill pulled a big surprise. He loves listening to the Bill Good radio show on CKNW who is sponsoring a European river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. May 29-June 13 He said that is the only way he would go to Europe. We are booked. Another surprise we are flying back to Vancouver for Christmas for 6 days. Flight already booked with a car rental from Bellingham for our stay. Shannon and Ethan will be home too. It might be the last time we see them for a while as the boss want to go take the boat to Norway then around Africa. The boat is now in Seattle getting painted and refitted. WE will stay overnight at Sherri's and leave early for South where we will stay the first night in Florence Oregon at Cliff and Ruth Ann's (people we met on our first caravan in 1998).Next we will drive to Antioch California to visit our boating friends we met in the San Juan’s in 1985. We hope to be in Palm Springs October27 or 28 where we will stay at Bill's cousin in Palm Desert. They leave October31 for China and back November20. We will be babysitting a dog and a cat. That will give us a chance to look for other rentals for the rest of the winter ( middle of March) I will post when I get internet access. I will buy a stick when South. REMEMBER-making a living is not the same as making a life.

october finals

 We are getting ready to head South. We had one last shot with the twins at the beach. I had time to finish 2 native carvings for my kitchen

0ctober 8 Monday Happy Thanksgiving We had dinner yesterday at Sherri's REMEMBER-making a living is not the same as making a life.