The Answer My Friend, is Blowing in the Wind….

Yes the winds were a blowing today… nice and sunny out, but kind of cool.  They were certainly making a lot of electricity on the wind mill farm today as they were just a turning…

I took a couple pictures today around lunch time when the wind was really starting to come up… Palm Springs got hit real bad with the wind gust and sand storm… we were spared out here at Desert Hot Springs…

More snowbirds are starting to arrive as you can see in the pic below, the park is starting to fill in.  Check out the nice blue sky today…

Put the big lens on and snap this pic of Mount Jacinta with the clouds just clearing the top… yes that is snow up there… probably at the 5,000 foot level.

Around 5:00 this afternoon, Tom and Cheryl made it here from Phoenix.  This evening was spent down in the mineral hot springs just enjoying life!

Till tomorrow…

What is with the weather????

Today was raining here from the get go… I could hear a bit of rain while in bed last night. 

This morning I was able to get out and actually wax the Jeep.  It was a perfect day for that as there was no sun!  The rain stopped long enough for me to get it finished.  Judy was working inside the RV getting it all spic and span for company coming!  Tom and Cheryl are landing today in Phoenix.  Should be over here tomorrow sometime.

This afternoon we went into town and did a bit of shopping for the necessities of life.  That was about it for today!  Never even got close to my camera!

Till tomorrow…

Mission Accomplished…

The weather was terrific here today… lots of sun, the way I like it…

This morning while Judy was down doing the swim exercises, I started work on the driver’s side of the RV, doing a complete clean up after the big storm last week.  After 4 days of rain, you get the dreaded “Black Streaks” that form down the sides of the RV on the fiberglass.  All cleaned up, and had time to do the Jeep and Burgman!  It is easier doing this type of work when it is real nice out!

After the big clean up it was time to tackle the job of installing the new TV in the bedroom.

It took me a while, but I managed to get proper mounting for the mounting hardware for the TV.  It is always hard to get anything to mount to an outside wall of an RV.  You are afraid of putting a hole right through the wall! 

It is hard to get pictures of the the project, and I always forget to take pictures during the project, so here are a few finished product pics…

I got it finished in time to watch the Jr. Team Canada beat the Chez today in hockey!  The 22 inch set has a real nice HD picture!

Received a Skype Call this afternoon, from Tom and Cheryl.  They spent last week in Mexico, and flew back to Richmond Hill.  Tomorrow they jump on another plane and fly into Phoenix.  They will stay there on Wednesday night, pick up a rent a car, and then head to Desert Hot Springs on Thursday Morning for a visit!  Will be good to see them!

Till tomorrow…

Snow banks at Desert Hot Springs???

We are still in Holiday mode, and did not take on too much today.

We both went exercising first thing, Judy in the Pool, me in the Gym they have here! 

The rest of the morning I spent working on the new TV installation.  I ran into technical problems with my initial plan for the wiring.  The new TV is High Def. so I have to move one of our High Def receivers to the back.  I had to install a new feed for this receiver from the front of the Motor Home to the back, and into the cabinet where it will a be housed.  Things are are more difficult when your are working on a motor home!   It seems to take 4 times as long to do anything.  There is less room to work and you need wee little hands to work!

This is a preliminary picture to give you an idea as to what I am up to.  We bought a 22 inch High Def TV from Walmart.  Rick & Paulette's RV Travels apparently just bought a new 22 inch set themselves to install in their new 5er.  For info purposes Rick, we paid $208.00 for the Emerson Brand, which of course is made in China!

 

I bought a new wall mount for the TV at Radio Shack today, so tomorrows job will be installation!

So while we were out and about today doing this and that… we found some snow banks!  So check out this picture, on both sides of the road is about a 3 foot snow bank…  errrrrr… sorry, that would be a 3 foot SAND bank!   They used a grader to clean the road off where it got washed out and presto… you have a sand bank.

As you can see, it is quite a size… this is on the Dilon Road as we drive out to our Resort.

It was another great day here today, so it makes you feel a little lazy…   tomorrow is always another day!

Till tomorrow…

Who feels like boxing???

Today is a famous shopping day, also know as boxing day…

So, of course we went shopping!

We ended up at the College of the Desert Street Fair, had lunch a just took in all those booths… It was very enjoyable walking around in the nice warm temperatures with the sun in your face.

We ended up buying some gifts and a new 22 inch HD TV to replace the older style TV back in the bedroom area.  This will be a bit of a make work project to get it all hooked up and running right.  Pictures to come.

Never did take a picture today.  Promise to do better tomorrow…

If you are looking for something to do, please go to TRAVEL WITH THE BAYFIELD BUNCH)) and look at the picture of the mountain wall near the bottom of Al’s post and see how many long horned sheep you can count in this picture… it is driving me crazy, as I only see 1, and Al is saying there is at least 6!  Somebody help me here!

Till tomorrow…

It snowed in California on Christmas Day!!!!

I know that headline will catch your eye, so I better prove it to you!

Yes, OK, so the snow was like at the 5,000 foot level, or maybe a little higher, but it is snow.  Al from TRAVEL WITH THE BAYFIELD BUNCH)) was lamenting in his blog today how he missed snow at Christmas Time!  We just looked at the mountains and got our fix of snow for Christmas!

Just a bit of snow up on Mount Jacinto, which is the closest mountain to us!  

This is a normal ditch along side Palm Drive which heads into Palm Springs… you can see what the water did to it… lots of erosion!

Not sure of the name of this road, but it is closed and will be for quite a while, as you can see the water undermined the pavement!  

This is a shot of an Optometrist Office in Downtown Desert Hot Springs, and you can see they had to break out the sandbags!

This building is beside the Optometrist.

Judy and I spent a nice quite Christmas Day.  It was nice and sunny here today, and warm.  Judy got Patra a little catnip mouse for a present, and here she is giving it a demo!

At 9:30 this morning we headed down to the main hall and enjoyed a pot luck brunch with about 100 other residents of the park… yummy!

We had a great skype computer call with our Daughter Kristina and her Husband Chris, all the way from Germany today!  They are having a ball over the Holidays!

We had a Skype call with Shawn and Jenn, Emmie and of course Paige from Orillia!  They were visiting Mom and then all went out for Christmas Dinner!  Good to see them all!

Till tomorrow…

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Judy and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Many thanks to our many blog readers for following our adventures! 

We hope everyone has a Happy Holiday Season!

Till tomorrow…

 

Finally, the SUN came back!

After about 5 days of nothing but dense clouds and too much rain, the Sun was out this morning!  It was very welcome!   Made up feel much better.  Judy was off for pool exercise, and I got my cleaning stuff out to clean up the RV exterior and the Jeep, which filled up my morning!

We made the trip into Palm Spring this afternoon only to find a few of the local roads still not open from the big floods. 

One nice surprise this morning, was looking over at the mountains as I walked out the door, and the mountains were full of snow!  

We did a tour around Palm Springs this afternoon, as it turned into a beautiful afternoon.  We ended up taking a ride up highway 74, that will take you up to Idylwylde.  We only drove up a few miles to get a look back at Palm Springs from up high… it worked!

You can see quite a bit of snow in this shot, those mountains are about 50 miles away!

Here is a portion of Palm Springs.

Judy has been looking for over a year now for a Mountain Goat, and thought she had one here today, but this was just a statute… looks real though…

Today was Thursday, and it is the weekly market in Palm Springs, so we decided to take in the market and have a nice pre Christmas Diner out!  We enjoyed a very nice meal at “The Falls”.  It is the upper deck in this picture, and we were sitting on the far left of the picture.

We really enjoyed dinner, and our waitress, Desiree, took this pic for us.  Now check this out!

If you look to my right at the empty chair, imagine John Travolta, and his Mother having dinner there!  They did and our waitress served them.  What a claim to fame!

The market was full of people. 

This end table has a big fire burning while you eat dinner… kind of neat!

On the way home, we drove through a nice area of Palm Springs where everyone had their Christmas lights going…   just to get you all in the Spirit!

Ok, so this one was a little over the top…(Griswold's)

All in all, a great day, and sure was nice to have the weather back!

Till tomorrow…

Today was simply a “washout”…

It rained here all last night, big time… never stopped! 

I am finally starting to feel like a human being again, as I start to shake this cold off… good thing!

Just after lunch today, it had stopped raining so we thought why not drive into Palm Springs and check out the Tourist Info Centre, to get ideas for future adventures! 

As we left our Resort and pulled onto the Dillon Road heading into Desert Hot Springs, we came across some neat looking clouds…

It was a little ominous looking…

After we drove about 1 mile or so up the Dillon Road, and passed by The Sands RV Resort, we knew there was some major problems!

It was over two feet deep, and flowing from the right side of the picture to the left…

And just ahead at Palm Drive, there was water all over the place…

We never made it into Palm Springs, only down as far as Highway 10.  All the roads were closed that we tried, so we decided to simply head home and wait for it all to dry up.

Our Jeep handled the water OK, but some of the cars were getting a little damp!

This Resort had a bit of a problem going on…

Judy took this picture of the Valero Gas Station which was just flooded out…

We made it back to our Resort, and jumped into the hot tubs!  Why not.  We were speaking to some people who drove up into Desert Hot Springs, and they reported a bunch of houses were flooded right out.  They are built on grade with no basement, so the water just flows through when this happens, and I take it this does not happen all that much here.   There has been a drought for the past 2 years. 

Apparently the SUN is supposed to come out tomorrow!   That would be nice!

And here is a big wet Palm Springs welcome to our latest blog follower, “The Old Geezer”…

Till tomorrow…

OK, enough rain already!

I never though for a minute it could rain steady for over 24 hours in the desert.  It is still raining here, well into the 3rd day now…  Indications are tomorrow is more rain, and then clearing on Thursday!

Today I was still not feeling good, about the same as the weather.  It was a little depressing tonight reading the Bayfield Bunches blog, TRAVEL WITH THE BAYFIELD BUNCH)) from south eastern Az. where they are enjoying great weather, but Al had to deal with a flat tire!

The only thing we did today was head into Town to pick up required groceries… you have to eat!

Thanks to Judy’s persistence, we were able to register and pass security requirements to attend the full tour of Edwards Air Force Base in January!  Can’t wait… never have been to an active Base… the tour takes close to 6 hours!

No pictures the last couple of days, don’t want to get germs on the equipment!

Received an email from K and D in the RV  today.  They are staying up at the Sands RV Resort.  Hopefully we get a chance to say hello to them before they hit the road again!

Till tomorrow…

 

I had to “Phone” in sick today!

Not feeling good again today, this cold thing is a real bummer… as soon as I woke up this morning, I knew right away I was going to phone in sick!

On top of not feeling well, it is RAINING here again!  Last night it rained quite a bit.  While I was reading the Toronto Star this morning, they had a whole piece on how Los Angeles was having mud slides and flooding!  Still more to come apparently!

Talking of the Toronto Star, there was a great article this morning that reminded me of Rick out in B.C.  He is very into high tech, so here are the top trends for 2011 according to the Toronto Star!

#1.  Tablet Computers.  Our Son Shawn got an Apple IPAD this year, and it is real neat to play with.  In 2011 all the other Companies will bring out a similar product to flood this market!  I believe they will replace our laptops eventually!

#2.  3D TV.  While visiting our Daughter Kristina this past fall in Woodstock before we left for the south, we were shopping at Sears in London, Ont. and I got to sample a new Sony 3D TV.  It was an excellent picture.  CBC even broadcast hockey in 3D now on special occasions, but you need a 3D TV.  I am not sure if the future of TV is here or not!

#3.  Pico Projectors.  Who hasn’t sat through boring Power Point Presentations at work, I had my share!  These projectors are now very very small, and will end up inside your Cell Phone!  Again, I am not sure of this one!

#4. Augmented Reality.  Hmmm.  Imagine if you are walking by the CN Tower in Toronto, and you hold up your IPAD to record the scene, and all of a sudden on your screen is all the info you need about the CN Tower, including how to buy tickets!  Now I sure see the future of this one.  It will work on your cell phone too I believe.

#5.  Mobile Shopping.  Imagine doing all you shopping for Christmas and never leaving your home.  It all gets delivered to your doorstep.  Our Daughter-in-Law, Jennifer did this in  Tennessee this year!  Our high powered cell phone and computers will drive more and more of our shopping needs.  People use them now while in the malls to determine who has the best price!  Retailers will have to keep a sharp pencil… This is the way of the future folks-get on the train now, or you will be left at the station!

#6.  Solid State Drives (SSD).  No more spinning hard drives that are prone to crash.  New solid state drives with no moving parts will replace them.  Less power, less heat!  My laptop feels like it is burning up sometimes!  (Bigger, better, faster)

#7.  The Green Agenda.  Look at all the different things you cell phone can do… text, call, gps, music, etc.  All of this info will end up coming together and make us all Greener!  For example, a GPS enabled Smart Phone, will use knowledge about the environment, including weather and traffic, to provide you the most efficient route to your destination.  About time as far as I am concerned!

This article was written by Carmi Levy, and i think hits the nail on the head!  Where would we be without our technology! 

Again, see what happens to my blog when I have too much time on my hands!

Till tomorrow…

How do you catch cold in the DESERT???

Don’t have a clue how I did it, but managed to catch myself a wonderful Desert cold!  I think this is the first actual cold I have had in a couple or three years! 

Hence, today was a shut down day… Did not do a whole lot. 

HOWEVER!  Did you know…

I had a bit of time on my hands as I took life easy and found some neat info on  all of those windmills out in the desert here at Palm Springs.

For example, there are over 3,100 of them! (My estimate was 1,000)   They are currently working on the 4th Generation of Windmill here!  75% of them here are made in Holland, and the rest in Germany.  The newest ones are BIG, and capable of running 2,100 homes from 1 single windmill!   Currently, there are over 16,000 windmills in California alone, and take care of the electric needs of over 1 Million People!

The wind has to blow at least 14 MPH in order for a windmill to start turning, and if the winds blow over 45 MPH, the windmills will just shutdown.  California generates 80% of the wind generated electricity in the world! 

Here at Desert Hot Springs, we are located right at the San Gorgonia Pass, and there is enough wind here to run the mills 300 days a year.  In the morning, the wind blows usually from west to east, however in the afternoon it blows generally east to west – hence, 1/2 of the wind mills point to the east, and 1/2 to the west!  The annual maintenance on 1 windmill is $30,000.00 per year!

See what happens when I catch a cold!

Till tomorrow…

“I get by with a little help from my (blogger) Friends!”

All you do is mention you are having a bit of a problem in your blog around here, and before you know it you have your answer!  Thanks to the people who left comments on my blog from last night, and thanks to Judy who figured out that, yes, I had exceeded the 1 GB. blogger limit, and that I would have to pay $5.00 in order to get some more space… guess I should have known that nothing is life is free anymore, but remember, I worked for the Royal Bank, not Microsoft or Google!  

Paid my $5.00 and all is well in blog land again!

The first pic tonight is here just for the heck of it, although it is not my favourite of the night, it is a good one.  I shot it a couple nights ago when I stuck my head out the door of the RV… say no more.

We had a Christmas Skype with Shawn and Jenn in Tennessee this morning, more on this later.  After Skype, we attended an open house in our resort for the new Park Model Units.  They are nice, and they provided everyone free lunch!

After lunch we headed over to the College of the Deserts Market.  We were here last year, and it is pretty cool!

Turned out to be a great day, with a bit of haze and cloud.  Warmed up real nice this afternoon.  This shot is from the market.

Could this be the new trend in motorcycles for the older crowd????

Live entertainment at the market…

Where is Al from the Bayfield Bunch when you need him, to control all the dogs!

Now here is my fav pic of the day!   I did not take it, but I am in it.  It was taken near Johnson City, Tennessee, by our Daughter in Law, Jennifer.  We had early Christmas with the kids, as they are getting ready to head up to Canada.  We were talking on Skype, and Jenn lined up Emmie and Paige, and us, and took our Christmas Picture!  Love it!

The two girls were having a ball opening up some gifts…

Emmie did a great job singing Christmas Carols to us, and just for good measure, recited the American Pledge of Allegiance!  (They teach it in pre-school)  Not bad for a Canadian!

Another very busy day, but the hot tubs soon cured that this afternoon!

Also, our newest blog followers, the “Hagemeyer’s”… have to welcome them!

Till tomorrow…