You saved $7.59 today Mr. Kraemer…

Here is where Judy and I do a bunch of our grocery shopping…  “Vons” in Desert Hot Springs…

If you have grocery shopped down here, you know that you need a stupid “Discount Card” so that you can “save” money…   Even if you do not have your card, you just ask the person in line behind you for their card and you save the money… at Vons they have 2 prices on each item… the regular price, and a lower price IF you have a Vons card!   So last year, Debbie and Gerard Kraemer came to visit us in Sedona for a couple weeks.  Gerard registered for his card at Safeway Store, (same owners as Vons…) and when he left, he gave me his discount card as I did not have one for Vons…

So now, every time we go to Vons and buy groceries, like today, the clerk says at the very end of the transaction, “You save $7.59 today Mr. Kraemer, thanks for shopping at Vons!   I laugh every time it happens…

So by now you figure that I have totally lost it, as I am blogging about going to the grocery store…

Well, I almost lost it when I drove by the Chevron Gas Station this afternoon in Desert Hot Springs and saw a gallon of gas was now going for $3.79… when we first came last November it was $3.29… that is what a screwed up Middle East will do for you… oh, ya, that is the Diesel price at the bottom of the sign… $4.11 per gallon!

Big volume of traffic in DHS today, and had to snap a picture of Mount Gorgonio in the background as it is full of SNOW… good thing it is up about 3,000 feet to the snow level… today our weather was PERFECT, around 70 or so, just the way I like it!

Our day was not done yet… had to go the the United States Postal outlet and mail off a package to a person I cannot name…  hopefully it gets there soon!

Now you get it, today is our last day in DHS, so we had to do a bunch of clean up, and get ready to head out tomorrow…   I made time this morning to go and visit the guys flying the airplanes and had a great time.  Met a new flyer, Jack from Alaska, and he let me fly his plane!  No, I did not crash.  Got a bunch of advise from the guys on how to fly my plane, and they  oooguld over it for 1/2 an hour…

Judy went down and took in the Zumba Class this morning near the pool… no, it is not something  your drink!  Get your mind out of the gutter…

Ended the afternoon down at the hot tubs…perfect!

The sun was doing funny things with the clouds tonight, just before dusk…

We will miss Caliente Springs RV Park… but will return next year!

This palm tree is on our site…

So that about raps up our last day here, and it is now on to Borrego Springs tomorrow… off to the Desert!

Till tomorrow…

Sunday, a day of rest!

It was only 40 degrees F. this morning as we got up and that was about as cold as we have felt it here!  The sun was shinning though and that made up for it…

Today was a very quiet day for me, seems I might have pulled a couple muscles yesterday lifting some stuff, so spent the day taking it easy, watching the Leafs lose, and taking in the Acadamy Awards tonight on CBS.

Judy kept the economy of Palm Springs going today, as she headed out and did some shopping she wanted to get done before we head out to the desert. 

No, I didn’t fly the new plane today…

Till tomorrow…

Meet “Snortin Bull”

It was raining here again this morning in the desert… can’t believe it!  It never rains here…

Had a big job on my plate today!  Assembly of my new P-47D Thunderbolt! 

Meet Snortin Bull  (aka James Mullin) …   isn’t he a cool looking cat!  I do not have my pilot’s licence, so I had to hire Snortin Bull to fly my plane!  In the 2nd. World War, James A. Mullin was a pilot in one of these P-47’s from the USAAF 404th. fighting group, named Snortin Bull… he was a legend.

The first P 47 was flown in 1941 during WW11 and was the first piston driven aircraft to exceed 500 mhp…and was known as “The Jug”… I hope mine will go that fast!

Here is mine all fully assembled out of the box this morning… took about 2 hours to do… lots of reading and messing around…

All the parts were laid out on the table…  and I was left scratching my head…

Had to install the wheels…

This next picture below, is a picture I took off of my computer screen with my camera of the P 47 in my flight simulator… check it out to the real model in the picture below and you will see how similar they are…

The finished product…  I am still a while away from actually flying it as I build up my nerve and flying time on the computer… stay tuned!

We did work on other things today, Judy did a big re-org of the inside of the motor home. 

Till tomorrow…

Big News in Blog Land tonight…

Our Daughter, Kristina, is soon to be expecting her first child, which will be our 3rd. grand child!  Can’t wait…

She is just over 1/2 way through, and sent us this picture of her “Baby Bump”…

Turns out today, that after a visit to Her Doctor, the word is the baby will be a girl!  The females have been taking over our Family!  

This news immediately put Judy into the shopping mode today, as we headed over to Temecula.  It is a great little Town and has a great Mall that we really liked. 

One of the reasons I wanted to head over to Temecula, was the fact that Hobby Town, USA is located there, and I wanted to take a look at the current stock of airplanes…

Check it out… I picked up a P-47D Thunderbolt.  The same plane that Ben Affleck flew in the movie “Pearl Harbour”… only mine is a bit smaller…

Not to worry, it will be a while before I actually fly the plane, as I have to get used to it on my Spectrum Simulator on the Computer first!  Downloaded the plane tonight! Ready to fly!

When we got back to Desert Hot Springs tonight, we had plans to meet up with Rick and Paulette from   Rick & Paulette's RV Travels and go out to dinner.   Rick had in mind a great Mexican Restaurant on the main street of Palm Springs…

The shot below is taken inside the restaurant… nice spot!  Great dinner!

Thanks for the great evening of fun and entertainment… Judy and I enjoyed! 

Very blurry picture below, but outside the Restaurant, there were horse and buggy rides… well you get the picture…

Just another overall great day, other than a bit of wind in the desert again today… supposed to rain again tomorrow… as Paulette said at dinner tonight, “at least it isn’t snow”…

Till tomorrow…

Just another windy day in the desert…

Nice day temperature wise and you could improve your tan if you can put up with the winds… they know how to blow in the desert…

We simply took life easy today, talking to our Daughter on skype, and enjoying the hot tubs this morning…

Took a trip into Wal-Mart this afternoon for some needed supplies, and then back home to an easy  afternoon. 

Had to prepare myself for the big game this afternoon, as Toronto took on Montreal… and they won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  5 to 4… and guess what… Toronto is only 4 points out of the playoffs with a long way to go yet!  We are back!

Pretty exciting day right???

Till tomorrow…

Hike on….

Started out as a terrific day, but the winds caught up to us and are still blowing this evening as I hack out another blog…

Went over to the flying field this morning to meet the regular crew out flying planes.  The flying slowly came to a halt as the winds came up…

Next was a run to the hot tubs while Judy was exercising in the pool… met a nice couple from B.C. and swapped a bunch of RV stories…

Later in the morning Judy and I decided to go back and find the trail from the resort up the Indio Hills… we have already tried twice and failed!

This is the view as we left the back door of the resort… yes, with all the rain we have had, the desert is starting to bloom and show some green!

Here is a great picture of my butt…

Check out the flowers on the cactus…

We soon started to climb… and climb…

We made it up this high, after successfully finding the right trail!  Problem was, the wind was just a whipping around and we decided not to continue up today, as it was simply too windy and we did not want to take the risk.  There is always another day!

We still had to climb up to the peak you see below…

So we headed back down, with the resort in the background…

Finally tonight Judy and I want to congratulate Shawn, our son (sorry… Dr. Hollinger).  This past weekend Shawn flew from Tennessee down to New Orleans to give a presentation to a Paediatrician's Conference on defects in baby hearts.  He won an award for this presentation and wanted to let him know the whole Family is very proud of him.   In July this year, Shawn and Jenn, and Emmie and Paige will be moving to Ottawa where he has been awarded a Fellowship at the Ottawa Hospital in Neonatology.

Not sure who took this picture of Shawn below, but I borrowed it off our Grand Daughters blog.  It was taken at the Conference in New Orleans.

The Joker is very fitting, as Dr. Hollinger is a die hard Calgary Flame Fan, and that team is joking everyone right now!

Till tomorrow…

Bloggers Day Out!

I had made arrangements with Rick from Rick & Paulette's RV Travels to hike out to “The Painted and Ladder Canyon” just outside of the Town of Mecca at the south end of the Coachella Valley, about a 40 mile drive from our Resort.  When Rick showed up to pick me up this morning he had a guest hiker with him… Jeanette from RV Voyageur was ready to join us on our hike.  Her and her Husband, Rene, are staying up at The Sand’s RV Resort also.  Off we went!

Twas a beautiful day for a hike, 70 degrees F.

I knew we would be climbing ladders so I did not bring my digital SLR and opted for Judy’s little NIKON COOLPIX.  A lot easier to carry!

This is the start of the Painted Canyon…

Right off the top we found a little cave that went nowhere…

We split off into ladder canyon, and as you can see, not much of a trail to follow, but it was there!

Some climbing skills required!

Right off we were into the ladders… remember that game we used to play… snakes and ladders… you got it!

This was the first major hike Jeanette had been on, and she was a champ!  No problems for her at all!  Check out the neat rock formations…

Here is Rick climbing out of a corkscrew… sure would not want a flash flood right now!

Yes, the trail goes right into that narrow crack at the bottom of this picture… could not believe it… one shift of these rocks while you are walking in on the trails and you would turn into a hamburger!

Pictures do not do it justice, but can you imagine walking through the crack below… we did it!

 

Finally we made it out of the canyon, and started climbing up the mountain! 

The views from the top were very good, you could see the Salton Sea, along with Mount Jacinto and San Gorgonio of course!

All the rain we had a couple of days ago caused this Ocotillo Cactus to bloom!

We found a few other flowers growing in the desert!

We came back down off the mountain and down into Painted Canyon… it was very cool with lots of different rocks…

Rick found a hidden stash of quartz…

 

Lots of different rocks and things…

People were practicing their rock pilling skills…

Jeanette navigates her way down another ladder on the way out of the canyon… check out what the lady in red has in her arms… (woof woof)

It was a perfect day and a perfect hike… I really enjoyed it…

Thanks Rick and Jeanette for a great day!  If you want to see some more great pictures of the hike, click on Rick and Jeanette’s blogs… RV Voyageur and Rick & Paulette's RV Travels

Till tomorrow…

A little bit of everything today…

I got up this morning and it was gorgeous out!  No wind, so I knew they would probably be flying over at the golf driving range… I did not bring my camera, but they did have some these…

and some of these…

and before you know it, the morning was gone… it is a great bunch of guys that come out and fly their planes… next time I will get some real pictures for you all…

Judy was down doing the swimming pool exercises and then took up another exercise class called Zumba!  She enjoyed it, and it shows!

In the afternoon we loaded up on the Burgman for a drive down to the City of Coachella… I wanted to check out the Model Airfield there.  They have an amazing field there, everything you need to fly!

Check out the pit area, with tables and sun shades, you are in the desert you know!

They cemented the pit area, and paved the taxi area and runway!   Pilots stand behind the fences to fly here…

Everything you need here…

Even  though we are at the far end of the Coachella Valley, Mount Jacinto and Gorgonio are always in sight, snow and all!

It is a great flying field, and I will return when they are flying, always in the morning when the winds are down.

On the way home Judy found these cattle in a stand of palm trees, having lunch!

Spent the rest of the afternoon in the hot tub and taking life easy!

Till tomorrow…