For some reason I am feeling fear today. I woke up worrying and have had this feeling of dread even through my walk. I did 3 miles this morning and tried to use the bad energy, but it is still here.

Much is going on. We had the wall built around the property in Palm Springs. 198 feet of buff colored block wall laid in soldier rows, stacked instead of staggered. It is wonderful and Todd Fry, the landscape architect that designed it did a great job.

The gate builders are installing the electric driveway gate yesterday and today. I think that is what is making me crazy. It will be beautiful. Just massive.

At the same time the landscapers are putting in the new irrigation system and I need to get the electrician out to run the power to light the palm trees again. Lots going on.

It is just too much, considering that we are a trying to get ready to leave for a trip in 10 days as well.

Xanax. I think I'll take a Xanax.

It's been a while again. Face book and other sites are just taking all of my time. It's not right and it's not good.

Life in the desert is heating up. We thought Spring would never end, with it's wind and cool temps. I really got tired of wearing hoodies and shoes. Ackkk! And long pants. Double Ackkk! But now the summer has begun. It was 114 degrees on Wednesday. It has cooled significantly since then to a nice 105. The nights are warm and gentle, and we now have gossamer like sheets on the beds.

The pool no longer needs the help of the heater to remain at a usable 85 degrees. Soon it will be in the 90's all by the use of the sun. We float aimlessly in the mid day sun to rest our bones, relieve our minds and recharge our energy, as well and get a healthy looking color of suntan. Sigh. My life is really good.

We have continued to make new friends over here. We get too busy sometimes, but what a blessing. Steve and Brian from Denver has brought a new zest to our lives with a younger attitude. We still love our larger circle and miss them when they go, like Chuck spending the summer in Big Bear and Christopher being on the road much of the warmer months.

We enjoy the summer and get to know many of the service people and restauranteurs. It makes for a good relationship year round. Business owners appreciate the year round residents.

Steve has been having some challenges, but we are on the way to easing some of it. He has 2 degenerative discs in his back as well as a slipped vertebrae, so short of a spinal fusion, he can have two of the worst nerves ablated, or super heated to fry them so they don't register any pain. He will have that done next week.

Last week he had a wisdom tooth extracted. Well, chiseled and drilled out. It seems it was fused to the bone so they worked on it for 45 minutes to get it out. Steve was under only local anesthesia. He has been on soft foods for a week now. Poor guy.

Me? I'm fine. I'm walking more than I have in a long time, 2 to 5 miles a day, opting out only when I have no time. I have lost nearly 15 pounds and look better than I have for a while. It makes me happy to look better and feel so much better. My energy is way better than before.

We are in the RV Park rotation period. Many of you know that in San Diego you can only stay 6 months in a vacation park, and 8 months in a residential park. We like the residential park because the spaces are bigger with parking, while the vacation park is prettier, the spaces are really small and we have to park in tandem.

So we have spent one month in the vacation park and get to move back to the residential park on the first of July. Friday!!!! Yay. Then we get to stay there for 8 months. What a relief. Both parks are like living in a sideshow, with interesting characters, I guess including us. LOL. But the space we have in the residential park is vast by comparison. It just costs me to pay for someone to help Steve move things. With Steve's back he can't lift heavy things, and I'm so busy at work it doesn't pay to have me off work to move, and my back can be tenuous too. So Friday Steve and help will get it done. I'm looking forward to it.

It's time to go for dinner at MO's. So I will sign off for now. I'll try to get back sooner than I have in the past, but, like I said, life gets busy and time gets eaten by facebook , IM friends ,and other sites. We'll see what happens.

I should say, birthday week. By the time we celebrate tonight with the family it will have been going on for 7 days.

It started last Wednesday with dinner at The Inn At The Park and listening to Andy Anderson and Nathan Frye. I just love their music, their energy and the boys themselves. Really fun and a great meal as usual.

Thursday I did my usual. I fed the kids at the shop. Steve ran down to Phil's Barbeque and picked up ribs and chicken, beans and potato salad for a wonderful lunch. Wini baked a spice cake with cream cheese frosting for me, my favorite. Everyone else wishes I liked chocolate better. Oh well. My birthday. LOL

That night we went to The Gathering. It is our Thursday night place and we get in trouble if we don't show up. It's nice to be appreciated, and we do call now if we can't make it.

Well, Jack, the bartender and our friend, and his wife Wendy had made sure that as many of our Gathering friends knew it was my birthday week and sixteen of them showed up. They had presents and cards and lots of hugs and well wishes. It was great, and unexpected.

Friday was my actual birthday. The phone calls at work made it difficult to keep on schedule, and it turned into an 11 hour day. I was not looking forward to going out to dinner. I was really tired. When I got home I discovered that Steve was cooking dinner for me!! He knew I had a hankering for Salmon patties, as I had mentioned it a week before. That's what he made me. He poured me a drink, fixed dinner and even did the dishes himself. I was so relieved and happy to stay home. Thanks for that Steve.

We made it to Palm Springs Saturday night in time to go to Studio One11 for drinks with friends, before heading to Torme's with Chuck for my next birthday dinner. Torme's is owned by Mel Torme's daughter and it was our first time there. We weren't disappointed. The food was great, I had lobster - amazing, Steve had chicken pot pie - delicious, and Chuck, I don't remember what he had. All of it was wonderful though.

And the music. They had a jazz combo and Marci Daniels singing. It was really nice to hear good live jazz.

From there we went to Spurline to hear some show tunes, and finally home.

Sunday was brunch at Jake's with friend Jeff. It is always fun to be in his company as he has a great sense of humor. He used to date another of our friends but his is now on the loose. Look out Palm Springs.

Sunday afternoon we met friends again for drinks at Studio One11 and stopped for chicken to eat at home. We hadn't seen Mitch and Dave all weekend so we decided to go where we knew we would find them - Street Bar. There they were, and with other friends Gary and Mike! We could hardly believe the Gary left the house after dark. He is such a stay-at-home guy.
Then Carl A showed up and we chatted for a while, and he invited all of us to dinner for Monday night. Oh good. I needed more food. LOL

Monday was fairly lazy. Banking, computer, we watched a movie. But we had Simon the landscape guy and his crew outside working hard. They removed two very old, dying grapefruit trees and one lemon tree removed so we can plant new, young trees in better spaces. It was sad to see them go but the fruit had gotten so small and all the bark was peeling. It turns out that one had a hollow trunk. It was time. Everything looks so bare though.

Afterwards we headed to Carl's house for dinner. Mitch and Dave were there with Perry and John. A nice group. A video of a Cher concert was on the big screen and the conversation was lively. We had cocktails, of course, and then dinner. We had a delicious, accidentally wilted, (I liked it better that way) spinach salad with a wonderful dressing. Then Carl brought out a huge baking dish filled with meatballs and penne and a great sauce. Garlic bread accompanied.

If we weren't full enough, he presented HUGE chunks of a black forest cake with vanilla bean ice cream. I just couldn't finish. I was stuffed. It was all so good It was so nice of him to have us over. I hadn't even told him it was my birthday week. The entire evening was wonderful.

Today we go back to San Diego and celebrate my and my cousin Barbara's birthday with dinner at Bali Hai. My sister and her boyfriend will come down form Capistrano, my second cousin Rene and her girlfriend will join us, as well as cousin Ron (Barb's husband) Steve and Mother. It will be fun. The restaurant has been redone and the view of the city from across the bay should be spectacular.

I have to start my diet on Wednesday. This has gotten out of hand. Muffin top is an understatement at this point. But obviously I couldn't diet before this week was over.

I feel so spoiled by all of the attention and good wishes. Thanks to all my friends for being so kind and loving.

Do you ever have days where you just need uplifting things in your life? I'm having that morning. Right now there is so much bad in the world, on the net, in politics, in life in general.

I got on Facebook and all that was there was politics, bad news and people with bad attitudes. I did see a lovely montage from My Beautiful Laundrette and that was a sweet moment. Then it was done and the next entry was people hating gay people.

I went to JoeMyGod.com, who knows why, and all that was there was gay hating articles.

Steve turned on the news and there was so much Obama bashing and second guessing.......

I have very few days like this, and my life is so blessed with friends and privilege that I feel guilty on top of the blues. I have always lived by the rule that if you are blue, be bright blue. I'm having trouble with that today.

I know in a little while things will be great and my spirits will rise and soar through the rest of the day. I just felt I needed to write this somewhere hoping that getting it out will help me out of this gloom.

Now I feel guilty for sharing. I'm still going to click the save button. Sorry kids.

Hey, at least the sun is out!

Once again I didn't get the dates for Modernism Week in time and missed some things I wanted to take part in. There are bus tours of the exterior of some of the best Mid-Century modern homes in the Palm Springs, and tours of the homes designed and built by architect Albert Frey, Wexler and Alexander, among others. They were all fully booked weeks ago.

Chuck joined us to go to the Modernism Show at the convention center. It is always wonderful and interesting and filled with mid-century furniture, and accessories for sale. Not cheap, by the way. There was a large painting by a french artist in palette knife that I fell in love with. It was a mere $5,500. I just didn't have the right change at that moment.

But I did something a bit proactive. I joined a couple of organizations affiliated with Modernism Week so I will be on email lists to let me know of the upcoming events and dates so I can get space on the tours next year. YAY.

Later we met up with our friends at Studio One11 for a couple of drinks before heading to Shanghai Reds for some of the best food in the desert. It has quickly become one of our favorite places, even with the wait for a table. This evening we were asked to join a table of folks who were in the wait line before us. They had a table for four so we sat with them. Turns out they own a furniture store in Cathedral City and were charming. We will have to visit their store just to see what it is.

Presidents Day was a lazy one. I got some things done that I needed to do on the computer, made some phone calls to get one of our water heaters fixed, and met with a contractor who is going to give us a bid on the wall we want built around the property.

We met the group at Studio One11 again and then headed for dinner with Christopher and Chuck at Zin American Bistro. It was our first time in that restaurant, and I must say, it was delicious. The service was good and we had a window table so we could watch the folks go by.

Steve and I had the potato leak soup which was great, then he and Chuck had the "thick" pork chop, which lived up to it's name.
Christopher was good and had salmon which he liked and I had short ribs which were delicious and rich. I just couldn't finish.

We then headed over to Spurline, a local watering hole, to finish off the evening listening (and, okay, singing along to the show tune videos.) Then home and right to sleep in my recliner. LOL.

Did I mention in a previous posting that I have my share of fun?

First of all, I have had no word from the PSPD. There just isn't enough for local police to go on for an investigation. And I'm sure with the tensions between the gay community and the police here over the entrapment sting, I probably won't hear. Ditto with Officer Meyer in San Diego.

I was talking with a client who is a retired FBI agent and he insisted that I call the Bureau and report it. He said because it was over the phone lines it was a federal hate crime. I waited to see if there were going to be more phone calls, and I really didn't want to get this deeply embedded in my life. But no more calls have come so finally I had to make the call. I'm not going to say what they told me but it was a better interview with more hope. I will say they are checking details against national profiles, similar cases. We shall see.

In the meantime I am living my life as if it never happened. Of course none of my friends will start my car for me, and Steve walks a little further away. And I must admit I walk serpentine to the car from work, LOL, but all in fun. I will not let anything this unlikely rule my life.

I'm still having my share of fun. Okay, a bit more than my share.

I shall continue.

The weekend was a normal, easy weekend. We got together with friends, enjoyed the sunny days, dined in some of our favorite restaurants, and just enjoyed being in Palm Springs. The laundry was a huge job but Steve did most of it. It was just a normal happy weekend for us.

Until this morning.

I was still in bed when I heard my phone ring. I decided to let it go to voicemail as it was not even 6:00AM. Then I began to wonder if perhaps it was my mother, and something might be wrong. So I got up and listened to the message.

The number was not a familiar number so I thought maybe it was an out of state sales call. The voice that came on was electronically altered. It started out with some squelches and some unintelligible words. Then the caller plainly said that he knew I was gay and hated me. He said some graphic things that I won't repeat, some more that was unintelligible, and then said that he didn't know me but he hated me and "was going to kill me and no one would give a shit. Do you understand? I'm going to kill you and no one will care!" Then he hung up.

I waited until Steve got up and played the message for him. He agreed that I had to call the police. I did and they sent Officer Vega from the Palm Springs PD to take a report. He didn't quite know what to do with this situation but he called the number the caller had used to find out that it was an "unallocated number". So, a dummy number and a disguised voice, he said there wasn't a lot to go on. But he would make the report and give it to a detective.

All I could do was wait.

We drove the rig and car back to San Diego and got the RV back in it's spot, hook ups done.

A friend had told me to call the Center and get the name of the LGBT liaison officer from SDPD. I did that and spoke with Officer Myer later in the afternoon. He was helpful, but gave me little hope that anything could be done.

My nerves are a bit frayed, even though I don't feel too threatened. By this caller not knowing me, I just feel like he is trying to scare someone and just upset lives. I'm not going to let that happen. But the fact that he went to so much trouble with the dummy phone and the electronic voice disguise makes me wonder. I'm just going to live like it didn't happen.

Hopefully he a bluff. If not I hope he's a bad shot.

After a bowl of cereal and a shower we started getting the rig ready for travel. We emptied and flushed the tanks, unhooked the other utilities and pulled in the slides. Before we left we went over to chat with Bill and Norman. I'm glad we did because they gave us a good route to Palm Springs. They were very helpful to us and we appreciated their directions and advice.

We headed out down the I-15 south to Barstow and then down the 247 past Lucerne Valley to Yucca Valley. We turned onto the 62 and headed for the I-10 and Palm Springs. It was a fairly easy drive, but very hilly in some places. Sort of like a roller coaster here and there. But not bad.

Before we headed to the house we decided to fill up at the Flying J on Ramon and the 10. That turned out to be difficult, as they have very high pressure delivery hoses. It just kept splashing out and shutting off until I had one of the guys there do it for me. I had never found that a problem before, but now I know for the next time. But now I smelled like diesel fuel for the rest of the day.

We finally made it home. The house looked wonderful and inviting. Buster and Namale were really happy too.

We had time to unpack the laundry and get that started, unpack everything we wanted to leave here in PS and relax a bit before meeting our friends at Studio one11 for drinks. It was a great trip but it was nice to get back to PS and our routine.

Later we had the chance to see Mona Caywood sing at StreetBar. We always get to see her perform as Miss Fern, but seldom get see her perform her serious jazzier self. We are never here on Friday when she sings as Mona. Mitch and Dave came out to see us there. That was a treat. It was great and a good topper for the day.

We got an earlier start today as there is so much to see. So much new Las Vegas that we don't want to miss. Steve can only do so much walking and then we rest, so we need time and a plan.

We had a conversation with Bill and Norman, who are friends of our friends Mark and Craig and live in the park where we are staying. They were helpful in helping us make a plan for the day. We headed for Wynn's Encore for breakfast.

We wandered the Encore for a bit just to see what we could see. It is beautiful also. They had enormous dragons for Chinese New Year and large ceramic rabbits peeking out from the gardens full of flowers in red and yellow. Wonderful.

We finally made our way to the private suites tower and Tableau, the restaurant recommended by Bill and Norman. It was lovely, with somewhat formal, very efficient,yet friendly, service. I ordered a Greyhound and Steve ordered a Screwdriver. It was after 11:00 by now. I also ordered a Crab Club sandwich and Steve ordered Eggs Benedict. They were both excellent and we split our meals halfway through. I had to laugh when the bill came. $76.00. Oh well. Vacation and fine dining even for breakfast. What the hell. We had pizza and salad for dinner last night, right?

We headed from there over to the Venetian. We were not impressed. We found out later why. We were on the wrong floor and missed all of the canals and gondolas and the impressive decor. LOL. I guess we should have asked but... We just thought it wasn't very interesting. Silly us.

So we left there and headed down to the Bellagio to buy tickets for "O" tonight. Once that was accomplished we decided to wander over to City Center, which we had heard so much about.

For some reason my fear of heights was really unreasonable here in Las Vegas. I was having a lot of trouble so we walked over to City Center rather than take the tram. We entered through the Vdara Hotel. My My. It looked very "green" and wonderful. It had a lot of organic shapes done it wonderful woods with silks and reminded me of a contemporary East Indian decor. It is a 300 suite, no smoking, no gaming hotel. The concierge was helpful in giving us a rundown and map of the rest of City Center.
We then walked past some wonderful sculpture over to Aria, a 3,000 room hotel and casino. VERY contemporary with amazing architecture inside. It was vast. A bit too dark for my taste but astounding architecture. Wow. What a billion or so dollars can do.

From there we went into Crystals, the "shopping mall". I think you might find a tee shirt for a l little as $1000 dollars but I'm not really sure. Harry Winston's was there, Tiffany, Van Cleef and Arpel, Givenchy, Versace, etc. Also incredible architecture with an immense wooden sculpture that spanned three floors and had a restaurant floating in the middle.

We didn't get to The Cosmopolitan Hotel, or the Oriental. We saved something for next time and Steve really needed to rest his legs a while.

We did take the tram back to Bellagio, (which didn't freak me out) and got the car. We decided to drive over and park at Paris and see what that was like. It was like going to Disneyland. They built Paris inside a building, sky and all. It was charming and had shops for real people. The casino was not as large as other mega hotels, but had a friendly bar in the middle where we stopped for one last rest period.

We then headed back to the motorhome to get Buster fed and walked and ready for the show tonight.

We got lost on the way to Bellagio as we decided to try a side road instead of the freeway. And my directions got us twice as lost. Oh well. We finally got to the hotel in time for the show, but not dinner before. It was a 7:30 show so we decided to get a bite afterward. There certainly is a lot of food available.

"O" was amazing. We had seats at the top of the orchestra and could see the stage perfectly. From the moment it started it was enthralling. There was so much going on, both over and in the water and on the stage around the pool. And the pool itself was a star. It kept changing from deep water to shallow and even dry land. It was amazing. The show was so active it almost wore you out watching. We loved every minute and hated when it ended.

We ate after the show at a little restaurant called Noodles. It was different Asian foods and we had a decent meal. Not our favorite but it was easy and Steve didn't want to spend a lot on Italian food tonight. And we were really getting tired.

We headed home to our clean and polished coach and a good nights rest before we head for Palm Springs in the morning.

We got a lazy start to the day. We slept in, watched some news and had a bowl of cereal before I headed to the office to pay up (since we arrived late after the office closed). I got directions to easily get on the the strip and see what we wanted to see today.

We also set up a time to have the coach washed and waxed. I figured that if we were going to be the poor relation, coach wise, we should at least look our best. Besides, it had been a long time and it needed wax. Getting rid of Quartzsite dust was a no brainer. LOL.

We headed to the strip and first stop was The Bellagio. The last time we were in Las Vegas the Mirage was new and the White Tigers were still performing. A long time ago. Bellagio didn't exist. Neither did Treasure Island, Wynn, Encore, Venetian, New York, New York, Paris, Luxor, MGM Grand or any of City Center. The city had changed quite a bit.

Well, Bellagio just blew our minds. It was huge and beautiful. We walked in and saw the Dale Chihuly ceiling in reception. Quite beautiful.

But then we saw the conservatory off the lobby. It was "decorated" for Chinese New Year. OMG. It was hard to believe. Incredible. A 30 foot Chinese man in silk robes standing on a pile of giant Chinese gold coins, a line of warriors from Xien, a pagoda, a full size Junk with red sails in a lake, and a 12 foot rabbit (for year of the Rabbit) covered in different grasses. All of this sitting in beds of yellow mums and red cyclamen.. Amazing. Hanging from the ceiling were dozens of large red silk lanterns. It was so much to take in at one time. Stunning.

So we wandered around the hotel a bit, then headed out the front and down the walk to Las Vegas Blvd. We were at the bottom of the drive when the fountains started to do their dance. Again, we were dumbfounded. We watched for a while and then headed down the street to Caesar's Palace.

We had tickets to see Cher, performing at the Colosseum, for this evening so we decided to check out where the venue was located and see if we could pick up the tickets. On the way we got to see the whole length of the hotel and casino. Another beautiful display, but not nearly as impressive as Bellagio, for Chinese New Year was in the lobby area. The bars and gaming tables went forever it seemed. As old as the hotel is, it is still beautiful.

We decided to stop and have a bite to eat and found the MESA Grill. This is a creation of chef Bobby Flay and has southwest flavored foods. It was a superb choice for lunch. I'm sure dinner is great there too. The menu looked wonderful.

We picked up the tickets and looked for an easy place to grab a bite for dinner before the show. We found a food court that had a build your own salad concession next to a pizza by the slice. We were now set for the evening.

We headed back to Bellagio where we parked the car and went back to the motorhome. Steve's legs were kind of worn out at this point and he needed to rest before we headed back for the show. Buster needed walking and feeding too.

So after changing clothes and resting we headed back to Caesar's Palace. We enjoyed the pizza and salad and then found our seats in the enormous Colosseum. Nothing about it was a disappointment other than our seats were a bit far to the right. We were not too far back and just above stage level. If I had known that we would be so far to the side I probably would have bought the expensive tickets down front. After all, how often do we do something like see CHER!

And she was incredible. There was at least 20 costume changes, since her show spanned her entire career. Her voice was as strong as ever, she looked incredible and the show was over the top. We enjoyed it very much.

After the show we headed back out in front of the Bellagio, partly to see Las Vegas at night and all the lights, but I also wanted to see the Bellagio fountains at night with the lights. Nothing disappointed. Ah Vegas!

We headed back to the rig for the night. It was a fun and overwhelming day.

We had planned on leaving Quartzsite by around 9:00 to avoid the traffic jam that happens everyday with people leaving. We were on track for that when the first snag presented itself.

The leveling jacks were down and wouldn't retract. They didn't show they had any power. They wouldn't go on, they wouldn't do anything. So we started asking if anyone knew of a particular on-site RV mechanic. Well, Uncle Dave (we call him that lovingly) came over and started poking around. He finally found an inline fuse that we didn't know about. It was loose and when he secured it everything worked. Well, almost. The jacks had been not retracting fully so he had us put them back down and squirted the housing with WD 40, wiped them and they retracted perfectly. Yay for Uncle Dave.

So we were an hour and a half late leaving by the time we hooked up the car, but we were on the road to Vegas Baby!

We took the 95 north to Parker and headed west on the 62 to the Agricultural Inspection station where we again headed north on the 95. (the 95 takes a few jogs here and there) We decided to stop and fill up in Needles, the middle of nowhere. When we pulled up to the pump this old Indian guy points out that the right rear tire is about to separate and cause a blowout. Damn. So we go in the back and he inspects all the tires and finds flaws in two more. That means we have to buy 4 new tires so they match (safety and ride). They had to bring them down for Henderson because they didn't have our size. So we sat around for a couple of hours while that happened. Finally they get here. $3200 for four tires installed. But what were we going to do? The tires were 8 years old and I had thought about replacing them before we left. I would have saved about $600 dollars if I had. Oh well. It had to be done.

Finally back on the road. We took the I 40 west for 13 miles and then headed north again on the 95. About 6 miles in we saw the railroad crossing we had been warned about. We took it at 20 mile per hour and made it safely. It is a rough one and several of the guys said it had done damage, like tearing the pan off the tow car, bending a tow bar, etc. We were sure glad to know about it.

So now it's getting dark and we have to find our way through Las Vegas to the Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort. Mark had given us detailed directions and they were perfect. We turned off the 95 onto the 93 which turned into the 515. We then took the 215 to Windmill Lane which turned into Blue Diamond Road. At the Target we turned right on Arville and there it was! Boy were we ready to get to our destination. It was 7:00 by now. We had anticipated arriving at 2:30 or 3:00. We unhooked the car and security showed us to our site.

Steve backed in to the very large space and I did the hookups. The slides went out and we were ready for a cocktail. Steve said he didn't want to go anywhere else tonight, so other than going to get some fast food to bring home, we were in for the night. He had done a great job driving in stressful conditions. He deserved some rest time.

Safe and sound and off the road. NOT our best day.

This is our last full day in Quartzsite. Today is the day to go back and get the stuff that you didn't realize you had to have when you saw it the first time. Also to go back to the booths that were just to busy to get close to on day one.

Many more rigs pulled out this morning. We are left with about 30 rigs in the circle. I like this size of a group. It gives me a chance to have some good one to one conversation.

We headed first to the tent where I needed to get the Battery Filler kit for my house batteries. The old kits just didn't work on the new Trojan Plus batteries. The holes didn't line up with the fillers. Then Christopher, who really likes to eat, needed sating so we headed back to the barbeque place at the end of the tent. Actually we were all starving at this point in the day. We all chowed down on pulled pork sandwiches or something we shouldn't be eating. LOL. There is no healthy choices at an event like this.

After "dining" we headed across the street to Tyson Wells once again. We needed to pick up some last minute things and tried to see if Trevor was at the ShadePro booth. He wasn't. Dang. So Mark and Christopher headed back to the circle while Steve, Chuck and I wandered over to the area where they were selling new motorhomes. It's fun to look at the innovations that have come along in the last year.

We looked at several Monaco coaches. They are doing exactly what we wanted when we bought our TropiCal. They are going shorter. The salesman said that people are not wanting the 40-42 coaches as much anymore. They want diesel but shorter. We bought a 35 foot diesel 2 years ago and it is perfect for us.

There were a few coaches that were nice, but nothing that could possibly tempt me. I love the coach we have. Some of the finishes and fabrics were nice, but we will eventually do that to our coach anyway.

Then we headed back to the circle to figure out what to do for the pot luck. I went over to some of the guys to make sure the pot luck was going to happen, what with the much smaller group, and was told it would be happening.

Then I was told that one of the campers, Ralph, had just been taken out to the road to be life flighted out to a hospital in Phoenix. It was either a stroke or a heart attack, they didn't know which. We saw the helicopter land and take off again so we knew he was in good hands. Then what to do with his motorhome? Everyone was onboard to help. One of the guys arranged for Ralph's rig to be moved to a lot in Rainbow Acres, a development very nearby, where it would be safe. Another camper said he would manage Ralph's parrot that he travels with, at least for a few days. Everyone was concerned, but jumped in to help. I love this group.

The potluck was manageable tonight. The food was excellent, if not heavy on meatballs LOL. I brought meatballs with a sherried Alfredo sauce, Mark brought meatballs with no sauce, There were meatballs in spaghetti too. The salads were great, there was vegetables and just enough dessert.

We had great conversations, including detailed directions on our journey tomorrow. We are headed to Las Vegas and three people told us to beware of the railroad crossing on the 95 just north of the jog on the I 40. They all said to be sure and take it really slow. It was nice to know and know where it was exactly. Carl had first told us but he couldn't remember where it was on the route. The others knew. Thanks guys.

Bed was a good thing.

It was cold this morning. Only 33 degrees according to Mark's thermometer. But the sun came up and the day warmed.

I thought I saw Trevor today. Trevor used to work for Best RV and did all of the awnings on our old rig. When the company changed hands and became ShadePro he left. I shouted out to this guy just to see if he recognized me, and then thought it must not be him. Later I found out it was Trevor. He just didn't recognize the new rig. Chuck talked with him later and he even remembered my name. He said he was going to call us later to say hi. I hope he does. He's a great guy and glad he came back to ShadePro. He's the only one I want doing any awning work for us.

Today we decided to go to the Tyson Wells flea market. There are always new and fun things there amongst the huge amount of CRAP. We found a few treasures.

More of the small LED flashlights were the calling of the day. I needed latex gloves for work and they were cheap. Steve bought a bigger newer extension power cord. Mostly we just looked.

We did find two guys who cleaned dog's and cat's teeth without anesthesia. I signed Buster up for a house call in April in San Diego. He need his teeth done at least twice a year, even with the brushing I do. And at his age, 11, I'm getting a bit afraid of the anesthesia.

After about three hours and a Tri tip Sandwich, we headed back for the camp. We needed to refresh with a cocktail and take a short nap before putting together the delight for tonights pot luck. I made a spinach/artichoke dip with crackers. Big deal. But it went over well.

The campfire group was way smaller tonight. About 35 rigs had pulled out in the morning. People who have to get back to work, and those that had come on Thursday and had been here long enough left. That still left 52 rigs in camp. That is still more rigs than used to be in camp when we started coming to Q. This even has really grown. Now there is talk of changing the date of the TOW group to the closing weekend of the RV show and separating it from the Rainbow group on the opening weekend, just to make it a smaller, more intimate group. I don't know how that will work with out stepping on toes, but it's not my job thank goodness.

It was a great group at the fire and we got to catch up with a few more folks we hadn't seen last night. Then I heard that the teeth cleaning guys were in camp doing some of the guys dogs. I had Brian call them and they came over to the rig and cleaned Buster's teeth right then. They did a great job and Buster didn't seem traumatized at all. I worried that he would feel abused and scared, but it went well. They are strong but gentle and loving with the dog. The wrap him tightly in a towel to control him and worked fast so the discomfort is short lived. Whew. Daddy had enough worry.

After a couple more cocktails and more sharing by the fire we were tired. So at 10:00 we headed back to the rig and bed.

We worked our last day on Friday. I got off at 4:30 on schedule and got home. Steve had most of the work done and the coach ready except for unhooking the utilities. I managed that, shuffled the cars and we headed out to refuel. It only took $124 in Diesel fuel @ $3.39 a gallon. I figured on that so it wasn't a shock to anyone but the man who was pumping near us.

We headed then down to Mission Bay to have a bite, hook up the tow car and wait for traffic to die down a little. At 7:15 we hit the road. Traffic wasn't too bad. After we got out of El Cajon it was easy. This rig just moves right along and pulls the Kia very easily.

We headed up the grade on Highway 8 stopping at the Golden Acorn Casino to check the car and run the engine a little for the transmission, then headed down the other side into Imperial Valley. It was an easy uneventful drive. We were hoping that the first rest area before El Centro would be open but it is still closed. A year and half to rehab a rest area??? Come on guys. So we continued on the 50 miles more to the dunes rest area. We found a spot where we wouldn't have diesel pumped into our coach like last year, and settled in for a few hours sleep. It was 10:30.

I set the alarm for 4:00 (5:00 Arizona) and we hit the road shortly thereafter. We were very close to Yuma and our last stop before Quartzsite. We refueled again at Barney's, another 18 gallons, and headed north up the 95. Getting excited now. It was still dark and we avoided the sun in our eyes driving east on the 8. (Actually could have slept in another hour and still been fine.) The drive was easy and we arrived at the Bureau of Land Management kiosk at 7:30. It was closed and we decided to just head into camp early. We were greeted with a cheer and a hug by Christopher who was out walking around with his coffee.

We pulled in the spot they had saved for us, unhooked the car, got the rig level, and put out the slides. We were home for a few days. YAY!!!

Today was the first day of the RV tent. OMG. The hoards that we joined to experience the selling frenzy and the consumer craziness. Of course, it's Arizona so there were a few "men" walking around with their guns on their hip. One guy, who was kind of , well, not tall was walking sort of in circles, kind of a spiky walk, like maybe he was on speed, with big handgun on his hip. He looked like a barnyard rooster just daring anyone to say something about it. Stupid. Oh well.

We ate a bit, watched Christopher eat a lot (man can that guy put it away!), bought the sheets we promised some friends in Palm Springs, checked out all that was available and headed back to the rig for cocktails. YAY again!

Steve took a nap and I started the Shrimp Jambalaya for the potluck. I hadn't made it in many years so I pulled up a good recipe online. It turned out great after I added more Cajun Spice.

The potluck was HUGE. I have never seen this much food on the table before. And try as I might, I couldn't avoid some of the foods I need to avoid. Including one lemon square. (I'll never lose these 8 pounds this way.)

There are so many people here this year. TOW and Rainbow RV are represented well here. It's beginning to look a bit like Burning Man, with subgroups around the center group. There are at least 3 other campfires surround the area of the main camp. Of course, Phoenix Rainbow RV is here again, camped next to the group and staying completely separate. Why do they bother?

There is a music tent in one area, unfortunately near us. He has been told that it needs to stop at 10:00 and he has turned down the volume on his DJ equipment. Probably an LA boy. Good music though. It's just kind of weird to have that at the Quartzsite camp out. Oh well. Room for all.

Frank and his friends showed me a new application for my Droid phone called Google Sky Map which was fun once I got it oriented. It shows all of the constellations and the position of the moon even before it comes over the horizon. Very cool.

We came back and had some star gazing time at Marks rig before heading for bed around 10:30. We watched a bit of TV, since this rig has an inverter!!!! Fancy us. LOL.

Day one was a great success. We arrived, we shopped, we ate, we partied, we slept. What's better?

We leave this evening for Quartzsite. First I have to work for almost 10 hours, but then hook up and hit the road. We are getting excited. Many of our friends are there already, having left Wednesday or Thursday from Palm Springs. None of them are worker bees.

Today we are clearing the counters of things that can move, adjusting the furniture for the closing of the slide outs, and otherwise doing what we can until last minute unhooking of the services, inflating the airbags and hitting the road. There is not much left and poor Steve has a lot to handle this afternoon. He gets off work early, I don't. I'm sure all will go smoothly and hopefully he won't hurt his back undoing the sewer, water and electrical.

We will drive only part way tonight. We usually go over the pass and down to the desert by El Centro and stop at a rest stop there for a few hours sleep. Last year we had to go another 47 miles to the rest stop by the dunes because they were rebuilding our usual place. I hope it is open this year. It's just easier. But we will get somewhere safe and sleep for a while before continuing the journey. We usually arrive in Quartzsite at around 9:00 AM Arizona time.

It looks like we will have good weather this year. Last year we left due to horrendous rains and went up to Parker. This year looks good and we will see Parker only as we pass through on our way to Las Vegas when we leave the group in Quartzsite.

I'll post as things happen, and maybe even get some pics on the blog. I wish the picture posting process were easier but it isn't. We shall see.

Anyway, wish us a safe journey and I'll write more as the days happen.