Palm Springs, February 20-24, 2001

Summer before last we had Kevin Mallory replace the cellular blinds in our RV wit MCD duo shades. At that time he hadn’t been trained to install the shades across the windshield. Because of illness on my part I missed going to Quartzsite when he was there last year and when he was at the ACA Rally in Las Vegas he had to measure our coach because MCD wouldn’t ship with out exact measurements of the couch that the shade are to installed in. This year we were in Mexico most of the time that Kevin had shop set up in Quartzsite. This year He was a month in Quartzsite and a month in Palm Springs, so I arraigned for him to get the shades ther. He had taken the measurements in Las Vegas at the Rally.

I made reservations to stay at the Thousand Trails Preserve in Palm Desert and scheduled Kevin to come there. I brought the coach to the house on Thursday, planning to clean it up and loaded for the trip. The plan was for me to go to Palm springs and the meet Gerri and my mom at San Clemente State Beach. They will drive Gerri’s car to San Clemente so we will have a second vehicle when we have Kathleen and the kids there in March. I didn’t clean the outside of the RV because rain was predicted over the weekend. We didn’t get much loaded because we had Brandon and Vanessa while Curtis and Dana went to Texas.

I Left for Palm springs Sunday morning at about 9:30 AM. I went by way of I-15 to the Nipton turnoff to the Cima/Kelso road to Amboy and then on to Palm Springs via 29 Palms and Yucca Valley. I had rain a couple of times and there was snow on the mountains. There were spots of snow on the ground in Yucca Valley.

I got the Thousand Trails Park at about 3:30 PM and with the help of a neighbor I got backed into the space. Once parked the set up was quick. I talked to a few of the neighbors, including a couple with the same model coach as ours. They were Todd and Kay Hallawell from Virginia.

Kevin came on Monday the 21st and installed the new blinds across the windshield. I still have the side windows to do in the driver and passenger areas. On Tuesday morning he fixed the solar system. This finished all the work he could do this trip. I still have some things on my list for when we go east this summer besides the blinds. I didn’t do much on Tuesday afternoon.

On Wednesday the 23rd I went geocaching and managed to bag 14 and DNFed two.

Thursday the plan was to drive to San Clemente to meet Grri and my mom for our sometimes annual trip with Bill and Elaine Cavagnaro. The Gremlin (Garmin 7200 in the RV) routed me west on I-10 to CA60, to I-215 to I-15 to CA 76 west t I-5 and north to San Clemente. A little roundabout to suit me but I arrived at the campground at about 2 PM. The hard part was passing Nessie Burgers just of I-15 on CA76. What really kept me from stopping was the fact it was the lunch hour was under way both the eating area and parking lot were full to overflowing.

Our space at San Clemente was number 12. With trees along the drive I had a difficult time getting the coach i. I picked up a campground map and marked more desirable spots. I need to find the grounds keeper and have the tree by the exit of the space pruned back before I leave. Either that or do it myself, I really dislike limbs brushing the sides of the coach.

Gerri and Glenna arrived at about 3:40. I had talked the ranger at the gate into letting her drive the car in for unloading without paying the $15.00 for the extra vehicle. We had to park the Lincoln on the street. Until we can take it to Cousin Arlene’s in Dana Point.

Gerri had the starting of a cold and it got very bad during the night. The worst I have ever seen her.