12/1/07 - Iit is hard to believe it is Christmas in three weeks. The gloom and the rain of the Pacific Northwest announces its coming. In Las Vegas an inch of rain has the newscasters warning everyone to stay home if possible. They do not do storm drains around here -- yes they do flash flood drains -- but not storm drains. So when it rains it just pools up in every dip in the road. People do not have a clue how to drive in it.
12/4/07 - Started to get ready for the trip up to Seattle/Tacoma. We already have a pretty full schedule. Trying to catch family and friends. We are very fortunate in the Nellis AFB RV park. They have a storage area that we can put our motorhome and vehicle in that is in plain view of the office. And, it only costs $2 a day.
12/6/07 - Took the motorhome down to have some warranty work done. I like having to move once in a while. We have the process down to about 30 minutes. We have a check list that we go over before we leave -- no more hanging out the window to see if the steps are up or finding the first place to stop so we can put the antenna down. We have things so they are buttoned up so tight even a real fast stop does not shake them loose. Yes, we have had experience with that too!
Then when we set back up it is like having a new fresh new home. Any clutter has been cleaned up and stowed before you left.
This lifestyle does agree with us. We get plenty of rest, exercise and good food. We bought an Entertainment book for Las Vegas. It really pays for itself it no time.
12/8/07 - The RV park is starting to look like Christmas. Many of the rvs have lights and trees all over them. The office is really covered with lights. In spite of the constant sunshine -- I'm not complaining -- it is feeling a lot like Christmas...

(We have not quite figured out the night photograph yet!)



12/10/07 - Talked with my sons today. We are planning a family dinner on the 16th. Kevin has volunteered his home and everyone is bring something. This is really different for us to have them doing practically everything -- I am really looking forward to seeing everyone.
Also, Friday, the 14th, we are getting together with Lance's family at Marie Callendar's. Fun, fun, fun.

12/11/07 - For those of you we cannot see while we are up in your area, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will get to spend Christmas Day with my brother, Jeff and his wife, Elaine and their "children" Adonis and Eros, the most beautiful dogs alive. What a rare treat. I cannot remember the last time we were with Jeff & Elaine for the holidays.



12/11/07 - We took a Power Point class at the office/meeting room today. The Air Force has instructors that come over and teach all kinds of computer classes. We have wanted to learn a little more about Power Point in the hopes we could put together a Golf Caddy presentation Lance could use.
Desert Eagle RV Park has breakfasts, BBQs, Ice Cream Socials with games, bingo, cards even live music. Just ask and they know how to help you. When we decided to not park our car at the airport (they say on their website there is not much room), we found out a number of people earn a little extra by taking people to the airport. The price is right and you do not have to worry about getting someone on the base. I must say they have raised the bar for what to expect from an RV park.
The gremlin lurks again. Lance said he had another item for warranty work. The fan in the hallway was not working. So we took another look at it. There was a switch on it that said, "In/Out". I suggested switching it to "In". Lance switched it to "In" and it worked. Now tell me a gremlin did not do that!!! Then -- a week or so ago our notebook crashed. We got the original boot disks from Dell and restored it. I put the Microsoft Office back on it -- Outlook, Word, Excel, etc. Now for the life of us, we cannot find that disk. Even packing up to move and coming back did not shake it loose.


12/12/07 - We flew out of Las Vegas to Home today. We stayed at our usual - The Evergreen Inn on McChord AFB. The price is really right and they are very comfortable.
We had put our motorhome and car in the storage area of where we are staying in Las Vegas -- It cost us a whole $2 a day!! The flight was easy with no glitches. We made it without feeling too tired. It was a good thing because our week was going to be non-stop.
Washington really felt like home because it was raining. The grey and gloom and rain put us right into the Christmas spirit. Las Vegas is great, however, all that sunshine was confusing us about Christmas being just around the corner.

When you have webbed feet, that rain feels good.


12/13/07 - The highlight of this day was dinner with Dr. Don & Deb Smith - They took us out to Falls Terrace in Olympia -- my old stomping grounds. We had a great visit and a fabulous dinner. We really enjoyed ourselves.


12/14/07 - Friday was the Kulman party at Marie Callendar's in Federal Way. They did a wonderful job accommodating us and the food was great too! We even had the annual "white elephant" gift exchange. There was a little competition this year for a few of the gifts. Never know what will be the hot item.
Lance's son Dan was there with his girlfriend, Kimberly. His other son Jason was also there with his wife, Danielle and children, Parker, Carson and Delaney. Lance's sister, Teresa and hubby, Marty and children, Tyler and Chelsea joined the festivities also. A "adopted" couple of the Kulman clan, Jim and Candace Philp, joined us for the third year.




12/15/07 - Saturday was a busy day for both of us. Coralee had lunch with her Enumclaw friends at the Red Robin in Auburn. Caught up on everyone's latest family lives. We always have a good time together. We have been friends for 45 years. Yes, 45 years. You couldn't tell it by our looks, could you?


Karen, Donaray, Barb, Joyce, Marilyn & Barb.

Then off to Renton to meet up with her friend, Gretel, at their favorite "mid-way" restaurant - The Keg. And, later a movie -- Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. It was great.


Lance made the finals of their friendly monthly Texas Hold'em poker games. Unfortunately, Lady Luck was not with him this time and did not make the paying places.


12/16/07 - Sunday was the Forler/Simmons/Kulman Party. Kevin hosted our party at his lovely home in Auburn. We ate some really good food -- this time Coralee/Lance did not do the cooking. Thanks to Kevin, Martin, Morgan & Tia & Aaron we had a very festive dinner. Marie Callendar's supplied a great chocolate raspberry cheesecake though.

Martin, Smiling Kevin, Steven & Morgan

Aaron & Tia

12/17/07 - Monday was a day to visit. Coralee was off to Candace's and Lance looked up some of his golfing buddies. Then Jim fixed another one of his gormet dinners for us.

Jim & Candace and Cat Carrie - who loves exploring bags of all kinds

12/18/07 - Tuesday was a day of rest in preparation for heading "home" to our lovely motorhome. We finished our Christmas cards and wrapped up all our business while in town.
12/19/07 - Wednesday we flew back to Las Vegas. It was very, very beautiful seeing Las Vegas at night from the air. The lights were unbelievable. I tried but I could not get that plane to sit still long enough to get some night pictures except a lot of quiggles. Also, got a picture of sunset ABOVE the clouds. Pretty cool.

Sunset above the clouds ----- Las Vegas at night from the air.
It was good to be back in our home. I missed it. Everything was just fine. You do worry about it being their all by itself.
12/20/07 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Got home and had a flurry of activity to get ready to move to Southern California. The refrigerator needed to be restocked, the laundry needed to be done and Lance had one more golf course to photograph.
12/22/07 - On our way to Desert Hot Springs, California - Catalina RV & Spa Resort - Can you believe we parked in this space in the dark???? Later we had to move because this part of the park was older and our sewer connections did not work.


However, their swimming and hot pools were fantastic. They are heated by mineral springs and this rv park allows you to swim 24 hours a day. How great is that!



12/23/07 - Twenty-nine Palms Marine Corp. Military Base - Found some interesting signs on base:





Loved the sunset on the way home.
12/23/07 - Twenty-nine Palms, CA - Took a trip up to Yucca Valley and Twenty-nine Palms. The Josuha National Park is in this area and the Josuha trees are definately huge. The City of Twenty-nine Palms is known for its murals. Here are a few of them.






The landmark of the Palm Springs area are the white wind turbine generators that are increasingly popular as alternative sources of energy. They are a type of windmill that produces electricity by harnessing the wind. Wind turbine generators are much less harmful to the environment than burning fossil fuels, but they do require average wind speeds of at least 21 km/h (13 mph).
The largest of these windmills stands 150 feet tall with blades half the legend of a football field. The compartments at the top containing the generator, hub and gearbox weigh 30,000 to 45,000 pounds. A wind turbine's cost can range upwards to $300,000 and can produce 300 kilowatts an hour - the amount of electricity used by a typical household in a month. Almost all of the currently installed wind electric generation capacity is in California. This wind farm on the San Gorgonio Mountain Pass in the San Bernadino Mountains contains more than 4000 separate windmills and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley.
Coachella Valley includes Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, Catheral City, Thousand Palms, North Palm Springs, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio and a few more beautiful cities. It is definitely desert, however, every once an a while you will see a huge pile of big, round boulders. Lance claims it is alien's doing.




Another type of palm. We thought we had seen all the different types of palms. WRONG! Here is another one to add to the collection.





Coachella Valley Weather -- The Valley boosts just afew days of rain a year. We were there when a storm came in. A big cloud rolled over the mountain to the west.


Then the winds came in.....


... the rain came to the valleyand snow to the mountains (someone even brought some home).


Then we got back to our blessed sun and 70 degree weather. It warmed us.



12/25/07 - Pomona, California -- For the first time since I can remember we spent Christmas with my brother, Jeff, his wife, Elaine and their great dogs, Adonis and Eros. It was a great day -- good food, good conversation and great hugs.



In California almost everyone has a citrus tree in their yard. Jeff & Elaine wereno exception. They had a tangelo tree and sent us home a bunch of these tasty treats.




12/26/07 - Palm Springs, CA - As always Coralee is curious about the floral and fauna of each new area. She is totally amazed that in December there are still gardens in bloom. Here are a few selected pictures of Palm Springs




12/29/07 - We moved to a new RV Park today. Will be there until 1/28/08.



They too have a great pool.








We are parked almost to the end of this road on the left. It is a beautiful park.

12/30/07 - Today is our 22nd Anniversary. We planned on dinner at the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. We even had reservations. We got there in plenty of time -- we thought. We had 4 pm reservations (so we could see the sun set) and we got there a little after 3. They were so busy the next available tram was 5:15. So much for that. Next time we will go after the holidays and during the week!
We found the Visitor's Center on the way so we went back and they recommended Davey's Hideaway. (See travel page - Southern California). It was fabulous. We had great dinners and they had a piano player that really added to the enjoyment. They were a fine dining restaurant with great service and the price was too bad either.
12/31/07 - New Year's Eve - We celebrated New Year's Eve with other Sands Golf & RV Park residents. There was a party at their "Oasis Hall". We met some very nice people, had some great hors d'evours and just generally enjoyed the evening. They had karaoke and there were more than a few good singers and dancers there. We actually celebrated New Year's at 9 pm since many of the residents are even older than we are.
We are really looking forward to 2008. We have truly made a good start on our RV adventure.