Day 44 – February 18 – Thursday

We went to breakfast with Gerald and Gladys then packed up and left Quartzsite at 11 o’clock. It was a pretty uneventful day. Pretty miserable for me, neck is still hurting, and J.W.’s throat is real sore. The excitement of the day was when J.W. saw a sign that said, “Benson Next Right”. He took the wrong “Next Right” and ended up in the Weigh Station. The attendant gave him a strange look. That was a little embarrassing. Oh well, what can I say?

We were set up at Benson KOA by 4:30 so had time to do some computer work before preparing dinner. It was very important that we be settled in well before 7:00 p.m. After all, it is “Survivor” night. I spent too much time on the computer so didn’t have dinner ready before the show started, but I managed to watch anyway. J.W. said that meal was much better than those he had been eating out. I guess that is “Kudos” to me, huh?

We really enjoyed the evening.

Day 45 – February 19 – Friday

We were off to a bad start today. We both overslept. I’m still feeling pretty lousy with neck and shoulder pain. J.W. is still fighting a sore throat. He does a lot of sneezing and nose blowing. He wanted to be on the road on our way to Van Horn, TX, by 9:00 a.m.. We didn’t get out of the Park until 10:38. By the time we stopped for breakfast it was 11:30 before we got out of town. It was supposed to be a 5 ½ hour day but somehow turned into 7 ½ hours. And, of course, we entered a new time zone just before reaching our final destination. It was a terribly long day, we had to set up in the dark, and had to have soup and sandwiches at 8:45 p.m. Didn’t make for happy campers. We stayed at Eagles Nest RV Park in Van Horn, TX.

Day 43 – February 17 – Wednesday

We decided to spend one more night in Quartzsite. We sure do like it here. We are in a beautiful RV Park, Holiday Palms, and the weather is beautiful. We saw Della, she works at Lumber Camp at SDC, at breakfast this morning. Come to find out, she has known my aunt and uncle for years. She told us Ruth, who works at Trapper Creek Merchants, was in the same Park she was in, so we went over and visited with her for a while. We missed Ellen and Harold, they had gone to Parker. After our visit we went RV shopping, again. We got some RV parts, T-Shirts and other goodies. Gerald, aka Uncle Jerry, was singing in a Jam at our Park tonight. We hadn’t heard him sing before, so we went to the Jam. It was a real treat because we not only got to hear him, but we also heard Della and a good friend of my uncles who hailed from Canada. It was a great Jam. We left at break time because my shoulder was hurting so bad. I had iced it before I went to the Jam, but it didn’t help for long.

Today was another wonderful day on our way home from “not so sunny Southern California.”

Day 42 – February 16 – Tuesday

Gerald and Gladys picked us up this morning and we went to breakfast at Sweet Darlene’s, then went to do some RV shopping. J.W. made a call to a place called “Running Lizard” to see about getting our A/C fixed. (We had called Randy in Branson last Spring, but he never made it out to do the job.) We got an appointment for 1 p.m. so we had to stop our shopping spree to go back to the RV Park. It is now 2 o’clock, the A/C is fixed and it only cost $30.00. Now we are going out sightseeing. Just outside Quartzsite there are some really neat rock formations. Gladys’ favorite is one that looks like a Scottie Dog.

Gerald had a Jam at his RV Park tonight, but my neck and shoulder are still hurting so bad and J.W.’s still nursing a cold so we decided to stay at the RV and watch the Olympics.

Day 41 – February 15 – Monday

We left Hemet right at noon today. We had two coupons for Buy 1 Get 1 Free lunches at the Morongo Casino, so we met Deanie and Bill there for our last visit before leaving the state.

We got to Quartzsite, AZ, in time to get set up before dark. Gladys and Gerald were at a Jam so we went to Palo Verde for salads for supper and made arrangements to meet them for breakfast tomorrow.

Day 40 – February 14 – Sunday

We were supposed to leave Hemet today, but because we wanted to go to the Tram yesterday, we decided to stay an extra day.

We were supposed to have breakfast with Chad, Melissa and the kids this morning before leaving town. However, Melissa took the kids to the LA Zoo so we had breakfast with Chad. After we ate we went to Chad’s to do laundry before our departure tomorrow. We wanted to be back at the Motorhome by 8:00 p.m. to watch the season premiere of ‘Amazing Race’. As it turned out, the laundry was not dry in time so we watched the show at Chad’s house. Because of the delay we got to see Melissa and the kids before we left California.

Day 39 – February 13 – Saturday

We picked Deanie and Bill up at their Motorhome in Banning and went to Billy Reed’s in Palm Springs for breakfast. Then we went to the Palm Springs Rotating Tram for a ride to the top of the San Jacinto Mountains. This is an incline of 2 ½ miles in 10 minutes, from 2500 ft to 8600 ft. We went from 76 degrees to 36 degrees in that same 10 minute time frame. The Tram makes two complete rotations on the trip up and on the trip back down.

We got some real neat pictures of all the snow, but didn’t see any wildlife. When we bought our tickets the clerk told us we would have a 2 hour wait. As it turned out, we had a 3 hour and 15 minute wait. They usually have 500 people a day. Today they had 3000 people.

While we were waiting to get on the Tram for the decline a group of Park Employees wheeled a young boy in that had broken his leg while sledding. We had to wait for him and the Park Employees to board the Tram before we were allowed to enter. We also watched as security handcuffed a young woman who was a bit too inebriated and was causing quite a ruckus. She wanted to know why they were not arresting her husband. When we got to the bottom of the mountain the Cops were waiting to take her to jail.

After the Tram trip we went back to Billy Reed’s for a Valentine Dinner consisting of Prime Rib, Shrimp Scampi, Baked Sweet Potato, steamed veggies, soup, salad and dessert. Today was a very relaxing and enjoyable day.

Day 38 – February 12 – Friday

We got up this morning and went across the Golden Gate Bridge before heading back to Hemet. We stopped at a fruit stand at Mercy Springs and bought oranges, grapefruit and pistachios. The fruit was not nearly as large or as good as they are in the summer months.

We ran into terrible traffic on the 210 on our way home. We got back to Hemet at 10:00 p.m. I sure was glad to get off the road.

Day 37 – February 11 – Thursday

J.W. woke up with a sore throat today. We went to breakfast at IHOP then went to Walgreens to pick up some essentials and some more cold medicine.

We rode the Cable Cars and did some shopping at the end of the line, had lunch at Lori’s, then took the Cable Car back to its beginning point. We went to Ghiradelli’s then rode around San Francisco on the Classic Cable Cars. We got back to our room in time to watch “Survivor”. We got in quite a few miles of walking today and all in all had a very enjoyable day.

Day 36 – February 10 – Wednesday

We got up and had a great hot free breakfast at the hotel before heading out for the Capitol. J.W. proved he was a tourister by driving up a road that said “No Turns”. He thought it meant no turn on red. By the time we came to a place where he could turn we were thanking God there were no Cable Cars coming. The “No Turn” sign really meant “No Turn”. After that little escapade we made our way to a Parking Garage about a half block from the Capitol. We managed to get there in time for the 11:00 o’clock tour.
This was not the most interesting Capitol we have visited, but we did learn a little history. We were disappointed to learn that neither Congress or the Assembly were in Session. They have session on Monday and Thursday, so we didn’t see any action. It would have been nice to be in on the Session on Thursday. Governor Schwarzenegger was trying to appoint a new Lt. Governor to replace the one who had stepped down. His choice had passed the Senate but failed to pass the Assembly, which I believe we refer to as the House of Representatives. California is a simple majority state.

We couldn’t get in to see the Governor because they were taking appointments only. But we did get one of his business cards. Our tour guide told us about a truck driver who was upset with the California Government. Back in 2000, while the Assembly was in Session, the man drove his 18 wheeler on a suicide mission through the east wing of the building. His truck caught on fire and exploded, killing him and causing 1.8 million dollars worth of damage to the Capitol.

After our tour to the Capitol we drove a couple blocks down Capitol Mall, which was designed after the US Capitol, to get our picture of us with the Capitol Building in the background.

Then we left Sacramento and went to San Francisco with our palates all ready for a good ole Bucket of Trash at Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co. We checked into the Radisson on the Wharf and set out on our two block trek to Pier 39 and Bubba Gumps.
Much to our dismay, and what a disappointment it was, that they no longer had the original ‘Bucket of Trash’ on the menu. Due to the soreness of my mouth from the cold I was trying to kick, I could not eat their new “Bucket of Boat Trash.” I finally settled for “Steamed Shell Fish” and J.W. got Talapia. The food was good but just not what we wanted. A couple of hours and $100 later we headed back to the Hotel.

The Hotel had great select number beds, but once again the pain in my neck and shoulder kept me from getting a good nights sleep.