SEASON GREETINGS FROM PALM SPRINGS

On Saturday morning we came back to Thousand Trails and set up to vend waterless car wash at their craft fair. I had fun shopping and then kept warm inside working on a jigsaw puzzle.

We played pickleball with Sally and Jerry before they left Thousand Trails for the next few weeks. This is their new 2011 Sun Cruiser RV and their little dog, Muffin.

Saturday evening Larry Weaver came and visited us for a few days. Larry sold insurance with him 34 years ago. They had lost touch and then they located each other on face book a few months ago. Larry lives in Florida, but he came out to visit his son in Utah. He took a "little" detour to see us ( about 400 miles) before going to his son's. It was nice meeting him and we had a great visit.

The wind farm by Palm Springs is very impressive and just amazes me every time I see all those wind turbines. Sunday was very windy, as it often is.

We had heard about the aerial tramway but had never gone to it. After moving our RV back to Thousand Trails, we decided to take Larry W there since it is something everyone says you should do when you come to Palm Springs. I definitely would agree now that I have done it .

The tramway has the world's largest rotating tram cars. The floor makes two complete turns on the trip up. The trip takes 10 minutes.

Our trip begins leaving the Valley Station which is already at 2,643 feet. (The drive to the parking lot was pretty steep, one sign we passed marked 1000 feet.) The Mountain station is at 8,516 feet. You pass through 5 unique life zones, from the Mexican Sonora Desert to an Alpine wilderness .

The tram works on counter balance with one tram going up and one going down. At the bottom of the picture you can see the other tram whizzing past us.

A view of the Coachella Valley as we go up. What a sight! It was 3:30 when we went up so my pictures are full of shadows, but the views in person were great.

You pass five towers on the way up. They are the only place where I felt a little sway. The trip was narrated and told fascinating information about the tramway and the different things you were seeing or passing. There is also a very good film at the mountain station about building of the tramway.

It had snowed last weekend so there was 2 inches of snow on the mountain. What a beautiful winter scene.

It was cold, but not to windy. We took a little hike and watched families having fun sledding.

This is Mt. San Jacinto State Park which has 54 miles of hiking trails. I had no idea there was so much up here to do.

My camera's battery was dying so this isn't a very good picture. But this is the Peak, a very nice restaurant, where we enjoyed a delicious meal. The view of the twinkling lights in the valley was impressive.

The stations were all decorated for the holidays. Next weekend at the Mountain station they light a 40 foot tree with 6,400 bulbs to kick off the season. Our tram ride to the "north pole" put me in the Christmas spirit, so now I'll decorate the RV. May I be the first to wish you Season Greetings from Palm Springs

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Faye initiated having a covered dish meal with the pickleball players at Thousand Trails for Thanksgiving. Even though we are out of the park this week this is our pickle ball family so we were included. We can always go into a park on a day pass.
We thank Linda and Rich for roasting the turkeys and ham. There was a lot of food and we all left stuffed after a delicious feast.

We ate at 12:30. There was about 25 of us, unfortunately Larry was missing. He has a nasty cold and has been sneezing and miserable for the last two days, so I got a meal to go for him.

This was a double celebration for Jerry (second from left) for it was also his birthday.

Hope all of you had a happy Thanksgiving. We are blessed to have you all in our lives.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

On Saturday night the weather changed bringing strong winds, some rain and snow up on the mountain. The wind blew us down the road to Indio and our new park, Indian Waters. To celebrate my birthday on Monday we went to the Spotlight 29 casino. We signed up for their players card and got a free lunch buffet and $10 of casino money to play the slots. ( Larry cashed out with $12.) We then went back to Thousand Trails and spent the rest of the day with our friends, Jerry and Sally. They had a chocolate cake and some ice cream for a little party. (sorry I forgot to take a picture of that lovely cake before we ate it.) I had a very nice day.

On Tuesday Larry took me to Palm Springs to go see the Follies for my birthday.

We had lunch at Ruby's Diner, which made you feel like you had stepped back into the 50's.

We had hamburgers, fries and shared a mocha malt. The fries were endless and Larry had a second order, but they also brought me more. I wasn't even going to finish the ones I already had, so I think Larry got his fill of fries for awhile.

The Follies has been a show in Palm Springs for 20 years. We had never gone and everyone was telling us it was really worth seeing. The performers sing and dance and all them are over 58 years old, most were in their 60's and 70's. The oldest was 81. Maybe it isn't too late for me, at 61, to become a Rockett! Riff Markowitz (72 years old) was the MC for the show and made the show fun and entertaining.

The Plaza theatre opened in 1936. Besides showing films famous local artist performed there like Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Jack Benny. The theatre had been closed for years when the Follies brought it back to life with performers who actually lived the era when it had flourished.

Inside the theater before the show began. Sorry no pictures during the show.

The Crystals performed their 60's hits "Uptown", "He's a Rebel", "Da Doo Ron Ron", and" Then He Kissed Me". Dee Dee Kenniebrew is one of the original Crystals (she is shaking hands). The group dibanded in 1967 and reunited in 1971.

A FRIENDLY TOURNAMENT

Larry has enjoyed playing pickleball every morning. I've played a little bit but often I'm on a slower pace in the morning and do other things around the RV.

On Saturday morning they had their first friendly tournament. You could play in the aggressive or non aggressive group. Larry was with the aggressive. Everyone played five games. Some of you who played pickleball in Florida will recognize Paul, Larry's partner for this match.
Ede is hitting the ball. We met her 3 years ago at Wilderness Lake. It was good to see her again.

This is the last match. It was exciting to watch. The finally score was 11 to 13, so you know it was a battle.

Dennis (also played in Florida) and Larry against Rick and Don.

The winners of the aggressive group - 1st place Dennis, 2nd place Larry and 3rd place Jim. This was Larry first tournament. Congratulations!

Susan and Ken tied for 1st place (Ken and Faye are also pickleball players from Florida). Bob came in 3rd.

BACK TO CALIFORNIA

We left View Point at 5 o'clock on November 11 to move to Palm Springs, CA. We left this early to avoid the morning traffic through Phoenix on route 10. When we hooked up the car to the RV (in the dark) we found we didn't have any tail lights on the car. Camping World had installed a wire on our hitch system when we had arrived a month ago and we hadn't hooked up the car to the RV since, so we thought it was something to do with that. We decide to leave, hoping that the lights on the back of the RV would give enough warning when turning or braking. (We had the hazard lights on the coach as we were hooking up and they were working fine) We got to the other side of Phoenix without too much traffic and right before the first rest stop a truck blew his horn at us like a SOS Morse code signal. Larry was going to stop at the rest stop and check the light system out anyway, but to our amazement when we stopped we didn't have any rear lighting on the car or RV! Larry checked the fuses and we had blown three of them - the rear brake lights and the turn signals. He installed new fuses and all the lights worked on the car and RV. Boy were we lucky we didn't have an accident.
We had Santa Anna winds hitting us on the side all the way to Palm Springs, so driving was a little bit of a challenge.

Here at Thousand Trails at Palm Springs.

Larry went out on Friday and played golf at Palm Royal with the group from Thousand Trails.
After he told them he was just learning and wasn't very good he had an excellent game, they were sure they were being conned.

There are several road runners in the park. They seem quite friendly and don't take off and hide like the ones I've seen before. I actually was able to go in and get my camera and take the picture of this one before he was scared off by a car coming along the street.

OLD FRIENDS AND NEW ONES

When Lynn and Jim Mann returned from their visit to PA we got together with them a few times. I taught school with Lynn and she lived in a house behind mine in Parksburg. They moved out here to Periora after she retired, but PA keeps drawing them home (children and grandchildren). Lynn has substitute taught out here, but now is fully retired!

Jim and Larry enjoyed playing golf. They got three games in, even though we were staying about an hour away from their house. Using the HOV lane in the morning made the drive pretty fast and easy. Lynn and I shopped or took a hike while they golfed. We then met the guys and enjoyed a nice lunch. We will miss seeing them but plan to see them again when we are in Verde Valley in February.

This is the most amazing shuffle board courts we have ever seen. They shine like glass. Playing on them reminded me of curling for the discs went slowly down the lane with the slightest of push. It really took some getting use to in playing. The up keep of the courts was a full routine - sweeping , washing, waxing.

We didn't play shuffle board to often because we played pickleball each morning at the time the courts were opened. These are some of the pickleball club players here at Vista Point. We had fun playing with them and hope they can keep the club growing, it is their second year.

ARIZONIA STATE FAIR AND PLAY

On Wednesday afternoon, after Larry went to the dentist and had a crown removed and two cavities filled, we drove into Phoenix and went to the State Fair. Admission was a donation of a deodorant for homeless veterans, plus we found parking for $5.00. A good buy!
This is an amazing sand sculpture about Arizona.

The 5 C's are copper, cattle, citrus, cotton, and climate.

We walked around the fair, listen to some entertainment, ate some food and then at 7 o'clock we went to the Coliseum concert series and saw Montgomery Gentry. We had great seats for free (right next to the $20 seats !) They put on a good show.I saw a sign advertising this play outside a high school in Mesa. It is a play I've wanted to see so we went on Friday night. A gentleman offered Larry a coupon for $3 off our tickets so we only paid $5.00 a seat. The play was outstanding. the costumes were beautiful, the scenery superb and the singing was perfect. A Broadway performance couldn't have been better and to think they were only high school students. We have had excellent experiences seeing plays at high schools.

Don't forget to turn your clocks back an hour tonight. Arizona isn't on daylight saving time so we don't have to do anything.