November 25 to 30, in Indio

NOV. 25, Sunday

Sunny but there is a light cloud cover today, temperature only went up to a high of 70*F. Not much happened today. Val went over to the club house and I watched the Canadian football Grey Cup.


NOV 26, Monday

Val went over to her exercise and I got on the phone about these estimates for the damaged caused by Sears. I called another repair shop and got excellent service. Their estimate came in at $1000 lower than the Fleetwood dealer in Colton....Go figure!!!
I called Mexico Bob and ordered our insurance for Mexico at $350. then we went into Indio at Lowe's to purchase a small portable and battery operated lamp for BBQuing at night. I saw one at one of our neighbours and thought it was the coolest thing. It can either be clamp to the table with its own clamp or use the magnet attached. From here we went to lunch at a local restaurant/pub built like a castle....really neat!

Purchased fuel for $50. @ 3.539 then came home, BBQ and tried out my new lamp....works like a charm!


NOV 27, Tuesday,

Cloudy and cooler again....upper 60's. The forecast is for rain later this week and cooler still. Went to a geo-caching session and then came home with our mail. It was all damaged and ripped open. Hope I didn't lose any mail. We got the cheque from Fleetwood for our fuel expense to La Grande back in September and I got short changed. I will have to call them again. BLOODY HELL!!!!!!
At 3 p.m., we went to the club house to have our picture taken for our new membership card.....new procedure....I guess some people were loaning their cards to non-members. REALLY!!!!!!!!??????


NOV 28, Wednesday, cloudy in the low 70's

Val went to her exercise classes and I went to another computer session, on "why your computer runs slow" It was interesting and I picked up a couple of new tricks.
Made a call to Fleetwood to find out why I didn't get the whole amount, got the usual excuses with the promise of looking into it and getting back to me.....yeah right!!
Went to Desert Palm to JC Penney where I found and bought 3 bottles of my after-shave, "Royal Copenhagen", YIPPEEEE!!!!!!!!! This stuff is getting harder and harder to find.
Val is cooking lasagne tonight....yummy....yum!


NOV 29, Thursday, cloudy and cool

After Val exercise, we went to the Salton sea, approx. 35 miles south of here. We took Hwy 111 and drove the East side of the lake. We first stop at a National Refuge Park Headquarters where we saw a film on the history of the sea and what is being done to conserve it. There were camp site there with electricity and water; and a beach with white crunchy tiny sea shells that looked like white sand. The lake is 240 feet BELOW the Ocean level.....that's mind-boggling. It is approx 35 to 40 miles long and 15 miles at its widest spot. The maximum depth is approx 20feet. It is much saltier than the Pacific Ocean due to algae growth and the run-off's. It used to be part of the Sea of Cortez approx. 100,000 years ago. (SEE PICTURES)
From here, we drove on south and stopped in a small town named Niland for lunch. The food was great but the people were sort of.....eccentric!? We carried on without getting mugged and stopped at a couple of other refuge. We saw lots of white and brown Pelicans, snow geese, Canada geese, egrets and hawks. Even saw a wild rabbit but no snakes.
For the trip back, we took Hwy 86 on the west side of the lake and came home. We were gone for approx 5 hours.

Once at home, I called the Sears adjuster about our claim but only got his answering machine so left a message.


NOV 30, Friday, Cloudy and rain

Yes, we got rained on today with lighting as a side show. It got heavier as the day wore on and there were lots of "flash flood warnings" out. We even went without power for a good hour in the evening.
Called Sears again today and no call back. I am starting to get stressed out with this mess!!!

Anyway, I attended another computer session on WIFI and Val went to her exercises. This session was about an antenna that improves the reception of your connection by 20 folds. I actually tried it and it worked. Whereas before I was getting maybe 20-40% of the signals, now I get 80 to 100% Quite an improvement! Needless to say, I bought one that came with 2 antennas ( a short and a tall one) and an extension with a booster on it.
This valley is really drabby when it rains. I can see now why I wasn't impressed the first time we drove through here back in 2005. We went to Costco and Wal-Mart to spend more money that we don't have.
I also made a tentative appointment with McBride RV in Chino for next Tuesday. I am anticipating that Sears will approve their quote and we will get the Ok by then. Keeping our fingers cross!!!!!!


Life is but a journey filled with adventures