February 24 to 28, 2010; Indio, CA

FEB 24, Wednesday, Indio
Cloudy this morning but already 50*F by 8 a.m! Val went for her exercises then we went shopping for some groceries then, after putting away in our rig, we went geo-caching. I had to go to Radio Shack so we combined pleasure with business.
After finding 7 caches around Indio and not finding what I required at Radio Shack, we came home and had happy hour. After dinner, we watched the Michael Jackson movie “THIS IS IT” It was quite good actually and would have been quite a show had he lived!? It was quite warm today and the sun managed to shine most of the day.


FEB 25, Thursday, Indio
After breakfast, I attended a class on Geo-Caching at the clubhouse. In the afternoon, we went to “Target” to buy a wok as ours was no longer of any use. We came home and I took Tucker for a walk then we drove to “Thousand Trails” and picked up Sid and Vera and went to Palm Spring to the street fair. We got there early and found free parking just around the corner from the fair. We walked the 4 blocks (long ones too) and looked at everything but didn’t buy anything. We had dinner at a local bistro then came home after dropping off Sid and Vera at their site. We had a good time and it was a pleasant evening for temperature...very mild! IT is still 62*F (16*C) outside at 10 pm.


FEB 26, Friday, wash day
Today was laundry day. Later in the day, we met a few more neighbours. There are a lot of people from BC here this time around. We called Sid and Vera and made arrangements to go to Cabazon Mall tomorrow as the forecast is for rain and winds so the flea market at College of the Desert is out. We did a few more caches too later in the afternoon, all near here.
In the evening, we watched the Olympics.


FEB 27, Saturday, shopping day!
After picking up Sid and Vera around 10 a.m, we went to Cabazon where there is a big outlet mall. It is in the pass between the valley and Riverside. It rain all day with some breaks and we had a successful day. Val bought a couple of tops and I bought 2 shirts and a beautiful vest to wear instead of my “Halifax vest” which was getting quite raggy according to Val. Sid was looking for a pair of runner but didn’t find anything to his taste; Vera bought a top which according to Sid, she doesn’t need (smile).
Anyway, we drove back in the rain for a while but once we entered the valley, the sky became clear and it got a lot warmer. It was around 56*F in Cabazon and 65* in the valley...quite a difference. We dropped off Sid and Vera and came home. Tucker was happy to see us and eager to go for his walk; it was 4 pm when we got home.
After a nice dinner, we watched the Olympics.


FEB 28, Sunday, Indio
We woke up to sunshine and a sunny day. Good way to end the month! Val made a few phone calls this morning then wrote a few e-mail. Our neighbour, John, came over and asked if we wanted to go caching, as if he needed to ask! We said yes of course and planned on meeting at 1:30 pm. We watched the first period of hockey (Canada leading by 2) then left to pick up John. We geo-cached until 4 o’clock, finding about 10 caches, before calling it quit. When we got back, we found out that Canada won the Gold! FANTASTIC!!!!
After BBQ’ing steaks for dinner, we watched the closing ceremonies for the Olympics.

February 19 to 23, 2010; Lytle Creek to Indio CA

FEB 19, Friday, Lytle Creek
It is cloudy and much cooler today. There is a storm coming in from the Pacific again and it’s supposed to last until next Tuesday.
Val decided to clean house so I went to the club house and caught up to our blog and uploaded it and also 4 new pictures on Picasa Web. A few people were there already including two Canadians that we met earlier in the week. We stayed home, read our e-mail and books and watched the tube. It rained in the evening.


FEB 20, Saturday, shopping day
After a very nice breakfast, we went to the valley and made a stop in Devore first to find our last cache. It was near a Sheriff’s Rehabilitation Centre (prison) and a training centre for Correctional Officer. We looked around then found our cache.
We then drove to Fontana for some groceries and also I had to buy an ink cartridge for my printer at Staples. We came back to Lytle Creek and stopped at the local pub for a beer and some wings then came home.
It rained in the evening and the wind picked up some.


FEB 21, Sunday, our last day in Lytle Creek
We woke up to a cloudy sky but with some sun shining through once in a while. The forecast is more rain today and overnight! It only got to 58*F today
After doing some internet, I loaded the kayaks and put everything away in preparation for our departure tomorrow. We spent the rest of the day reading and watching the Olympics and a movie.
This place is really nice and it is a wonderful place for a young family. The only disadvantage to it is its isolation especially if one is here for more than a few days. We would come back but not for this long again. People were friendly enough but into their own circles. We look forward being back in Indio area.


FEB 22, Monday; to Indio, CA
I woke up to sunshine but it quickly changed to clouds and rain. After a lazy morning, we left around 10:20 a,m, and headed down to I-15 then south on I-215. We took a shortcut via 210 and missed all of Riverside traffic and eventually came out onto I-10 East. The ride was uneventful and we arrived in Indio at our park, Indian Water resort, a WHR park, around 1:15 pm. We booked in, paid our dues under AOR and set up in spot # 211 in what is call the “parking lot” because there is no grass on this side and no sewer but there is an “honey wagon” that comes around 3 times a week. Nice to have internet at our rig and usage of our phone again!
It is sunny but very windy with strong gust. It eventually died down in the evening.

We travelled 98 miles (160 KM) in 3 hours at an average speed of 49 MPH
N 33* 42’ 23”
W 116* 12’ 43”
Alt: 30 feet


FEB 23, Tuesday, Indio
Val went for her exercises and I attended a class on computer. Once Val was showered and ready, we went to visit Sid and Vera (my son-in-law’s parents) at “Thousand Trails Park”. We had a very nice visit and made plans for later in the week. We also called Terry and Glenda and learned that they are still having problems with their truck; we tentatively made arrangements to meet later.
I would love at this point to make a smart crack here on Chevy vs Ford but I've had problems of my own and cannot in honesty make any comments other then be sympathetic!!! (SMILE)

It was sunny and warm today but another storm is on its way and as a matter of fact, by the time we came home from our visit with Sid and Vera, clouds had filled the sky. We called the kids in the evening and the only person home was Rochelle; the grand-kids were all out busy doing their own thing and Kevin was still at work but we had a nice conversation with Rochelle. I also tried Wilf, my father in law, but he wasn’t home.

February 15 to 18, 2010; Lytle Creek

FEB 15, Monday, Lytle Creek, sunny & warm
Those with family are getting ready to leave and the park was half empty by 5 pm. It was a very warm day; in the upper 70’s here in the park and low 80’s in the valley.
We went to Fontana shopping centre where I returned the IPod Touch I had purchased in Staples then we stopped at an outdoor & sports store and found a Delorme GPS for the same price so I got that instead. We went to find a couple more caches then came home. We watched some of the Olympics in the evening


FEB 16, Tuesday, Lytle Creek
More people left today and it is another warm day.
We did more of the same... Geo-Caching of course! We had to try out Val’s new Gps and it did fine. We’re sure getting to know the town of Devore and its surrounding.


FEB 17, Wednesday, Lytle Creek
I downloaded a program called “GSAK” which allows me to upload caches from geocache.com and download them on Val’s gps. It makes things fast and easy this way. For some reason "Easy Cache" program won't work with the Delorme GPS.
We went down below again but this time it was to phone Val’s uncle Bud in Phoenix to wish him a Happy Birthday. I also took this opportunity to fill the truck @ $2.87/Gal. We did a few more caches of course!


FEB 18, Thursday, wash day
We stayed around here today. I washed the rig and all the windows in & out and Val did the laundry. I also filled one tank of propane here in the park ($3.50/gal) and paid for one more night (Sunday) for $9 as our next resort (Indio) is not until Monday.
Around 4 pm, we went down below to make another call and this time it was to her sister Audrey but unfortunately, she wasn’t home so we left a message wishing her Happy Birthday then came back home. No, there was no geo-caching today! We watched more Olympics in the evening.

February 11 to 14, 2010; Lytle Creek, California

FEB 11, Thursday, Lytle creek
A beautiful sunny day and the days are getting warmer as a bonus! Val did some laundry and I went to the club house and updated my blog on line and uploaded some pictures. In the afternoon, we went for a walk around the park. It was a quiet, relaxing day at home.


FEB 12, Friday, Lytle Creek
The park is getting filled fast as this is a long week-end for the U.S. We were the only one on this row and now it is full. We went exploring up the canyon to the end of the road then came back down and began geo-caching of course. We walked up a forestry road for about 4 miles and found 5 more caches along the way. There were more up the road but we ran out of time so came back down and drove home.
We went to the little restaurant/bar in the park for dinner: all you eat Italian spaghetti for $6 each. The place was packed and even had a line up at the door but we beat all that by getting here early. Lots of kids in the park now; this is going to be a noisy week-end! It was sunny and warmer today...the forecast is for low 80’s by Sunday!
We watched the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies in the evening.


FEB 13, Saturday, Lytle Creek
We didn’t get up until 9 a.m. I can’t believe I got up this late!!! After breakfast, I went to the clubhouse and uploaded my blog and some pictures then, you guessed it, we went to find the last of our geo-cache and explore along “Old Route 66”. We came home around 4 pm, showered and cleaned up then went to the Valentine Dinner at the Park’s restaurant. It consisted of a stuffed chicken with mash potatoes, vegetable and a salad. It was quite good and the place was busy. So was the park for that matter, lots of little parties and BBQ going on!


FEB 14, Happy Valentine Day!
It’s been a very warm day and a little bit windy to make it just right. Definitely a short day! I gave Tucker is monthly treatment for fleas and heartworms then dumped the tanks. Exciting stuff!
We spent the day at home, reading and just hanging around. It was a nice relaxing day. Our neighbour left but a new one came in soon after; a single lady who seems to know a few of the people around. For dinner, I BBQ’ed a huge steak which fed both of us and even had left over for stir-fry tomorrow. Even Tucker had his share.

February 7 to 10, 2010: to Lytle Creek, California

FEB 7, Sunday; To Lytle Creek, California
After a lazy morning, we finally left around 10:15 am. We drove down Dillon to west I-10. The wind was really blowing and of course, we were going against it. We stopped for coffee and I noticed that diesel was at 2.83/gal so I filled up. We continued on I-10 to 215 north then southwest on I-5 to Lytle Creek road. The road to the campsite was quite tortuous but very, very scenic. We drove into a canyon and through the village of Lytle Creek. Small but quaint, we arrived at our resort north of town: Mountain Lakes RV Resort, an ROD member. After checking in, we set up in site 736 and went for a walk with Tucker to explore.
This is a really pretty park; it has over 400 sites, two small lakes, a store, a restaurant/bar and is mainly filled with young Californian family. They had a party going for Super Bowl at the bar/restaurant so after taking Tucker back to the rig, we went to the restaurant, got a table and had a late lunch and watched the Super Bowl football game. We talked to a young couple who told us that Lytle Creek village is quite rough & tough and known for its growth of marijuana...GREAT!!!
We don’t have cellular service here so have to use the pay phone or go lower down in the valley. There is free WIFI but we have to go to the clubhouse to get it. We came home after a couple of hours and watched the rest of the game as we have cable. I paid $35 for two weeks and that was for the cable service. Campsites under ROD are free! We didn’t unhooked as we have to go to Giant RV in the morning. We had been waiting for parts which are now all in, so we are told!? I’ve also been having a lot of problems with my throttle. It is getting worst and getting scary, especially in traffic so I will have to get this looked after tomorrow.
It is quite cold here, barely 52*F (11*C) and it going down to 34*F overnight!

We travelled 130KM (80 miles) in 2 hours at an average speed of 40 mph. The highway was really busy.
N 34* 15’ 16”
W 116* 29’ 22”
Alt: 3255 feet


FEB 8, Monday, to Colton for warranty repairs
Colton is 17 miles from here so we re-traced our way back down and got there for 10 a.m. We dropped off the rig at Giant RV and went to the Ford dealership in Riverside to have the problem with the accelerator dealt with. Three hours later, we were on our way again with the problem not fix but with an appointment for tomorrow to get a new throttle pedal (this will be the fourth one in 3 years!!!?) I still think that there is more to the problems but the mechanics say that it doesn’t show on the DTC so no point in arguing. So we will try it one last time. I told Val that if it happens again, I am buying a DODGE!!!!
We picked up our rig at Giant and came back to our site in Mountain Lakes RV Resort. We are here for 2 weeks.


FEB 9, Tuesday, Lytle Creek
We got up early and drove down to the Ford Dealer but first I took the kayaks off the roof. It was cloudy and cold this morning up here but warmed up some in Riverside, 2300 feet lower. The job took an hour and a half and $441 poorer; we drove to Wal-Mart to get some groceries and came home. It is raining right now and some snow is falling in the form of small hail. The furnace is on, the beer is cold and the book is good read so what more could we ask for!? By the way, the throttle is responding much better so let’s hope it’s the last one for the next couple years, at least!!?


FEB 10, Wednesday, Lytle Creek.
A cold and cloudy day greeted us this morning. Due to the cold overnight, a water line burst in the campground and we will be without water for about an hour; well it was actually 3 hours! The sun is peeking out the clouds so we went for a drive to explore this canyon. As an added bonus, we did a few geo-caches too. One of them took us up the mountain behind our resort and what a view it was (check out the pictures). We took a few pictures then headed for the next cache which took us around and over the mountain and on the north-east side of it where we headed down and found three more caches. More spectacular view! We drove on “old route 66” where we found a historical marker about the Cajon pass (Blue Cut)which was the main pass through the Gabriels and San Bernardino mountain ranges with the Mojave desert to the north and the San Bernardino valley to the south. This completed one more cache for us.
As it was getting late, we came home and stopped in the village at the pub/restaurant for a beer and to check it out. Kind of funky/hippie’ish !
We had dinner then relax from another good day of exploring.

February 4 to 6, 2010; Desert Hot Springs

FEB 4, Thursday, more geo-caching
Reg & Pat and Mel & Lorna left this morning for greener pastures. After Val’s exercise and my ritual walk with Tucker, we went geo caching for a couple hours looking for a series called “Lemon Field” and it actually turned out to be 4 hours. We found 13 out of 20 and 3 we didn’t find. It was an interesting, easy and enjoyable day. It was easy walking and we could drive up to most of them.
We were to go to Palm Springs to the street fair at 5 pm but decided to wait until we get back from Lytle Creek. Val tried a recipe given to her by a friend which turned out to be really good then we relaxed at home.


FEB 5, Friday, Desert Hot Spring
Val’s watch was in need of a new battery so we went to town to look for a place that would have one but had no success so we went into Palm Desert near Palm Springs. We got the watch fixed then went to Costco for a few items then went to BestBuy and Staples to look for a PDA. I found one at Staples and bought it.
As we were driving by a mall, we remembered a cache there that we hadn’t found so we went back and sure enough, found it! One more under our belt. We came home for happy hour, had dinner and called it quit for the evening.


FEB 6, Saturday, Last day in Desert Hot Springs
It rained so hard overnight that it woke me up. There is a big storm going over and Los Angeles area is having all kinds of mudslides and flooding. This area is not so bad as we have a set of mountain deflecting the worst but it indeed very gray out there. A good day to stay home!
In the afternoon, we had a break so I went out and loaded all the chairs and BBQ and toys; loaded the kayaks and reloaded the golf club and cushion for Tucker. Glenda called and invited us for dinner so we went over for happy hour and a marvellous dinner consisted of pasta mix with chicken, mushrooms and a white sauce. There also was a salad and dessert afterwards. A dinner fit for a king! It was delicious. We came home around 9 pm after a very nice visit. The stars are out so maybe it will be nice tomorrow.

February 1 to 3, 2010 Desert Hot Springs

FEB 1 Monday; Desert Hot Springs
I got an e-mail yesterday from Mel asking about geo-caching today so we got together after Val had her exercises and shower and we went on the west side of town where there was a series of caches forming an heart then we had to solve a puzzle to find the last 7 caches. It was a lot of fun but also a lot of walking through the desert. Good thing it was a flat area!!! Tucker came with us and enjoyed his day, I think.
We came home around 4 pm, had happy hour then it was dinner time and a relaxing evening. We also heard from our friends, Glenda and Terry, who are in Sands Golf and RV Park about half a mile down the road. I called them and we will make arrangements later to meet


FEB 2, Tuesday, Desert Hot Springs
While Val was at her exercises, I installed the bar across the screen door, put a screen above the shower window to keep the light from shining bright in the morning, installed her hair instruments basket and installed hooks in the basement for my jack crank. I also called GIANT RV and made an appointment for next Monday to get some warranty work done as they have received the parts and I also called South Thompson at home about the TV cabinet fiasco ( it fell apart, see pictures).
In the afternoon, we went to town for some groceries and, of course, we also found a few more caches. We found one that was quite cool; it was at the bottom of a pipe in the ground and once we pulled it up, it was a jar with a shark as a cover. Neat!
We came home, put the groceries away, took Tucker for his afternoon walk and BBQ’ed hamburgers for dinner then enjoyed our evening. It was a very warm day even though it was cloudy.


FEB 3, Wednesday, lunch at VFW (Veterans in Foreign Wars)
After Val’s exercises, we went geo-caching with Lorna & Mel (luvinit) and Reg & Pat (kountrystar) then ended up at the VFW legion for lunch: 3 tacos, a taco salad and a jug of beer for $8. It was delicious as usual. If you are wondering what the names in bracket are, it is their Geo-Caching nickname or “nom de plume” as we say in French, ours is clauval47 of course! AS a bonus, Glenda and Terry also joined us so we had a nice and fun-filled lunch. Glenda and Terry are staying at the “SANDS RV & GOLF” Park, just down the road from us.
After lunch everyone went their own way and we continued finding caches; we had 4 more to find on our list to complete it. After dinner, we joined Glenda and Terry and their friends Barb and Larry at a funky little bar named “DILLON ROADHOUSE BAR” They had live music and we even got a few dances in. Unfortunately, we had the wrong hours as the music ended at 8 pm. The bar closed soon after as everyone had left and we were the only ones left. We were having such a good time, we never noticed!!!!