March 17 to 20, 2011; Imperial Dam to Indio, California

MAR 17, Thursday; Imperial Dam
The sky is overcast this morning, high clouds but no rain in the forecast. It is 67*F (17*C) already at 8 am. We had a light wind all day which kept things cool.
Last night, Val saw and fed three burrows that were walking by our site. She said they were really cute and friendly; I guess so...carrots! Unfortunately, she didn’t take any pictures.
We went for a drive to the Army Base and looked around then had a hamburger and beer at their bowling alley and theatre building. It was good and cheap! We had our laptops with us so we all checked our e-mail and banking and I brought our blog to date. From here, we went to the museum but it was closed (after 4 pm) so we drove back, found a couple caches and stopped at the RV Resort to check their golf course...$4 for 9 holes and it is a very nice course.
Once home, Val and I went for a kayak ride for about an hour on Senator Wash/Lake which is the one we are staying on; then upon our return, we had happy hour which lasted until 10 pm. Our neighbour, Frank, joined us.


MAR 18, Friday; Imperial Dam
Our water is getting low so I think I will have to get some tomorrow. I had the generator on for about an hour to re-charge the batteries and let Val curl her hair after we went for a shower. We spent the morning reading and Val & Charlene went for their exercises at 9 am. In the afternoon, C&L went to check a few things and we did some geo-caching then we went to the Army Base to get some gas for the generator and see the museum. It was very interesting and well done...Yuma Proving Ground is a testing area for all of the Army’s weapons, and vehicles. It reminded me of my dad’s work as he used to do the same back in Quebec for the Federal Government.
At 4, we met L&C for a golf game at the HIDDEN VALLEY RV RESORT which cost us a whole $8 for both of us for nine holes. We had a good time then came home only to find some young people had set up camp nearby with Sea-Doo, loud bikes and it looks like they are here for the week-end. One of them even set up his/her tent in the middle of the roadway. Thank goodness it’s a wide driveway.
After a delicious dinner cooked by Val, we had a propane fire outside as we ran out of fire wood. We sat out until about 9 pm then called it quit. It has been a very nice week and it has come to an end. Tomorrow we pack and the next day we leave this area for good or at least for this year! The weather has been cooperating but it has been cooler today due to the wind which is OK by me! There has been a haze in the air which is like smoke or sand storm!?


MAR 19, Saturday; last day in Imperial Dam
The wind blew all night; now it has calm down a bit but not much. At least the sun is shining through the haze which is still in the air. I had to get some drinking water from above and siphoned it in our tank as we were out. We spent the morning reading and relaxing!
In the afternoon, I washed and stored all our toys and equipment then I took Tucker for a walk. It was windy most of the day so in the afternoon we played “Sequence” with the Kirkby’s. We let the girls win to keep peace.
For dinner we went out to the RV Park at their restaurant and had dinner there. It was very good and best of all, it was cheap. On the way home, we came across 3 burrows on the road so I took a couple pictures of them. It is now 8 pm and we are home and reading.


MAR 20, Sunday; to Indio, California
We got up at 7:30 and after a nice hot coffee, we went over to the shower rooms and had a vigorating warm/hot shower. Then, it was packing the last of the things still out, hooked up “Bear” to the “Beast”, said our goodbyes to the Kirkby’s then headed to the top of the hill to dump the tanks.
We left around 10:10 am and got on Imperial road west, Hwy 28 to I-8 and west to Hwy 111 North. We made one stop in El Centro for coffee, a bite to eat and fuel @ $4.29 then continued to Indio where we arrived at Indian Wells RV Resort, a WHR Resort. We booked in and are now at site 253 in the parking lot; figure of speech as it is quite nice and there is full hook-up except sewer which is dumped by the “honey wagon” three times a week for free and there are cement pads but gravel instead of grass. There was no room in the grassy area.
I called my daughter, Rochelle, and made arrangement with her to meet here. They, Rochelle, grand-daughter Hayley, Doreen (Rochelle’s mom) and her husband Gord showed up around 5:30 pm and we had a warm reunion and a Happy Hour then Rochelle, Hayley and we went for dinner at Red Robin, Hayley’s favourite. Afterwards, we drove them back to their place at World Mark Resort, a Time-Share resort and they gave us the grand tour. We had a nightcap then it was home after a wonderful day. AND...for the first time in 4 months, we had a light drizzle falling on us; the wind has picked up some too! Oh, and in my excitement of seeing my kids, I forgot to take pictures.

N 33* 42.415
W 116* 12.806
Alt: minus 14 feet

We travelled 166 miles (268Km) @ an average of 48MPH in 3.5 hours. We stopped for an hour.