Wednesday, November 30, 2011

#11-46 Thanksgiving in Lancaster, CA

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Doug Price and his family (his 2 sons and Mom and Dad) came over for Thanksgiving dinner.  Doug’s Mom, Diana (Wright), and I graduated from the same high school, so we looked over some year books and found a few pictures of ourselves.  It was fun.
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Below, the “Granddads” relaxed and watched some football.
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Doug and Laurie cut up the Turkeys.  We had a cook-off to see whose turkey was the best.  Allie, Rachel’s husband smoked their turkey, while Laurie cooked hers on the Weber.  Laurie’s turkey was cooked clear through, while Allie and Rachel’s was still raw in the center, but was cooked really had the smoky flavor.  I’d say it was a draw!
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We had thirteen places set for dinner.  Everyone seemed to enjoy and all of us were very full by the end of the day.  Even our son, Ray and his wife with Aubrey and Alex drove over from La Quinta. 
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The three kids had a great time playing in the yard.  Riding the tractor, checking out the sand box, jumping into the pile of leaves and enjoying the nice weather we had for the day.  Thanks, Laurie and Rachel for all the work you put into serving such a wonderful dinner. 
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Eldon, (our great grandson) isn’t too sure about the talking Christmas tree, while Aubrey, (our granddaughter) shows off a new Christmas dress.
037End of the day, and Grandma Dixie is getting a pedicure from daughter Laurie and granddaughter Aubrey.  Go girls!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

#11-45 Yuma, AZ to Indio, CA and Carlsbad, CA 10-30 thru 11-13.

 We stayed in Yuma for a week, making our reservations at Sundance RV park for this winter, getting some dental work done in Algodones, and enjoying some fresh shrimp tacos.  We also picked up some medicine while in Mexico.  Yuma also has an In N Out Burger, so we enjoyed our first In N Out since leaving CA months ago.
As we were leaving the KoFa Ko-op campground (an Escapee park) we had a little fire in the wiring between the RV and the tow car.  The converter box that converts a 4 wire RV electric system to the 3 wire electric system on the car overheated and caught fire.  Dixie ran to the front of the RV, got Frank and the fire extinguisher and we put out the fire with only damage to the converter box under the engine compartment of the RV.  Wow, that was frightening!  So our plans to go to Carlsbad were changed as we spent the entire afternoon getting the converter box replaced and the wiring corrected so it wouldn't happen again.  We ended up spending the night in the Quechan Casino RV parking area just inside the CA border.  Then the next day we headed to the Coachella Valley!
 
We arrived in the Coachella Valley just in time to attend the Palm Desert Country Club Association’s annual Fall Social.  We were able to catch up with old friends and enjoy a wonderful turkey dinner with all the fixin’s.
040We were greeted by an oversized turkey in the breezeway before we entered the Rec center.
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Charlie Ash, and his wonderful crew are carving the birds, fixing the dressing and side dishes.  Everything is ready to serve—come and get it!
039Everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal, good conversation and even a few door prizes.
We spent six days in Desert Hot Springs, CA and enjoyed calm, warm weather and time in the swimming pools that were filled with the wonderful hot springs water. 
We left the “springs” and drove the RV down to the Indio Elks for the weekend.  Friday we drove the car, (and took Gidget) over to Carlsbad, CA to attend our grandson’s football game.  This is the first of the play-off games.
Andrew catching a touchdown pass
We were rewarded with nice weather and watching our grandson catch a touchdown pass.  Their team won 46 to 7.  It was a fun game to watch “our” team win and play so well.  Next week’s game will be the day after Thanksgiving.  Andrew is a senior this year and this has to be really exciting to be in the play-offs.  Hope they do well the rest of the games.
We drove back on Saturday with a stop in Murietta to visit one of Dixie’s girl friends from High School.  We had a really nice visit with Cindy, Phil, Summer and daughter Amy who came in with her family.  By the time we arrived back in Indio it was dark and we were a couple of tired travelers glad to be back in our RV home.  We will take the RV and head up to the high desert and have Thanksgiving with daughter Laurie and family in Lancaster, CA.  It will be nice to see our great-grandson, Eldon.  It is hard to believe he will be 2 years old in just a couple of months.