Our New Home

We got all of the paperwork done and were able to move into our new motorhome on December 30 and 31st. In spite of all of our prep work and we could not complete the process in a day. It was very difficult. Merralee offered to help and we told her that she could probably help best by taking care of Roxie while we moved which she did. That certainly made it easier. But there was a lot to move and a still a lot to throw away. You wouldn't really think that an RV could hold so much as when you try to move it all in a day. But we were taking our time and doing it in an organized fashion. But as the process went on it seemed increasingly disorganized. In any case we had essentially everything moved by late on the morning on the 31st. But we were still putting things away, hopefully where we could find them later. And we were waiting for the dealer to install the a new kitchen faucet that had been promised as part of the deal. Finally, we were ready to go, but the fuel tank was reading low and we thought that we should fill up first. So by the time we drove to a truck stop and put in nearly 90 gallons of diesel fuel, it was after 2 o'clock when we got back to our site at Thousand Trails.

To say the least we were exhausted. There were a few little snags in setting up for the first time. No real problem, just things that we were not familiar with. We had a fast food dinner and very little energy. There was a big New Years Eve party that we had planned to attend. But Barbara was ready for bed by 8 o'clock. Dennis walked up to wish a Happy New Year to Oland and Meralee, John and Debbie, and a few others, then returned to the motorhome to have a glass of wine and watch tv until he was too tired to stay up.

Here are some pics of the new coach.





Our new home.



This is the entry to our new home. We are both very pleased with the coach.

This is the living area and we were able to seat at least eight people and could also seat more.

This is the dinning and kitchen area, love the counter space and the very large with an icemaker fridge.

This is the bedroom, I really love the quilt that was left for us.

Guess this is the best space, Dennis has his own location with a pocket table for his computer. It is really nice to have that.





Some have asked why we decided to get a new motorhome. 'We have long argued that our bus was as sturdy a vehicle as you would see in an RV park. It has been a good and reliable vehicle on the road. But we have seeing a lot of newer RV's with the slideouts that make them seem like more liveable space. That was our primary motivation for looking for something newer. And although we have been able to work things out, we have found that it is often difficult to find someone who is willing and knowledgeable to work on an old bus when on the road. That has been a source of concern for Dennis who is not known for mechanical skills. And there are systems and conveniences that are available on newer RVs. While most can be added to a bus conversion, they can be difficult and costly, especially if you hire someone to do it. So we had been thinking for some time in a tentative way about finding another RV. Our first thought was to buy a fifth wheel as that appears to be the way to get the most living space for the least money. And we looked at a few. But we like traveling in a motorhome and the idea of having a large truck for a daily driving vehicle did not appeal to either of us. And the cost of a new or near new fifth wheel and and new or near new truck to tow it was still expensive. So we looked at the idea of what we could get in a motorhome for something in that price range or less. We were convinced that a new motorhome that would meet our critera as fulltimers could not be found in this price range. So we started looking at older motorhomes that were larger, had good reputations and in our view well built. We believe that we bought at a good time as the market has been down for the last couple of years which has made prices of used units more favorable to buyers. We were a bit surprised to find one as quickly as we did that we both wanted as we had somewhat different criteria in mind.


By the way, is anyone looking for a deal on a used MCI bus? We still have ours and are putting it on the market.

Palm Springs for the Holidays

We returned to the Palm Springs Thousand Trails Park on the 20th of December. This is starting to feel like our home base. We may be spending more time here than originally anticipated. We will be here now through the holidays. Our friends Oland and Meralee came in a couple of days later. Their friends John and Debbie who we met at Catalina Spa came in as their guests. The six of enjoyed good times and a lot of good meals over the holidays.

Dennis had a few head bangers in John and Deb's rig, so Johns gave him some protective head gear.
This was a very nice Christmas dinner the park here had their dinner about 5 days before the holidays. John and Debbie hosted a breakfast for all of us and it was wonderful.

This is my very very best present this year, aren't they great.

During this period Barbara has finally been completing her physical therapy. She finished therapy first on her foot and needed a few more sessions on her shoulder. The good news is that it all has gone well.

The holidays this year are a bit of a hectic time. But not in the usual way. We are buying a new motorhome. And there are a lot of details involved. And the process is complicated by doing things long distance. We are dealing with a bank and credit union in Ohio and vehicle registration in Florida. We have been going through the bus sorting through everything and deciding what we can get rid of and what we need and want to keep. As with any move we are finding things that we had forgotten about.

Our new motorhome is a 2000 Monaco Dynasty. Like the MCI bus the Dynasty is nominally 40 feet in length. More technically the Dynasty is about 6 inches longer, 6 inches wider and 6 inches higher than the MCI. It has more interior living space primarily as a result of 2 slideouts. A trade off is that we have less space in the outside storage compartments under the floor.
This photo is absolutely pre boob job. More about the new motorhome later.


Our planned moving day is December 30. We will go to the dealer and park the coaches side by side and move everything from the old coach to the new one. If we do not complete the process in one day we can stay the night. We will finish and be in the new coach for the New Year.

Catalina Spa

We drove the short drive to Catalina Spa at Desert Hot Springs on the 7th. We are staying in this membership park through RPI. It is a nice park. It is known for being an active pickleball center with a lot of good players. There are 4 and soon to be 6 pickleball courts that are busy most days. Dennis played in the monthly tournament that features cash prizes and brings in players from other parks in the area. He managed to tie for fourth place but only the first three win the cash prizes. Oh well.

There are a lot of activities going on. The park has naturally hot water for the hot tubs and pools that are open 24 hours a day.

Best of all some of our friends are here at the same time. Bob and Julie came in the day before we did. Oland and Meralee came in a few days later and our English friends Jim and Jane came in the day after they did. So we have been spending a lot of time reminiscing and getting reacquainted.

The day we arrived here was the first rainy day in eight months. The weather is mostly pleasant and warm with cool nights. It is nice to be in the warm sunshine and see the snow on the mountains.

Busy at Palm Springs

We've been busy here at the Palm Springs reserve and have gotten behind. This is a catchup post.

We are now here with three other couples, all of whom we met at the Peace River TT in Florida a couple of years ago. A few days after we got here Bob and Julie came in. Then a couple of days later Marc and Chris came in. Finally, our English friends Jim and Jane came in last Tuesday. We were lucky in this crowded park to be able to find sites so that we are all parked very near to each other. It has been a nice reunion and we have been able to get together several times.

Last weekend we went to the Fantasy Springs Casino to see the Cabazon Indian Powwow. It was a grand event with a large group of participants from all over the country. They wore beautiful intricate and colorful costumes. We enjoyed watching the dancing and ceremonies and listening to the drumming.

We rode with Bob and Julie to visit the Joshua Tree National Monument which is just north and east of here. We spent several hours driving through the desert and seeing the various and changing scenery of this large park. We came if from the south and were surprised that we did not see any Joshua trees for the first hour or so. It turns out that the Joshua trees grow only in the northern sections which is at higher elevation. When we got to the Joshua trees they were indeed plentiful.

Another event was a visit by Barbara, Julie and Chris to see The Lord of the Dance last Sunday at the McCoulumn Theatre. It was a wonderful exhibition of Celtic Dance. They we impressed with the beauty and precision of the dancers. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed.

On Friday we went with Bob and Julie, Chris and Marc, and Jim and Jane to the weekly Street Market in downtown Palm Springs. It was a perfect night and very pleasant to be out with a wide variety of vendors and live musicians. There were booths for massage, tattoos, magic, religion and host of arts and crafts and various foods. We weren't hungry as we had stopped for a very filling meal at a Mexican restaurant on our way. The hardest part was finding places to park. It turned out that we had to park our two vehicles several blocks apart, but we the magic of cell phones it was easy to connect again.

Dennis and Barbara went back to the Fantasy Springs Casino last night to see the Willie Nelson concert. Willie is still in good form and does a great show. We were glad that we went.

This afternoon the four couples in the Peace River group got together for a good meal and reminiscing about good times. Bob and Julie leave in the morning so this is the last time all of us expect to be together.

Through all of this Barbara has been going to physical therapy three times a week for her foot and her shoulder. Dennis has been playing pickleball most days.

Among the Palms

We've been back at Palm Springs Thousand Trails park for nearly a week now. It is a nice setting with all of the tall Palm trees. And it is getting crowded now. We are here now for a three week stay, then we will be in another park for about 2 weeks then back here for another three weeks.






Dennis was having a little trouble with the satellite setup, hmmmm wonder why???






This park has way to many palm trees.







Trying to get the bus for the holidays.





Barbara is continuing her Physical Therapy for her foot. She saw an orthopedist to examine her shoulder. He extended her therapy for a month. She is now to get P.T. for both her shoulder and her foot.Oh the pain of it all. Really hate this bike.

Dennis has been playing pickleball regularly. He is playing on the thousand trails team in pickleball league involving several area RV parks. Barbara has been unable to play for a while due to her foot injury. She got some good news yesterday though. She talked with her therapist and he ok'ed playing cautiously while wearing a special ankle support. So she plans to go out and give it a try.

Desert Pools

We are now at the Desert Pools Western Horizon Park at Desert Hot Springs. It is only about 20 miles from our last stop. The two parks are quite different. The thousand trails park that we just left is noted for its very tall Palm Trees planted in neat rows throughout the park. They give the place a classy look and even seem to help a bit with the afternoon heat. But they also make the park difficult and risky for parking a large rv. The park that we are in now is much more open and has very large sites and interior roads. The surface is all sand (no grass) and has more of a desert look. There are mountain views and nice views of the sky especially at sunset. It seems hotter we think because of lack of shade and the sandy surface. We are glad that we paid extra for 50 amp power as it allows us to run both air conditioners during the heat of the day. The park is named for the natural hot water pools in the area. The park has 3 hot tubs at different temperatures making is easy to find one to suit us.


Sunset our first sunset at desert hot pools.

Another sunset view here at desert hot pools.



Roxy watching the sun setting, she seems to be transfixed.

Barbara went in for her evaluation for physical therapy and is scheduled to start her treatment tomorrow. She will be going three times a week and if all goes well the treatment will be complete in three weeks.

We got a late start for our short trip this morning. Dennis played a few games of pickleball before getting to the business of getting ready and moving this morning. With the short drive we were still here by noon.

Palm Springs

We are now in Palm Springs. Well, we are at the Palm Springs Thousand Trails Park but it really has a Palm Desert address. We were planning to spend some time in this area starting in the middle of November. When it became clear that we would need to be prepared to stay in one area to get Barbara's problem with her foot taken care of we decided to head this way a couple of weeks early. She was told that she would need 3 weeks of physical therapy and a followup visit.

When we were in Hollister Barbara saw a doctor at an urgent care clinic who did an xray then an MRI, then referred her to a orthopedic specialist. The orthopedic doctor told her that it was a ligament tear in her right foot and put her in a heavy boot. He also prescribed the physical therapy which he thought would take care of the problem.

Our trip in today was an easy drive of less than 3 hours. We crossed the desert on a crisp sunny morning and came over Cajon summit and down the hill and through San Bernadino in light Sunday traffic. An easy day. We stopped at the Flying J just west of here to fill the tank. But we had a bit of an accident on the first stop. The latch for our refrigerator was not closed. The door came open and we had a lot of spillage. And some broken bowls. What a mess. It took a while to get that all cleaned up.

We are only here for 3 days then will move to another park in the area. We already had several reservations in and didn't want to start changing them. We couldn't get a reservation for the 15 day period so we will be here the 3 days and 12 in the other park.