Oct 30 – Nov 7 (9 nights, Apple Valley, CA USA)
Today we are heading down to Apple Valley to spend a week or so with my son Joel and his family. Angelina, our granddaughter will be 1 year old on Nov 8. We are excited to see how she has grown this past year. On the way we stopped in Baker for lunch in front of the Worlds Largest Thermometer. Sim made sandwiches, we ate and then walked over to the Alien Jerky shop and tasted some jerky. We bought one bag, and Sim said I could have one piece a month. Boy it has a lot of sodium in it.

Arrived at Joel's house, and backed in the Coach, hooked up to a 15 amp plug to keep the batteries charged and the refrigerator running on electric. Angelina had not seen us since she was 3 months old, however she let Sim carry her the minute she saw us. She is sooooo cute.

My son Joel and his wife Golden, usually have Golden's parents babysit Angelina while they are at work. So, we volunteered to babysit Angelina while we were there. She is such an easy baby. She has breakfast at 7~8 a.m.,depending on when she is up. Then she plays about 2 plus hours until she wears out and her first nap begins. Then lunch after her first nap, and of course plays again until wearing out for her second nap. However, as easy as it sounds, we sometimes need to use the stroller as a tool to help us to put her down for a nap.

Joel is having a couple of rooms added to their house and construction is about 2 months behind. The addition is a bigger master bedroom, new master bath and a new bedroom for Angelina. So until the work is done, Joel, Golden, and baby Angelina are all sleeping in the living room. We are staying in the coach. Joel and I decided to help the contractor out by ripping out a wall that needed to be removed. We had fun doing the demolition.

Jeff, my other son, came up for a couple of days. We had a nice Thai dinner tonight. In the morning we all piled in the car and went down to the local golf country club. I wanted to hit some balls with my new driver and the boys were wanting to smack some balls around as well. Well the first place we went turned out to be a private club so they told us to buzz off. We did find a public course and spent an hour or so whacking a large bucket of balls.

It was our last day at Joel and Golden's place so we drove down to where Joel works. It took us an hour plus to get there. Joel gave us a tour of the facility and then we headed off for lunch. We went to Joel's favorite Sushi restaurant. Joel introduced everyone to the staff of the restaurant and we all pigged out on sushi.

Nov 8 – 12 (5 nights, Indio, CA USA)
We are heading for Indio today. Joel has decided to come and spend the night with us in Indio. Golden will come down and pick him up the day after tomorrow. We are staying at the Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Country Club. This place is the high end of resorts. We are taking advantage of the 5 nights free coupon offered on their website. Normally the rental rates are over $100/night. These lots are all for sale and run from the mid $300K for a lot off the water, up to over $600K for an improved waterfront lot. They have a 9 hole golf course in the middle along with canals and lakes. Many owners have 16' electric boats they use to cruise the waterways in the evening hours.

We are also meeting up with Craig and Maew, the couple we met in San Carlos, Mexico last year. We tried to get them to come to Hurricane, Utah to be with Randy and Mart too, but it just did not work out. Anyway we will be with them for our time in Indio and for another 4 days in North Palm Springs after we leave here.

Nov 9
Today the girls want to go to the Outlet Mall in Cabazon, which is 15 miles or so up the freeway from Indio. We all piled in the car and headed out. We spent about 3 hours shopping. Well actually the girls shopped and the boys just walked around and hung out. Golden drove down from Apple Valley to pick up Joel. We got another chance to see the baby and said goodbye to Joel, Golden and Angelina. We will be seeing them again on our way to Arizona at the end of December.

Nov 10
I called up Mike Weeks today to say hello. Mike and I have never met, but exchanged emails ever since he found our website and has been vicariously vacationing through our travelogue. Mike came over to meet us at the Resort and volunteered to take Sim and I on a tour of the area. We got a great history lesson on the Cochella Valley and he even hooked us up with some delicious dates and figs from his farming operation in the valley

Nov 11
Craig and I have golf scheduled for today. Sim and Meaw decided to stay in to make a real authentic Thai dish. They said the dish was not suitable for foreigners, meaning Craig and I. I have friends named, Gary and Ruth, who happen to be married, whom I worked with years ago in my business life. They have moved to the Palm Springs area. I told them we were coming to their neighborhood and wanted to get together. I suggested Golf one day, so today we are teeing off at 8:20 am on their local course.

Gary did not play, but Ruth, Craig and I had a fun time. It was not too hot, the greens were slow and the holes were short and made for an easy walk.

Nov 12
Today we are kicking back and not doing much. While on our tour of the area, Mike showed us a Mexican Restaurant that he said had great food, so we headed out around noon to find the El Mexicali Restaurant. We found the restaurant and had a great lunch. The food was fresh and delicious, the service was good, the prices reasonable. We had a shrimp stuffed pepper appetizer that we had never seen before. Sim had her favorite, a chicken quesadilla, and I had Camerones al mojo de ajo. Garlic Shrimp for those non-Spanish speakers.

Tonight we are having dinner with Gary and Ruth. They came to pick us up around 6:00 and before we headed off to dinner we sat in the coach and Sim got to know Gary and Ruth. We jumped in the car and headed out for Arnold Palmers restaurant. Arnold has a big place, that includes an outside eating area with a fire pit and a full size putting green for those waiting or those who have finished. After we were seated, Ruth selected a nice red wine from their son's on site wine locker. Gary and Ruth suggested Sashimi for a starter. It was excellent. For the main course, I had veal, Sim ordered Sand dab fish, Gary had Italian seafood soup, and Ruth went with meatloaf. They were scrumptious. We completed our evening with dessert. No need to say how they tasted. The evening went by quickly and we could not laugh enough when recalling old stories which were not funny until now.

Nov 13 – 17 (5 nights, North Palm Springs, CA USA)
I am going to wash the coach today before we leave for Two Springs resort. I got up at 7:00, had breakfast and the coach washed by 11:00. Two Springs is only 30 minutes up the road, so we don't have a very long drive today.

Two Springs is another of those buy your own concrete pad resorts. It is not quite the same standard as the Motorcoach Country Club in Indio however. A concrete pad at Two Springs starts at $35K. That gets you a pad for your car. They have a clubhouse and a swimming pool and plans for a new state of the art clubhouse, fitness center and more in the works. We are staying for 4 nights and 5 days for $30 with a coupon I found on the Internet. When I called they said that offer was a year old, but since I found it, they would honor it. I sent the link to Craig too. I am sure that internet page, with the coupon, came down right after Craig called with the same request.

In the afternoon after we arrived and got settled in to our spot Sim and I went back to the Outlet Mall in Cabazon for more shopping. Well Sim shopped and I just tagged along and tried to remember where the car was parked. We got back to the campground early because Sim and Maew were going to cook up a delicious dinner and we all are going to eat outside in the nice setup Craig has created. Speakers for music, tiki torches for mood and a delicious Thai dinner. Yummo!

Nov 14
Sim and I decided to do some laundry today, so we took the clothes to the laundry room and while they were washing and drying we went swimming in the pool near the clubhouse. It is a nice pool with a really shallow end for kids and medium deep end and a deep end for swimming some laps. Indeed, it is a big pool.

Nov 15
Tonight we are going out to dinner with Mike and Judy. Since they started following our adventures on our website, they have discovered Thai food. Tonight they are taking us to their local Thai restaurant. Sim is going to order some dishes that they have not tried before and hopefully expand their tastes and menu selection possibilities. The dinner was pretty good, although a bit sweet to a Thai's taste buds like Sim. I liked it fine, but I like all things sweet.

Nov 16
We pretty much lounged around all day today and did nothing. That is one of the things I like about being retired. You don't really have to do anything if you don't want to. Two days ago, Sim called her friend, Carolyn, who lives in Palm Springs to see if they could meet. Carolyn recommended Sim visit the street fair held in downtown Palm Springs on Thursday nights. It is Thursday so we are planning to go there tonight.

We heard that the downtown area used to be dead quiet at night, but this street fair brings the nightlife back to the downtown area. The street fair took up 4 or 5 blocks of the main Palm Springs street. They had food, crafts, music, all sorts of art, photos, and ceramics for sale. There was even a Hillary Clinton booth set up in this stanch Republican town. We wandered around for a couple of hours, had some greek food and bought some dried fruit before heading back to the campground.

Nov 17
We woke up quite early today and went to play Pickle Ball. It was our first time hearing about this game. It is the combination of ping pong and tennis. Two thirds of time we played was spent time running to pick up the ball. We played about two hours and Sim called a quits, which was unusual. She said her heart was beating unusually fast.

Craig and Maew were ready to leave when we got back to the coach at about ten. We said goodbye to them again. They are heading out towards the Colorado River and Lake Havasu. We will miss them and hope our paths cross again some day.

Nov 18 – 20 (3 nights, Temecula, CA USA)
Today we are driving down to Temecula to see Mike and Reggie. We met up with Carolyn for breakfast before taking off to Temecula. Carolyn took us to the local Saturday Market, the biggest market in town. The market is located at the Palm Springs college. We were told that the income from the market will go to students' scholarships. It is like a flea market, but looks much nicer and more organized. You can find every thing you need or don't need there. I bought a dozen of golf balls and Sim bought fresh fruits and vegetables.

Although it is only 90 miles away from Palm Springs, Temecula is ten plus degrees cooler than Palm Springs. Today we wore jeans and a sweatshirt while yesterday we wore tee shirts and shorts. We are staying at the Pechanga RV Resort that is right next to the Pechanga Hotel and Casino. The RV Park has a mid-week special rate for Sunday through Thursday. $30 night for full hookups. Pull through sites are available for a couple of bucks more. The drive to Temecula was uneventful although our GPS did give us some bum directions. We got a back-in site at the park and it was nice. Free WiFi is provided and the Casino is just a short walk.

Nov 19
We met Mike and Reggie for dinner at BJ's Brewhouse and Restaurant in Temecula. It was great to catch up, and we learned that their home in Fallbrook was not damaged by the recent fires in the area. They were, however, required to evacuate. Ironically, on the day they had practiced an evacuation just in case; they had their RV all loaded with all the important and necessary stuff when they got the call to evacuate. They stayed up at the Newport Dunes RV Park in Newport Beach until they were able to return home.

Nov 20
Mike had arranged a tee time at the Temecula Creek Golf Course today. I got up early for breakfast an hustled over to the course, which happened to be right up the street. I hit a warm up bucket of balls and went to the pro shop to look for Mike. I was sure he said the tee off time was 8:00. Turns out it was 9:00 and I was an hour early. No matter, I got to hit another bucket after Mike arrived and we had a good time playing golf again. Mike and I used to play 9 holes before work at Santa Teresa Golf Club at least once a week back in my working days at GSS Array.

Sim and Reggie went shopping while Mike and I played golf. They came back with lots of goodies to show us. Sim made lunch for everyone. We had stuffed dates for starters and Chicken Satay & Stuffed Mushrooms for the main course along with a salad and fresh fruit. Mike and Reggie said good bye to us at 6 p.m. Time flies when you are having fun.

Nov 21 – 23 (3 nights, Mission Viejo, CA USA
Driving to Mission Viejo today. Along the way we saw some of the damage from the recent fires. Acres and acres of wilderness were blackened and burned. We also saw quite a number of signs from business and individuals thanking the local firefighters for saving their communities and homes.

We are having two Thanksgiving Dinners this year. First on Wednesday with my sister Judy and her husband Tag. Their daughter Sally and her husband Rick, along with their children, Luke and Addie are coming down from Roseville, but they are going to Disneyland on Thursday, so turkey is on Wednesday this year. Brother Bill will also be there. On Thursday we have been invited to have Thanksgiving dinner with Dennis and Katherine and their friends Jerry and Faye.

Nov 21
We are parked just up the street from Dennis and Katherine's house in Mission Viejo (Dennis is the webmaster for this website). They have graciously invited us to stay in their guest-room and we have accepted.

We headed over to Judy and Tags in the early afternoon. Bill called and said there was no beer at the house so we needed to stop and pick up a six pack before we came. Dinner was delicious. Judy cooked the turkey and Sally prepared the balance of the meal. It was all just wonderful.

Hi everyone, This is Sim. Hope you had a great feast and great time celebrating Thanksgiving with your family. Having been in the United States 10 years, I realized that I have never experienced cooking a big bird on either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Most of the time sister Judy invited us to her house, or Jim invited ourselves to her house. Other times we were invited to our friends' houses. So, that was my perfect excuse for not having a chance to cook a turkey. In fact when given an opportunity to cook a turkey on one Christmas years back when Judy and Tag flew to Sunnyvale to celebrate Christmas with us, I cooked Lobster instead. I think I just wanted to do some thing outside the box. Replacing Lobster with Turkey would not upset the guests, in my opinion. Another reason for not cooking a big bird was some how in the back of my head thought it was not an easy job to do. That year I didn't serve traditional dishes, no cranberry sauce, green beans, gravy, stuffing, or rolls.

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Judy's house again this year. Jim has one sister and two brothers who are twins. It is always fun to see Jim's siblings and relatives. We all have some slight change each time we met, like additional wisdom lines or weight gains or losses. This year brother Bill has put more weight on while Jim and I lost some pounds in Alaska. We are working on putting five, six... ten pounds back. So the feast during holiday season helps. I enjoyed listening the story of their youth. And Judy had a pretty good memory. When she said “remember we did ... , the boys sometimes said “what..” Then Judy elaborated in detail, and the boys would say “ Oh! Ye.... “ And we all laughed about it. Jim got photography tips and techniques from Tag. Tag is a professional photographer, I would say. He has his own gallery at one of the malls in Orange County. One of his Woody shots was a cover page for the Yellow Pages.

Judy and Tag's daughter, Sally, and her husband, Rick, and their two kids, Luke and Addie, also came from Roseville to celebrate the Turkey day with them. Jim and I had never met 6 year old Luke and 3 year old Addie. Soon after we walked inside Judy & Tag's house, We heard a clear greeting voice “hi Uncle Jim, hi Sim”. It was Luke who greeted us. It seemed like he knew us very well. I was surprised and very impressed. This year Judy cooked a free range turkey. I have heard many people could differentiate the taste or texture a free range turkey from a regular one. Myself, no I don't think I have that special differentiate bud. So I could not tell the difference, but I could tell it was a delicious bird. Sally made killer apple pie with caramel syrup. Another year of Yum and Fun Thanksgiving with Jim's family.

Nov 22
Thanksgiving Day 2007. Today we are having dinner with Dennis and Katherine. Katherine and Sim worked in the kitchen all morning while Dennis and I worked on his computer to set up his wireless network. Mission accomplished and now we can hook into their network wirelessly. Dinner is close to being ready and with the arrival of friends Jerry and his wife Faye, we all retired to the sitting room for cocktails and hors d' oeuvres. Thanksgiving dinner was elegant and delicious. Katherine's homemade cranberry relish was different from any other that we have had in the past. It was especially good. She chopped cranberries into bite sized chunks and mixed with lemon juice and other stuff. I am not sure what her ingredients were but it tasted wonderful.

Dennis told us a really funny story called the $3.00 suit. It was all about a suit that his friend Ted had sitting out at a garage sale. This was an old suit of Ted's and had a plaid design with wide lapels and bell bottom pants. Ted is short and stocky while Dennis is tall and lean. Dennis put on Ted's suit and paraded around striking GQ poses while Ted rolled on the ground in hysterics. Ted did not sell the suit. Dennis and Katherine traditionally spend their Christmases in Big Sur. When he opened his present from Ted, there was the $3.00 suit along with a very funny poem! Dennis put in on for some candid shots in front of notable locations around Big Sur and included the pictures in their vacation photos. They invited Ted and his wife come over for dinner after coming back from Big Sur and showed them the $3.00 suit candid shots. The whole story had us all laughing uncontrollably for an hour. Dennis even went upstairs and brought down the $3.00 suit and actually put it on for us. It still had the masking tape with the $3.00 price written on it.

Nov 23
Sim is cooking Thai food today for everyone. On the menu is Chicken Satay, Pad Thai with Shrimp, Thai Sour Halibut Soup, and other stuff. Katherine took Sim to her favorite grocery store to buy some Thai ingredients that she didn't have at home. Sim said it was a cool high end grocery store. She saw several strange looked vegetables she had ever seen before. However, she said $3 for 2 lemongrass sticks was way too expensive. It would be her first and last time buying this pricey lemongrass. The lemongrass was to be used for Thai Sour Soup. She hoped we would eat every drop of the soup.

(Webmaster's note: Sim spent almost the entire day in the kitchen preparing this meal for us and it was excellent, and the presentation was beautiful. We couldn't eat it all and after Jim and Sim left we had the leftovers the next night and it was still delicious. THANK YOU Sim!!)

In the afternoon, Katherine gave Sim and me a lesson in stretching. I hope I remember at least some of the moves. I got some kinks worked out and Sim had fun watching me groan and moan as Katherine worked me over.

Nov 24
We are leaving today, but first we are going down to the Country Club just down the street from Dennis and Katherine's house to have breakfast. Dennis used to work here in the Pro Shop. He promised a golf game here next time we were in town. Breakfast was delicious. I had French Toast. Sim had eggs, hash-browns and toast.

Nov 24
Drove to Greg and Sonia's house after breakfast in Mission Viejo. We found parking across the street. I am hoping we can get directly in front of his house today or tomorrow so I can run an extension cord out to the coach. Having a 15 amp plug in at least keeps the batteries charged and the reefer on electric. We can also use our electric blankets for the chilly nights. All on 15 amps.

Nov 25




Today I moved the coach to the other side of the street and got plugged in. We went to Trader Joe's and Costco to buy some food to cook tonight. Greg cooked up salmon three different ways while Sim cooked up homemade wonton soup.




Nov 26
Went over to the Costa Mesa house today and met with Vance Garcia our “roommate” who is taking care of the house while we are traveling. We picked up mail and we were going to stock up on avocados as well. The avocado crop is really small this year and I had to search and search just to get 10 avocados.

We went down to our favorite beach at the Newport Pier to walk around and reminisce. Not a lot of activity but there was a kite surfer out. This new sport is catching on and we have seen several groups out kite surfing since.

It was still early, so we headed down to El Toro to see Scott and Yolanda Broome. Co-incidentally, it was also their wedding anniversary. Congratulations !! Scott was a co-worker at Printronix when I was still living in Orange County. We spent several hours at their house and had a lot of fun re-telling old stories that were new to the wives. They invited us to stay for dinner, but we already had dinner plan with Greg and Sonia. Sim promised Greg she would cook Chicken Galanga Soup. Galanga is a root that looks like ginger, but doesn't taste anything near to ginger.

Nov 27
Sim picked fruit for the road in Greg's back yard. They have a Tangerine tree and a Calamondin tree. The Calamondin tree is unusual here in the States. It is native to Asia and the fruit called calamansi in the Philippines is used in cooking for a citrus flavor. Sim stocked up on calamansi.

Our last night here in Irvine so we decided to go out for Sushi. Greg is a big sushi eater so we allowed him to pick the place. Sonia had to stay at work late today. She came to join us after we finished our plates. We all said we were full, however, when Sonia's order was served, we picked at her food and enjoyed it very much. We were at the Sushi place eating and talking several hours. We sat at the Sushi bar and Sim was entertained by the chef creations. She enjoyed watching him carefully placing food on a classic looking plate and using some kind of a wide long leaf to create a nice decoration. Sim is passionate about making her dishes look good as well as taste good so she is always on the lookout for new creative ways to improve on her presentation.

Nov 28 – 29 (2 nights, Yorba Linda, CA USA)
Today we drove from Irvine to Yorba Linda. Not a very far drive, but interesting driving in the traffic of Orange County. People are in such a hurry. They are all trying to be in front, even if it only saves them 2 seconds.

We parked in front of David and Larp's house. They are on a slight grade and I had to put some wood under the front wheels to get the coach a bit more level. We did not run an extension cord out to the coach.

I knew David when we worked for GSS Array in San Jose. Both David and I were expats in Thailand 11 years ago while working for GSS Array Thailand. While we were there, we had a lot of fun playing golf every weekend.

David is a workaholic, however, he planned to take one day off while we were visiting them. Before coming to their house, Sim was able to convince David to take one and a half day off instead. He left work twenty minutes after we called and said we had arrived. We talked and talked and didn't realize it was time for dinner until Larp called from her office. David and Larp took us to one of the local Thai restaurants. As usual, we ate, laughed and told stories for several hours.

Nov 29
Today David and I are playing golf at Costa Mesa Country Club. This is the course where I learned to play golf over 40 years ago. My Mom and my brothers all played here way back when.... David and I were playing the Los Lagos Course, the longer of the two courses here in Costa Mesa. We were teamed up with another twosome and had a nice round. I got an Eagle on the par 4 12th hole. A beautiful 7 iron from 160 yards bounced twice and rolled into the hole. Costa Mesa is Sim's favorite town. She has a lot of good memories from the time we lived here 9 years ago. While David and I were playing golf, Sim had breakfast at her favorite bagel shop on 17th street, then strolled to her favorite corner on Harbor Boulevard where there were several cute shops, and the last stop, to read books at Borders bookstore.

After golf we picked up Sim at Borders and then took David to our favorite Mexican restaurant “Taco Mesa” in Costa Mesa for lunch. Its carrot, onion, cauliflower pickles attracted Sim the most. They were the condiments that you could eat as much as you were able to. Sim ordered her usual favorite dish Chicken Quesadilla, I had the Special of the Day, and David had, well, I don't remember.

In the evening we went to pick up Larp at her business; “Thailand Vacation Tour” and then went out for dinner. Souplantation was everyones choice. It was a nice break from eating bird and meat.

Nov 30 (1 night, Coalinga, CA USA)
Driving on I-5 North was a nightmare. The constant rain added to the unbearable traffic to make it one of the worst drive days we have had in quite a while. We moved 5 miles per hour and saw two road accidents along a twenty mile stretch. . We decided not to drive all the way to San Jose in one day. My original plan was to get diesel in Lost Hills, then take Hwy 46 over to Paso Robles and spend the night there. I was intent on looking for Exit 258 where the Loves station had diesel for $2.54 but missed the station because it was at Exit 252. So we ended up boondocking at Harris Ranch in Coalinga where diesel was $2.70. I just got enough to keep the generator and Aqua Hot running. It is getting really cold at night here. The boondocking spot was OK but unfortunately the wind was blowing from the wrong direction and we could smell the nearby cattle stockyards all night long.

Tomorrow we will be back in the Bay Area.

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