Thursday, November 14, 2019
One of my hobbies is to study
historical accounts of the particular area where we are residing. In
California, I just read “Blood Will Tell” by Baumgardner, an account of California’s
early history. From Spanish Missions to California Statehood, many influential
figures are mentioned, which always leads to reading more books on their
contributions. There are many “first” and “last” in California and this book
references many and many more, like:
Gaspar de Portola, first
Governor of Spain’s Alta California
Californios, Juan Bautista
Alvarado first Governor of Mexican California
Bodega, California, first
Russian outpost on the California coast
Monterey, first Capital of California
Pio Pico, last Governor of
Mexican California
John Sutter, first gold
discovery in California
Mississippi’s William McKendree
Gwin, and John C. Fremont, first US Senators of California
Politics were a “dirty
business” in California’s history. Guess it will always be!
Friday, November 15, 2019
A list of winter 2019-2020 things
to do:
McCormick’s Classic Auto
Auction F/Sa/Su November 22nd, 23rd and
24th, 2019 Tickets can be purchased at the gate. Friday is FREE all day. Saturday
& Sunday is $15 per day or $25 for both days.
Zoo The Living Desert 47900 Portola Avenue Palm
Desert, CA 92260
Telephone: 760-346-5694 $24.95
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway 1
Tram Way Palm Springs, CA 92262
Phone: (888) 515-8726 Seniors
$24.95
Winter Gathering POW WOW Twenty-Nine
Palms Band of Mission Indians Spotlight Casino
38th Annual Cabazon Indio
Powwow on November 29 – December 1, 2019 at the Fantasy Springs Special Events
Center in Indio, California. FREE
FRIDAY
5 pm Gates Open
5 pm Bird Singing
8 pm Grand Entry
SATURDAY
11 am Gates Open
1 pm Grand Entry
5 pm Bird Singing
8 pm Grand Entry
SUNDAY
11 am Gates Open
12 Noon Grand Entry
HITS Coachella
Empire Polo Club 2019
Sundays=Jan-March Friday nights=TBD
Shields Data Gardens
Eisenhower Walk of Honor
Cabot’s Pueblo Museum
Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve
Palm Springs Architecture Tour
Palomar Observatory
Farm Tours
Alford’s Antique Car Museum —
One of California’s outstanding car collections. Free admission — Open Monday —
Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 599 E. Main, El Centro, CA. Information: (760)
353-3920.
Marvyn’s Magic Theater
Ritz Carlton at Rancho Mirage
Escena Grill at Escena Golf
Club
Indian Canyons Golf Resort
Koffi
Palm Springs Air Museum
Moorten Botanical Garden
El Paseo Drive
Palm Springs sign Hwy 111
La Quinta Resort & Club, A
Waldorf Astoria Resort 49-499 Eisenhower Dr, La Quinta
JW Marriott Desert Springs
Resort & Spa 74-855 Country Club Dr, Palm Desert
Robolights 1077 E Granvia
Valmonte, Palm Springs
Palm Springs Walk-of-stars
Twin Palms Frank Sinatra
Estate 1145 E Vía Colusa, Palm Springs
Pioneertown
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area
Park 10700 Escondido Canyon Rd, Agua Dulce, CA
Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant
Polo Club Events
Saturday, November 16, 2019
Today marks two weeks into our
winter home and we’re still settling-in. We have selected and potted an
assortment of colorful plants to landscape our site. We also purchased a laser-light
projector and directed it into our large Eucalyptus tree, giving it an
appearance of being covered with thousands of red and green lightning bugs. Our
patio is arranged on a nice reversable mat with Baja and Navajo designs on opposing
sides. We have irrigation for our trees but we have to water our plants on a
regular basis.
We have started our identical
work schedules in the office, both working 10 hours per week, over three days,
with four consecutive days off. Our volunteer staff associates have returned
with the exception on one new person. The “snowbirds” are now arriving in
droves and the park and campground are getting busy. December 8th is
the annual “Ironman” competition, our first big event of the season and we’re
getting ready for that challenge. Large events are our greatest challenge and
Easter Sunday is our largest day-use event.
We’re making a list of all the
local attractions, entertainment, and other activities which we can attend for enjoyment
during the season. We have had a volunteer, campfire get-together to catch-up
since last season and get acquainted with the new associate.
Looking forward to another
great winter!
Monday, November 18, 2019
With two days of “Big America”
filming at the park, we’re getting an overview of movie-making. The crew is
from LA and the location is Palm Springs. Lake Cahuilla is the set for several
scenes. In talking to some of the crew, we gained an appreciation of what it
takes to make a movie on location. They have a small city of equipment, people,
and rentals, and there’s a constant flow of goods and services arriving. We
even got an invitation to lunch but declined, due to park policy.
Friday, November 22, 2019
SilverRock Resort: Our
neighbor, is set against the backdrop and natural beauty of the Santa Rosa
Mountains, SilverRock is a former home course of the PGA Tour’s Bob Hope
Classic from 2008-2011.
PGA West, our other neighbor:
Six legendary golf course resorts;
Arnold Palmer
Greg Norman
Jack Nicklaus
Nicklaus Tournament
Tom Weiskopf
Stadium Course, the former Bob
Hope Desert Classic.
The Quarry at La Quinta is an
avid golfers’ paradise and our neighbor on the south side.
11-18-19 Thursday
On Thanksgiving Day, we
enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast with our colleagues at Agua Caliente in Rancho Mirage.
It was a cool, rainy day but the dinner was superb!
12-7-19 Saturday
After a month in Riverside
County at Lake Cahuilla, we have completed our annual dermatology check-up, and
our annual physical check-ups are scheduled. We have reacquainted ourselves with
regular services, shopping, and the other necessities of residency. We have
also been making an opportunities-list of the entertainment and attractions
that we want to attend this winter.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Today is the annual Iron Man
race, so I decided to make a brief photo collage about the event. More than
3,000 athletes from 48 states and 40 countries have registered for the race. The
70.3-mile race consists of a 1.2-mile swim at Lake Cahuilla, followed by a 56-mile
bicycle segment, ending with a 13.1-mile cross-country run.
12-9-19 Sunday
Today is the annual Iron Man
race, so I decided to make a brief photo collage about the event. More than
3,000 athletes from 48 states and 40 countries have registered for the race.
The 70.3-mile race consists of a 1.2-mile swim at Lake Cahuilla, followed by a
56-mile bicycle segment, ending with a 13.1-mile cross-country run.
I was most impressed with the
$3-million-plus collection of bicycles awaiting the second leg of the race!
Friday, December 13, 2019
Our winter-season at Lake
Cahuilla has thus been very enjoyable and our associates are all very friendly.
We are all returning volunteers with the exception of one new couple.
For my records, our
fellow-hosts, by preeminence are:
Brandon and Kelly from Iowa
Richard from Oregon
Dick and Devera from Montana
Bob and Terry from Mississippi/Florida
Gordon and Connie from Alberta
Canada
Rick and Vivian from Coachella
Ali and Gina from Florida
Routinely, we work shifts and
see each-other in-passing and all gather for periodic staff meetings, so we
have instituted our own social gatherings. Terry has been coordinating a
covered-dish dinner each month which everyone likes and it provides a nice
opportunity for us to have fellowship and intermingle as a group.
We also have a
campfire-gathering monthly, where we bring our chairs and have a circle of
friendship around the fire. We enjoy our gatherings and the ladies always provide
nice homemade treats to share.
December 24, 2019
We will spend and celebrate
our 36th Anniversary on the west coast. We drove over to Temecula to
spend a few days and enjoy the area. We shopped, dined, toured, and explored
Temecula. We spent one day at Oceanside, where we went to the beach, had fish
and chips at the Harbor, and watched the sea lions at the Marina.
Sunset Market Oceanside CA
Thursday evenings, 5:00 – 9:00 pm.
Pier View Way and Coast
Highway
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Goodbye 2019 Hello 2020 and a
new decade! We wish eveyone a Happy New Year! May the New Year bring you peace,
joy, and happiness!
This closes our 2019 blog………………..
Re: Text to (Texas) friends
that we worked with at Ridgway State Park in Colorado:
Hi Barry and Gail, we were
glad to talk to you and get your e-mail information. Also, good to hear that your winter is going
well.
We’re settled-in for our fifth
winter at Lake Cahuilla, in Riverside County, La Quinta, California. We work
the same schedule (M-Tu-We), in the office, together, putting in a total of 20
hours per week, 10 each. This is the best schedule that we have ever had, three
days on and four consecutive days off!
Our original goal was to
volunteer in a different place each season and we have generally done that. On
the other hand, it’s a lot of work to find a new spot each season. We have
worked numerous parks around the country and have learned a lot about the
business but we’re still learning and probably will never be experts. Here’s an
approach that I recommend:
·
Make an outline of what you would like in a
park-job
ü Good
fishing
ü Close
to town
ü Close
to Church
ü Twenty-four
hours/week max (Total for both)
ü Four
consecutive days off
ü Set/fixed
schedule
ü Pay
job or volunteer in exchange for a Full-Hook-Up campsite
·
Make a list of parks where you would like to
volunteer
ü Start
making a match of park vs likes
Most of the parks that you
find on the Internet will usually have a web site.
National Parks generally are more
structured and stricter about everything and they tend to be more remote. Most
of the National Parks, Memorials, Monuments, Lighthouses, have web sites to
start volunteer inquiries.
US Army Corps of Engineers
parks are all managed (volunteers) through their web site.
State Parks can be too remote
but some are just-right. It’s important to get something that you will like! Some
States have a central Volunteer Office to start volunteer inquiries and
match-ups. Some do not, so you have to (contact) each individually.
County Parks are the
easy-going parks giving you more freedom to match what you want to do and
decline what you don’t like. Most County parks you have to contact
individually.
These are just some things
that come from our experience. Everyone has different likes and you have to
make them known to the volunteer-coordinator. We have made some mistakes but
have never left a job because of it. Good luck and keep us informed on what
you’re doing? We really look forward to seeing you two again someplace,
sometime, and we always look forward to hearing from you two!
Bob and Terry
