Catching Up ! !

Oh my, haven't posted since the first of the year.  We spent the whole month of January at Thousand Trails Palm Springs RV Park which is actually in Palm Desert.  Love that park as more and more people we know are there.  Nice to have someone to talk to, especially after so long away from family and friends. We don't do a lot while there, just soak up the warm sunshine, however, we did celebrate Ken's 72nd birthday while there.  Took some friends to the Jackalope Ranch Restaurant for happy hour. 

This wooden, carved motorcycle seems out of place in this restaurant but it is really beautiful.  Also, wanted Gary to see it.

February found us at Thousand Trails Pio Pico Park in Jamul, California.  it is the closest TT Park to any of my family.  Got to help my niece, Becky Smith, with the bulletin boards at her kids school.  Becky is the Parent Club President so spends a lot of time at the school, as well as she teaches art classes.  I think she told me that all this art was from 20 of the 22 classes she taught.  

While at Pio Pico I took a craft class that I wasn't really too sure about but I really liked the outcome.  This is made entirely of Duct Tape...  LOL

Three weeks at Pio Pico and then off to the Phoenix International Raceway.  Had planned on getting there a couple days early to visit our niece Zepha Monks who is going to the Harley School there but just before we were leaving our contact from Good Sam called asking if we wanted to be employees instead of volunteering at the Good Sam Rally.  Worked really hard being in charge of gates but the pay made it worth while.  Probably enough money to pay for fuel for our entire trip...  yeah...  after loosing on the engine deal, this was good ! ! 

March took us to Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes in Mennifee, California.  We spent three weeks, again soaking up warm sunshine.  Then we headed a whole ten miles to Hemet for the Fantasy RV Tours SoCal Reunion Rally.  This is the trip we won over a year ago.  

We went up the Palm Springs Tram to the top of these beautiful granite mountains.  The view was spectacular of the valley below..

We also toured the old Hollywood part of Palm Springs and the guide showed us where all the celebrities either had owned the house or were now living there. Was kinda fun but most were hidden behind plants and fences.

The best part is that our grandson Kenny's high school band was playing in Disneyland and that was only about 65 miles away.  We were able to sneak off for a day and catch up with Karen, Kristina, Alyssa, Corey and Kenny.  Was so great to see them.  It has been four months since Kristina's wedding and that was the last time we saw any of them.  Disneyland was absolutely packed, California and Oregon spring break and probably the rest of the country too !   LOL

Ken took a bunch more pictures but they are in nef format and not jpeg...  wonder what he was thinking as I cannot use them...  LOL

Hollywood Tower of Terror

Looking good and sounding good!

After Disneyland we returned to the Reunion Rally for the last couple of days and then headed out, finally heading home after seven months.  We did get a chance to talk with the Fantasy RV Tour people about becoming a tail-gunner for them.  Looking forward to traveling with them and working off the trip...  will be great fun!!

Visalia Elks and then on to Tracy Elks.  From  Tracy we can see Corey and Angela for a day and then heading north again.  Plan is to stop at least one more time and get home by Monday March 30, 2015.  

Great trip ! ! !

Last Day at The Rose Parade Rally

What a loooooog day.  We started by catching the bus at 6:00am this morning. Practically followed the crowds to about two blocks off Colorado Blvd where about 50 buses were being parked in one parking lot of a business.  Walked with the masses to our seating on a bleacher down the Blvd from all the news/TV carriers. Sitting four rows from the street is really great but I found myself missing the TV commentary and was really looking forward to seeing how the Property Brothers did announcing.  Darn...! Did not realize that California got so cold. Always think warm..  !!  LOL Doesn't it look like we are at home, not Pasadena??

The bands and floats were terrific.  We had worked on the Sierra Madre and it came together beautifully.

The crowds looking for their seats.  I saw that the bleacher seats we were in went for $94.00 per seat, however, a coach from back east was sitting near us and he said that he got his on Stubhub for $52 a couple days ago.  They were excellent seats.  We still had a few empty around us.

Always present

Was amazing to see this stealth fly over, was soooooo quiet !!

 Lots of Duck fans in the crowds!

 The Motorcycle cops did some amazing riding in formations

Here we go ! ! !

I can see Alyssa performing here.  Was so neat to watch these talented kids.  A little scary since the spotter was not watching and one guy almost went over the edge of the trampoline right onto the street.  He caught himself just in time.

 This is the Sierra Madre float..  We put a lot of roses into stem vases for use on the base.  It was really well put together.  When you look close at some of the other floats, there is space between the flowers, not on this float !

Here we go DUCKS ! 

 The hair on this horse looked real.  Was amazing.  I think that they used  coconut husk.

The City of Torrence honored the Grand Marshall Louis Zamparini who died earlier this year.. Turns out that our neighbor Jack Dean went to the same high school and Louis' brother was his track coach.  

 This eagle was incredible.  Pampous grass and leaves..  someone is soooo creative.

 This parade brought back lots of childhood memories of the Mother Goose Parade in El Cajon, California ! !

In the afternoon we boarded the buses after lunch and headed to the post parade float display.  Oh my, if we thought the street we crowded for the parade seats, they were worse in the post parade area.  AND, they charge to see the floats up close.  Ken was not walking too great since we have walked so much this week so we just went down the hill and saw the first five floats up close.  It was a two mile stretch of floats and that doesn't count walking from the bus.

This is The Bachelor's float.  Trista & Ryan, Chris Harrison and the new guy Chris the farmer from Iowa as well as others were on this float.

Heading to Thousand Trails in Palm Springs tomorrow.  It is actually in Palm Desert. We get to stay put for a whole month.  Gonna love that.  Sure hope it is warm there now ! ! !   LOL