RETIRED ON WHEELS: WINTERING IN CALIFORNIA October 15, 2009

Its April fool’s day and time to start the blog up again. The last time I posted we had just left Sedona, AZ and were going to make our way back to Dallas with a week long stop in Lake Havau City. The stop in Lake Havasu City was to find a RV park in the area that we would enjoy settling for the winter. The day we left Sedona we headed a short way down the road to Verde Canyon where we took a tour of the Canyon on the Verde Canyon Railway. It was a enjoyable but very hot day and of course we took a few picktures.

After spending the day on the train we headed west which took us through Jordan, AZ an old mining town that is now mainly an artist colony and tourist attraction. We had been to Jordon before so we didn’t stop. However the drive was quite exilerating as the climb and winding streets through Jordan make the trip worthwhile on its own.

The next few days had us travelling through California via San Bernadino Valley down to Temecula where we spent the night at the Pechango Casino and RV Resort. Of course I had to go in a play a little poker and even made a few dollars. The next day we travelled 23 miles up the road to Hemet as we wanted to check a RV park that Peg and Rick recommended. We spent a good portion of the day touring the park and as it turns out we liked the park well enough to book it for the winter.

Now that we had taken care of winter residence we started heading east back to Dallas to pick up the 5th wheel. We had stops at the Fountain of Youth RV Park that was located just east of the Salton Sea and had Natural Hot Springs. The Hot Springs were rumored to restore your youth. They lied.
However the scenery was quite nice.

After leaving California we stopped in Lake Havasu City for the week at our timeshare. The original plan was to look for a park to winter in but since we took take of that is Hemet we used the week just to relax.

The next few weeks was spent returning to Dallas, picking up our 5th wheel, getting rid of our locker, doctors appointments, saying goodbye to friends and just preparing for the drive to Hemet.

We are in Hemet, CA and have been here since the 1st of December in the Golden Village Palms RV Resort. The park is one of the very best we have been in and was perfect for settling in for the winter. It has a lot of amenities such as two pools, 3 whirlpools, exercise and weight room, large laundry room, chipping and putting area and a billiards room with about 6 tables. It also has a large banquet hall, a large meeting room and a few other rooms that can be used for pot luck suppers, cards or whatever you choose to do.

Hemet is located in southwestern Riverside County, and is located in the San Jacinto Valley. Hemet issouth of the city of San Jacinto, and located near the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. The valley is surrounded by the Santa Rosa Hills and San Jacinto Mountains, and is mostly dry land, except for Diamond Valley Lake to the south of Hemet. We are roughly 67 miles north east of San Diego and 75 east of Los Angeles. The city has about 75,000 people and is large enough to have all the resources we need but it is small enough that we can bike or walk for groceries and other shopping needs. The truck doesn’t get of lot of running time.

The activities here are pretty extensive and we have taken advantage of them. I golf with the men’s club on Monday and Wednesday. Kathy and I play poker ( Texas Holdem ) every Tuesday and I play with the men on Wednesday night. There is shuffle board every Friday night but we have not made it there.

The Tuesday night poker is open to the park and it fills to the max of 48 players. Kathy won it one night and brought in $156.00. She wouldn’t share. We also get points if you reach the final table and the top 8 finishers play in a year end tournament. I was able to squeak in with enough points to make the final table and ended up coming in 2nd . It was a lot of fun.

The Final Table

We Drew a Crowd

The Final Hand - I lost and came in second

The Top 3

We enjoyed a few other planned functions such as Xmas Dinner, St. Patrick’s Day Dinner, GVP Golf Tournament and Dinner and of course Canada Day.

Everyone is very friendly and laid back and so they should be. They are retired and life is good.

The park is open all year round but is the busiest from December to April as a lot of Canadians come down for the winter. They are mainly from BC and Alberta and judging from the people we have met I don’t think there is anyone left in Port Alberni, they are all here. We have met some really nice people and get together a couple of times a week to play cards (mostly Texas Holdem)

The People

The Hand

The Bragging Rights

My sister and brother-in-law have been with us for the last couple of months and it was good to see them again. Well, I didn’t appreciate getting my ass kicked at golf by Rick (bastard) but it was good to get together. We even had a short visit from Boy (their son) but as he is only a retiree in training he had to go back to work.

The Howies also had to return to St. Albert as Peggy had to go back to work (hahaha) so we say them off. They weren’t very excited to be heading back to the colder weather.