Nov 10th to 12th - CA to Mesa, AZ

Nov 10th - Sat - Desert Hot Springs, CA
We played golf in the wind again. Not quite as windy as yesterday and still warm. We stopped for some lunch and then went to the Coachella Valley Preserve which is a couple of oases. The first oasis has an old cabin that is now a visitor center. The ground is muddy in some spots with boards for walkways. The palm trees are untrimmed which makes them very shaggy and “jungle-like”. We took a mile walk through the desert to the second oasis. There is actually a lake surrounded by palm trees and other vegetation. There are tiny fish called pupfish and very small crawdads in the lake.
We received a free dinner at the RV dining room with our sales presentation so Claude & Val joined us. We were still talking with others at our table when a karaoke session started so we stayed to listen. We couldn’t talk Val into getting up to sing!

Nov 11th - Sun - to Mesa, AZ
We said farewell to Claude & Val and headed to Mesa. We were to meet Barry and Yvonne from Hemet, CA for a week. Against all odds, we actually passed them on the freeway heading to Mesa! We both stopped for fuel at the AZ border - diesel is 30 cents a gallon cheaper in Arizona than in California. We didn’t follow Wanda’s instructions correctly but after a couple of goofs we arrived at the RV park. Barry had a prepaid reservation through Coast-to-Coast but the gate guard wanted him to pay for one night. Barry managed to convince the guy that he had already paid and would check in at the office in the morning since the office was not open on Sunday. Then it was our turn. We did not have a reservation as I was told when I called that there was lots of room in the pet section and we wouldn’t need a reservation. We finally were able to pay for one night and get a site. We were escorted to our spots to find that they were occupied! So we were assigned spots on the other side of the park and got settled in just in time for “happy hour”. Then we all went out for pizza.
It was brother Bob’s birthday today so I spent the rest of the evening talking to him and to Marg & Dad on the phone.

Nov 12th - Mon - Mesa
We walked to the office this morning to pay for our stay without knowing how large the park is. We are at the opposite end from the office buildings so it is quite a hike. There are about 1700 sites in the park - Valle del Oro. We started to walk back and a lady in a golf cart offered us a ride so we took her up on it. We needed to find the garbage so this time we took the bicycles and continued to ride all around the park. It is 2 miles around the perimeter roads.
We went golfing with Barry and Yvonne this afternoon at an 18 hole executive course. Stopped at a grocery store on the way back and threw some chicken on the barbeque. Barry & Yvonne came over and then some neighbors stopped by to see what the heck our “buddy burner” was. I wanted to catch “Dancing with the Stars” but we ended up seeing only the last half hour as some TV shows appear at the Central time which means they are an hour earlier than usual here.