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February 27, 2010, a Saturday
Joshua Tree National Park (Jumbo Rock), California, USA
— We cancelled our picnic and went to a Jambalaya Dinner
It was really windy this morning, and it started raining before we got out of bed — not the kind of weather one would like for a picnic. We had been planning to have 11 people, including us, to a picnic at our camp site for lunch, and we had been watching the weather forecast closely hoping that the predictions of rain showers for today might be wrong. It stopped raining as I was having my normal breakfast, and there was clear blue sky overhead. I finally put away the rest of my laundry from the other day then started to work up a blog entry. It started raining heavily around 10:00, and J left around 10:22 in the Jeep to go to an area with AT&T reception to let people know we were postponing the picnic until tomorrow. I finished the blog entry and did some computer work. J returned around 11:00, and the rain stopped by 11:05. I processed some images for a stock submission.
I had lunch around 12:15, and the sky was mostly clear. Fortunately, it was really windy and about 48°F (9°C) out, so it still wasn't good picnic weather. We prepped the RV to move, then left in the RV at 1:17.
We went to Stater Bros. in Twentynine Palms at 1:50 to pick up a few things.
We went to the Beacon gas station at 2:10 to fill up the RV at $2.859/gal.
J went into a 99¢ store so she could buy a small spray bottle. We had been using a regular sized spray bottle for some homemade vinegar-based cleaning solution, but it didn't fit very well in the cabinet where we stored it. A shorter spray bottle should work better.
We went to the 29 Palms RV Resort at 2:40 to use their dump station and load up on fresh water. We usually don't pay to dump, like we did here, but we had been invited to a jambalaya dinner at the clubhouse there along with our friends G&L-O, G&L-N, B&A, B&J, and S. We were directed to use any of the open RV spaces to dump as they don't have a special drive-up dump station. The first empty RV spaces were right near G&L-O and B&A. B&A came over as we were getting into position, and A chatted w/J inside and I chatted w/B as I dumped and took on fresh water. After we finished, we just stayed in that space and went online through the park's WiFi network. The connection was too slow for me, so I switched over to using my Verizon Wireless USB stick. I posted the blog entry and checked email. L-N and B&J came over for a short visit.
We moved the RV to a parking spot just outside the RV park, then went to the clubhouse around 4:40 for happy hour. It was BYOB, so we brought a bottle of Charles Shaw Merlot. The clubhouse was mostly filled with big round tables, and almost every table was full when we arrived! G&L-O had saved us some seats, so we were set. Not only that, but our table was one of the first to be called to take our plates (literally our plates) up to get served. The jambalaya was very tame (not spicy) and on the dry side, but it was good. We had ice cream for dessert, and because we didn't come prepared for dessert, we used our glasses. :) After dinner, a musician started playing his guitar accompanied by a sound track on his computer, and some folks started to dance. We left around 6:30.
We returned to our site in Jumbo Rock Campground around 6:55. I put the wax beans, that we picked up at Stater Bros. this afternoon, in the bean salad that I prepared last night, and discovered that one of the bags had leaked some of the red wine vinaigrette in the refrigerator. :( After I cleaned it up and put the contents from the leaky bag into a fresh bag, I double bagged both bags to reduce the probability of another leak. I started to work up a blog entry. We watched RV starring Robin Williams. J had seen it before and absolutely loved it.
I had lunch around 12:15, and the sky was mostly clear. Fortunately, it was really windy and about 48°F (9°C) out, so it still wasn't good picnic weather. We prepped the RV to move, then left in the RV at 1:17.
We went to Stater Bros. in Twentynine Palms at 1:50 to pick up a few things.
We went to the Beacon gas station at 2:10 to fill up the RV at $2.859/gal.
J went into a 99¢ store so she could buy a small spray bottle. We had been using a regular sized spray bottle for some homemade vinegar-based cleaning solution, but it didn't fit very well in the cabinet where we stored it. A shorter spray bottle should work better.
We went to the 29 Palms RV Resort at 2:40 to use their dump station and load up on fresh water. We usually don't pay to dump, like we did here, but we had been invited to a jambalaya dinner at the clubhouse there along with our friends G&L-O, G&L-N, B&A, B&J, and S. We were directed to use any of the open RV spaces to dump as they don't have a special drive-up dump station. The first empty RV spaces were right near G&L-O and B&A. B&A came over as we were getting into position, and A chatted w/J inside and I chatted w/B as I dumped and took on fresh water. After we finished, we just stayed in that space and went online through the park's WiFi network. The connection was too slow for me, so I switched over to using my Verizon Wireless USB stick. I posted the blog entry and checked email. L-N and B&J came over for a short visit.
We moved the RV to a parking spot just outside the RV park, then went to the clubhouse around 4:40 for happy hour. It was BYOB, so we brought a bottle of Charles Shaw Merlot. The clubhouse was mostly filled with big round tables, and almost every table was full when we arrived! G&L-O had saved us some seats, so we were set. Not only that, but our table was one of the first to be called to take our plates (literally our plates) up to get served. The jambalaya was very tame (not spicy) and on the dry side, but it was good. We had ice cream for dessert, and because we didn't come prepared for dessert, we used our glasses. :) After dinner, a musician started playing his guitar accompanied by a sound track on his computer, and some folks started to dance. We left around 6:30.
We returned to our site in Jumbo Rock Campground around 6:55. I put the wax beans, that we picked up at Stater Bros. this afternoon, in the bean salad that I prepared last night, and discovered that one of the bags had leaked some of the red wine vinaigrette in the refrigerator. :( After I cleaned it up and put the contents from the leaky bag into a fresh bag, I double bagged both bags to reduce the probability of another leak. I started to work up a blog entry. We watched RV starring Robin Williams. J had seen it before and absolutely loved it.