A WEEK ZOOMED PAST!

Life moves so quickly, and the internet moves so slowly! Here at Jojoba Hills SKP RV Park, where our Verizon aircard works very slooooowly, I haven't been able to keep the blog up-to-date with activities.

Today, we are moving on for a few days of boondocking near Borrego Springs, California. I'm afraid we might have NO Verizon service there, so thought I'd better see what I can get up on the blog before we go!

We found many of our friends here at Jojoba Hills when we arrived, and a busy social schedule seemed to organize itself. One afternooon we visited nearby wineries with Brooks and Brenda Rimes (left) and Bill and Fran Rayner (right) - they have all since left on a Mexican cruise.

We learned Pickleball, the new favorite game of 50-, 60-, and 70-somethings, played on a court about half the size of a tennis court with paddles twice the size of ping-pong paddles. The light-weight ball doesn't bounce too high/far, but the game moves quickly enough to work up a sweat, pull under-utilitzed muscles out of place, and twist knees into unnatural positions. Next time, we'll lunge a little less enthusiastically.

We visited Temecula several times: the great Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, shopping trips to Costco, Trader Joe's, Henry's Farmer's Market (a health-food oriented grocery store that seems to be owned by Whole Foods), enjoying the wide selection of high-quality food and wine stores one expects in southern California and misses so when traveling...

We celebtated Dick Schneider's birthday with a big party at an Irish pub in Temecula, followed the next night by a dynamite dinner of grilled fresh tuna, grilled fresh asparagus, grilled fresh crimini mushrooms, and quinoa pilaf with the Schneiders and Mary and Elaine. On Super Tuesday, we got together with other liberal Democrats (and one out-numbered Republican couple) to watch the returns come in, eat (too much) delicious food and drink (too much) delicious wine. Yesterday, Odel played golf with some of the guys here while Carol Schneider and I had lunch at a wine country restaurant and did a bit more tasting.

After all that, you can understand when we decided to STAY HOME last night. We had an early dinner and I was IN bed and ASLEEP by 9 pm.

Today we are moving east for three days of boondocking with Marlene and Richard Dopp and their friends, the Howes, who we met at Quartzsite. Last we heard from the Dopps, they were on a hunt for more firebricks so they could build another clay oven at the new boondocking site. Oh, I hope it will be built in time for us to enjoy a slice of wood-fired pizza (yeah, like we need more food).

Here's some good news: Emma, Audrey, and all the rest of Odel's family in Memphis came through the tornados there with no damage. It was a scary night!

If we have internet access in our new spot, I'll post some photos; otherwise, we plan to be in Gila Bend, Arizona on Sunday night and I know I can post from there.