OUR THANKSGIVING "VACATION"

I hope everyone reading this is having as perfect a day as we are!

As planned, we were up early on Friday morning for our road trip. After a long workout at the Drayson Center, we pulled out of Mission RV Park at 11:40 am. Two blocks to the 10 where we merged into the southern California traffic, west to the 215, south to the 15, and off the freeway at Temecula. East on Hwy 79, through the steep, arid hills.

An hour and a half after we left Loma Linda, we had arrived at Jojoba Hills RV Park (read our campground review and see photos here), an Escapee co-op park with huge spaces, great views, fabulous amenities and - best of all - many of our Boomer friends. The Wrights and the Rayners had reserved a site for us, and we were fully deployed by 2:30.

We've stayed a Jojoba Hills RV Park several times, so know our way around a tiny bit. Temecula, just under 20 miles west, is the nearest city, gobbling up the countryside as new subdivisions of huge homes are built. On this trip, we looked at the hillsides 'dozed and terraced for new houses and wondered how many years will pass before building on those sites will be profitable once again.

"Old Town" Temecula has a wonderful Certified Organic Farmers Market every Saturday - lots of growers' booths, along with a few jewelers, hats, clothing, bags, cheese, olive oil, organic margarita mix (!), a baker, a guy sharpening knives. By the time we arrived (10 am) on Saturday morning, the place was busy, with a little band playing and the venders in full swing.

For Odel, the high point of the market is the array of prepared food. We have sampled the fish and shrimp tacos available there before, and our mouths were watering before we even arrived. We went straight to the "restaurant" stands, tacos firmly in mind... Whomp! The incredible aroma of grilling beef - highly spiced grilling beef - assaulted our noses and we did a quick right turn.

In front of us, a vendor was piling a "to go" plate high with grilled vegetables, spicy grilled beef, and yogurt sauce - a completely delectable middle eastern meal of some sort. We watched enviously as the buyer strolled off with his meal. Odel and I looked at each other and nodded. Good-bye, tacos. Hello, beef "sandwich"!

Lettuce, pickled peppers, and seasoned beef patties were piled on to a fresh, soft, pita bread, smothered in yogurt sauce, rolled in foil and presented with two forks. Odel restrained himself long enough to "pose" the meal for its photo op, then... his phone rang! I had undisputed control of the sandwich for the next several minutes while Odel talked to Joe Calwell... I heard him begin to hurry the conversation to its conclusion as he saw the sandwich quickly shrinking. Joe, thanks for calling! (Oh, by the way - we got fish and shrimp tacos a bit later.)

Thanks to the organizing done by Fran Rayner and Mary Wright, we recharged our spirits at Boomer Happy Hour yesterday afternoon. While I have NO complaints about LLUMC and Odel's treatment there, staying for over a month in a tight, urban RV park where most of the residents are semi-permanent is not our typical lifestyle. I miss travel! I miss the changing scenery! And I miss the comraderie of other travelers, especially the active, fun-loving and fun-seeking Boomers. We laughed, danced, snacked, drank, caught up with friends and their travels. It was a welcome tonic.

This morning we awoke to a beautiful day with no time constraints at all. We let Luna wander and sniff as we had our morning tea, then caught up on some "administrative" work related to our volunteer Boomer membership coordinator job. Then we were off for our 10,000 steps - or at least half of them.

Verizon cell service is used by many fulltime RV'ers. Poor-to-terrible Verizon phone and aircard service used to be the drawback to this park, then someone had the great idea of leasing a high spot in the park to Verizon for a cell tower. It's been in the works for a couple of years and now - it's up. We walked to the top of the hill so Odel could take this photo of the huge Verizon cell "tree" (that's me providing scale by standing at the base - like my smile?). Don't you think the tree would look great decorated for Christmas?

Back at Scoopy, I wrote and posted my review of Jojoba Hills RV park while Odel did laundry and watched football. It's a sunny 75 degree day outside, with a hint of a breeze. We're both ready to head out for the other half of our steps - the day is too lovely to squander, even when golf is on TV!