February 24, 2017
Rancho California RV Resort
Aguanga, CA

Well we've been staying busy with family outings and get togethers. Last week we took a trip back to Vegas to attend Sydney's Jamz National Cheer competition. We stayed at The Orleans Hotel where the competition was held... very strange to see all the young kids running around a Casino. Sydney's Cheerforce team did very well and placed 2nd in their division.

Another thing that has taken a lot of our time is the purchase of a new motorhome.... yeah, we have been dreaming of having a motorhome and finally took the plunge. Every time we would see a motorhome come into a park where we were staying and see them hit a few buttons and be all set up, practically without leaving the vehicle.... well, we were quite envious.

We decided to go to Camping World one day to pick up a few items and saw a  RV Dealer next door. We told ourselves we would just go look and you know how it goes from there. In fact, the Salesmen joked about a lot of people who end up buying a $200k roll of toilet paper from that Camping World.....

We purchased a 38 foot Fleetwood Discovery XL model 38K. Here are a few pictures.

I hope to have some better photos soon but this is what we have for now. As you can imagine we are frantically trying to arrange and rearrange everything to fit in all the new spaces. We were amazed at how much space we had in the old 5th wheel and truck,,,, but we were able to find a spot for everything.

We  are also planning this year's trip which begins in 2 weeks, This year we are traveling around the southwest. Our plans are to go to Lake Havasu, the Grand Canyon.  Lake Powell for a family reunion on a houseboat, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, then head over the Rockies into Denver, then Colorado Springs, and down to Santa Fe and Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival and down over to Tucson and Yuma before returning to Southern California. It should be another great year and a great trip.... we can't wait to see it in our new home.

December 17, 2016
Rancho California RV Resort
Aguanga, CA

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I would do an update to let everyone know what we've been up to...and so I don't forget how to do posts :>)

Our first trip around Temecula was to the Leoness Winery. Temecula is famous for their vineyards, and there are several.

Even the grandkids had a good time... after wine tasting we had a really nice meal at the on-site restaurant.

On November 7th, Jen surprised Marilyn with tickets to the filming of the Dr. Phil show. So they made the drive to LA and visited Hollywood and sat in the audience for the taping of two shows....Marilyn was thrilled....

On November 17th we flew to Denver to spend Thanksgiving with Julie and her family. Upon arriving we were greeted with strange white stuff falling from the skies.... it brought back memories of many years ago.

Anyway the snow looked great on Julie's new backyard water feature.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent some quality time with the Colorado kids and grandkids.

After Thanksgiving, Steven treated us with tickets to two Colorado College hockey games.

This one was against Air Force....

And this was against Wisconsin....

As the Strength and Conditioning Coach, Steven oversees the warm ups before each game... Here is Coach Woody...

We had a great time and really enjoyed the games...... Thanks Steven

We flew back to California the beginning of December and Marilyn quickly decorated for Xmas.

On December 3rd, we went to Sydney's Winter Piano recital.

Sydney has been taking lessons for several years now and it has been fun watching her improvement over time....she is really very accomplished.

And most recently I attended Evan's final soccer tournament in Coronado with Marc while Jen and Marilyn drove to Ontario, CA for Sydney's Cheer competition.

Notice the Coronado Bridge in the background....

Love those dippin dots after a game.....

Sydney's Cheer completion went very well and she had a couple of very good performances...

And finally, I attended Evan testing for his next stripe in Karate...

He earned his final Junior brown belt stripe... next up will be for the junior black belt.

So you can see we have been pretty busy doing a lot of really fun, family stuff. We are now on final countdown to Xmas and have several things scheduled such as the San Diego Harbor lights on Sunday, a trip to Julian, CA for their famous pies, baking Xmas cookies... and of course Xmas and New Years.

Marilyn and I both want to wish everyone a very safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

November 4, 2016
Rancho California RV Resort
Aguanga, CA

Today we packed up and left Jojoba Hills and drove across the street (about a mile) and moved over to Rancho California.

We had a great time at Jojoba and really enjoyed the resort and amenities but mostly the friendly residents and community spirit. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we paid the fee to put our names on the "wait list" for a permanent future site. We're number 35 on the list and they said it might take a year to get down to us..... that would work perfect for us for next winter. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Rancho California is a high end resort with privately owned sites and all the amenities, 5 pools, tennis courts, clubhouse, golf course, and many more. This is a gated community with asphalt roads and concrete sites that are  nicely landscaped with grass, shrubs, and trees. All sites are back in but the street is wide enough so getting into your site is a breeze. We are in the section that backs up to a large pond, whereas other sites back to other water features and the golf course. The first site we had selected several months ago backed up to the golf course but unfortunately the site sold and we had to select another site. That is the downside of just renting a site, it can be sold out from underneath you at any time.

This site has a nice outdoor kitchen with a patio set and cabana....

And we have a great view of the pond right out our back windows....

This site is for sale at $44k and the monthly HOA fees are $450.... quite a bit more expensive than Jojoba Hills, but of course this resort has a lot more amenities. We'll be here for 4 months so maybe we'll change our minds and decide we like this resort better.... we'll see how it goes, but here we would have to become property owners and that means California residents and that would be expensive.......

October 11, 2016
Jojoba Hills RV Resort
Aguanga, CA

On Monday 10-10-16, we packed up from Escondido RV Resort and drove 7 miles west on Hwy 78 to San Marcos. The fiberglass repair and repaint job was going to be done at a RV Rental shop that was recommended by La Mesa RV, a very large local RV dealership.

We met Kevin Smith, discussed the repairs and left the RV and truck.

We headed over to Marc and Jen's where we were going to stay until the repairs were done.

The next day I called Kevin to get an idea for how long it would be and he said they had just finished and we could come pick it up.....

                                         Before

                                          After

Kevin and his guys did a great job and we were very happy.

We hooked up the RV and drove north on the 15 to Temecula and then southeast on Hwy 79 to  Jojoba Hills RV Resort. The trip was 45 miles and took a little over and hour.

Jojoba Hills is an Escapee's Club park. In fact, this park is one of 11 Co-Op parks where you can purchase a "membership" which gives you the rights to a RV site for life. This park has the highest buy in of all 11 Co-Op parks at $30k. After that you pay a monthly maintenance fee of $260. The nice part about this deal is when your done with RV'ing and want out, they give you your $30k back, not too bad.

The sites are mostly back in and very large. Many folks have built sunrooms and permanent awnings. Most sites have a great view of the surrounding mountains.

 Down the street......

Up the street.......

All sites have a concrete patio....

View from our steps...

Nice double wide parking area...

All sites have a shed....

We have a great panorama view of the valley from inside the RV...

In California they have a layer of low clouds that appear during the night, they call it a "Marine Layer"..... In Tennessee we call it fog ;>)

This is a 55+ community so all the residents are our age or older (mostly older). Everyone goes out of their way to be friendly. The residents are expected to contribute in some way to running and or maintaining the park and for most it appears to be a labor of love.

We will be staying here for 3 weeks before moving across the street to Rancho California RV Resort for the winter.