Joan on the Road...of Life

It's almost harvest time here in Temecula. The wine route on Rancho California provides a great getaway so my friends Vickie and Carla joined me for lunch and a bit of wine tasting. Our first venture was to visit the Rusty Acres Herb Farm which I hadn't scoped out first. We drove about 10 miles (well Vickie drove and did an awesome job) up into the hills on some of the curviest road I've been on in a long time. Imagine taking a 45 degree turn and going up 25 degrees at the same time! Then at one point there was a mirror on the side of the road because you could not see over the hill as you went up...a very eerie experience.

When we finally arrived we found a well landscaped hillside with the owners mobile home serving also as the gift shop, in the living room I think. The cash register was on the kitchen counter. Lots of lavender bunches and wreaths hanging around along with homemade lavendar oils and lotions. It was a pretty funky place. If I'd checked it out first we probably would not have gone, but it was a memorable adventure.

We then went to lunch at Baily's Winery, eating outside in view of these grape vines. We had a delicious salad of mixed greens, grapes, spicy roasted pecans and grilled salmon. The dressing was very delicate and was wine based. Carla said we "dined" because we spent a couple of hours over a glass of wine and salad.

Then we visited three wineries where we would buy one tasting--5 wines for $6. Then we passed the glass for sips. That way we could see more wineries and still drive. At Falkner Winery our host, Bob, showed us how red wines taste different after they have been decanted, in this case that meant swirled in the glass. That adds oxygen and enhances the flavor. We ended our day at Wilson Winery where the finale is the Almond Champagne and the Decadent Chocolate Port.

There are 22 wineries in this area and a few of them have restaurants or offer deli items so you can picnic there. It's a great getaway, best done with good friends or loved ones.

Posted by Joan at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday morning's entertainment is watching the campers get ready to go home after a weekend party. Life here at Vail Lake has a rhythm. It's real quiet during the week. Friday, about noon, the weekenders start to pour in. Often times there is a group coming in for some kind of celebration. If we're lucky we don't wind up in the middle of that group!

Friday nights there's kind of a wild frenzy to the partying and people don't quiet down until 11 pm or later. This weekend we had a family next door--grandparents, kids and grandkids including a toddler and tiny baby. They had a small motorhome and tent. We hadn't heard temper tantrums and baby crying for a long time...got our fill this weekend!

Saturday night the celebrations quiet down earlier...the campers are pooped out after all their play like riding 4-wheel vehicles around and around the circle, playing bocci ball and drinking, swimming or playing mini golf. Last night we had a campfire and could hear, on the campground below us, a birthday celebration...if they could have heard themselves they'd never sing again!

For the most part, the campers are just having great fun. We've certainly contributed our share of noise and hoopla to campgrounds over the years.

This morning we watched a guy park his car on the grass in front of us, open and close his radiator cap a few times, search under the hood for something and then get in his car. He was wearing socks which he got muddy so he took the socks off to get in the car. In the process he got his feet muddy. So he walked to the restroom to wash his feet, walked back to the car barefoot and realized his feet were dirty again! Must have been a BAAAD hangover.

Sunday morning is dog and kid walking...getting that last bit of campground experience. Today we watched a group of kids and moms stop to chat and all the while they're talking they are unconsciously untaggling the dogs who keep jumping on each other and barking. The toddlers wander off and have to be captured by the scruff of the neck ...and all the while the moms keep talking.

The people next door were washing off their cooking utensils at the outside water faucet..a campground no no. Then the dad comes out and washes the sewer hose with the drinking water hose...another no no. Finally they started to leave, started the car and motorhome, pulled out a bit, stopped and did something, tried again to leave. After a few tries they got it almost all together and left...with their TV antenna still up. Ooops! Guess it was payback for dirtying up the campground with their dishwater.

Guess we are just two old busybodies watching our neighbors...but that's half the fun of our lifestyle. You never know what you'll see or who you'll meet!

Posted by Joan at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday, 2:30 AM. I woke up and felt like something was not quite right. Got up and noticed that the microwave clock was off. That is our only indicator when the power goes out. Everything else switches to house batteries and keeps running until the 4 batteries die...maybe 36 hours.

Jim woke up and did a bit of investigating and it wasn't just us...our whole level of campground was black. So since it was cool and quiet we went back to sleep and thought it would be back up in the morning. Wrong!

The first call to the manager got a reply of, "the power company will be out Monday." Yikes! Others in the neighborhood got the answer that SCE was on their way or that they'd be out in 2 hours. Starting to sound fishy.

So we turned off just about everything to conserve the batteries. Kept the ceiling fan going. Switched the frig and water heater to gas and hoped it wouldn't get too warm. Wrong!

We've been having midday temps of 95-100 so our routine has been to have the windows open until it reaches about 85 late in the morning then turn on the AC until early evening. Then it cools down enough at night to have all windows open again. But that scenario wouldn't work so when it got hot what else does a good SoCal girl do but go shopping! Our hopes were up that the power would be on when we got back. Wrong.

The manager said we could move to another site with power but we really like our site 23 view so thought we'd hold out hope. So no TV or movies or music. No fresh ground Starbucks coffee. No fruit smoothies. No AC. The sounds of silence were marred by the sound of several generators charging up batteries.

Sunday we visited with the kids and enjoyed their AC. Came home in the early evening with high hopes. Not. So Ok. We decided to move on Monday if no power.

Magically in the early AM hours of Monday the power blipped back on. Now my theory is that we were all being scammed and that someone just had to come into work on Monday and throw a switch to get us all going again. Of course, as with all power mysteries, we'll never know the real story.

Posted by Joan at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago we moved to Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA. This will be our home for a few months while we get through some medical stuff which so far is going well. After a bit of surgery here and a laser treatment there we're on the way to good health again. Right now it seems easier to hang out in one spot and get some of this over with rather than trying out new places and not knowing where we'll be for a future appointment. Trouble is there are not all that many great RV resorts in SoCal to stay.

We've been here at Vail Lake before and enjoy the beauty of the foothills, mountains and trees. We fervently hope we won't see any fire here. Two years ago the whole surrounding area burned and it is just now regrowing and looking good. During the week it's very quiet, then on Friday's it fills up with the "weekenders" who have lots of fun having campfires in the 90 plus degree weather. When you only camp on weekends you gotta have a fire!

Life is really lazy here so when we have the energy and initiative we get into some project. Jim has been fixing things here and there, minor stuff, and last week set about to replace the lightbulb inside the microwave. After an hour or so of both of us twisting our necks to figure out where it was, we gave up. Jim called Sears to come and replace the bulb (and also do the annual inspection). So he gets the appointment arranged and about an hour before the guy is to arrive we get a call from the serviceman. Just checking in to let us know he'll be late and wanting to know best directions. He says he's pretty familiar with Rapid City ...WHAT? we say! We're in California! He's in South Dakota!

We have this happen too frequently. Our residence, address, credit card billing, bank, etc. are in Rapid City, SD. But we move around. So if we order something we always have to explain our lifestyle. It really confuses the people like our vitamin supplier because we are always in a different place. But this Sears fiasco really had us laughing because I had predicted it.

So the SD service guy said he'd have Sears call to reset the appointment. A bit later a gal calls and apologizes for the error and tells us we will have to wait until August 20th for the next appointment. It's all set up and then Jim says, "just confirm for me what address you have for this appointment." "Rapid City," she says!!!!

Funny thing is that the excuse is always, "well my system just can't handle that!" So my prediction is that on August 20th the guy in Rapid City will be calling again. It would sure be nice if the microwave manufacturer had made the light bulb replacement easier.

Posted by Joan at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)