On the road again to Coachella Lakes RV Resort, Palm Springs area, January 22 -31

Time to leave Lake Havasu. Rain in the forecast for the next couple of days, so we decided not to stop at Quartzsite and go straight to Coachella Lakes RV Resort. I called the resort yesterday and it's no problem for us to stay an extra day ahead of our reservation.

Monday morning we woke to cloudy skies but no rain. We'd put everything away, including window screens yesterday as they'd dried off. By the time we got the bikes loaded, finished at the dump and the car attached it was 9:30 am and off we went.

The drive to Quartzsite turned out dry with just the odd sprinkle on the windshield. Such a beautiful drive.

We fuelled up with diesel at the ARCO in Quartzsite and turned towards Blythe California. About 15 miles outside of Blythe the rain began. It wasn't too bad for another 10 miles and then WHAM! You could barely see 20 feet in front of you. Right at that point, there were 2 roll over cars in the median. One about 1/2 a mile from the other in each direction. It must have just happened as no emergency vehicles were on seen yet. Of course that slowed the traffic down for another few miles.

Where's the road!

At this point we were 30 miles from our destination. It could not come soon enough, as we went through more road construction with the roadway being really narrow with concrete abutments and lots of water on the highway. As we were heading down the hill into the Coachella Valley the rain eased up but the wind is fierce. After arriving at Coachella Lakes RV Park, the rain pretty much quit. We timed that perfectly. lol 

After plugging the coach in, (because once again, our inverter quit working), we headed out to the Spot 29 Casino a short drive away for lunch before returning to the coach to set the rest up. Glad to be parked for the night. 

Although it stopped raining and there's few splashes of sunshine by 6 pm, it started to pour again. Glad we're all tucked into our spot.

Tuesday morning, a much nicer day. Laundry day for me, 10 days worth. Ray used the hot tub and then we sat outside in our site.

Morning view out our front window.

Once it was a bit lighter outside, Ray went out to take some pictures. There's snow on the tops of the mountains near Indio. This is the view from the back of our rig.

One person carried their laundry like this. lol

Scooters seem to be the thing at this RV park.

I made a great Prawn and Chicken Paella for dinner. Nice to have time to cook again in my happy place.

Wednesday morning, another gorgeous day. We still have not adjusted to the time change. Going to bed really early and up early. Unfortunately, the clouds came in and it's too cool to sit outside today. I did a bit of shopping at Walmart. Other than that, it's a sitting around home day.

Thursday a beautiful sunrise. The full moon coming through some fog.

This morning we packed up the MH and hit the road by 8:30 to Blue Compass RV, 15 minutes down I-10. We're hopefuly getting the Xantrex power management system installed plus the fresh water tank valve. Of course they needed to order parts for the water valve and our technician, Brent, reached out to Xantrex to find out exactly how to install the power management system. After 45 minutes on hold and staying 5th in line he asked for a call back. At 3 pm when we picked up the MH, they still hadn't heard back. We made another appointment to take the coach back on Monday at 8:30 to finish. That should give them time to hear from Xantrex and the replacement water valve to be received.

Apparently we need the power management system as the inverter does not work when we are not plugged into shore power and only when the generator is running. (At least we were told that by La Mesa in Albequerque) So when we are off-grid ... no power other than battery.

With the coach in, we went for breakfast at the Cup Cafe and had delicious eggs benedict. They also had fabulous coffee. We first went to the Mega Cafe as the closest restaurant, but the whole place smelled like they just suffered a sewer break. We were outta there quickly.

Next up was walking the main street El Passeo Dr in Palm Desert, wandering into a bunch of stores.  Lovely art statues everywhere. The luxury brands were plenty in this strip.

Ray found a Total Wine in the area and loaded up on a bunch of N/A beer. They have the best selection he has seen this trip. After all this walking around it was time for a bite to eat. They have a lovely patio.

We only ordered a little lunch because of our big breakfrast. Cornbread and Corn on the cob with brisket and shortrib to take home for dinner. Delicious.

Back home by 3:30 pm. A quick set up and then we collapsed into our chairs. Around 5 pm or so, I noticed an RV Wash and Wax Service driving around. Ray flagged them down and made appointment for tomorrow. It sure needs it after all the travel we've done before Christmas. The last time was a year ago in Quartzsite so time to have it done again.

Friday morning, another beautiful day. We went over for a hot tub at 8:30 am. A great start to the day. The rest of the day we just puttered. The guys from Jc's Personal Touch with 2 guys took 3 hours to complete the whole coach, including polishing the fiberglass roof. Ray said it's the best job we've had over the years. The whole coach is polished and shiny including the roof. We would definitely use them again if we are in the area. The same money we pay Robert's Wash in Q, but a much better job.

After they departed, we sat outside for a couple of hours until they turned on the sprinklers on the lawns .... P UUUU. I guess they use recycled grey water. What a stench. Fortunately they don't turn them on very long.

I walked over to the pool to take some pictures. There's a bar area, but it is not open yet and there is another pool to go in near the "family area". This will have another hot tub and splash pad for kids. They're still working on the grounds. I guess that's why it's only $1,800 for the month instead of much higher being near Palm Springs. This is the less expensive by about $500 per month.

Pool and Foosball

The Clubhouse

The bar with the beer taps on the wall.

Pool is kept at 80F

Outside bar seating

Hot tub #1 on the pool deck at 103F.

Exercise room

Hot tub #2

Laundry and Shower Building. Wash $2.25 per load.

Saturday morning, gorgeous out. We'd planned to start out with a hot tub at 8 am, but the staff never came and unlocked the pool area until 8:30. Ray set up our outside stuff, mats, table and barbeque instead. This is the first time we've set up outside since we left home September 15th. We've had concrete patios or moving on too quickly to bother, or it's been too cold outside to sit.

Out the door at 9:30 am or so, heading west to the actual Palm Springs area. First up, the farmer's market. Lovely produce, quite expensive though, as everything is here in Palm Springs. I bought some bread and veggies. Ray restrained himself from buying pasteries. lol Probably because the lineups for those were quite long. 

Heirloom Tomatoes

Romanescu Broccoli

Next up, a couple Antique Mall type places. Ray is looking for diecast cars for his Christmas Village, a specific size. First is Sunny Dunes Antique Mall. This is your typical jumbled up place. The prices are terrible. For a set of wine glasses of 5 they want $62! They're also charging $42 for used Hawaiian Shirts. No way! We didn't take any pictures, so these are from google.

The second store, right around the corner, is Antique Galleries of Palm Springs. They have a much better display of things, well curated. They sure are into the Mid Century Modern stuff with all the bar glasses and furniture. They also had quite a few huge model boats and sailing ships, some 6 feet long. We watch a lot of HGTV stuff with home remodelling and some do Mid Century Modern ... so we found it quite interesting.

The ship at the back of this display is one of 5 others we saw. In this room lots of old ship hardware. The tin mess trays are Italian from 1954.

After putting in our steps it's time for lunch at Emporer's Buffet. They have a huge selection of seafood and various other things. Not quite as good as they were last time we were in Palm Springs, probably due to the cost of ingredients like everywhere else. They have changed their menu I think, with no chow mein, or egg foo yung etc and more spicy items to match their customer base.

Back home for 1:30 and into our swim suits for the hot tub. Good thing we don't swim much as the pool's been taken over with three families of kids. lol

After an hour or so it's time to go back to our site and relax in the shade. A balmy 84F today. We're lucky with no neighbours on 3 sides of the coach.

Sunday we opted to stay at the coach and putter. Ray's back is sore and we have to be out of the MH tomorrow for the final repairs at Blue Compass hopefully. Another gorgeous day. We did have a beautiful sunset.

Monday we're packed up bright and early for our appointment at Blue Compass for 8:30 am. We showed up and our technician did not know we were coming in???? I asked Brent if he'd spoken to Xantrex. Nope .... never received a call back. Spoke to the Service Manager, Shay and he had not heard anything either. They did have the water valve in though, so could change that.

I got on the phone myself to Xantrex, "You are Number 4" and I waited and waited for about half an hour and finally got a technician. I ran over to Brent and put him on the phone. They went through our whole system and checking this and that for about 30 minutes. Turns out we don't need a power management system, invalid information from La Mesa Albuquerque. We did need the remote I'd ordered and adapter, but not the remote generator start. The problem with the new inverter not inverting is the stupid 300 amp block fuse again. La Mesa did not install it back correctly, it's crooked, so they couldn't put the cover back on (should've been their 1st clue). Also the wires were only hand tightened so were loose, a poor connection which shuts the inverter off-line. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR. This' been nothing but money with that whole 300 Amp fuse situation.

After waiting for 2.5 hours, we could finally get on with our day and leave Brent to finish up the inverter system and install the valve. Glad I was there to get things going, otherwise nothing would've been fixed again.

We headed to Palm Springs "strip" and took a walk on the Walk of Fame before having lunch at Bongo Johnny's. They make the best burgers. They were huge.

Forever Marilyn

Walk of Fame

Here are some of the names we recognize. lol

While we were back in the car heading out, I noticed the Oscar Mayer Car.

Back at the coach at 2 pm to check on the work.

Brent is also to fix our water valve for tankfill and city water. They'd ordered it last Thursday, so it's ready for install. We came back and the wet bay is still in pieces. 

Apparently the valve they received is plastic and when installed Brent noticed it's cracked and leaking!!!  So Brent pulled the whole thing apart again. I told Shad, the service manager, that I had better not be charged for the time of the bad valve installation at $200 per hour!

They were trying to source another one. I went into the parts department and asked them ?????. Apparently there's a guy out to try and pick one up and my 2 replacement bulbs for our tail lights, also ordered Thursday but not received and no one thought to check! I told the guy he better make sure they come in today as we were leaving at 4 pm. While Brent waited for the new valve, he finished up installing the remote for the inverter. (Brent thanked me for being "to the point" and getting things done as he says he can't be pushy. I can. lol)

We came back to the RV Resort and sat in the shade around the pool for an hour before going back. 

Apparently they couldn't find a new valve to install today, they would have to order it and it wouldn't come until tomorrow. Not an option as we have no water access at this point, no city and no pump from the tank. One of the other technicians happened to have a used brass fiting in his "stuff" and they used that. Glad he did as I don't trust the plastic ones. I think they charged full price though. 

We went back to Blue Compass at 3:30 pm and Brent is just installing the brass valve and testing it .... it works! and then putting it all back together again. He'd installed the new light bulbs for our tail lights too. 

We left the service centre at 4:30 pm. Everything is now working properly. I will unplug shore power a few times in the next couple of days to make sure the inverter is in fact, working correctly. Water pressure is fantastic so finally everything is fixed.

Have to say Blue Compass RV here in Palm Desert are great to work with. The service manager even called me personally to update me on issues. He said it was unfortunate we were fed incorrect information regarding replacing our old inverter. We found Brent, our technician to be quite knowledgeable and nice to work with. Because I 'd booked this appointment in December, they made sure to bump us ahead of other work and get us done, which was greatly appreciated as this all took so much longer than the time scheduled. Blue Compass took over from Holiday RV and are still in a transition stage with a lot of new personnel. Only a few of the origninal staff stayed according to Alexandra, the billing clerk.

Tuesday, so nice not to have to pack up again. I have a busy day, cleaning and then catching up on our laundry while sitting outside in the shade. Ray went to a walk-in clinic. He has an infected gum around his implant tooth. After a couple of hours he returned with a prescription for antibiotics.  We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the shade at the front of our coach. Our neighbours left Monday morning so we have a great view towards I-10 and the mountains.

Wednesday, hard to believe this is the last day of January. There's a bit of a sunrise with pink puffy clouds this morning, but by 8am it's quite cloudy outside. We're due for some rain tomorrow, nothing like at home where it's been raining for a week. The lake level is finally rising and is now on our "second beach".  Definitely gloomy there. Not missing our lake yet. lol

Today we're staying at the resort and puttering. Ray has a bunch of chores that've been neglected on our travels so far, spraying our slide gaskets etc. He started out with a morning hot tub first. I still have a little more laundry to finish. Today I'll actually use our barbeque and cook up a prime rib for dinner. :)