Aaahhh.... Warm Sunshine!

"Aaahh... Warm Sunshine"  Those certainly were not our words when we arrived last evening, infact, my exact words were "I'd rather be boondocking"... but those WERE our words this morning when we stepped out of the wheel house.

We pulled out of Las Vegas Resort just after Noon yesterday, with the intention of finding a place to boondock for the night, around Barstow.  But we couldn't seem to find a good place, so we kept going.

MISTAKE!
It gets dark so early now!  We called Sands RV Resort to see if we could come in a day early.  They verified that our site was available, and said "Come on in!"

I HATE driving after dark.  So I don't do the driving, but I do the navigating... and I can't navigate if I can't see!  We were so close, and it was still plenty light... we were really hoping we could make it before it was really dark.  But that didn't happen.

We missed the road we should have taken, but using my map program, we turned on a dark road that wasnt marked (that we could see) - (oh, thats right... we couldnt see), but per my map, it must be the road that would take us where we needed to go... it had to be... or we were going to end up on I-10!  So we blindly turned left.  It did turn out to be the road we were looking for, but now we had to struggle to see the street signs to find the street we were to turn on before it was too late to turn!

We slowed, we looked, we sped up, and slowed, and sped up... right as the traffic light turned yellow.  Do we slam on the brakes or hit the accelerator?  Jeff usually opts for the brakes... but we must have been too into it this time.  So he hit the accelerator.   Then we hit THE DIP... wow!  that was a dip!  We could just imagine what it may have done to things inside.  Just as we came up to our street, we had a car come up beside us honking and pointing.  Panic... Oh no... what happened?  They told us that our chairs had fallen and were dragging and sparking.  We slowly made our turn, and pulled over.  It wasnt just the chairs... the ladder had fallen as well.  What a mess!  We're so glad the ladder didnt bounce off and go through someones windshield!  The ladder and 2 chairs were all tangled up in the bicycles, but nothing had been able to get totally lost because of a cable lock we had around all of it.

LESSONS LEARNED...  Strap step ladder and chairs TIGHTLY to RV ladder at top and bottom.  AND... DON'T TRAVEL IN THE DARK!!
After untangling everything, and finding a temporary place to store the chairs and ladder, and taking a deep breath... we pulled into the resort.  We called security at the gate to have them escort us to our site.  When he arrived, he said they had called him and told him to take us to a different site than what we had reserved.  We were confused, and then he became confused.  Long story... and it ended up being a misunderstanding, but we stayed the night all mickey moused into 2 sites squeezed between the power posts for each.  We slept alright, but I had strange dreams all night and they all had to do with this RV park.

LESSON LEARNED... Don't arrive at a new park after the office is closed.

BETTER NEWS TODAY!!
 Don, the security man that took us to our site last night, came to our door this morning and offered to give us a ride to the office to get things straightened out.  They gave us the choice of 6 or 7 sites that we could take, and Don was kind enough to drive us around to each site to make our pick.

We found a great site that we are now comfortably settled in to!

NEW FRIENDS and OLD FRIENDS!!
 When we woke up this morning, I walked out to the living room and opened the rear blinds.  I sat waiting for the coffee, and watched a man across from us cleaning his fifth wheel.  Then I thought... he looks kinda familiar.  I opened my computer and went to the blog K&D in the RV... I looked at the RV on their blog and looked at the RV out my back window... Yep! same trailer.  I looked at the license plate... Yep! Canada.  I looked at Don on my computer, and looked at the guy out my back window... Yep! That is Don!  I excitedly told Jeff, and threw on my sweats to go meet some of our blog friends!
Kim came out when she heard me and so we met as well.  Then Rick of Rick & Paulettes RV Travels, pulled up in his truck and I met him!  Still haven't met Paulette, but there is time.

So that was the new friends.  Now for the old friends...  When I went to the office, to settle up on the site we decided on, I glanced over into the golf pro shop and saw a familiar face.  It was Jeff! (no, not my husband... he was at home hooking things up).  Jeff and Pattie were hosts along with us at Carl Washburne SP on the Oregon coast last Summer.  How exciting!  We chatted with both Jeff and Pattie for only a few minutes today, but I'm sure we will get together a few times while we are here.

ITS BEGINNING TO LOOK ALOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!!

After we got settled into our new site, we took a drive into Palm Springs.  We are actually in Desert Hot Springs, where we are at.  We found a Christmas tree lot and bought a tabletop Noble!  Then I bought some lights!  Then we hit up the Dollar Tree for a few misc decorations. 
So I came home and decorated!  and lit my Christmas candles.  Aaahh... now it feels like its time to watch Christmas movies.

STAY TUNED.... there will be more to report from Palm Springs!

Oh, and... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!