Semi-Hibernation in Hemet, CA

Wow! It’s been way too long since I’ve posted anything. I just looked at Finding Penguins and realized my last post was two and a half months ago today, when we were in Lubbock! I apologize for the neglect.

We headed to Albuquerque from Lubbock and spent the better part of two weeks getting rid of the vestiges of the stuff we had in storage. We realized for the money we were spending to store the stuff in a POD, we could easily replace the stuff many times over.

After that was completed, we changed our plans about direction. Having gone back to ABQ, it wasn’t logical to go back through Texas and then on to Florida, so we rearranged our plans and headed for Southern California. San Diego RV parks are outrageously expensive, so we found an RV resort in Hemet, CA.

The park is called Golden Villages Palms and they have over 1000 spaces, three swimming pools, eight pickle ball courts, three sand volley ball courts, a fully equipped fitness center, two dog parks, and a mail center. It’s nicely clean and shady and a full social calendar. We try to go to water aerobics on Mon-Wed-Fri and do weight training on Tues-Thurs-Sat, and we never miss “Yappy Hour” at the dog park. Dogs frolic and owners drink wine (dog treats and wine provided by the park) and talk about life and dogs and being on the road. I’m guessing 60% of the winter clientele are Canadian Snowbirds, most of the others, like us, are full-timers fleeing winter.

A short time after we arrived here it became obvious that Fonzie was in extremis, so we took him to a very kind vet and Fonzie crossed the Rainbow Bridge as we held him.

Touly was with us in the room when Fonzied passed and he grieved for a while, but extra love and a couple of trips to Dog Beach in Del Mar helped. There's a white and buff Shih Tzu here that he checks out whenever he comes to the dog park that is across from or campsite.

The first month here was a flurry of holiday stuff. Thanksgiving at Sarah’s and I prepared a Prime Rib Roast for Christmas Eve dinner at Sarah’s.

We did do a side trip to the Natural History Museum of LA County. (Doesn’t hold a candle to The Field Museum in Chicago, but we’ll keep that to ourselves!)
We have tickets to  the Aquarium in LA—we’re trying to get there this week, so more pics then.

Here are the Natural History Museum pics.Read more