We left home on April 14th on our way to meet my son and two of his three kids to celebrate my 70th birthday near Santa Clarita, CA. We spent the first night at “The Fountain of Youth Spa and RV Resort” in Niland, CA – on the east side of the Salton Sea between Palm Springs and Brawley. This was our second visit to this park. It is quiet, has a great hot tub (2 actually), and there is one site that acts as a pull-thru so it is convenient. There is a view of the Salton Sea across the highway and the railroad tracks – the tracks are far enough away that the sound of the horn is actually pleasant. We saw a great big full moon – that was the night the “blood moon” happened.
On the second day we drove through Palm Springs and Pasadena on our way to our destination – always an exciting trip with high speed, agressive driving by everyone around you. The only good thing about most Southern California drivers is that they know how to enter the freeway – I said “most”.
We spent 4 fun nights with Mark and the kids. They wanted to constantly be either in the pool or riding their bikes. Our little princess mastered the art of balancing a two-wheel bike while she was there and looked forward to showing her Mom when she got back. My 70th started with a family breakfast of sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs. I got some great presents including a portrait of Carol and me done using over 3000 digital photos that Mark collected from Carol and my other son Brian (look for the photo of it below). Another great gift was from Brian and his family – it is a print of drawing from a patent awarded to my Dad in 1972. The patent was for the machine that made the plastic film used in safety glass. But probably the most emotion came when Carol gave me a pillow she had made that had “70 REASONS WHY WE LOVE ARMAND”. Because we have lost friends during the years we have been in Arizona and because 70 is a big number, I had been thinking about how people have great things to say about their friends at their funerals but never say those things to the person when they there to hear them. This pillow was like that for me. Thanks to everyone who gave Carol input for it.
Mark and the kids left on Saturday morning so that they would be back for Easter with rest of the family. We spent the remainder of Saturday shopping and getting ready to head over to Hemet for the GMC Western States Club Spring rally. Driving on those highways around Los Angeles during the week is not much fun so we decided to do it on Easter Sunday when lots of people stay home. As usual the traffic was heavy but no where near as bad as it would have been today (Monday). The elephant is made of steel and overlooks the highway West of Hemet.
Hemet – just east of Los Angeles seems like it must be a bedroom town but it is far enough away from the city to retain some country feel. The park is mostly empty right now but they have 50 spaces in the “group area” reserved for us – I hope we can fill them. The facilities are very nice. This is even nicer (my opinion so far) than Emerald Desert in Palm Desert where we have had several successful rallies. See the photos below for a look at the pool, shuffleboard and pickleball courts, and the fitness center – and one lonely GMC motorhome waiting for her friends.
