A Short Hike And A Great Dinner With Friends

Friday was an absolute perfect weather day which was kind of surprising because the desert winds really howled overnight Thursday.  Then, just before 10am Friday morning, the “Wind Gods” turned the switch off and it was calm as could be – and with the sun shining the temperatures again climbed up into the high 80’s.

Early in the morning, I took a run down Dillon Rd. to Blair’s RV Store to see if he might have a very small item called a ‘pleated shade hold down’.  It’s the little plastic gizmo that screws into the wall and then the strings from the base of the day/night shades wraps around it to hold the blinds secure(see picture left). 

One of our hold-downs snapped in half, releasing the tie-down and as a result we couldn’t raise that blind.  I sure wasn’t holding out much hope for finding just this small part.  But, to my great surprise, when I showed Blair what I wanted, he just said “follow me” and took me to a bin of hold-downs of all different sizes and colors – amazing!

Part of my hike along the West Canyon Trail in Big Morongo Preserve

While I was off checking this out, Paulette was up at the park Laundromat taking care of this week’s laundry.  After I got back, I emptied and flushed out the holding tanks and started to organize our basement storage areas a bit.  It’s only about 10 days now before we’ll be hitting the road for New Mexico, so we’ll have to start thinking about packing up a few things by late next week for sure. 

A wooden railing with stone steps leading down to the canyon trail

A few weeks ago, I visited the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve and hiked the Mesquite Trail and the Yucca Ridge Trail.  I really enjoyed this park and mentioned that I’d like to go back some time and have a look at the West Canyon Trail – some time was yesterday afternoon.  Again, Paulette’s knee would not allow her to hike this trail which was just fine with her!  She said the swimming pool and spa sounded like a great alternative.

Gary’s terrific little outdoor propane oven and 2 burner combo

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we were invited over to our friends, Gary and Sandy, for dinner last night.  And wow, what a surprise we got.  We were expecting a barbeque of some sort, but instead, were treated to a full roast beef dinner complete with potatoes, gravy and carrots cooked in tinfoil – it was simply delicious. 

Gary and Sandy sitting outside with us after dinner last night

The whole dinner was also cooked outside on Gary’s ingenious little propane oven and 2 burner stove combo.  I had seen this little unit sitting outside their MH and wondered if it was a full-scale oven.  If the way the roast beef was cooked is any indication, then this unit is an excellent oven as the roast was cooked to perfection.

Gary also had another handy gadget – a propane pole with connections that allowed him to run his lamp, blue barbeque on the left and his oven unit with its 2 burners all off of the same propane tank at the same time! 

In the picture on the left, Gary was running the propane lamp, which attached to the top of the pole and was making coffee on one of the stove’s burners.  He said he bought this unit at Canadian Tire in Duncan, B.C.  I’m definitely going to have to check these out when we get back home.

After a great dessert of apple pie and ice cream, we sat outside with our coffee and chatted.  Gary and Sandy will be leaving here on Monday morning heading for Sedona, AZ.  Paulette and I spent 3 days there last year so we talked a bit about what we had done while there and mentioned a few ‘must see’ places to visit.  After that, we gathered up the muttzo’s, thanked the chefs and headed back to our 5’er to watch TV for a bit before calling it a night.

Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting.