Author: Rudy

We realized that we had no coffee filters in our house last night, so buying that nice coffee wasn’t really going to help us this morning. So, after a quick cup of instant coffee, we went out into the bright California sunshine. We walked the nearly half a mile OUT of our country club development, and turned south along Portola Avenue, headed for the El Paseo shopping street of Palm Desert. It turned into a pretty long walk. We ended up next to the Visitor’s Center and had breakfast at a Starbucks there. Lots of people out and about. An interesting corner to sit at and watch people.

After a quick stop at the Visitor’s Center continued our slow walk along this major shopping alley. Stopped in at the Apple store to see if they had any iPad minis in stock — only black ones — we’ll wait for the white ones to arrive. Sue priced out some haircuts — $400? Maybe not.

We came back up along Monterrey Avenue, past the big Westfield Mall. We even tried to talk security at the Monterrey Country Club into letting us take a shortcut through their development back to our place — nope, no way, and besides, there’s a big wall in between. So we walked ALL the way around. Got back at around 1, time for lunch. Hot and tired. We’d walked more than 12 kms, more than I’m used to walking lately.

After showers and lunch and some relaxing, we went for a ride, scouting out some of the big box stores. We went to a Walmart where I stood in line forever waiting for the TracFone guy to help me (he tried, but when I got home it still wasn’t working to call to Canada). We even went to Costco where Sue bought bacon and steaks to last us for a few weeks.

Back at our house after dark again, although ‘dark’ happens here at 5pm. Couldn’t really watch the Redbox DVD I’d rented because we don’t have the RGB cables to hook up our new DVD player. Oh well, another day. We had a late supper (roasted potatoes and chicken) and watch a couple of ‘restaurant makeover’ shows on TV. Went to bed early. Tired. The end of a ‘very busy’ day!

Woke up in our lovely hotel suite. Had a lazy start. No rush today; we’ve only got four hours of driving and then we’re ‘home’.

Went down for a big waffle with peanut butter. Another coffee. Back in the room I did my best to argue with some ‘Pete’ in the Philippines about my TracFone — and was told that no, they no longer offered the ‘friends and neighbours’ option for Canadians. Was on hold for over an hour, with TERRIBLE music playing way louder than the occasional operator announcement. Finally gave up in frustration. I was really pissed off.

Shortly after 11 we hit the road. Sun was shining. People in short sleeves. Got into California. Stopped at a little car wash and washed the van. Drove a bit more. Surprising how much traffic there was on the road today — lots of motorhomes, lots of semis. Busy roads. Temperature around 11 degrees — but it’s supposed to warm up in the next few days.

Got to Indio, not far from our Palm Desert destination. Went to a Jack-in-the-Box for lunch. Big casino here. Kind of depressing. Had a bad feeling about where we were going — maybe we should have booked something in Phoenix instead, where everything was safe and clean?

Filled up the van one last time. Our rental was effective at 3:00 pm — we would arrive shortly after that. Turned off the #10 highway into Palm Desert. Everything is green. Clean. Developed. Neat and tidy. Okay, maybe this will work out okay.

Went through our Country Club entry gate — told them we would be renting for the next 2 months and they let us in. Found our house. Went in. Pretty nice. I think it’s better than what we expected. Lots of open space. Big rooms. Lots of light. Everything is new — never been used before. We unloaded the van. Carried everything in from the garage. I’ll put the bikes together another time. Golf clubs need to be sorted and put in the bags.

Not so sure about golfing our course — we watched one old guy hit 3 balls off the tee, and one nearly hit us on our patio! i think it is a very tough course.

Sue started a grocery list. We logged onto to our network. Sue checked her emails. And got this:

From: Castaneda, L
Time: 2:17 PM (5 hours ago)
Hello Mr & Mrs Nikkel
This is Ofc Castaneda, please call me. I found your purse. 505-123-4567

Are you serious? I called. Left a message. We got into the van and went for a ride, shopping for groceries at the Albertsons on Hwy 111. Took us two hours and this is just to tide us over for the next day or two. It gets dark really early here. At 5pm it was pitch black outside. Drove around the area a bit. LOTS of shopping here. Quite nice. Quite different from Arizona — green and developed and we are more like right in the middle of a city — not as remote. There will be good and bad things about that.

We came back to our house and I called the number again. The officer answers. Yes, he has our purse. No cash, but EVERYTHING ELSE is in there! Unbelievable. We arrange to have him Fedex it to us here. Amazing.

We sit in the living room and can’t stop discussing this turn of events. Quite the way to start off the holiday. Quite a way to start off the new year.

We watch a little news on TV. The furnace is making the place nice and warm, just what Sue wanted. The furniture is very nice and comfy. We skype the kids. We eat our faspa. We have a celebratory beverage or two. It’s a great day.

I unbox my computer and we move a little table from one of the guest bedrooms into the living room. I put my old office chair together and set up. It works. Everything works. Well, not that dang TracFone. But now we’ll leave that for another day.

A very interesting day today. We woke up real early, grabbed coffees to go from the La Quinta (Colorado Springs) breakfast offerings, and left in the dark. Filled up gas and hit the road. I was a bit worried about the snow that had been forecast, but the roads for the first hour were dry and clear.

Then it got interesting. Snow began falling and a few miles on it was getting tough to pass some of the more cautious drivers because of accumulated snow on the road. One lane for driving. Then worse! No lanes for driving! Roads were snow covered. I was glad we weren’t driving in the dark It was hard to see the road.

Stopped in Albuquerque, NM for lunch and gas. Found a McDonalds. Ordered a Big Mac for me and sundae for Sue. Great. After our quick lunch stop we left and drove to the gas station next door to fill up. Sue was going to wash the windows. I had to go in and leave my drivers as security — no zip code for my credit card so it doesn’t really work here. As I got out of the van to fill up, Sue discovered that her purse was missing. She’d forgotten it at McDonald’s! She ran across the driveway to see if it was still there. I filled up the van. I knew when she came back that it was gone. What was in the purse? About $300 cash, all her credit cards, our passports, etc. Hmmm.. Not good. Sue went back into the restaurant to ask the staff and patrons if anyone had seen who had taken her purse.
After I finished filling the van I drove it to the McDonald’s parking lot. We decided to Skype/phone the credit card companies and report the stolen cards. Did that. Then the McDonald’s manager suggested we report this to police. We did that. Were told it could be hours until police would check this out, but we should wait around.
In the meantime, Sue again went in and quizzed the patrons. Nothing. The manager suggested that we check the surveillance video. And there he was — caught on tape, clear as day. Not the guy Sue suspected, but a young guy whom Sue had questioned and had even looked into his backpack.
Then the policeman arrived. We completed a report. He looked at the tape. Yep, clear as day! He would drive around looking for the guy. Maybe the purse had been dropped into a dumpster around here.

We left our contact info with the cop, wished him a happy new year, and then, after about a 2 hour delay, got back into the van and continued on our way. No, Sue wouldn’t be driving — no driver’s license.

The road into Arizona was pretty good. We turned south at Holbrook and stopped for supper (tacos). Continued on until Heber, where we refueled. The road was surprisingly windy and wet. LOTS of snow. Now that we were in darkness, driving took full concentration. Windshield constantly splashed by cars ahead.

Finally at 8:30pm we arrived at the Hampton Inn near the Sky Harbour Airport in Phoenix. And as we went in to check-in, Sue was informed that she was the lucky ‘Guest of the Day’. We got upgraded to a suite! Sweet!

We got into our room, checked our emails (nope, no ‘good’ news from the nice Albuquerque policeman). Had some snacks, Sue had some wine and I a couple of beers (New Year’s party!), and after a bit of computing, we went to bed.

Tomorrow we will begin our day by calling the passport office, our TracFone contact to get the international calling set up, etc. Then we’ll take the four-hour drive to Palm Desert. Home real soon.

Last night was rough — I think I ate too much pizza too late before going to bed. Slept poorly. We woke up before the 6:00 am alarm. Showered and had some yoghurt and fruit and coffee and off we were. Dark outside. Heading west on I-80 towards Denver. We veered south before Denver and drove for a few hours on a very lonely 2-lane, passing miles and miles of windmills. Got to Colorado Springs by about 10:30 mountain time. We gained an hour today. Checked into the La Quinta and then headed across the street to the Buffalo Wild Wings to watch football. My Giants easily blew away the Eagles, but as it turned out it was all for nought. Missed the playoffs.

We went back to the room and perched ourselves on our respective beds and watched the Green Bay / Minnesota game. That turned out great, as the Vikings, led by Adrian Peterson, earned a rematch against the Packers next week in the first playoff game.

Sue called Garth on Skype. We decided to book a different hotel in Phoenix tomorrow — we’re tired of these ‘pet-friendly’ La Quintas. We have another 12 hour drive tomorrow, hope the snow in the forecast is light and doesn’t result in road conditions like we had here 2 years ago on our way down.

We continued watching football in the evening — Dallas in Washington — winner is in the playoffs.

Although the alarm was set for 5am, we woke up shortly after 4 and got up. Thought we’d get an early start. Wasted half an hour fighting with the coffee maker. Packed everything up, turned off the heat and water, unplugged everything, and hit the road. Quick stop at Husky Gas to fill up the van tires. Too dark to see. Hit the road. Crossed the border with hardly a hello — the guy asked us where too and how much money and waved us through. Passed through Grand Forks — still too early for breakfast or for a Walmart phone purchase. Got to Fargo around 10. Gas and Egg McMuffin and cinnamon bun. No Walmart here.

At Watertown, SD, we stopped at the Walmart and bought our first TracFone. Got a Palm Desert phone number (which turned out to be a mistake — phone won’t activate until we’re in that area code!). Wasted about an hour. Stopped at McDs for lunch, then back on the road. Slowly the -18C climbed as we headed west from Sioux Falls. Roads were good. Scenery continued to be amazing — hoarfrost on the trees all the way. Less and less snow as we continued southwest. Sue drove the last nearly 600kms, about half of it in the dark as the winter sun set at around 5. We enjoyed listening to NPR’s Prairie Home Companion for an hour in the dark.

A gorgeous yellow full moon rose in the east as we pulled into North Platte, Nebraska. Quick stop at Little Caesars for a pizza, the bottle shop for wine and beer, the gas station to refuel, and then to La Quinta. Supper at 8.30. Found out the TracFone won’t activate here. Sue called Alex. All is good.

Sue was asleep by shortly after 10. I wrote my journal and then joined her. We need to get up early tomorrow so we can make it to our next stop before the final regular season NFL games begin at 11am local time.

A long busy day of packing and saying goodbyes. The plan is to leave early tomorrow morning for Palm Desert. A long first day of driving.

We cleaned up the house — got rid of all the Christmas stuff. Sue did laundry, vacuumed, cleaned out the upstairs fridge. The kids came over with Max for a bit. We said goodbyes. We went to visit first Sue’s mom, then my parents, and said goodbye.

I’m looking forward to the next few months. I’m looking forward to warmer weather. I’m looking forward to golfing. I’m looking forward to hanging out with Sue full-time.

I’ll miss a lot of things about home too. I’ll especially miss my family, and my little grandson. But I hope that we will be able to Skype regularly and that our kids can come visit us this winter. I’m looking forward to that, too.