Pilot Knob Resort is a busy place for us. We haven't posted in over a week because we've been busy since the moment we walked in. This is one of our favourite spots. Many of the same people are here again this year. It feels so good to walk in the clubhouse and have people call out your name!!
Yvonne and I have spent a chunk of each day sewing quilt squares to go into the Mexico quilt project. Mary-Lou does a tireless job of organizing all the donations and people helping to sew. Last year was another 600 quilt year and they delivered 900 shoe boxes to families in need, the old folks home and a drug rehab centre just over the line here in Mexico. It is a truly inspiring project to be a part of and we can't help but get carried away with the excitement.
On the way here, we got to pass by Imperial Sand Dunes which is very interesting. There are sand dune buggies and huge "toy carrier" RV's all over the place there. This trip was unsettling as we saw ambulances, police, and they had the road blocked off to get in there. We thought it had been a dune buggy accident, but found out later that a drug runner had run over and killed a police officer that was trying to lay down a spike belt to stop him. The border patrol in this area is very active and kept very, very busy trying to stop the smuggling of both drugs and people.
We're off to go to BBQ dinner and see all our friends. We will try to post again and show you some pictures of the cardboard houses people live in in Mexico and the people we are helping with the quilting project.

San Diego Wildlife Park was a thrill, again. We were last here in November, 2005. Yvonne was only 3. Once Jim an I set foot on the property, it felt like just yesterday. Yvonne remembered a few things but certainly got a good refresher today. The Ramona area got hit pretty bad by the San Diego fires this fall. Our RV park has damage in areas, but they luckily saved all the buildings. The one picture above of the burnt cactus is just at the fence line at the Wildlife Park. They did have to evacuate some of the animals, but they too saved all their buildings. Quite amazing. We've been told the winds were so fierce, the fire hopped all over the place rather than burning solidly in any one place.

We were very fortunate to witness an hour old Oryx baby pictured in the middle. The mother had just given birth and was still cleaning the baby. Our tour guide stopped and let us watch the baby attempt its first steps.

Gouda Girl here visited Winchester Cheese Company just a few minutes from our resort. We got to see how they make Gouda Cheese and we got to taste all sorts of Gouda. YUMMY. Yvonne's favourite (and mine) was the Extra Hot Jalepeno variety. We bought three wedges of different flavours and will enjoy a cheese party tonight for dinner. Part of our tour was a video of Wolfgang Puck cooking with Gouda, so we've got some yummy ideas. Outside the factory is the farm that houses the cows that make the milk that make the cheese. Excellent example of the food chain for Yvonne's school. We just did a food module last month. There was also a motley crew of animals - a lama, goose, and sheep all housed together.

Just around the corner is the Diamond Valley Lake Dam. We can see it from the resort, but it's so blended into the hillside, you can't really tell whether it's dirt or a dam. We drove up to the lookout point that gave us a really nice view of the rural area of Menifee. Just around the corner is solid subdivisions. The Lake is the largest man-made lake in California and contains 6 month's worth of emergency water supply for the LA basin. Very weird that they allow gasoline powered boats in the water, but no human body contact is allowed. They even have floating porta-potties for the boaters. Go figure - gas is OK to be in the drinking water, but not a little pee. Only in California. You would think only electric powered boats would be allowed.

Snow at Desert Hot Springs is a rare thing to behold, but we did! The crazy California storms reached as far down as Palm Springs. The mountains are quite high around here, so they managed to get snow without it being down at ground level. We experienced a bit of rain and very high winds. We were lucky to be sandwiched between two mobile homes that protected us. That doesn't happen often, but it wasn't a park we had planned to go to. Our original plans for last week were to visit our friends, the Henry's in Santa Clarita, but Yvonne got the flu, so we decided not to spread it. AND, the storms were coming and we didn't know if that would be an issue too. Hopefully, we'll get another chance to hook up.

We are currently in Menifee, CA at a nice resort that's on our membership route. The weather has returned to nice warm mid-60F again, so it's nice. Just a bit cool at night. The cars looked suspiciously frosty this morning. There's a large dam nearby - we'll update you more on that once we've visited it, so there are little canals running throughout the park. They have a nice pool, mini-golf and tons of kid activities on the weekends. Some people told us that a lot of locals come to the park with kids on the weekend, so Yvonne is in for a treat.

Our last day in Indio was Thursday. We had a lovely day and spent it catching up on our cleaning, work and exercise. We had a great visit with John, Lila and Marina. We awoke on Friday to Yvonne not feeling too well, so we cancelled our trip up to Santa Clarita. They were also due to have this lovely storm that California is getting beaten up with. We were able to get into a park in Desert Hot Springs. It's a nice park but quite expensive for what they've got. We really like the mineral hot springs they have in this end of the Palm Springs area. Here, they have separate family pools and hot tubs so people don't have to be bothered by kids. Makes it great for us as we don't have to ask them to be quiet. There's a few kids here, so it should be fun when we can get out and do things. Yvonne seems to be feeling OK now but the wind is so strong, you can barely walk against it. Today is the last part of these storms and it is supposed to clear up a bit tomorrow. Not sure if you can "see" the wind bending the trees in the bottom picture, but we tried to show it. As it is now, we're safe and sound and will be staying here until Wednesday.