HIGHWAY RUNNER HAS A PLUMBINB PROBLEM

Mar 29 - Every morning when I took the bag of trash from the kitchen trash can, I would notice water in the bottom of the trash can. I thought the water was seeping through the trash bag into the trash can. After about five morning of the same thing, a light came on in my brain! Maybe we had a leak under the kitchen sink!

We checked with a flashlight and surely enough, there was a small leak. Then we noticed a coupling was cracked. Ken removed it so we could find one a Home Depot. We also took pictures to show the service people to see just how much of the plumbing we needed to replace.

Home Depot did not have the part we needed. In fact, some of the plumbing was glued together and we'd have to replace a lot more of the pipe than we had originally thought. The job could possibly include some cutting of the pipe as well.

We decided it was more of a job than Ken wanted to tackle! We found an ad for Freddy G RV Repair in the TT Palm Springs flyer. Freddy G was free and came immediately that afternoon. At first we were not sure we had made the right decision. Freddy G took one look and said, "This is bad!! This is real bad!!" Something in his tone told us he was joking. He evaluated the problem, made note of the parts he would need and left to return the next day. When he returned, he brought an apprentice with him who did the dirty work! Freddy G said he was his $10 a day man -- he paid Freddy G $10 a day to train him.

They had to completely rebuild the plumbing system under the sink. Freddy G said there was only a little leak now, but if we put a towel down, we would never notice it!! HA HA I think they did a great job and the price was reasonable, too.

The replacement looks really good. Now we have stainless steel parts! And there is no leak!!

NEW PICTURES ADDED!

Our friends Dick and Rockey sent us these pictures taken on their Droid. I was amazed and thought these are probably the best close-ups we have ever had of us!! I decided to add them to the Pickleball Tournament at TT Palm Springs (3rd Day) article posted March 20. You don't have to go to the article itself since I've posted the pictures here, too!! (No conceit here!! HA HA)

Faye already at work with her camera!

Ken enjoyed the matches too!!

Thanks for the pictures, Dick and Rockey!

Fellow Pickleball player, Paul, also has a blog (Earle's Travelog in the right margin of our Blog). Before he left TT Palm Springs and California, he took a group picture of the Pickleball players there. I "stole" the picture from his Blog to post it here for those who have not seen it.

A WEEK AT DESERT POOLS (ROD), DESERT HOT SPRINGS, CA

Mar 22-29 - According to our Thousand Trails contract, we can stay in a park for two weeks and then we must be out of the park for one week. We could go to another Thousand Trails campground, or anywhere else of our choosing. This time for our week out we went to a Resorts of Distinction RV campground, Desert Pools, about 15 miles away, up in the mountains. It was much cooler and a lot more windy than down in the desert! But, we had a most enjoyable time. Primarily because a number of people we know from Thousand Trails were here. The week seemed to fly by!!

A cactus in bloom at the entrance to Desert Pools.

Snowcapped mountains to the west.

A field of windmills nearby and in the distance on I-10. They are even high on the mountains in the far distance beyond Palm Springs.

A couple of our RV buddies from years ago have a winter place in an adjoining park - Tom and Marion. They are both very good Pickleball players, but Marion spends more of her time these days doing Line Dancing! Nothing wrong with that!!

The two of them invited us over for margaritas and dinner on Thursday afternoon. We ended up playing a game of dominoes called Wildfire. It was so much fun being with them again. Just like old times. Thanks so much, Tom and Marion.

I joined Marion several days at her line dancing classes. On this particular day, I saw saw some other dancers that I know. I really enjoyed the classes a lot!

Marion is in the front. The lady in pink is Kathy who came to my classes at TT Palm Springs. The lady in blue is Pat. Pat and her husband, also TT members, are good Pickleball players but like Marion she is spending her time doing line dancing. Behind Pat in light blue is the teacher from another class I took with Marion on Wednesday.

And of course there was Pickleball -- a lot of Pickleball. Ken played with the group almost every morning. I played a little when I was not dancing. There were always at least eight players, enough for two courts. Sometimes there were as many as fifteen!!

Some of the guys: Norm, whom we just met; Ken, John who bought a couple of Ken's paddles; and Bert, a Canadian we know from Thousand Trails.

Another group: Mike whom we just met; Judy, Bert's wife; Larry whom we met on the courts in Orlando; and Ray, another player from Thousand Trails.

Mike and I were partners in a couple of games back to back. We WON both games!! That's why the very friendly pose!!

Luther (bouncing the ball) joins the guys for a game.

And here are the gals!! Judy; Phyllis from Thousand Trails; Betty whom we met here last year; Lee from Thousand Trails; and Faye.

It was so much fun playing with the gang.

Judy and Bert had us over for wine and nibbles one afternoon. Phyllis was there, too. Bert told us how they bottled their own wine at home in Canada. They have cases and cases of wine. Problem is, they can't bring it across the border!

You can tell we still had a good time even though we did not have their home-bottled wine!! Thanks Judy and Bert!

Uh Uh!! Fun is over -- it's TAX time!!

We leave Desert Pools on Tuesday morning, heading back to TT Palm Springs, but we surely did enjoy our time here.

THEY DID IT!!! THEY DID IT!!! THEY DID IT!!! VCU IS IN THE FINAL FOUR

Today No. 11 seeded VCU beat No. 1 seeded Kansas by 10 points!! They are in the Final Four to be played in Houston next Saturday!! They will meet another Cinderella team, Butler, seeded No. 8 who beat a No. 2 ranked team, Florida Gators!! (See bracket below.)

Should be a great game!! We'll be watching!!

THEY DID IT!!! VCU IS STILL IN THE DANCE!!

Friday, March 25

What a game on Friday night -- VCU took on Florida State in the Round of Sixteen in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, fondly known as "March Madness"!! VCU was the underdog but played an outstanding game. In the final seconds, Florida State was one point ahead!! VCU had the ball in the end zone. They managed to get the ball inside and SCORED!! Now VCU was one point ahead and Florida had the ball but somehow missed the final shot!! VCU had WON!!!

VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) is a college in the middle of our hometown Richmond, VA. My daughter, Stasia, spent a year at VCU before getting married and moving to Goldsboro, NC. Ken's son, Mike, attended VCU and is an avid supporter, attending all home games and many of the away games.

We are all so excited that VCU has done so well in the 2011 Tournament!! First they played USC. After that they had to meet Purdue. Their 3-point game that day was FANtastic and they blew Purdue away!! Next we played neighboring Georgetown where the guy's lightening fast inside game was mind-boggling!! But then we came up against Florida State!! That game was so close we did not know until the final second who would win. VCU pulled it out!!! The Rams had never been to the Round of Sixteen before and now they are in the Elite Eight!!! After that -- it's the Final Four!!! GO RAMS!!

There were four teams from Virginia in the Tournament including two from Richmond -- VCU, University of Richmond, JMU and Old Dominion. VCU is the only team still in the Dance!!

The sports commentators on CBS were discussing VCU on their program this morning. We are really on the map now!!

The next game is on Sunday at 2:20 PM EDST or 11:20 AM PDST against the No. 1 seed Kansas City. (VCU is No. 11.) We will be watching!!!