ALERT!! WE HAVE CHANGED OUR SCHEDULE!!

We have changed our schedule to spend the summer months at Rancho Oso, Santa Barbara, CA and spending our "week out" at Soledad Canyon, Acton, CA.

See Our Itinerary in the Right Column of Highway Runner Blog.

THE PICKLEBALL GROUP TOGETHER AGAIN, AND AGAIN!!

Jun 10 - Sandy and Ed invited the Pickleball group to a dinner of meatballs, potato salad, etc. on Monday afternoon.  However, Sandy had to change her plans and moved the dinner up to Sunday afternoon. I thought she was truly amazing!!  After a morning  of Pickleball and an afternoon of water aerobics, she was all ready at 5:30 to entertain us!

Eating again!  Ken, Tony, Ed, Trudy, Marilyn, Sue standing, Jack, Alan and Faye.  Sandy is the photographer!

Great meatballs Sandy and Ed.  That was so nuch fun getting together!!

DINNER AGAIN!!

Jun 11 - Would you believe it??  While we were still enjoying Sandy's meatballs, Marilyn and Tony invited the group to their site on Tuesday afternoon for hamburgers and chicken tenders!!  Of course, we were all for that!!

Tony grilling the burgers!  Note his RV apron, specially ordered and sent to him by their daughter in Korea.

While the rest of us were having fun!!  Ken, Sue, Trudy and Alan.  Notice Trudy's new "Hair Style By Marilyn"!!  Looking good, Trudy!!

Marilyn, Jean in front with Steve and Susan (new Pickleball players) seated behind.

Jack, Donald and Ed (Sandy is away).

Delicious hamburgers and chicken, guys!!  And what a lot of FUN!!  

But, tomorrow, six of our group will be leaving for Clint's Well and the next leg of their travels!!  We will surely miss all of you!!  May our paths cross again down the road!

WATER AEROBICS AT TT VERDE VALLEY, AZ

Jun 10 - Sandy, Trudy and I have been going to the pool for water aerobics every morning, right after pickleball.  It's so refreshing!!  But, today we did our water aerobics in the afternoon.  We had two other women join us!  That was a lot of fun!!

Here is the group playing for the camera!  (Ed is the photographer.)

Here are the bathing beauties!!  (From upper left, clockwise)  Sandy, Phyllis, Anita, and Trudy.  I'm in the center managing the Billie Jo tape!

NEW ROD MEMBERSHIP HAS SOME SURPRISES!!

Resorts of Distinction [ROD] is a membership camping club that has many RV parks across the country under its banner.  Members pay an initiation fee to join and annual dues in exchange for almost FREE camping at those RV parks. Many Thousand Trails members joined ROD through one of the Thousand Trails campgrounds.

As many of you know, Thousand Trails terminated it's relationship with Resorts of Distinction in 2011. If we joined ROD through one of the Thousand Trails resorts, that membership would expire on your next anniversary date. Our membership in ROD expired as of January 01, 2012.  

At TT Palm Springs, we met up with a number of other TT members, former ROD members, who were in the same boat as we. Word quickly spread that Lighthouse Marina, Isleton, CA (located in the Delta between San Francisco and Sacramento) was offering membership in their resort as well as ROD Plus membership at a very reasonable price. Lighthouse Marina would be our "Home Park" for ROD. Many of us took advantage of that offer.

I still think Lighthouse Marina membership was a good deal, but I have run into some "Surprises" when trying to make reservations using my new ROD membership.  I thought I'd share my new-found knowledge!!

First of all, we had planned to spend our summer up in the Delta, going to Lighthouse Marina, then to a few of the other ROD campgrounds in the Delta.  I was surprised to learn that the other campgrounds in the Delta have opted into something called the "100 air mile rule".  That means we cannot stay at those ROD campgrounds because they are located within 100 miles of Lighthouse Marina!!

Before joining, I had asked ROD about the 125 mile rule and how it affected using other ROD campgrounds in the Delta area.  I was told that there were only a couple of campgrounds up there that we could not use because they were within 100 miles of Lighthouse Marina, our home park.  Little did I know they were the ONLY other ROD campgrounds in the Delta:  Delta Shores, Canyon Creek, and Duncan's Mills!!

Consequently, ROD members who have Lighthouse Marina as their home park can only stay in the Delta using ROD for a total of 14 nights!!  Lighthouse Marina only allows us to stay 14 nights, and we cannot use the other Delta campgrounds, under ROD.

We are not driving all the way to the Delta for 14 nights!!  Changed our plans!!

Second, because Lighthouse Marina does not accept other ROD members during a Holiday, ROD members with Lighthouse Marina as their home park cannot use any other ROD campground during a Holiday!!  I found this out when trying to make a reservation at Ridgeview RV in Bullhead City, AZ.  I was told that many ROD campgrounds have "Blackout Periods" when they do not accept ROD members.  That's funny!  That was not mentioned in the joining process or in the ROD Directory!!  Surprise!!

And third.  (And this has nothing to do with Lighthouse Marina)  If we stay seven nights or less at a ROD campground, we can go directly to another ROD campground.  However, if we stay more than seven nights, we must be out of the ROD system for a week before going to another ROD campground.  Actually, this is not so bad when we consider that under our previous Thousand Trails ROD membership we could only stay one week at a particular ROD campground, two times a year.

We still think our Lighthouse Marina membership, including ROD is a great deal!  Just a few Surprises!!

If anyone has had additional Surprises, or knows more than we do, please make a comment!!!

BACK AT CONCHOS MEXICAN!

Jun 05 - Tom and Becky, recently new to Pickleball and new to TT Verde Valley, were planning to leave on Wednesday to continue their traveling.  Sue suggested that we all get together at Conchos again to bid them farewell.  Of course, we all thought that was a great idea!!  And, it didn't matter at all when Tom and Becky announced that they had decided to extend for a couple of days!!

We got together for happy hour (drinks only) at Sue and Jacks before going to Conchos.

Sue and Jack welcome us to their site!

Here is the group!  (I'll name the ones I can see.  Left of the table - Trudy, Sandy, Ed, Jack.  Right of the table - Tony, Marilyn)

 And here we are at dinner:  On the left:  Tony, Becky, Alan, Trudy, Jean, Donald.  On the right:  Marilyn, Tom, Sue, Jack, Faye, Ken.  And in the Center is our terrific waiter.  He did a great job keeping up with all the different orders!

The food was delicious, but apparently not quite enough for some people!!

Because the group (minus Faye and Ken) met up again at the local DQ for Blizzards,  etc.

Everyone had a terrific time.  Hope we meet up with Becky and Tom (and the rest of the group) again down the road!!

KEN FLIES HIS NEW TIGER JET HELICOPTER

Ken has been fascinated with remote control planes and helicopters for a long time. This winter he talked to our friend Dick (and Rockey) and watched with envy as Dick maneuvered his own helicopter through some neat moves. So, recently when we were in Penny's, Ken bought himself a 3 channel remote control Tiger Jet Helicopter with Gyro. Gyro is a stabilizer for precise omni-directional flight. Very realistic flight: hover, up/down, right/left, forward/backward. Really neat!!

Ken quickly realized our Allegro Bus was a little too compact for him to practice maneuvering his new helicopter, so he goes to the lodges where there is plenty of room.

He has gotten very good at manipulating the controls to put the Tiger Jet through its paces!

Taking off!

Flying to the right!

And to the left!

Now it's up at the ceiling!!

Now it's coming in really close!!

Oops! Attacking the camera!! And the camera operator!! Help!!!

Time to put the Tiger Jet away for the evening!!

Until next time!! That was fun!!