Newman…you stink!

What a busy day we had today! Oh my goodness. Where do I begin?!!!

We had to be in Palm Springs at Walgreens Pharmacy for 8:45am this morning. The GPS said that we would have a 35 minute drive to get there, and we arrived just in time for our Covid 19 booster appointments. It turns out that the Walgreens Pharmacy we were going to was not in a Walgreens store, but in the local Desert AIDS Project or DAP for short. We were screened when we entered the building by a volunteer for the DAP Centre, and we found our way to Walgreens just fine.

We definitely didn’t need any of these services today!

After filling out the usual screening paperwork, I had my booster shot first.

I really hate needles, and of course this is my 3rd one this year!

Richard is fine with needles.

We were asked to sit outside in the waiting room of the DAP clinic for 10 minutes unsupervised to make sure we had no reaction to the booster shot. Definitely not the supervised wait 15 minutes that we experienced when we had our first and second shots in Port Colborne in April and June!

Waiting in the DAP clinic for 10 minutes to make sure we both don’t have a reaction to our booster shot.

Nice artwork at the DAP clinic.

After getting our Covid 19 boosters, we feel very relieved that we have our shots exactly 6 months to the day we had our last shots in Canada. We know that the new variant is very strong, but we feel good that with the booster, we are in much better shape, than with just 2 shots.

We were in a bit of a rush today to get back to Newman because we had to be out of our RV site before 11am. We arrived back at Motorcoach Country Club at 10:00am and then Richard started disconnecting the water, and sewer, before we brought the slides in, and then disconnected from the electrical. I moved ‘Izzy’ the Ioniq out to the road, and my job was to follow Richard and Newman over to our new RV site in 129. Luckily, we didn’t have far to go, and Richard had scoped out exactly how he was going to back up Newman and pull into our new site.

Ah! That’s better a nice pull in site, with a view!

What a view we have at this site! Its too bad we won’t be here for very long! I did sit on a chair for about 5 minutes before I was needed to do something else.

We have a casita as well at this spot and a covered sitting area. A pool and a hot tub too!

Richard started to hook up our mechanicals, while I was touring around taking photos of this new spot. It really is lovely and is considered a Platinum site at $218 a night, but we have it complimentary for the night.

Our BBQ and outdoor kitchen.

What a stunning view of the mountains from our RV site at lot 129! Isn’t it gorgeous?! Such beautiful landscaping too!

And we are on the 12th tee of the executive course, right behind lot 129. I think if no one is playing you could just walk on and play from the 12th tee.

As Richard was working outside setting Newman up, I went inside to get the slides out. As soon as I walked into Newman I smelled this horrible smell! Oh my goodness. It smelled like burning brake pads! I went to find Richard to find out what the problem was and he said that he couldn’t get the levelling system to come down. Now what?

This is the levelling system in Newman. So now that our levelling system isn’t working, we are just sitting on our tires on this nice level cement pad, but we still have more places to stay overnight where we may not be level and need our jacks! We travelled from site 53 to 129 - which is not very far, and in that short distance we have a bad smell in Newman? What gives? I was very concerned that when we started to drive tomorrow on our very long journey to Tucson, that we would have this awful smell again, so perhaps instead of golfing today, we should get some mobile RV person to come and figure out what’s wrong? I explained my thoughts to Richard and he said he would check with St. Stephen to see what he thought might be the problem. St. Stephen thinks that perhaps Richard had Newman plugged in to the electrical when he was trying to bring the jacks down in our new site and the transfer case didn’t work. Apparently normally Richard doesn’t put the jacks down when we are plugged in, he does it before he plugs us in. Anyway, the jacks are up and we can travel that way. Richard doesn’t want to take a chance on putting the jacks down in case they don’t retract and then we really can’t move with our jacks lowered. We opened up all of the windows and got Newman all aired out before we left for golf, and thankfully the smell is gone!

In our casita we have a huge stainless steel refrigerator, dishwasher, shower, sink and toilet and a kitchen sink too. I found the washer and dryer as well which are the largest machines I’ve ever seen! The washer and dryer are both behind a large double cupboard door.

Since we had free access to such large machines I decided it was time to wash our bath robes, and all of the throw blankets we’ve been using to keep warm on our couches in the evenings. RV’s are nice in the summer, but in cold or rainy conditions, there really isn’t much insulation in them, so its nice to be cozy under a blanket on the couch.

Today we drove 12 minutes from Motorcoach Country Club to play at Indian Wells Country Club, in La Quinta. We were playing the ‘Classic’ course today, which is the same course I played last year when I was here on business, and which Richard and me have both played before.

The PGA Tour held the ‘Desert Classic’ or the ‘Bob Hope Desert Classic’ (now known as The American Express) at Indian Wells Country Club for 40 years, up until 2005. The Tournament was known for having 5 rounds of competition, vs the standard 4 rounds and was renowned for its celebrity pro-am. For many years Bob Hope was the host and featured a number of celebrity participants. The tournament is now held at PGA West and is organized by the nonprofit Phil Mickelson Foundation. I had the pleasure of attending a round at PGA West last year while having a free afternoon on my busInness trip. It was nice to get up close and see Phil Mickelson ‘hit bombs’.

We started on the 10th tee today, which is apparently what the club does on Thursdays.

10th hole - a par 5 at Indian Wells Country Club, La Quinta, California.

The 150 yard markers are all mini totem poles in keeping with the ’Indian’ theme.

11th hole, with the Indian Wells Resort Hotel featured prominently in the background. The hotel appeared empty today, but the hotel has quite the storied past! The Indian Wells Resort Hotel was founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1957. The original name of the hotel was the ‘Desi Arnaz Western Hills Hotel’ and the hotel attracted a roster of A-list guests from the get-go. Designed as an exclusive winter getaway, the resort gave celebrities a chance to golf, play tennis and lounge poolside in the glorious desert sun. Desi Arnaz was also one of the developers of Indian Wells Country Club. To join Indian Wells Country Club today, a one time membership fee of $25,000 USD is payable and monthly dues are $1,070.

We ended up being paired with a father and son duo today. The father lives in the Carolinas and the son in California. We got talking about getting our booster shots today and the father said that his entire family had Covid last year so he isn’t getting the shots, since he has ‘natural immunity’. Then he went on to say that he isn’t an ‘anti’ vaxxer’, but he fells natural immunity is better than shots. Oh my! We kept our distance regardless on the greens.

The homes along the right side of #11 really have no backyard, and the out on bounds is in their patio area! I’m sure they see a lot of golf balls over the course of a week!

17th hole at Indian Wells. There definitely is a theme with this golf course. Elevate every green and put two bunkers strategically on either side of the opening to the green. Rinse and repeat for 18 holes!

18th hole. A long up-hill par 5 with the mountain encroaching on the fairway.

Teeing off on 18. As soon as we were in the shadow of the mountain, the temperature dropped dramatically.

Once that sun is below the mountain it will be cold!

Par 3 - 4th hole. I hit the green!

Lots of mid-century modern homes on the golf course. Very ‘rat pack’ as Richard likes to call them.

Richard on the 4th hole, swinging out of his boots!

We did not think we would get the whole round in today, because the guys in front of us were quite slow and we teed off at 12:52pm, and it gets dark by 5pm. Luckily I guess the foursome ahead of us, also figured they might not get their round in, so they certainly picked up the pace on the back nine, and we ended up finishing by 4:45pm, just ahead of a 4 hour pace of play round, which was great. I played a good back nine today, and was able to come in with an 86 today. I played the gold tees on the front nine (10-18), which were probably a bit too long for me, so I switched to the Silver tees on the front nine and had more of an enjoyable 9 hole. The greens were very tricky at Indian Wells and not easy to read, as well as being very fast. We kept joking again today that I was hitting ‘bombs’ like Phil Mickelson!

After golf we were pretty hungry, but instead of getting fast food to go, we stopped into Trader Joe’s on our way home to pick up food for dinner and a few things I had forgotten to get yesterday.

As soon as Richard dropped me off at Trader Joe’s and I went to pick up the grocery basket, I realized that my left arm really hurt. I wondered why my arm would hurt and then I remembered, ’Duh, I had my booster this morning and the last time I had my shots, my arm hurt!’

We got home and while I tended to the laundry, Richard got into the hot tub. It was nice and warm at 102F and perfect for apres golf relaxing!

Nice and chill in the warm hot tub when the outdoor temperature is 9C.

We went with the Emerald Green lighting tonight for Christmas.

The pool is not heated, so there is no way we were going in. The waterfall feature and up lighting on the palm trees is nice though!

Such a treat to come home from golf and jump into the hot tub! I eventually got in and I think it helped my sore arm a bit.

We’ve had a wonderful stay in Indio at Motorcoach Country Club. We both agree that the Coachella Valley is just too cold for us though. Florida is much warmer than living in the desert! It seems that there is always and ‘edge’ to the air here this time of year and its cool until about 11am, and then its warm up until about 3pm and then look out; Find your layers or you’ll start to feel chilled! I think I had 5 layers on top by the time I finished golf today! Its a wonder I could even swing the golf club!

Tomorrow is going to be one long day! Richard has to return ’Izzy’ the Ioniq to Hertz in Palm Desert, and then get a Lyft ride back to Motorcoach Country Club. Hertz doesn’t open until 8am, but they do have a drop box for keys, so Richard will drop the car off early, and come back so we can get Newman all packed up and ready to go. The drive to Tucson will be long. RV Trip Wizard says 6 hours and 39 minutes so that will probably turn into 8 hours of driving for us. I certainly hope Newman doesn’t start to smell when we pull out of here tomorrow. The last thing we need is a smelly coach to travel in! Its bad enough we haven’t caught the stupid mouse yet. We have 4 traps set and poison down but the stupid mouse ate right through the Christmas amaryllis plant we have had in the front window since we purchased the Christmas plant at the first Trader Joe’s we visited in Bellingham, Washington. I am so annoyed with the critter, since the amaryllis was just about set to bloom, and the mouse chewed right through the stem of the plant. Richard is determined he will catch the mouse, but I sure hope he gets him soon! I hate mice If you didn’t already know by now!