Sage Hills RV & Golf Resort

Today is Saturday, August 1st. It's hard to believe we've been here in Warden three months! The time is flying by! Sorry we've not updated the Blog more regularly ... but between working, playing lots of free golf and touring the area we've been pretty busy!

Right after we arrived we took a tour of the golf course and discovered there are thousands of ground squirrels living on the course and they are a pest. Unbfortunately the state believes they are an animal of interest and don't want them eliminated. The locals don't pay a lot of attention to what they say. Since it turned hot they have gone under ground and disappeared. At least for now.

In May (our first month here) we got used to working two or three days a week - 12 hour days! The hardest part is getting up at O-Dark-Thirty (5:00 AM) to be to work before 7. We found if we work together in the Pro Shop/RV Office that we can spell each other off and take breaks back at the motor home. We really love our jobs, and enjoy all the people we work with. There are five Workamping couples who do everything from mowing, maintaining the pool, coordinating tournaments, restroom cleaning, electrical work, washing and servicing golf carts, working in the restaurant, to working in the Pro Shop/RV Office.

One of the things we like about this place is the birds. There are all kinds of them . A robin built a nest on top of our engine battery and laid 4 beautiful eggs and they hatched.

We also have been following the progress of a killdeer who laid the eggs on the ground right next to a cart path. Here are pictures and if you look closely you'll see 4 little birds that stayed in the nest for one day and then they were out running. Note the mother trying to lead us away from them.

All the "locals" are welcoming and fun to be with. It's quite a social community -- and it all centers around golf. There are approximately twenty homes along the lower part of the golf course - most all golfers. There is a men's group called the "Gangsome" (the Gang and then some) who play golf every morning at 8:00 AM. The ladie's group is not quite so crazy - they only play on Thursday mornings. There are a number of tournaments here on the weekends - and many folks come in their RV's to "stay and play."

The RV park itself has about 45 spaces - and over 25 of them are filled with people who live here full time and work in the area. There are several large companies that employ them - some seed companies, some food processing, and another company working on solar energy. The "live heres" are like a family, and, once again, have welcomed us Workampers with open arms. There are spur-of-the moment potlucks, Friday night TGIF golf and partying in the restaurant/bar and Sunday afternoon tournaments. We have a very nice site with great views and wonderful sunsets.

Sage Hills is about three miles from the small community of Warden. Warden doesn't have much going for it - so we don't go there unless absolutely necessary. The next nearby town, Othello, is about 8 miles south of us - and we go there to Wal-Mart. Moses Lake (bigger than Othello) is 12 miles north - and it has Safeway, Ace Hardware, car parts stores, another Wal-Mart and Walgreen. If we need anything "major" we have to drive to the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Kennewick & Richland) - it's an hour's drive south.

In May we experienced a major problem with our motor home. The power inverter/converter quit working. This is the fixture that converts power from the power pole outside to our power inside. At first we thought we needed to replace our house batteries, as they kept getting low and not recharging -- so we spent $300 on new batteries. But, alas, it was the inverter/converter. Fortunately, there's an RV repair facility nearby and they quickly diagnosed that we needed to replace the "fried" part - but it had to be ordered in -- and it took over two weeks! EEEK!! So we kept power coming into the motor home by borrowing a big battery charger - and lived off our house batteries. $1,000 later (most of it covered by our extended warranty) we had a new inverter/converter installed and all is working perfectly.

Then, as if we were headed down that "three strikes" road, the mother board died on our computer. We found we had to have all the data taken off the hard drive in order to send it to HP for the new board. So we got to drive to Kennewick, get the data transferred to another external hard drive, ship the laptop off to HP by Fed Ex and wait for it to be returned. Fortunately they got it back to us in just a few days (and $400 for the repair) and the data was saved on our hard drive. Big relief! One of the reasons we decided to Workamp for six months was to save some money. HA! Next joke!!

David's brother-in-law, Al Isaac, came over to see us and have dinner one evening. We think he just wanted to see if we were behaving! Thanks for make the trip, Al!

On June 13th, we attended the Annual Combine Demolition Derby in the small farming community of Lind. What a hoot! The combines had to be at least 25 years old in order to participate. Attached are some pictures of the rigs. It got pretty loud and funny to watch those huge machines crash and bang into each other. There were about 17 combines that participated and the winner, of course, was the "last one still able to move around the ring." During half-time, there were wheat truck races and pick-up races! Talk about another great experience of "Americana" - we loved it! Note our red Saturn - and the dust it incurred in the parking lot!!

Farming is a huge industry here in the Columbia Basin part of Central Washington. Fields of wheat, alfalfa, hay, corn, , asparagus, potatoes, peppermint, and soybeans are everywhere. Unfortunately, there are also a number of cattle feed lots, which adds a not-so-nice odor if the wind sends the smell our way. We have enjoyed fresh asparagus in May/June, and are now feasting on corn from Walla Walla and cherries from the Wenatchee area. We also saw some watermelons being harvested about 30 miles from here. Fishing is also popular - and David is accumulating some gear so he can fish some of the local lakes and streams. He had bought some waders at LL Bean's mother store in Maine, and hasn't had the chance yet to use them. Then a couple of weeks ago he and Al went to Cabela's sporting goods store over west of the mountains and equipped themselves with new fishing line (David's old line was 45 years old!), "Wooley Buggers" and "Poppers." Now they just need a couple of float tubes and they're ready. I'm looking forward to eating some fresh trout or salmon, or Walleyes. David has his fishing license and is ready to go!

On June 20th we took a day trip up to Grand Coulee Dam. There are about 13 dams along the mighty Columbia River, and Grand Coulee is the largest. The terrain, as we drove along, changed from farm land to buttes and sage brush with numerous lakes. It was spectacular. We stopped by Sun Lakes Resort to see their RV facilities and hope to go over there for a stay sometime.

It was a great day and the scenery was well worth the trip.

On June 26th, we decided to pull a surprise on some of our family and drive over to Puyallup. It was the cancer Relay for Life in Puyallup that evening, and we knew Logan (our 7 year old grandson who had cancer) was going to be participating. We showed up at the school yard where it was being held -- a fun surprise! Logan, his cousin Sydney, and Logan's friend Chloe got to lead off the survivors lap - and Logan had a cool green super hero cape to wear. We all were so proud and he was thrilled to be there! Logan is missing a few teeth (as are Sydney and Chloe) so we have attached a couple of cute pictures. We spent the weekend with Jason and family, Pat and family, Kristi and family - and then an overnight at Kathy and Al's lovely condo before heading back here. Thanks, everyone, for spending time with us!!

Logan had his quarterly scans at Children's Hospital July 9th and 10th, and we're thrilled to report the scans are clear and the cancer is still in remission! Thank you, God for this wonderful gift of Logan!

We spent another enjoyable afternoon with Kathy and Al when they met us in Ellensburg for lunch a few days ago. Ellensburg is only about a 70 mile drive for us - and we saw more beautiful farmland and vineyards as well as the Columbia River.

Last weekend we went to the Tri Cities to watch the Hydroplane races on the Columbia River. They were spectacular and we had seats right at the turn and no more than a few hundred yards from the action. They were getting speeds of over 160 mph and we've added a few pictures so you can see the action. Part of the festivities was an air show and a B25 flying over along with an F16 next to a WWII P51.

Well, enough of our rambling for now. We hope to do more day trips this month and next and also have an invitation to a Mariners game in Seattle with friends, Diane and Gary Cooper, at the end of August. Hope this finds all of you enjoying your summer! We'd like to send some sunshine your way ... our temps have been hovering in the 90's lately and are expected to be over 100 next week. Thank heavens for air conditioning and a nice pool nearby!

Borrego Springs - March 2009

This is 2 months of blog!

As I said earlier we arrived in Borrego Springs the 1st of March and we will be here until the 29th. Our RV park is called The Springs at Borrego.

What a great place to be. We have been to a genuine Hawaiian luau, courtesy of the owners and family of the RV park. Their family flew in from Florida and Hawaii and they roasted a pig in the ground. It was very good! There were hula dancers and music and and a happy bunch of RVers.

We went star gazing with Dennis, the local astronomer. They have a large telescope set up about a half mile from the park and we were able to look at Saturn and some of its rings and its moons.

We have played a lot of golf and both of us are starting to enjoy playing again.


Note that I seemed to have missed the ball... nice place to play golf


Kathy about to execute (bad word) a long drive

We played on 3 different courses and all of them are in great shape. One of them is a 9 hole course that is part of our RV park and right next door is the Roadrunner course which is an 18 hole par 3.

On Friday the 13th, (we were a little nervous because of the day), we drove 20 some miles over to the Salton Sea and visited with Denis & Joyce Girouard.


Joyce relaxing while Denis slaves over a hot barbecue

Denis and Joyce are refurbing a mobile home there, and doing a great job. Denis did the barbecueing and he is also a wonderful bartender. On our way over there we passed by a beautiful golf course although it did lack some grass.


Note the beautiful fairways and greens!

We had a fun time with them and hope to do it again.

Jim & Marion Jordan were back from their wonderful trip to Peru and the Upper Amazon so we had a chance to see them at their home in Borrego and have dinner. They have some really interesting stories about what they saw and did. Thanks for the dinner, Jim and Marion!

One evening we attended a presentation at the RV park on Swainson Hawks. They migrate from the Pampas in Argentina and stop in Borrego Springs on their way to North America and Canada. We saw about 100 hawks one evening and as many as 1000 have been seen in one day. They stop to eat large caterpillars and other insects and rest before they continue their journey north. They are beautiful birds and this is a unique stop for them.

We have enjoyed Borrego so much that we have reserved the month of March for 2010. It's a place where we really relax and we have made friends with many of our neighbors who we hope to see again next year. Our cat, Tiger, was allowed to go outside the motor home a couple of times ... although he got into trouble for chasing a rabbit and also for biting the end off a cactus! No harm done in either instance.

Our last week in Borrego we went all out and played 18 holes of golf on Monday, Wednesday & Friday and did 1-1/2 hours of water aerobics on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We are finally getting back in shape even though we still have a lot of weight to lose.

We left Borrego for the San Francisco Bay area on the 29th so we could be at our good friend Dick Moore's retirement party on April 1st and make the trek up the coast visiting our family and friends..

After a gruesome drive from Borrego to Bakersfield due to heavy winds, we stayed over in Bakersfield and then Beta Bel (near San Juan Batista). We arrived in Half Moon Bay on April 30th. We are at one of our favorite RV parks, Pelican Point which over looks the Pacific ocean and the Ritz Carlton golf course.


The 18th tee at the Ritz Carlton

Meilani and her friend from school dropped by for a quick visit and then we headed over the Bay bridge for Dick's party on April 1st. We had forgotten about how bad the traffic is and what lunatics are out on the roads but we made it there on time without incident. Dick's party was fun and we had the chance to meet a number of old friends from the Pacific Bell, SBC and AT&T days.


Dick Moore and Family

We had a taste of what my daughter Julie does with her time every day by doing "Grandparent duty" on Friday. We picked up and dropped off Meilani and India at their various after school activities including karate and Spanish lessons, dance and art classes aand stops for snacks to keep them going.

We met a number of our friends for lunch or dinner or just a visit. Pat & Ira Gold met us for dinner in San Jose at Santana Row, we had two dinners with Frank & Glenna Vaskelis and had the opportunity to see their pictures from the safari they recently took to Africa. We also had a chance to join them for 18 holes at the Half Moon Bay golf club "Old Course." We didn't embarrass ourselves too badly on the golf course, and really enjoyed seeing Frank and Glenna and taking in the gorgeous views of this oceanside special place.


Glenna & Frank

We stopped by and visited with Hal & Geni Sundquist our old, (they are not really that old!) neighbors in Sunnyvale and we had a delicious home-cooked pot roast dinner with Dee & Roger Hartman at their home in Sunnyvale. We also had lunch with Judie Whitman in San Jose and dinner with our real estate agent who had sold our Sunnyvale home for us, Bridgid Van Randall . It had been over a year since we had been in the Bay area and it was really great to visit with everyone again.


Roger & Dee


Hal & Geni


Kathy & Judie

We spent a lot of time with my daughter Julie, her husband Allan and the 2 grand daughters India and Meilani. We had the pleasure of spending Easter with them, starting with church in the morning and the rest of the day with Allan's sisters, their families, and the Easter egg hunts. The night before we even got to color some eggs. Julie and family have two new kittens - one in particular, is quite entertaining. Go, Sasha!


Melani


India


Julie and a proud Father

Kathy and I had our physicals at Palo Alto Medical and passed everything with flying colors and we are good for another year. This took some time as we had to get blood tests and then have appointments with several different doctors.

We left the Bay area on April 11th and headed north to Redding, CA for a night and then on to Ashland, OR for visits with my brother Roy and his wife Mary and also to have dinner with our friends Dick & Fanci. Our 1st day there was like old times: rain & snow. Why are we here?


Brother Roy & Mary


Dave, Fanci & Dick

We had a great time visiting and relaxing and then we headed for Eugene to visit with with my sister Beverly and her grand daughter Natalie. Thanks to all for the great meals!


Natalie & Sister Beverly

The following day we pulled our rig with car in tow into Gary & Diane's front yard in Turner, OR. Diane and Kathy have been best friends since 7th grade. Diane fixed a delicious brunch for us.


Diane & Gary

Then it was on to Portland to see more of David's family: Christopher and his Mom, Ann, son Larry and his wife, Megan and grandson Jackson. Megan cooked us some fantastic dinners and we had a chance to walk along the Willamette River and enjoy the Portland sky line. As we see all of the grand children one is struck with the fact that they grow a lot in a year. While in Portland, Kathy, Chris, Ann & I visited the Williamette National Cemetary where Kathy's Mom, Pat, was laid to rest last year with her husband Frank, who passed away over 30 years ago. It's a beautiful site on top of a hill with a great view of Portland and the surrounding area.



On the 21st we headed for the Puyallup area and our old RV park in Graham. It hasn't changed and is still a pretty spartan park. When Mount Rainier is clear, however, it's pretty spectacular.

Here we spent a lot of time with Jason, Kelly, Logan & Peyton. It is such a pleasure to see Logan looking great. While we were here, Logan went thru his regular tests and came thru with flying colors. One year in full remission!! We are very grateful.

We went to a high school soccer game and Jason is one of the assistant coaches. His team is in 1st place and he is quite proud. Kathy introduced me to an old friend and her husband and when we told them we would be workamping in Warden at the Sage Hills RV & Golf Resort the husband said he knew where it was and he and 7 other guys were coming there the end of May to play golf. What a coincidence! It also helped us think we are not completely crazy.

Pat, Traci, Andrew, Nathan and Sydney are doing great and we had a good visit with them. All 3 of the kids are doing well and we spent an evening at Nathan's baseball game which was fun.


Nathan

Kathy's daughter, Kristi, is also doing well, and has moved into an apartment with a friend. She is holding down two jobs, so is pretty busy.

We had dinner with one of Kathy's best friends, Jacqui. It was nice to see her again. She was one of the people that came down from the Tacoma area to visit us in Sunnyvale. Jacqui and David really enjoy teasing each other. Thanks, Jacqui (XOXOX) for a wonderful evening and dinner at the Keg!


Jacqui, Dave & Kathy
A rose between two thorns?

David's sister, Kathy, and her husband Al invited us for the day to visit them in Des Moines, a suburb of Seattle. We got to see their son David and his wife Suzanne. David is on leave from Iraq. He looked great and will be back for good in a few months. Kathy and Al treated us to a great Mexican dinner...thank you!


Caroline, Nephew David and Sister Kathy


Sister Kathy & Wife Kathy

On April 29th we pulled up stakes and headed for Sage Hills Golf and RV Resort near Warden in Eastern Washington. Warden is located midway between Moses Lake and Othello, and about an hour north of the Tri-Cities of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland. We arrived in Warden and were very pleased with the look of the place. The golf course looks great and we start work on May 1st. It looks like we will be working in the Pro shop which also serves as the RV check-in desk. Each of us has to work 17 hours a week and for that we get a free hook up, free golf cart and all the golf we can play when we are not working. It's going to be very hard getting up and going to work by 8 in the morning.

More to come as we check out eastern Washington and work our fingers to the bone!