And We Are Off To Menifee - Thousand Trials Wilderness Lakes

Yesterday was our last full day here at Champagne Lakes RV Park in Escondido, CA.  It's been a nice park and we've had a good stay.   There are so many good things to say about this park - it's easy on and off I-15, but the noise from the freeway is not bad.  You are only 20-30 minutes away from services, Walmart, Costco, restaurants, and casinos.  The park is immaculate.  I've enjoyed the trees and watching the birds around our site and around the fishing ponds (catch and release only).  The bathrooms and laundries are kept very clean.  There are a number of full time residents, but the owner makes sure everyone keeps their sites clean and maintained.  My only complaint is that we are down in a dip and the cellphone service can be spotty.  If you stay long enough, you find your "sweet spots" and head there to use the phones.  Our Millenicom Mi-Fi would drop us or be very slow to load throughout the day.  It's not the park's fault (they do offer Tengonet for a fee but I'm not sure it would be any better); I'm sure it has to do with cell tower placement.  We had a challenge getting our DirecTV satellite to fix on a signal, but eventually we got it running with no problem.  If you are not a "working from the rig full timer" and you can put up with the dropped signals, I think this is a great park.

Today we head up to Menifee, just east of Lake Elsinore.  We are relatively new Thousand Trail members, so we will go check out this park for a few days.  Not sure what we will find to do there, but since it is only about 45 miles from where we are, I'm thinking if nothing else, I may talk Kim into going back to the Pechanga Casino.  My plans initially were to spend some time lounging by the pool, but it looks like Southern California will be getting some welcomed rain showers.  It may be time to catch up on some Netflix House of Cards episodes or a movie or two.  Ain't retirement grand!

A Quiet Weekend And A Trip To The Pala Casino

When it comes to weekends, whether we are at home or on the road, we tend not to plan anything.  After many years of working where I was in the midst of big crowds or just big city life, I've found I have little desire to go any place where there may be big crowds.  Of course, there is an exception to every rule.....I love the Disney Parks (which are always crowded), I want to experience New Orleans during Mardis Gras (just once), and a casino will beckon me most any time.  But I'll come back to that......

Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly just doing stuff in and around the rig.  Kim did some "guy" stuff outside.  I didn't ask too much because of course he would feel compelled to explain to me in great detail what it was.  I often borrow Denzel Washington's line from the movie Philadelphia - "Explain it to me like I'm a 4 year old. "  That rarely happens; I guess I look old enough to understand the fine art of mechanics.  I caught up on blogs.  We did laundry.  Video chatted with our two sets of grandsons.  Pardon the Grandma Brag here, but I will share a few more pictures of the darlings now.

Starting with our son's boys.

This is Alex.  He is almost 4.

This is the best 1st birthday invitation ever!  This is Zachary who turned 1 recently.

And these are our daughter's boys.

 This is our honorary (step) grandson, Trystan.  He is 13.

And this is Odin, age 4.

And Torren, age 1.  I swear he will not smile if there is a camera pointed at him.  I was thrilled when his dad captured this shot!

Sunday afternoon, we decided to check out the Pala Casino in Pala, CA.  I had so enjoyed Pechanga (okay, mostly because I won $400 there on a keno machine of all things), I wanted to see if my luck had held.

First of all the road out to Pala from I-15 is pretty winding.  It's hard to believe that at almost 60, I still get car sick, but I do.  It's only about 6 miles off the freeway, but it was uncomfortable for me.  I'm happy to say I held it together.  There were a number of avocado stands along the way.  A bag of 25 avocados for $5!  That seems like a great deal to me, but what in the world would I do with 25 avocados!

We drove up to take advantage of valet parking.  The first thing I noticed was that I could smell cigarette smoke even before we entered the casino.  Not a good thing in my book.  Signage was good, and we were able to find restaurants fairly easily.  We just ate in the cafe.  Kim had his usual second breakfast (eggs, hash browns, toast and a pancake).  I had a BLT with avocado and onion rings.

I've been in my fair share of casinos over the years.  The smoke was bothersome, but I've been in worse and I've been in better.  I would put this casino as middle of the road.  I contributed my $20 to the tribe - no winners for me.  Kim played a nickel machine and was up 5 cents when he cashed out.  I'm not sure how it happened but I ended up tipping the valet, even though Kim was clearly the winner here.  If he thinks I'm not keeping track, he's sadly mistaken (insert diabolical laughter here).  One thing that did impress me was that the valets were very friendly and very funny.  I probably won't go back to Pala, but I would to Pechanga.

We left there, and headed for Ralph's and Lowe's in Oceanside.  Ralph's is a Kroger affiliate just as Fred Meyer's in Washington. We have our rewards card for Fred Meyer's that work at Ralph's and will work at Fry's in Arizona, which score us up to $1 off per gallon of fuel.....when we can find one of their stores with gas pumps.  The last one we saw was in Oregon, but the points don't expire so we will use them eventually.  I really have no reason for even mentioning this in the blog other than to say that Ralph's had good produce.  I wasn't enamored with their meat counter, but the vegetables, both organic and regular, were nice, fresh and well displayed.  And because I did not win at the casino, I felt I needed some lottery scratch tickets.  Spent $20, won $10 and a free ticket.  Time to quit.  Kim ran over to Lowe's to pick up some Allen wrenches, whatever for I have no idea - see paragraph #2.

Monday, we are off to Julian, CA, for pie!

A Stroll Around The Park And A Score At The Casino

With nothing on the schedule for the day, we decided to take a stroll around the park, and snap a few pictures.

We're from Seattle.  We don't go anywhere without our coffee.

This is the park owner's site.  Pick of the park, no doubt!

Some more sites

Our rig from across the creek

More park scenery

And our site, #42

The sites really are good sized.  Here is a photo of an empty site, and then one with a back hoe so you can get an idea by comparison.

I decided to check out the "older" laundry and bathrooms.  Not bad.

Oh, and they have a nice place to wash your truck or car.  No RVs, boats or ATVs though.

Back to the rig for some breakfast, and then Kim announces he needs some anti-freeze for the truck.  He plans to go up to Temecula to get it, along with some paper for the printer.  Temecula?  How about lunch at the Pechenga Casino?  Well, as long as we are going we might as well stop at Best Buy and Walmart.

So with errands out of the way, off to Pechenga we went.  I was very impressed.  Nice casino.  Not at all smokey inside.  We headed off to the Kelsey's Bar and Grill.

Kim ordered the Club Sandwich with stead fries.

I had the Rueben with sweet potato fries.

Both were yum, yum, yummy!

With lunch out of the way, it was time for a little fun.  We thought about a little 3 card poker, but we used most of our "fun" money getting a new awning and fixing the coolant system of the truck.  It was agreed that $20 each seemed reasonable.  I sat down at a keno machine.  Kim wandered off.  Kim wandered back.  He had made his contribution.  "How are you doing," he asked.  Drum roll please!...........Up $400.  All six of my keno numbers hit on a quarter machine!  I played my winnings down to $400 even, cashed out and walked away.  Kim instituted a new rule....Who ever wins, pays the valet.  I can live with that!

BTW, although we didn't actually see it, it appears that this casino has a beautiful RV Park as well.

Pechanga Resort and Casino RV Park