The time is flying by. A few days got by me without a post to the blog. We passed on the pickleball games on Sunday and rode the scooter to visit my step-dad Ken in Sun City. The traffic was light on the route I’d mapped out to avoid I-215. We sat on Ken’s front patio, which faces north and is shady, enjoying conversation. We had a good visit and amused ourselves by watching the antics of a couple of lizards. They appeared to be fence lizards chasing each other around the patio.
Western fence lizard
These two provided entertainment
On our way back, I took a different route so Donna could buy groceries at Walmart. It was warm but pleasant on the scooter. We had a late lunch at a Chinese diner and stuffed ourselves with the house noodle specialty plate. It had a pile of rice noodles with shrimp, chicken, pork and beef. It was good but very filling – so filling that we skipped dinner!
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Formula One race on TV and downloading the European coverage of the Moto GP season opener while Donna went to the pool to read. Spoiler alert – both races were very entertaining. Sebastian Vettel drove an excellent race with perfect strategy to put his Ferrari on top of the podium. Vettel is a four-time World Champion, but didn’t win a race last year. Neither did Ferrari. In his second race as a Ferrari driver, he broke that drought. In the Moto GP race, everyone figured the Repsol Honda team would run away like they did last year. It was not to be. The race turned into an epic battle between nine-time champion Valentino Rossi on the Yamaha M1 against Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati. In the end, Rossi prevailed over Dovi by a tenth of a second.
A cottontail rabbit came into our site late Sunday afternoon. We put out a few carrot sticks which he munched on before hopping away. There are a lot of rabbits in the park.
While Donna and I were at the pickleball courts on Monday morning, our friend and fellow Alpine Coach owner, Dave Hobden, phoned me. He and his wife Stilla were leaving the FMCA rally in Pomona and were thinking about heading our way. Later, while I was at Sprouts picking up a few more groceries, he texted me saying they would join us at Golden Village Palms RV Resort. They got a good rate on two nights with their Passport America membership.
They pulled in around 2:30pm and set up in the site next to ours. I mentioned before how tight the sites are here. The shrubs in their site were so overgrown, Dave couldn’t get his living room slide out without smashing it into the shrubs. A maintenance guy came by to trim the bushes, but it wasn’t enough – he came back this morning with a power trimmer and cut the bushes back.
Dave Hobden’s Alpine Coach in the site next to us
We sat outside sipping cold beer and talking until about 6:00pm. Stilla had their dinner in the oven so they went home to eat. I grilled a pork tenderloin with a spicy dry rub – a new recipe Donna wanted to try. She served it with roasted, spicy red potatoes and green beans. It was very tasty – the dry rub was really spicy but dipping the pork in a minted cucumber yogurt sauce countered the spices nicely.
Spicy grilled pork loin with minted cucumber yogurt sauce
After dinner, Dave and Stilla joined us for dessert. Donna made carmelized banana pecan ice cream in her Vitamix. It was good, but I prefer the mango ice cream she made before.
Carmelized banana pecan ice cream
Donna said her Vitamix seemed to run slowly and had an electrical odor. This morning it doesn’t run at all. I’ll take it apart and have a look, I hope I don’t have to replace it.