Gracie is walking!

When the kids were with us in Julian, Gracie was trying to walk. She would stand by herself and try to take a step but would fall down. Here she is standing up without holding on.

Gracie standing

She was walking but would brush up against the cabinets, not really holding on, just balancing.

Walking

A week after they got home, she did start walking without help from the walls. There's no stopping her now!

Gracie in her car seat

I told you in the last blog I would insert some shots of our granddaughter. As cute as she is, how could I not do it?

You can see she looks like her mama! :)

Crystal and Gracie

I wanted to show you our campsite in Palm Desert. The campground is a Thousand Trails and although it is in Palm Desert is called Thousand Trails Palm Springs.

Thousand Trails Palm Springs

It is closed during the summer and opens the middle of September. We got here last Tuesday. It opened just days earlier. With our TT membership we can stay for free for three weeks. Other campgrounds in the area are between $35- $60 per night. Because of the membership we have, twice a year we can pay $29.00 and stay an extra week. Because we want to say 4 weeks in the area we chose to do that. $29.00 for 4 weeks is not so bad!

Site 278

If you notice there are a lot of Date Palm trees. This is an active Date Palm ranch. They harvest Medjool Dates from these trees. I have heard by doing this it keeps the water and electric rates cheep. Half the park is 30 amp and half is 50 amp. Unfortunately the 50 amp side is very tight because of the trees. Because of the heat we chose the 50 amp side. We are getting pretty good at backing in though so no problem.

The pool area is nice here. temps are nice, pool is clean, and they use a salt water chlorination system. It still chlorinates but doesn't feel as strong. We really like it for swimming laps.

Pool

The park is still pretty empty right now, but it will start filling up during the next month. I just took this picture this morning. There is nobody on our row! In a couple weeks the Blankenbillers are coming for a weeks vacation and we are looking forward to that!

Empty Park

One of the concerns we have on the road is low power. It can cause long term damage to air conditioner compressors, refrigerators and microwaves. Many people purchase a product called an Autoformer. To the best of my understanding it converts amperage to volts and will boost volts by 10% of they read under a certain number. Hughes is considered the best. The 50 amp Autoformer cost about $600.00. I have been looking for a good condition used one.

Hughes RV220-50 Autoformer

I found this one online on Craigslist Phoenix for $200.00. A retired guy who was a fulltimer and now has settled in Mesa, Az is selling it. He and his wife have a small business now. Cost of freight is $40.00. (It weighs 45 lbs) So for $240.00 It is a very good value. If they go bad Hughes will fix them for a whole lot less then a new one, so getting a cheap used one is a good idea. It is good cheap insurance for the expensive appliances.

Well that's it for today.

Love you all!

Brian and Patty