Week 656-659 - Got Backup? - 03-31-2019

Got Backup?

We have not written in a month? What's gives? The computer we use for travelogues was performing badly. In 42 years in business we have never quite seen a problem like this. One hour the computer would run normally. The next hour it might take 30 minutes to bring up a selected application. Emails usually came at normal speed, but then the email client would never come up until we rebooted. This erratic behavior continued for three weeks. We supposed it might be a virus or malware but tests showed the system was clean. We finally determined that the hard disk drive was flawed even though there was never a reported error.

We wanted to replace the disk but it is a tiny disk in a tiny desktop computer (8 x 8 x 2 inches!). We ordered a new disk which took another week to arrive. Then it took two days to reload all programs and data. Yes, we have an up-to-date backup. And you should too as your disk will die someday. It is not a question of "if" but "when". Perhaps you buy a new PC every few years; then you might get by without a disk crash. But if you keep your PC for many years as we do, it will crash! We do two separate backups each day. The most we would lose is one day of work. This time we lost nothing as the erratic computer would perform the backup however long it might take.

We wanted to catch you up on our travels since last January. The overview is we left the Palm Springs area, spent two months in Yuma and then back to North Palm Springs. From there we traveled to Palmdale, California for a SOWER's project. More on SOWERs next week.

Here are the details of our travel. 1) Leaving our friends Gordon and Karen at the Indio Elks, we stayed a rainy night at the Spotlight 29 Casino. 2) On the way toward Yuma this Fedex truck did not make its delivery.

A quiet and free night in Quartzsite at BLM property.

Arizona always has great sunsets.

At Yuma's Fortuna de Oro RV resort we found eight of our pickleball friends that we first met at Golden Village Palms in Hemet, California.

We enjoyed our "first timers special" at Rancho Rialto RV Resort in Yuma for only $440 for a month plus electricity. Most parks this nice cost $600 to $700 plus power.

Ellen and Mandy found great joy at Rancho Rialto.

At Westwind RV in Yuma, we dined with Tim, Vikki and Elaine. We met Elaine at Westwind last year. She is from Delaware, travels alone in her 15 foot trailer and is a fabulous singer.

Yuma is home to lots of military and has a beautiful memorial honoring servicemen from all branches.

This sunrise from one our favorite parking spots in Yuma; Walmart!

The MotherShip main living room floor was converted to laminate flooring five years ago. 13 years of wear and tear has taken its toll on the slide carpet. We have priced new carpet for years. The carpet was never too much but the finished edge from most vendors was more than the carpet. We got wind of Big Bobs Flooring in Yuma. "Big Bob" sold us a remnant and edged it for free; whee! So out went the old carpet. It took a few hours to remove.

1 & 2) The new carpet went in quickly and its nice to have a clean floor. 3) Mandy thought the new floor was her personal playground and back scratcher. Sorry girl!

While in Yuma, Steve and Susan came for visit from Paso Robles. We spent a wonderful week of fellowship, meals and pickleball. Fortuna de Oro has the best pickleball in Yuma.

Another beautiful Yuma, Arizona sunset.

Between Yuma and Hemet, California, on the back roads, is Borrego Springs. We have heard that The Springs Borrego RV Resort is top notch. We decided to stay one night to find out. It is very nice; not the best we have visited but the most expensive at $93 per night! We did enjoy the morning pickleball.

1) Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is known for its "Borrego Blooms", the beautiful and huge areas of wildflowers. On our trip out we saw hundreds of people out hiking to see the blooms and dozens of cars coming into the area. We are guessing that we were a little to early to see the best. As you can see or not see, there were not many flowers. 2) This ranch on Hwy 79 is full of rusty horses.

On the back road R3 trip to Hemet we saw lots of flowers.

We spent a week in Hemet with Joe, Steve & Susan, Tim & Vikki and dozens of other friends. Then we settled into Catalina Spa in Desert Hot Springs for 10 days. Their dog park is pretty cool.

The entire Desert Hot Springs area was covered with flowers, these right on the RV park property. While we missed the "flowers by God" in Borrego; God brought us to the flowers in DHS.

Okay, that catches you up. God willing, the computer will be fine and we'll keep more current. Be blessed and have a great week.

With love, Pete, Ellen and Mandy

Photos from January to March 2019