Time Compression

Just two weeks ago we celebrated our anniversary, in San Diego. After a week back in Jojoba Hills we headed into Los Angeles in the Jeep for grandson Avi’s Bar Mitzvah. A Bar Mitzvah (becoming an adult in the eyes of the community) is always a special occasion. This one was particularly special since Avi is our youngest grandson. At dinner I mentioned that the next “simcha”, joyous occasion, was likely to be a wedding. I didn’t even look at the eldest, now 24 🙂 I swear that wasn’t what I was thinking.

When the Torah was brought out of the ark it was handed to my sister to carry through the woman’s side of this orthodox synagogue. After I was called for my turn to honor the Torah our grandson Azriel was called. We had never seen him called up so this was very special for us, and I got to stand with him. Finally Avi got to do his thing. Later, after the Sabbath had ended Avi got out his Sax and played several numbers for the family and friends. He has talent coming from our musical family and it showed.

Our boys in the middle
Sandy’s children to either side
and her youngest grandson

We returned to Jojoba via Astro Camp in Idyllwild where we and Dan, Malena and his clan dropped off Avi for two weeks of camp. Dan followed us back to Jojoba Hills where they saw why we are so very happy there. We toured a bit and then had a delightful dinner at our wonderful patio set under the glorious cantlever umbrella before they started driving toward LAX (stopping near Temecula for the night) for flights east.

We used Monday the 4th to prepare the site for our absence and the coach for the road. This morning we rolled out at 9:30 with a stop at Parkhouse Tires in Thousand Palms to torque the studs holding the tires on and to pick up the hub cap replacement that had been ordered for us. In and out in 15 minutes. Next stop was a lunch break at Chiriaco Summit along I 10 where there is a museum and memorial to George Patton!

This is where he developed a training camp for preparation for the Africa Campaign. 
We moved on down the road to fuel over the border in Arizona and then stop for the night in Quartzite. Ordinarily we would drive off into the desert and dry camp, but given the 100 plus temperatures I figured to burn $20 worth of diesel keeping the generator running through the night to keep the air conditioners going (gallon an hour for 8 to 10 hours). So here we are in an almost empty campground with the air conditioners struggling to keep it near 80 in the coach.
Tomorrow? Grand Canyon or some intermediate stop along the way.