Communication Breakdown

Here we are at our first SOWER (Servants on Wheels Ever Ready) project of 2013! We're working at the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission in the Coachella Valley of California, south of Palm Springs.  This is a beautiful new facility, finished just last year with a capacity of 150 clients resident in programs, and about 60 people every night in their emergency shelter.

We thought we were going to be able to park our little trailer next to the facility, as our friends did last year, but the city has outlawed that idea.  Now we, along with the friends who introduced us to SOWERs, Cam and Betty Clarkson, are parked about 12 miles away near the San Bernadino Mountains, in someone's "backyard."  The view towards the cities of the Coachella Valley is great, and it's very quiet at night.  One night Cam saw a javelina outside around 3:00 am.  A javelina looks like a pig, or more accurately , a boar. All Terry and I have seen is a dead one as we walk around the desert.

Betty pauses in the middle of a bite.

However, we don't have WiFi!  Neither does my phone work there in the hills.  We even replaced the battery. All of a sudden I felt cut off from the world.  Terry is still able to check our emails on his phone when we came into the Mission every day, but it isn't the same as having the freedom to reply right away. I couldn't use the computer in the evenings, either.  Nor could I find another e-book to read, since I didn't pack any "paper" books to read.
Frustration!
I finally solved the problem by staying at the Mission after lunch instead of riding home with Betty at noon.  My phone still does not work, but I can call using Google on the computer.