Thursday March 5
A beautiful morning…sun at last! The wind, however, keeps the temperature down. We did put on our shorts for the first time, just to say we did it. We took a morning walk, came back and soaked in the hot tubs, then did some geocaching around the area. We ran into a couple from BC who had only done 5 geocaches, so we hung around the one we just found to help them out a bit.
We went into Palm Springs for the first time this evening to view the ‘street fair’. Several downtown blocks were closed down and people had booths full of food and wares. We weren’t impressed enough to buy anything but a delicious pastry. We ran into Marilyn and Gene wandering the streets, and wandered with them for about an hour. We tried out a small Chinese restaurant on our way back to the rig, came back to the park, and vegged out. The wind rocked us to sleep again.
Harris amidst the 1000 palms oasis
Friday, March 06, 2009
Up and out this morning. We decided to do a few geocaches close by, and one took us about a mile into the desert up a small hill. It was a good walk and the view of the valley with the wind-turbines to the right and the jagged snow-topped mountains pressing against Palm Springs from behind made a beautiful reward for our walk. We were disappointed to find a hill of rocks at the top, and no geocache; either it was moved, or we were unlucky. Then we moved our rig about a mile down the road to a new park, called Catalina Spa. Desert Hot Springs itself has a town with a few stores, some houses, and miles of RV and trailer parks. A lot of the parks, including this one, have their own hot springs. They’ve found over 40 scattered around the valley-- lovely…hot, smooth, and no sulfur smell. We headed into Palm Springs this afternoon via the Dillon Scenic route to meet Marilyn and Gene for dinner. We stopped at the 1000 Palms Oasis Preserve. This preserve was formed because two earth plates with a water layer sandwiched between 2 rock layers collided and created an escape path for the water to the surface. And as it’s said where there’s water there is plant life, in this case the only native California palm tree called (are you ready for this) Washingtonia Filifera. We could understand how this could truly be an oasis in the desert summer heat. The shade would be priceless!
Afterwards, we stopped at Target to buy a clock to tell us what time it is in the van and a few other necessities. We then met Marilyn and Gene for an Italian dinner in downtown Palm Springs. They bought and it was great! The wind is still howling as we write this up snuggled up in the van. Tomorrow we escape the wind by going East!
The mountains behind Palm Springs
Saturday March 7, 2009
An easy short day today. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as we decided to leave Palm Springs, the wind died down! We even did our morning walk in t shirts and shorts. Halfway through the walk, we stopped to play miniature golf. Judy won the game last night, Harris won the game this morning. One to one tie….stay tuned for further developments.
We took off around 10 and meandered out of town via La Quinta. We saw a notation on the map called “Old Town” and decided to check it out. Well, instead of seeing old historical buildings or ruins, we drove up to a brand new upscale (very upscale) shopping center. Ten minutes later we were on the road again. We stopped at the border town of Ehrenberg and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Notice the chairs out for the first time this trip and our new table! In the background of one of the pics you’ll see the water heater cover screen that the wind blew away and we plan on replacing soon. Tomorrow should find us at our first Mariner game this season and waiting for our friends Candy and Rick from Montana.
Looking back toward California from Colorado River RV park
Judy enjoying our first non-windy day of the trip
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