Palm Springs Area

(Also known as Two Months Weeks with My Sister-In-Law)

After we returned from Quartzsite, we spent some time with our Wisconsin friends Cheryl and Coop before they left for Casa Grande.  On a Sunday we went to - wait for it - a POLO match.  Yes, you read that correctly.  There are two polo clubs in the Palm Springs area, Empire and Eldorado.  Who knew??

We went to the Empire Club for a lovely brunch and then proceed to watch some polo.

It is a very civilized way to spend an afternoon, with ladies elegantly dressed in wide brimmed hats - all very British and somewhat unexpected in California.  However, we were on the tailgate party side, with plenty of barbies and liquid refreshments set up for the afternoon.

It takes a lot of hand eye coordination to strike that little ball with a mallet that is about 4 1/2 feet long, while riding a horse going anywhere from 5 to 25 miles an hour!  A tad more challenging than golf!  While I am sure that I will not sign up to go watch on a regular basis, it was fascinating to watch one time.

Shortly thereafter, we were graced (Sonya's words) with my sister-in-law's presence for two weeks.

We started out by visiting Joshua Tree National Park.  It is 1,234 square miles and straddles the cactus-dotted Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert, which is higher and cooler.

Here, Diane and I are standing in an area called Hidden Valley.  It is a natural encasement, a unique microhabitat that brings together a wide range of plants and animals not typically found together in other sections of the Park. Healthy populations of Joshua Tree, pinyon, juniper and oak share space with mesquite, yucca, nolina, various cacti and other species.

The valley was found by a local cattle rustler, who dynamited out the entry so that he and his partner could run the horses  they stole in Arizona into the valley so that they could rebrand them for later sale to ranchers on the California coast.

Here is an entry into the valley.

My step tracker says that we made more than 15,000 steps that day, but I wouldn't have known without looking, because you get lost in the moment and wander around in awe of your surroundings. The desert here is very different from other areas, mainly because it is dotted with the Joshua Tree.

Sonya shot one of the trees in monochrome in error, and the effect is so cool that I want to share both the monochrome and colour version of the same shot.

And here is the colour version.

Part of the Yucca family, the book Joshua Tree: Desolation Tango says, "It appears to be stranded in a tortured frenzy."  A pretty apt description.

It grows only two places in the world - here in the Joshua Tree National Park and near Jerusalem.  The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer.

Perhaps this one Sonya shot is similar to one they saw.

We then walked over a mile to an abandoned mine.  It was over two miles round trip, so Diane was grousing a bit about the distance, saying that we misled her as to how far it was.  It was time to stop for lunch!  (Notice who is sitting!)  Sonya even thought to bring a tablecloth to the tailgate lunch - another pound added to the weight of the trailer!

After lunch, we went to Barker Dam.  It was built in the late 1800s by ranchers who found a small pool where water collected.  By damming the end of the pool, they were able to create a pond for thirsty cattle.

The pond creates a beautiful serene scene as you can see here.  But, we were burning daylight and there was still much to see, so back in the truck and on to Arch Rock.

We stopped at the parking area for arch rock and headed out into the desert.  Now, the trail isn't all that well marked, so we had some challenges trying to find it.  We forged on but never found it.

Now, you should know that this is not the arch that is in the book, but hey, at least I found a hole between a few rocks!!  Sonya and Diane weren't that amused and started back to the truck.  When I finally got down, I caught up with them and back in the truck and off to the Cholla Cactus Garden and the Ocotillo Patch.

The Cholla is also known as Teddy Bear Cactus or  Jumping Cholla because its spines are so prickly that they seem to jump out at you.  The tiny barbed hooks on the spine can easily penetrate flesh and when you pull away, the flesh of the plant often comes with it!  Needless to say, we stopped on the side of the road and did NOT wander into the field!

Sonya then asked Diane what she wanted to see next.  Her answer was, "The bottom of my wine glass!"

It took another 45 minutes to get home and accomplish that, but in the end she was happy!

Our next adventure was a Red Jeep Tour of the San Andreas Fault Line that runs just north of the Coachella Valley - the greater Palm Springs area.

You will note from above that there are a lot of minor fault lines in this area that are part of the San Andreas fault.  It makes you think twice about buying property here!

The fault lines have already caused the Los Angeles City Hall to shift 9 feet to the north since it was built in 1924.  Hopefully, President Trump knows he will have to build the wall on rollers, as the "big one" as they call it down here is expected to cause the California area to move 28 feet.

Anyway, if you are going to take a Red Jeep Tour, you ride in a Red Jeep! This is an original  Jeep CJ, short for Civilian Jeep.  They were built until the mid 80s, after which they were replaced by the Wrangler.  These guys keep their Jeeps in excellent shape!

Anyway, in the picture, we are at a natural oasis that is created by the fault lines grinding together and creating an underground dam where the water collects which allows these fan palms to flourish, as you can see here.

 The fan palms are a native plant to the area.  They do have fruit, but unlike date palms, they are too small to harvest. Date palms, those famous Medjool and Deglet Noor we all buy at Costco,  were imported from the middle east.  They also flourish here because the Coachella Valley is at  the same latitude.

As you would expect, when you have a fault line, you are going to have slot canyons.  We visited one of these as well.

While walking the slot canyon, Diane worried about what would happen if the "big one" happened while we were walking. I was too busy exploring the slots to worry about it.

As sunset neared, we headed to the top of a hill so that we could get good view of the Coachella Valley.  Sonya captured the moment very well!

And our guide was kind enough to catch a sunset shot for us.

After that it was back home - for another glass of wine of course.

It looks like Diane could use one!

Diane did not get enough shopping in at VillageFest, which is a street market that happens every Thursday evening in old Palm Springs, so on Saturday we had to go to the College of the Desert market - with 340 stalls.  While the ladies shopped, I was entertained for a few minutes with a virtual reality (VR) game.

Now I am not much of a gamer, but I have to admit, that doing this in 3D VR, I was completely taken in to the action as you can see above.  There were 5 games in all,  and I think that I was shooting at something at this point.  No big surprise I suppose since guns are tops in the USA!

Diane found a turtle that she just HAD to have.

The darn thing is made of concrete and weighs about 30 lbs, so guess who had to haul it!  Fortunately, the shuttle service took pity on us and drove us back to the truck that was parked about 1/4 mile away!

After we finished shopping we went for lunch at Las Casuelas in downtown Palm Springs.

This is a traditional Mexican restaurant with great food and great margaritas (so I am told by these two)!

That evening we went to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at the Fantasy Springs Casino.

The old boy (82 yrs old) can still hit the notes, particularly towards the end of the evening when his voice really loosened up!

If you look more closely, you can probably figure out that the Four Seasons fellas have been renewed, probably a couple of times!  Frankie Valli is definitely still the original!

Next day - more shopping. This is Diane visiting us after all!  Sonya figured out why she shops so much!

This was in Old Town La Quinta,  a very quaint shopping and dining area.  We then went to the La Quinta Resort, where many stars hung out, including the Rat Pack - Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, and old blue eyes, Frank Sinatra.

Oh, if those walls could talk.

After that we went to Desert Hot Springs and a museum created by Cabot Yerxa - Cabot's Pueblo Museum.  He was an eccentric descendant of a Dutch immigrant who had wanderlust.  His mother was a descendant of Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), the explorer, from where he inherited his name.

Cabot built this place out of recycled materials in the area.  It spreads an impressive 5,000 square feet, divided into 35 rooms and adorned with 150 windows and 65 doors. What a sight it is to see!

As you can see, the doors are sized to whatever he found in the area, including rusty nails.  Hey John, is he a distant relative?

Our next outing was out to the Anza Borrego State Park, the largest state park in California. Five hundred miles of dirt roads, 12 wilderness areas and many miles of hiking trails.  Oh yes, a couple of good highways running through it as well, as seen here. However, on one dip Sonya was actually airborne.

This highway runs into Borrego Springs, close to the mountains, seen in the far background.  Near Borrego Springs are the Galetta Meadows, where 130 full size metal statues adorn the countryside.  Here are a few of the sculptures.

Check out what full size means below, where I photo-bombed Sonya's picture.

After that we went to Julian, a mining town at the top of a mountain that has reinvented itself into a shopping and dining destination.  Julian was settled by ex-confederates after the civil war and was a short-lived mining town.  Gold was discovered in 1870, but was mined out in a decade.  Families stayed and turned to farming.  As a result, today apple orchards fill the surrounding countryside and the town has become known for the best apple pie around.

The most famous of these is the  Julian Pie Company. So, of course, we had to stop for some of their pie.  Slice of San Diego rates it among the top 10 best pie spots.

OK, who has their big mouth open on this one??

We all suffered from a sugar overdose after we left, so Diane suggested that we shop some more to wear off the sugar.  Really Diane, do you need an excuse to shop??

In between all of this, Diane had only 3 short breaks to get her pool time at our RV park.  All in all, her visit went very quickly and did not seem like the two months weeks that it actually was.  It must have been a successful trip for her, as she went home with a new carry on bag full of stuff,  and was over her customs limit!  The customs guy took pity on her and waived her through without having to pay GST or duty - her lucky day!  She probably had to go home and rest for a bit.  We needed to!

We will take a break for awhile now in the Palm Springs area before we head off to Lake Havasu City, Needles and Death Valley.  We will catch up with you from the high desert area.

Until then, be well!

Paul & Sonya

Palm Springs Area and Quartzsite

Hello from Palm Springs!

We are staying in Indio, just east of Palm Springs proper.

Our Edmonton friends Rose and Ken were in Palm Springs, as were our new friends from San Diego Cheryl and Coop.  (We met Cheryl and Coop in San Diego, but they hail from Wisconsin and are ardent Packer fans!)  

After some back and forth emails, we all thought that it would be a great idea to do a Guided Desert Tour  of the Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  

 As it turned out, only Sunday was available to do the Guided Desert Tour, so we left for Palm Springs at what we thought would be a leisurely pace on a Saturday morning.  Originally planning to travel on the weekend to avoid the commuter rush on Monday morning, we were astounded to see so much traffic on the road.  A moment later, we both realized that we were traveling on the Saturday of a 3-day weekend (Martin Luther King Jr.  Day for those not in the know!).  Note to self, next time check the holiday days before planning a travel day!

Anyway, we got to Palm Springs (Indio, actually) safely without incident but the truck and trailer brakes got quite the workout!   Next morning we are off bright and early to Borrego Springs to meet our tour guide and his trusty steed, or rather truck!

After a fast group snapshot by our trusty guide, we were on our way.

 Anza Borrego Desert State Park, has many interesting vistas and we caught a number of them.  Chief among them is the slot canyon that is located in the south east corner of the park.   It is a not long but does prove to be an interesting hike.

As you can see in this picture with our friends Rose and Ken, the slot starts to narrow pretty quickly and can provide some interesting contortion opportunities to get through.

Here, Sonya is chuckling at the fact that I got through, and she now has to take up the dare from me to keep on steppin'!

A little further down the canyon, there are a few spots that require some ability to climb a bit.

Cheryl was a real sport - with a little help from Coop.  As you can see, there is quite a step up here, particularly for someone who had hip replacement just last August!  Afterwards, she wasn't quite sure why she used her surgery leg first, but she made it through like a real trouper!

Our last stop was to a mesa called Vista de Malpais.  It means view of the badlands.  I picked up some rocks to throw just to get a sense of distance, because as you look down you have no sense of how far things are.  Sonya accuses me of not growing up.  I said growing old is not optional, growing up is ...

After a little more than 5 hours of driving and tromping about, we all headed back to Palm Springs.  Coop had to put the pedal to the metal to catch the last of the Packers game!

On Monday, Rose, Ken, Sonya and I went to visit Hemet via Highway 74 over the mountain.  On the way up we stopped at the look out near the top of the mountain.

Here you can get some sense of the height (we peaked at 6,200 ft., coming from near sea level).  A few interesting perspectives....

First and foremost, you see the desolate areas where not much grows, except where there is adequate water.  As you can see from the picture below, there is quite a bit of water in the Coachella valley, predominantly from aquifers beneath the surface.

Second, in the foreground you can see the snaking road that we took to get up the mountain, and the other side (descending from Idyllwild) which winds even more than the Palm Springs side.  It was a hoot to drive this road, but I am sure glad that we were not pulling the trailer!!

Scrub brush is a plenty in the desert, but larger trees are fewer and farther between. This gives you some idea of the scarcity of trees!

While we were driving back down the windy road from Idyllwild, when Sonya and Rose weren't rocking from side to side (due to the curves, not my driving!), they were trying to get a shot of the sunset.  Here is one of their more successful attempts!

I mentioned earlier we were at 6,200 feet of elevation.  In Edmonton, we expect to see graders and loaders at this time of the year.  In California, you don't really expect to see them, except at 6,200 feet!

We got back to Rose & Ken's condo after dark,  with time to share a lovely evening meal, wine, conversation and companionship.  We left for Edmonton the next day to catch up on paper work and renew our travel insurance.  

We returned from Edmonton on Sunday evening and were off to Quartzsite on Monday morning.

Now for a short history of Quartzsite.  In 1856, settler Charles Tyson built a fort at the present site of Quartzsite to protect his water supply from attacks by Native Americans.  Fort Tyson soon became a stopover on the Ehrenburg - to - Prescott stagecoach route, eventually becoming known as Tyson's Wells. After the stage stopped running, it became a ghost town.  A small mining boom revitalized the town and it became known as Quartzsite in 1897. It remained a mining town until 1965, when the Pow Wow Rock, Gem and Mineral Show initiated the rockhound winter migration to Quartzsite each year.

You may be wondering why camels on the town welcome sign.  Well - the United States Camel Corps was a mid-nineteenth century experiment by the United States Army in using camels as pack animals in the Southwest.  In 1855 Major Wayne and Lieutenant David Dixon set out from New York to the Mediterranean Sea and began procuring camels. With stops in Tunisia, Malta, Greece, Turkey and Egypt they managed to acquire 33 animals plus the necessary saddles.  They aso hired five camel drives, some Arab and some Turkish and on February 15, 1855 they set sail for Texas. Porter returned to Egypt and acquired 41 more camels while Wayne marched the first lot from Camp Verde, Texas.

While the camels proved to be hardy and well-suited to travel through the region, the Army declined to adopt them for military use.  It seems the soldiers didn't like these slobbering, pesky and somewhat stubborn characters.  One of the original camel drivers was Philip Tedro, a Greek born in Syria known as "Hadji Ali" (after his pilgrimage to Mecca). The American version of his name was "Hi Jolly".

Hi Jolly remained in the US after the experiment ended  and was known as quite the colorful character; becoming a prospector, scout and courier for what was called the Jackass Mail. He died in Quartzsite in 1902. In 1934 the Arizona Department of Transportation erected a monument over his grave - a pyramid with a metal camel perched on top.  AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY.

 The principal reason for going to Quartzsite was to have hydraulic disc brakes installed on the trailer.  These brakes are much much better at stopping the trailer than the standard electric drum brakes, which the vast majority of trailers have installed.

John Jr.  putting on the new rotor wheels on the passenger side.

The guys from Performance Trailer Braking did an awesome job.  The father and son team (John and John Jr. from Oklahoma) started just after 0930, and shortly after 3 pm we were on the road seasoning the brakes and making sure that there was no lag time when applying them.  Now the trailer brakes can actually stop the truck.  They are fantastic - Sonya didn't even notice that John removed the brake pedal from the passenger side of the truck!!

The other reason to go to Quartzsite is to shop - at least as far as Sonya is concerned anyway! Quartzsite has been described as the largest flea market for RVers.  The town of about 3,000 people balloons to 75,000 - 100,000 people in the area at any given time from January to March, with more than 1,000,000 visitors annually.

 In fact, we almost bought this love seat for the beautiful back yard of our friends Dianna and Gord.

However, it would not fit in the back of the truck when hitched up, so we had to pass on it!

There is no shortage of things to shop for, places to eat, things to do.  The smell of smoked and barbecued food was everywhere, with barbecues, and smokers galore.  Jeff, perhaps here is your next smoker!  This one is owned by Barbecue Ray.

If you are from Arizona, you may also want to come here for another reason:  gun permits available on the spot!

Besides the brakes, I was there to do some investigation on several trailer repairs and improvements including: lithium batteries, solar power, and shore power hookups.  I went to Quartzsite to catch a few seminars by the Boomers group of the Escapees RV Club. Yup - we are now members of the Boomers!

A bit of background may be useful here.  While we were in the Baja, we met Larry & Joyce Space, a lovely couple who are largely full timers.  Larry is 84 and Joyce would be somewhere in that neighbourhood, although I was not prepared to ask!  Anyway, here she is taking a snapshot of a charity auction going on at Boomerville.






Yes that is Joyce standing on the roof of the motorcoach getting the perfect shot.  She scooted up the ladder and walked across the roof without hesitation.  I hope to be that spry when I get into my 70s!!
And this is her shot from the roof of that coach.










Boomerville is an annual event put on by a subgroup of the Escapees RV Club, of which Joyce and Larry are long time members.  Joyce and Larry invited us to be part of the activities and we attended several events while we were in Quartzsite.  The Solar seminar was really great and provided me with much information to process as I continue to investigate solar power for the RV.  Given how many appliances Sonya has running at one time solar seems like a great possibilities - especially for future boondocking trips - like a trip across Canada - staying at Provincial Parks and Walmarts.

Boomerville, shown here, consisted of about 140 rigs of all shapes and sizes, congregating together for fellowship and learning.  They are a great bunch of people and we look forward to catching up with them in our future travels. We are currently planning to join them in 2018 for the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.  The Boomers all volunteer as crew members for the Balloon pilots - what fun that will be!

After Quartzsite we headed back to our spot in Indio to await Sonya's sister.  Oh joy, I get to spend another two months weeks with my Sister-In-Law!!  We will report back on that and let you know how it went!

Catch you later,

Paul & Sonya