Hello from Palm Springs!
We are staying in Indio, just east of Palm Springs proper.
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.
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.
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| 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!
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
Catch you later,
Paul & Sonya