THUR., DEC 1, 2022 thru THURS., DEC 15, 2022
On Thursday the pod traveled 175 miles from Lake Havasu State Park in AZ to Indian Waters RV Resort in Indio, CA. Most of the ride was flat and rather desolate! But, we passed the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge in route. Gorgeous area!
Beautiful campground. We are 30 minutes from Palm Springs and here for a month so hopefully plenty of time to explore this area. We also are fortunate to have a few friends visiting while we are here! Since it was the 1st of the month, loads of people checking in today for a month stay! With the addition of California, we are now at 40 states we’ve stayed in with our tiny home. We also bought stickers to keep track of the National Parks we’ve visited. Of the “official” 63 National Parks in the U.S., we’ve visited 19 so far… not all with the RV. The stickers are really well done with a vintage design. They go nicely with our state stickers.
Gary wasted no time putting up our outdoor Christmas lights. We’re fortunate to have a pond behind us and ducks come to visit us periodically.
On Dec. 2nd, C&J’s good friend, Carol Ann, arrived from Florida. We all had a wonderful dinner together at Chez Hannaford then headed up to hear music at the clubhouse. Next few days were filled with cleaning our tiny home, Gary cleaning the truck, a dinner at the clubhouse, playing games with the Hannafords and Carol Ann, a campfire, and the girls visiting famous Shields Date Farm. They claim to be the “date capital of the world.” Dates are a thing in this part of the state. The girls all had Date Shakes. They are delicious, but I only had half and paid a bit of a price the next day. TMI??? They had a film at Shields Date Farm entitled “Romance & Sex Life of the Date.” We did see the film! One male date palm can produce enough pollen for 49 female trees. Wow.
On Tuesday, Dec. 6th, our very dear friend Mary (from NH) and her sister Jane joined us for dinner. Mary is visiting for a few weeks… first at a nearby rental then she’ll be moving over to C&J’s tiny home when they fly to NH for their yearly visit. Jane is here for the week before flying home to NY. We had fun showing them both around the resort, then dinner at our house followed by game playing.
On Wed., Dec. 7th, our expanded pod of 7 took a ride on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The tram and base/mountain stations were completed in 1963. The tram can hold 80 people. There are only 3 rotating aerial tramways in the world, and this is the largest. We climbed almost 6,000 ft in elevation on a 2.5 mile (10 minute) ride to the top. Mountain Station is at an elevation of 8,516 ft. Once you’re off the tram, you are in Mount San Jacinto State Park. Temps were 30 degrees cooler at the top! We had winter hats and jackets on!
We explored the Visitors Center, walked a 1/4 mile paved path that drops 500 ft and leads to the Nature Trail, and walked the Nature Trail which was partially covered in snow and ice, and then had a late lunch at their restaurant. It was a very fun tram ride headed back down with music blaring and everyone singing! Afterwards we soaked in some thermal pools at Mary & Jane’s Airbnb. Heavenly…
Rockin’ it out on the tram ride back down…
On Thursday, Dec. 8th, four of us (Cheryl, Joe, Carol Ann, and I) visited Sunnylands Center and Gardens in Rancho Mirage, CA. Sunnylands was built for Walter & Leonore Annenberg in the 1960s because the couple wanted a winter home in the desert. Over the decades that winter home has become a place where seven presidents have stayed and conducted high level meetings. It’s been called Camp David of the US West Coast.
Highly philanthropic, the Annenbergs believed that people and governments could come together, solve problems and find common ground over sharing a meal and being in nature.
Their home was opened to the public in 2012 and high level retreats still take place here. Their arid landscape is meant to show that beauty can be achieved with a minimum of water usage.
We visited the gardens and learned the Annenbergs story, but did not pay the $50 to tour their mid-century modern home!
The rest of the day our pod of five enjoyed game playing, Chinese food for dinner (thanks to Carol Ann), and a campfire (thanks to Gary). Mary & Jane were off visiting with friends for the day!
On Friday, Dec. 9th, we visited the Coachella Valley History Museum. Small but informative. It’s housed in a 1926 adobe style home that was once the residence and clinic for Dr. Smiley and his wife. Also on the property was an example of a Desert Submarine… built in the early 1920s as sleeping quarters (8’ x 10’) for railroad train crews. A bit like a coffin! In addition, the property had a 1921 water tower that was no longer in use, and a 1909 Schoolhouse which had a list of Rules for Teachers (1915). My “favorite” rules were:
- You may not loiter downtown in ice cream shops.
- You may not dress in bright colors.
- You may under no circumstances dye your hair.
- You may not travel beyond the city limits unless you have permission of the chairman of the board.
- Other “rules” included not marrying while under contract nor “keeping company” with any gentleman.
Also near the History Museum was a Date Museum. Fitting since this area grows most of the dates in the USA. We learned all things date related! In the late 19th century, the Dept. of Agriculture sent out plant explorers to search for new crops to grow in the USA. One such explorer headed to the Middle East to learn about dates and came back in 1900 with 405 offshoots of various date plants from Algeria. The Coachella Valley was chosen because it had the perfect climate for date growing and that was the beginning!
Last night our expanded pod of 7 had a farewell dinner to Carol Ann who flew home to Florida this morning. Such a wonderful timewith her! Cheryl made her famous Beef Stroganoff, and we played “Cards Against Humanity.” The game’s tagline is “a party game for horrible people.” So much fun!
The next few days we tackled chores, played a few games, and had everyone over for dinner Monday night, Dec. 12th, to say a temporary goodbye to Cheryl & Joe as they were flying back to NH for the week to visit family. By Tuesday, Dec. 13th, we were down to a pod of 3… Gary, our friend Mary, and moi! We headed to the Salton Sea passing Date Palm farms on the drive. The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake at 35 miles long by 15 miles wide. It’s also 50% saltier than the ocean. It’s an environmental mess that they’re trying to clean up. The Salton Sea has no outlet so whatever flows in, including agricultural runoff, does not flow out. We tried walking close to the edge and Gary sank 6 inches into a quicksand type goo. In another area rather than a sandy beach, it was made up of tiny shells along with salt deposits. Interesting.
We also visited Bombay Beach, which was once a popular beach community then became a ghost town in the 1980s because of pollution in the Salton Sea. Now it’s become a “bohemian playground.” Cool place! Various art projects dotted the beach and funky houses could be found up and down the streets bordering the beach area.
Our final stop for the day was at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. The sea is still used by tens of thousands of migrating birds that form “living clouds” across the sky. We witnessed this when a cloud of snow geese took flight just as we arrived. Amazing! In addition to the snow geese, we saw smaller numbers of white pelicans, mallards, black-necked stilts and other ducks when we took a walk on the Rock Hill Trail. There were multiple geo-thermal energy plants all around the area, too. This area has the second largest geo-thermal field in the U.S.
An interesting and very fun day!
Snow Geese in flight…
Wed., Dec. 14th, Mary & I visited the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens in Palm Springs. We loved seeing the animals, but loved the desert plants more! We saw tons of hummingbirds and I added two new birds to my life list… a Yellow-rumped Warbler and Abert’s Towhee. Gary stayed home to babysit our tiny home that got washed and waxed. At night Mary joined us for dinner and watching the movie Bad Santa. Such a funny movie!
Thurs., Dec. 15th, Mary & I played several rounds of Rummikub before she headed off to meet with friends who were coming into town. That evening Gary & I headed to Palm Springs Village Fest. Every Thursday night downtown Palm Springs becomes a street fair featuring arts, crafts, food and entertainment with loads of street vendors. Adding to the extravaganza is a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe on Museum Way. Entitled “Forever Marilyn” it’s 26 ft. tall, weighs 24,000 lbs. and is made from stainless steel and aluminum by Seward Johnson. A big wow!
The Palm Springs Art Museum is open and free to the public every Thursday night during Village Fest as well. We took full advantage of that and enjoyed seeing all the art. Some of our favorites included:
- A suspended 1968 Chevy Malibu car outside the museum.
- An entire glass wing in the museum donated by Frank & Barbara Sinatra.
- A sculpture entitled “Old Couple On a Beach.” Photo is below. You’ll know it when you see it!
- A “bonnet” made from 31,863 pearl corsage pins.
- Gerald Clarke, a Native American, created a piece that mimics a native basket. But his piece is made from 1,884 crushed aluminum cans on a satellite dish. Wild.
A fun time! And that concludes the first half of our month in Palm Springs.
To be continued…
