SoCal

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This is really a "no-travel" blog entry! We've just been moving around southern California - from Indio to Twentynine Palms (70 miles) then to Desert Hot Springs (40 miles) - and won't put any real miles on the motorhome until December 14th when we head for Salome, Arizona.

11/14/2009 to 11/23/2009: Weather continues perfect. Each Monday a hike was organized and on the 16th we hiked LaQuinta Cove, a fairly gentle up hill that then dropped steeply into the valley. By the time we reached the golf course at the valley floor, the climb back up was the real challenge! We were hoping for a helicoptor but we all made it to the top and then it was downhill to the cars. Very scenic up there with the Salton Sea visible in the distance and the green of the golf course in the foreground. Speaking of golf... we played night golf at the Indio city course, a new experience for us. The course is so well lighted that it wasn't too much different than playing in the daytime except for depth perception. Each shot included a discussion of how far we thought it was to the green with all four of us watching the ball in hopes of finding it again. Lots of fun.

11/23/2009 to 11/30/2009: Twentynine Palms Rv Resort is right next door to a nice, affordable city golf course. We got two 18-hole rounds of golf in during our one week stay. We also spent one day exploring Joshua Tree National Park and one day walking around Twentynine Palms looking at the many murals painted on the downtown businesses. Joshua Tree NP is very scenic with lots of hiking trails and is a great place for rock climbers. While in the park we took a tour of Keys Ranch. The ranch started life as a gold mine and after the mine played out, Bill Keys was hired as caretaker and eventually ended up owning the property in exchange for unpaid wages. For more than 30 years he and his wife raised a family and managed to eke out a living. As various prospectors and ranchers failed to survive in the desert, the Keys would scavenge materials so that their ranch became a sort of variety store. If you needed anything, from a nail to a truck, you came to them before going all the way to town. This was a really interesting tour of their property with lots of stories about their lives.

11/30/2009 to 12/14/2009: Desert Hot Springs is just north of Palm Springs but is a world away in terms of atmosphere. PS is clean, green, lush, rich, beautiful. DHS is dirty (litter everywhere from the continuous wind), dusty, dry, brown, ugly. But we have a nice membership resort in DHS with 3 hot mineral spas and a large, warm mineral pool. Since the weather has cooled into the 50's and low 60's, the pools are great. We're only minutes from PS so can enjoy all that is offered there and we're close to the Coachella Valley Preserve, a series of natural oasises (how do you plural that word?) so we have hiking. Our 6 weeks in the Coachella Valley have gone by fast. A great area - good weather, lots to do. But now we're on to Arizona....

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