A MOVE TO INDIO ELKS

Thursday, February 12 - Our seven day stay at Desert Pools RV Resort was up. They were not willing to extend our stay under the Passport America discount even though they had plenty of vacancies. With that in mind, we headed to the Indio, CA, Elks Lodge.

This was our first movement East since we left Ohio. No, we are not heading there yet! There's snow in them thar hills!

The Indio, CA, Elks Lodge in an RV destination for sure. They have 55 campsites, some on gravel and some on the blacktop. There is only 30 amp electric and water. There is a dump station on sight and you can use their "blueboy" portable dumper to extend your stay without moving to dump. The streets are paved and the sites are nice and level.

We are in Site #22. It is a corner lot and bigger than some of the others. Bella is enjoying her new home. There is grass for her to graze on! What a treat to her.

Looking left.

You do have to be an Elks member. The Lodge is available for your use. They have a brunch on Sunday, lunch every day, and dinner each night they are open and entertainment on the weekends. Our initial reaction is that it seems like a pretty nice place to stay for a week or so. They do have a one week limit if the place is full and there are campers in the dry camp area waiting for a spot. If vacancies are available, which there are numerous spots open today, you are permitted to stay as long as you wish. The host and hostess are super nice.

Indio, CA, is a large city (40,000+), so there is all the necessary shopping establishments and big box stores. There are plenty of hiking trails and other outdoor activities in the surrounding desert and mountains.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

THOUSAND PALMS OASIS PRESERVE

Wednesday, February 11 – Today, we hike in the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve of Coachella Valley Preserve Trail System in Thousand Palms, CA, which is located about 10 miles east of Palm Springs, CA. This Preserve is approximately 880 acres. This preserve is located right on the famous San Andres Fault. Little San Bernardino Mountains surround the Preserve. As a matter of fact, if you visit Joshua Tree National Park and stop to view the San Andres Fault at Keys View, you are actually looking down on the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve. The ranger even offered to take our picture standing on the fault.

Our hike today had us climbing all over that fault. We hiked two connecting trails, the McCallum Trail and the Moon Country Trail for a total a little over 4.5 miles. This is pretty much a hike in a desert environment. There are a few small mountains to climb and a few canyons we hiked down into but not a great deal of change in elevation. The toughest part of this hike is the soft "beach like" sand we found ourselves slugging through some of the time.

Sandy….yuck…very slow going.

Up the mountain we go.

The desert was hot today.

Little San Bernardino Mountains.

The McCallum Trail took us to the beautiful McCallum Pond which is formed by a natural earthquake seep, water seeping up along one of the several faults.

While we were admiring the Pond, one of the rangers was wading around in the pond.

She called us over to her work station to show us what she was doing. She was emptying her traps full of red swamp crayfish. This crayfish has displaced most of the other native species from this pond….that isn’t a good thing. She is trying to eliminate them from the ponds. She had a good size bucket full of those nasty looking creatures.

This is from the first trap. By the time she was done, the bucket was full.

We were rewarded with a special treat today. We saw a bobcat! Marsha spotted him getting a nice cool drink of water, just as we started on the trail near the Visitor's Center. He put on a pretty nice show for us - must have known we were cat owners! Marsha ran back to show the photo to the Ranger. He came fast to see it. He said it was one of the best photos of the bobcat he has seen. We've been hoping to see a bobcat or mountain lion ever since we began hiking. Awesome!

If you are a frequent follower of our blog, you know we are early starters.

Breakfast with a view.

Boy are we glad we were one of the first hikers on the trails this morning. By the time we returned to the visitor's center, the parking lot was completely full of visitors, and the trails were filling up. It was also getting pretty hot in the desert by quitting time.

Tomorrow we are pulling up stakes and heading to Indio, CA.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

BREAKFAST WITH FRIENDS IN PALM SPRINGS

Tuesday, February 10 - We met fellow bloggers, Paulette and Rick, this morning at the famous Sherman's Deli and Bakery in downtown Palm Springs, CA. Although he doesn't write a blog, but he is a star in one, Rylie, their dog joined us. He was so well behaved lying under the table, we didn't know he was there. What a sweetie!

We enjoyed breakfast and tons of great conversation and laughs for over an hour with this nice couple. We've followed there blog for such a long time, it's just like knowing them. They winter in Palm Springs, so who knows, maybe we'll see them again. (Marsha had her camera but totally forgot to get a picture. Bad girl!)

After breakfast, we headed to downtown Palm Springs to stroll among the shops and do a little shopping. Palm Springs is known as a  desert resort city.

Surprisingly, prices are very reasonable in this expensive California tourist town.

Now this is what every city should offer.

Palm Springs is famous for its "Walk of Stars." Many Hollywood Stars who lived, loved and played in Palm Springs are on the “Walk of Stars.”

There is even a bronze statue of Palm Springs’ one time mayor, Sonny Bono. This must have been when he was very young.

Sonny is on the right.

This is Lucille Ball.

Little did we know that the famous "Forever Marilyn," the three-story-tall sculpture, was dismantled and moved to New Jersey. This was one statue we both wanted to see. While walking around the town, we did find this statue of Marilyn. Not exactly like the “Forever Marilyn,” but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

We even found a few items to take back to the RV. Everyone needs a Palm Springs T-shirt, don't they?

That was it for today. Tomorrow we plan on being back on the hiking trail - must work off that delicious breakfast - so stop back and see where we explore.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!