Borrego Springs and Caliente Springs

Well, Dorothy and Toto survived the wind.  It was absolutely crazy Sunday night.  I could have sworn there wouldn't be much left of our RV the next morning and we'd be lying in bed looking at the stars.  But it held up!  People around here say it's the weirdest winter they've experienced here in terms of cold and wind.  Huh.

Monday we went to Borrego Springs.  John & Judy raved about it, and it is a pretty special place.  The problem for us is that we can't spend a whole lot of time there as it takes about 1-3/4 hrs each way.  That's 3-1/2 hrs of driving without doing anything else.  We don't feel we should leave Tibby alone too long.  So we have some time, but we feel rushed.  We can't take him along either because he can't be on the trails, and the sun is too intense to leave him in the truck.

However, we got to the Visitors Center and decided to hike the Palm Canyon Trail.  It was about 8-1/2 km up to the palms and back from the Visitors Center.  Going up was fairly straight forward and the further you went, the more interesting it became.  We decided to do an alternate trail on the way back, and we ended up climbing over oodles of rocks and boulders.  But in the end, it was a very interesting trail.  Tons of Ocotillo cactus (known by many other names).



Gerard, as we arrive at the palms.

Looking further up the canyon.



Looking back out the canyon.  We had to walk all the way back down there, and then some.



We grabbed a late lunch at Carlee's in Borrego Springs before heading back.  The place was packed in the middle of the afternoon.  Food was good.

Yesterday, we hung out around the RV at Caliente Springs for most of the day.  We went looking for a Canadian flag in the afternoon so we could put it on a pole on top of Two Flags, but for $26 U.S. for a flag that will only last about 3 months, we didn't think it was worth it.  We'll keep looking.

Today, we did some more geocaching in the area just west of Desert Hot Springs and got 23 caches in about 2 hours of hiking around the desert - about 5-1/2 km worth.  The weather is definitely warming up, so it was nice to be done shortly after noon.

I must tell you, the hummingbird babies did hatch the other day...at least Saturday.  I've been able to watch the mother feeding them.  She regurgitates either insects or nectar and sticks her beak down their throats.  I can't see them, even with the binoculars, but I think I saw a flapping of a wing yesterday.  They are so small in that tiny nest.  I think there are 2 of them.  She still sits on the nest to keep them warm, although now that the weather is warming up, it's less and less.

Here's a photo of the nest up close and the babies are supposedly down in there.  We pulled the branch down a bit to get a look when the mother wasn't there.  They supposedly are only about an inch long, if that.  But in about 2-3 weeks, they should be flying, assume they make it that long.

Keep in mind, this nest is about 2 inches wide, at the most, measuring outside edge to outside edge (5 cm).

I'll keep you posted on their progress.

Weather Changes

Man, from one day to the next, the weather goes crazy!  Yesterday was beautiful!  And today is cool and crazy windy.

But yesterday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and decided to hike the South Lykken Trail above Palm Springs.  Initially, we thought we would hike half way (to the top) and go back down.  But then decided, oh what the heck.  Let's do it all.  So we hiked all 4.4 miles of it (7.04 km), and then had to walk back to our truck afterward, about 3.5 km.  Yikes!  That's a lot.

So here, we made it to the top.  About 1,000 feet up (above the trailhead).



Looking over the Coachella Valley and Palm Springs.

Just love the rocks...and cactus.

This was the other end of the trail.  No freakin' way bikes would make it up here.  They don't really have to tell them.

Today we went in to Palm Springs to check out the Agua Caliente Museum.  This is an Indian tribe from the area, but also the name depicts what's here - Hot Springs.

This is the side of the cliff where we walked the day before.  We were pretty much at the top.

We did some shopping and chores, and went back to the RV.  Such a difference between Palm Springs and out here where we're staying (about 15 kms away).  The wind out here is wild.  In fact, as I'm writing this, the RV is rocking in the wind like we've never felt before, even when we thought we were off to Oz last year in Manitoba.  Crazy!

Our hummingbird is still sitting on her nest, and she must be rocking to the music out there in the wind, protecting those eggs.  Toto and I hope to be here tomorrow!

It's Warming Up

Since Monday, the temperatures have slowly been creeping up (sorry, John & Judy).  The skies have cleared so it's been nice to get out - back to some biking and hiking.

Tuesday, we went for a bike ride from here.  We forgot our bike helmets at home, but we avoid the major roads as much as possible anyway.  Depending what road you're on, you're either going up hill or down, or you're on a dirt road going across.  There's not much else.  But we enjoyed the ride anyway as we haven't done much of that lately.

Gerard finally got tired of waiting for me to take the picture, so he did.  This is a cactus growing on the corner of our street.  Must have been here for quite some time.

Wednesday, we went back to the Coachella Preserve to hike the Willis Palms Loop trail, just over 6 km, up hill and down.  There's more snow on the mountains due to the precipitation here on Sunday night and Monday. 

But the rain has spurred some growth, and flowers, in the desert.  The wildflowers are blooming now.

Here's why the trail was named as such.  Another oasis on the side of the hill.

But it looks like they had a fire here, but it didn't kill the trees, even thought most of them are blackened.

A plane taking off from the airport and flew by just as we're looking at the palms.

Wednesday evening, we face-timed with Alayna and Isabella (Heather's 2 daughters) as it was their birthdays - Alayna on Wednesday and Isabella Thursday.  That was fun to talk to them.

Thursday, we went out for a stroll around the desert just the other side of Desert Hot Springs.  This was a mushroom we stumbled across.  It looks almost gold-coloured.  I'm not tasting it though.

Gerard was sitting outside our RV reading when this character ran by...a roadrunner.  We didn't see Wile E. Coyote though.



And last night we went to a show here at Caliente Springs called the Freddie & Sheila Show.  Freddie Pelletier toured with Ian Tyson and is an incredible guitar player.  And Sheila is a terrific singer.  They are from Northern Saskatchewan, so spend the winter in the south, touring around and putting on shows at various places.  They played some tunes I haven't heard probably since I was a kid.  It did bring back memories.  Great show.  I let my cousins in Mesa, Arizona, know about them as they're heading that way next.



So today we're more or less 'hangin' out'.  We ordered something online from Camping World and it's being delivered today.  They require a signature, so we need to be here.  The weather is warming up and is 25C today after a period of abnormal cool and wet weather.  Now when we go out hiking and biking, we need to go earlier in the morning.

'Til next time!

Catching Up - Friday to Monday

Friday, John & Judy went over to L.A. to take in a couple of sights there.  We declined as we feel guilty leaving Tibby for so long, and don't like to impose on our neighbours too much.  So we did a few chores around here and then went for a bit of a drive and hike near Desert Hot Springs.  Nothing very exciting.

Saturday, John & Judy went to the San Diego area and had lunch with John's nephew and girlfriend at La Jolla.  Gerard and I decided to go back up to Joshua Tree and hike another trail there.  I just love this place.  This is the trail namesake rock - Split Rock Trail.

I built an Inukshuk - just because.

Face Rock.  Who would have guessed?

A Joshua Tree all by itself.

Again, I took lots of pictures.  Such a beautiful place.

When we got back, John & Judy were just returning so we asked them over for some Gerry burgers.  Perfect end to the day.

Sunday, the weather was not so nice, but it was sunny in the valley.  We all decided to take a ride up the mountain to Idyllwild - a town way up Mount San Jacinto.  The town is about a mile high, and we went up as far as just over 6,000 feet (1,830 metres) in our travels.

This is looking over the Coachella Valley from up there.

This is part of the windy road we were on.

In Idyllwild there are tons of shops and restaurants.  We stopped at a couple.  When we came out...it was snowing.  There were heavy clouds on the mountain.

Monday, it was destined to rain ALL day...and from about noon on, it did rain.  So far this year, they've had more rain than Palm Springs had all of 2016!  So the washes were full of water, and some idiots were caught in it, even though the roads were closed where washes were over the road.  Some people like to try to drive through it anyway.  Duh.

So we did some chores and grocery shopping, and planned to have John & Judy for a nice steak dinner since it was their last night here.  It was a terrific evening spent with great friends! We'll miss you, John & Judy!

Shopping, Hiking, Happy Hour and Shopping

We do an awful lot of hiking here, which is a terrific thing!  But Thursday, we all started out shopping over at the outlet mall at Cabazon, just down Hwy I-10 west.  We bought a few things, including new hiking shoes - we need them.

On the way back, we went to Whitewater canyon and park to do some hiking.

The walls of the canyon look like they could just slip down at any moment.  Just a little frightening.

You don't see a whole lot of water around here, but there was water in WHITEWATER.  Now we know why it's named as such.

One trail took us up the mountain.  This is a look back at the whitewater wash through the canyon.  Beautiful views from here.

 

And a look back through the railway we were walking.  Loved it!

When we went back down, someone mentioned seeing bighorn sheep on the other side.  It took us a while with the binoculars to find them, but we did.  They look like specks here, but I'll blow it up for my photo album (whenever I get that done).

On the way back, I managed to get a picture of some of the windmills they have here in the Coachella  Valley.  There are hundreds of them.  The head of the valley is narrow and in the west, so you can imagine the wind that drives through here.  In fact, we've noticed quite a lot of wind at times.

After hiking, we went back to our respective places, had a quick shower, then went to happy hour in a restaurant in downtown Palm Springs before Villagefest.  There is parking along the streets downtown, but Villagefest happens every Thursday night, and you are warned that you must be out of there by 5 pm.  It's not just a gentle warning.  If you don't get your car out of there by that time on the dot, they'll remove it for you.  There are vendors trying to set up, and the cars interfere.  There are tow trucks just sitting there waiting.  This was taken about 5:10.  The owner is somewhere enjoying happy hour, no doubt.

We enjoyed happy hour and some nibblies.  We walked around checking out all the vendors on the street for almost 2 hours.  It's quite a large market.  Getting dinner somewhere involved a half hour wait, so we left and found something on the way home.  All in all, a great day.

Hollywood and Hiking

Saturday night, Judy and I finished our little project - The Capitol Building.  Very cool, eh?  I bet kids never built this with wine.



Sunday we went into L.A. and headed for West Hollywood.  We left around 1 p.m. and didn't get back until about 1:15 a.m.  A very looooonnnnggg day.  We had our neighbour let Tibby out 2-3 times, and feed him.



So we went to the taping of Who's Line is it Anyway?  We were there from just before 4 pm (standing in line) and didn't leave the area until after 10:30.  Even though Judy had "tickets" (it's free), we still had to wait in line and they kept telling us there was no guarantee we would get in.  But it moved along.  We were given numbers, and we then waited in 6 different lines in 6 different places within an hour, in more or less numerical order.  We then finally got into seats in the studio at about 5 pm.  Those seats were the very front row - behind the cameras - but they didn't bother us.

They wouldn't let us keep our cell phones, so we couldn't take any pictures.

They introduced the stars of the show, and the hostess, Aisha Tyler, and the taping started.  There was Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, and Brad Sherwood.  The original people from the show, which was quite exciting.  They had Carmen Electra (can you say bimbo? - even John & Gerard thought so) and Grace Byers as guests for different skits.  I got to high-five Colin Mochrie and Carmen Electra, and during one skit, Wayne Brady led a bunch of us onto the stage for a rendition of "Do you Hear the People Sing" from Les Miserables.  Very cool!

I have to say, we laughed a lot.  The first 3 hours or so went along very quickly as it was all quite funny.  The latter hour or so, not so much, as they went over material they had already done and retaped some stuff...not always the whole thing, but bits and parts.  That was kind of a drag, but we stuck it out and were quite satisfied with the whole experience.

Needless to say, we weren't up too early the next day.  But we did get up and went to Desert Hot Springs for a bit of a hike up in the hills - and so John could fly his drone.  This was a little hole in the wall we thought was a cave from a distance.



The views of Desert Hot Springs and the valley were very nice, but a little hazy.

We picked up a few groceries in the store in town, had dinner together, then retired early.  After the previous late night, we were kind of bagged.

Then yesterday, we drove up to Joshua Tree National Park.  I have to say, that's an amazing place to drive through and hike.  Beautiful terrain, and of course, lots of Joshua Trees.

I took so many pictures because of the cool rock formations, and general beauty of the desert.  But just a handful in this blog.

This one had pictographs inside.

And there were lots of mountain climbers - this was only the top portion of the rock face he climbed.

This was "cap rock", for obvious reasons.

A crazy big beetle of some description.  Eeeewww.

A couple of Beatle-lovers.

A beautiful day.  We are definitely going back to Joshua Tree to do more hiking.

We decided to go out for dinner tonight in Palm Springs.  It started out to be a Mexican restaurant.  No one was overly enthused about that, so we changed to Italian.  Done!  We went to Johnny Costa's - a place where Frank Sinatra used to frequent.  Good job we didn't see him there.

So today John & Judy went off to Borrego Springs for some drone-flying and hiking.  We decided to stay with Tibby for the day and catch up on a few errands, not to mention this blog!

We've Been Busy!

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've been a little busy.  The day after my last blog, we picked up the Hollingers at the Palm Springs Int'l Airport.  So Tuesday was spent preparing for them, getting caught up with them, having dinner together, and talking about some plans for the 2 weeks they are here.

The next day, Wednesday, we went out for a hike to the Coachella Valley Preserve again, and this time from the visitor's center.  The area right by the center is the San Andreas Fault...it goes right through there...through these trees - all part of another oasis.  Love these trees.

Here we are out on the trail looking over the valley and preserve.

When the Hollingers were RVing, they came to this area for 2-1/2 winters.  So they know the area well.  One of the things John did was fly his model airplane out here on the flat plains of the desert.  So John now has a drone and brought it down here to fly.  It's just starting up here on the ground.

And here it's in the air.  It has a camera on board and he does some cool things with photos and videos from the drone.

This is the Moon Canyon, around that corner (and several more corners).  Judy and I walked up there a piece while John was flying.

So Thursday we planned to have Frank and John out for the afternoon and dinner.  Gerard went with John & Judy up the canyon just behind us in the morning.  John flew his drone again for a while from there.  There are 2 flags up there, the American flag and the Canadian flag.  The Canadian flag is in sad shape, so Gerard and I are going to purchase another one and replace it...later.

So Frank & John came out.  We had a wonderful afternoon with them.  I made Pisco Sour, a drink I learned how to make in Chile.  Yum.  Even better than the ones we had down there!  The Hollingers came over and we all had dinner together outside, then went for a swim in the Caliente Springs (pools and hot tubs here at the RV park).  After that, we had some dessert.  All in all, a terrific day.

Friday was spent doing some household chores.  We then went into Palm Springs for a drive, some walking around, and a bite and a beer.  The big Marilyn Monroe statue is in storage right now.  Here's a sad replica, but Gerard fell for her.

On our lot next to where we park the truck, Judy noticed a hummingbird going into the tree all the time and staying there.  So she found it's nest!  Sure enough, there she is sitting on the nest.  Very well-disguised, but we've been watching her.  The nest is so tiny, as is she.  Can't wait to see the babies!  We should be here when they are born.

Today we went to the market they have in Palm Desert every Saturday and Sunday.  Very nice market with lots of neat stuff - not your average flea market.  After that, we did a short hike in the mountains behind Palm Springs.  This is looking back toward Palm Desert.  Bob Hope's old house is up on the ridge to the left side.  Kind of hard to see here, but there is a trail up behind which we may do one day yet.

And the 2 mountain goats we saw.

So that, more or less, sums up what we've been up to the last few days.  Tomorrow we're going into L.A. to see a taping of Who's Line is it Anyway.  Should be fun, but a long day.  I'll let you know how that goes.