2/20/14 to 3/3/14 Tuscon, Parker, Havasu, Indio
Thursday Feb 20, 2014 Tucson
Since we did not end up going to Farmington for Larry's locums job, we got busy Monday, on organizing an RV trip! We decided to go to Tucson 3 nights, Lake Havasu 4 nights, and Indio CA for a week. We got busy and packed up the RV, leaving early Wed AM. We had contacted Jim and Glenda Harris, who had been in Tucson the past week with RB and Thresa Holmes, who were using their RV for the first time and ended trading it in for a bigger RV this trip!! Jim and Glenda had told us about an RV confidence driving course offered at Lazy Days RV for free, so we decided to go for it. Jim and Glenda stayed one extra night since we were coming, and we ate together Wed nite. They took off this morning, and we walked over to Lazy Days RV for our classroom time from 9-11:30 AM -- very informative. I then did the 2 hr afternoon session with a bunch of other women mostly, who wanted to be able to drive their RV in case their husband was unable to drive, or just to take their turn. There were 10 in our group. Our instructor Willy, spent time walking around the RV to orient us to the "dot system" that he had lectured about, helping you to figure out in your mirrors and windshield, just where you are located on the road. I got to be the first practice driver! Willy went over some of the buttons and toggle switches + the gear shift buttons. I drove around the RV park making right and left turns, and using the tips I was taught. It really was not too hard, tho the speed limit was 11 MPH -- not sure I could handle this going 60 MPH on the highway! We got certificates after class, which may entitle us to up to 10% on our RV insurance. Most of the ladies in my group had never been behind the wheel of their RV before, so we were all in the same boat! I spent some time talking to one lady, Gerry -- found out that she and her husband have gone to Puerto Penasco every April and Oct since the mid 80's, and never had any problems-- said they even have a Walmart and Sams Club down there now -- so maybe we need to consider it again.
Tonight, Mary and Gary Lungstrum drove up from Green Valley. We had some wine and appetizers in the RV, then drove to Pinnacle Pete's where most of us had filet mignon -- very good!!!
Tomorrow, I signed up for a microwave-convection oven class -- this will be good for me, since I have to get the instruction book out every time I use my oven!! We will get together with some old friends from Cleveland tomorrow night for dinner -- Laurie was an intern with us in the 70's, and they happen to be in Tucson visiting her husband's sister.
2/21 Tucson
This morning we took a long walk thru the RV park. A nice feature is all the citrus trees bearing fruit right now, so we got some nice fresh oranges and grapefruits. I went to my microwave convection cooking class at 12:30 -- there were about 24 in the class-- 3-4 men. The teacher, John Gold, gave a humorous presentation to demonstrate the use of the oven which most newer RV's have, and no one really knows how to use. He actually made a soufflé with a grand marnier/marmalade sauce during the class and baked it in the microwave/convection oven-- tasted very good. My oven is not the same, but I think I will have a better concept of how to utilize it now.
After lunch, we decided to go to the Reid Park zoo -- not a very big zoo for a pretty big city, but we enjoyed it-- especially the anteaters exhibit. We then went over to the Tucson Botanical Gardens where they had a butterfly exhibit-- very warm and humid!-- plus lots of familiar looking plants and cacti.
We dined tonight at the Feast Restaurant. Larry had scallops and I had a delicious fish entree that was the special. We enjoyed visiting with Laurie (she interned with us in the 70's), her husband Bill (still practicing law in Cleveland at age 73), and his sister Betsy whom they were visiting. It was fun to catch up and reminisce, and discuss how happy the 3 pediatricians are to be retired! Tomorrow, we head to Havasu.
2/22/14
did not drive the RV to Parker CA today, but Larry and I did put "dots" on our windshield and side mirrors, so if he has the "big one" on the road, I will be able to tell where I am on the road, make turns, and drive him to the ER! (We learned the dot technique in our class Thursday.) Before this, I would have had to drive him to the ER, but would be unable to turn into the parking lot-- I would just keep honking till someone came out!
Everything looks very dry in western AZ, but lots of wild flowers -- yellow, blue, and a pinkish orange color, so that was really nice. Parker is not a very big town, and we are about 25 miles from Havasu City. There was a road sign, warning people to watch our for wild burros, and sure enough, we saw some along the road! The RV park we are in is called the Emerald Resort -- we got this "free" membership when we bought our RV last year, and never had a chance to activate it. We "get" to sit thru another 90 minute sales presentation(!!) at 9 am-- could not change the time so we will miss attending Parker UMC at 9 AM -- I told Larry I would work on my Bible study book I brought along, and maybe that will "count". The RV park is on the Colorado River, tho we are not in the beachside area -- they actually have a sandy beach here, but I checked out the water-- pretty chilly! The park is huge-- 800 spots! And it is pretty full too -- we got the last 50 amp site when we came in. We drove into Parker after we had a late lunch in the RV -- I always like to stop at the Chamber of Commerce to get tourist information, but they only were open M-F. So we came back to the RV park, walked around half of it, checked out the beach and pool/hot tub. They had a pretty nice 18 hole mini-golf course, so we played a round -- pretty fun. They were selling kettle popcorn near the store, but I decided to just make microwave kettle popcorn that the kids gave us when we got the RV -- I had wine and popcorn, and Larry is drinking up my Fireball whiskey!!
It is in the 70's here-- warm in the sun, cool in the shade. I can't even imagine anyone coming here in the summer! The park is nice, but not great. They made us come here to listen to the sales talk, since they consider this their "prime" resort, so we get 4 free nights here. Then we get another 20 or so free nights in the future. I would rather be in Havasu City, I think. But we're retired, and have the time to spend here too!
2/23/14
We went to our sales presentation at 9 am. We "lost" $6000 dollars by not buying their RV club package -- it started at $12,999 and got whittled down to $6999. The guy could not believe that we could pass up the chance to stay "free" at all these resorts (along with a $400 a year "maintenance" fee. I don't think we could live long enough to break even with such a "deal". We do get 20 more nights free stay -- but only at this Emerald Resort which we are not that crazy about. The other available resorts looked a lot nicer -- I think they should have done the sales pitch at one of the other 2 closer to Havasu City. Other "prizes" include a $100 dollar gas voucher (we'll use that), a 2 night stay at a hotel (not sure we'll use that), and an android pc tablet (Larry needs to figure out how to use that, and maybe we will use it).
They were having a church service at the RV park at 10 AM -- the River of Life Church at the Cove. We finished the high pressured sales talk around 10:25, so I told Larry I wanted to at least go to the end of the service. As it turned out, it lasted another hour! The clubhouse was completely full of people-- maybe 150 or so. There was a musical family performing for the whole service-- the Haining Family. They were from Minnesota, but ended up moving to Branson a few years ago -- they don't perform much in Branson, tho have been featured at Silver Dollar City. They have a music ministry schedule and travel to churches, RV parks, retirement homes etc. There are the parents and 4 teenage kids -- 1 boy and 3 girls. Two of the girls are twins, but one of them was very short and looked like she might have a syndrome of some sort. They all had good voices and played guitar, bass guitar, violin, harmonica, and a lap harp. They were quite talented and it was very entertaining -- very nice harmony. They sang a really nice rendition of Count Your Blessings. Pastor Bill Rees gave the the benediction and mentioned that this church only meets from November till Easter each year -- then he goes "north"-- to Santa Cruz CA.
After lunch, we drove the "Parker Strip" along the Colorado River to Havasu City. My guidebook calls it a "stupendously scenic byway" -- it was ok. Lots of resorts and RV parks, rocky hills, more wild burros (we stopped to take a picture of 2 on the road, and they started walking right to the car window-- guess people must feed them!). We drove over the Parker Dam that was completed in 1938, creating Havasu reservoir that stretches 45 miles. It spans the Colorado River between CA and AZ and is the deepest dam in the world!
We got to Lake Havasu City and parked at the visitor center by London Bridge. The town has about 50,000 people. Larry stopped at a store/kiosk run by a Rotary club selling commemorative coins, so he bought a silver coin with Paul Harris on it to donate it to the Alamogordo Rotary Club for the next time they have a fundraiser auction. They guy at the kiosk said that further north, they actually have a mall with a Dillards, and a Hobby Lobby -- did not go since HL is closed on Sundays.
We went to the little museum by the bridge which gave the history. This was really the London bridge in England on the Thames River-- it had been replaced several times-- the last time was 1831. It kept sinking an inch every 8 yr, and in 1967, London put it up for sale so they could build a stronger bridge to support auto traffic. In 1968, a guy who helped found Havasu City in 1963, Robert McCulloch, got the winning bid of $2,460,000. (They just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the town in 2013!) Before it was disassembled, each block was numbered, then shipped across the Panama Canal to CA, then trucked to AZ where it was reconstructed here -- total cost was $5.1 million! In addition to planning Havasu City's dev't, McCulloch also was the master planner of Disneyland! Havasu City has only been a legal municipality since 1987. Anyhow we walked around -- there were some "village" shops -- many of them were empty. There were lots of people in boats, kayaks, paddle boats, paddle boards, bikers, and walkers -- there is a 2 mile paved walk from the bridge (the channel under the bridge was dug after the bridge was rebuilt!) to the reservoir. After walking the sidewalk, we walked across the bridge and went to the Javelina Cantina for a margarita -- it was very pleasant to be outside and watch the people.
On the way back to the RV park, we found the place where we plan to hike in the morning -- a 5 mile moderate hike -- the altitude is like 800 feet here, so it should not be too taxing -- we just want to go early before it gets too warm. The weather has been 70's and 80's, very clear. I cooked a little turkey chipotle roast for supper -- I still have trouble with the microwave convection oven -- even after my class. But it was good. We walked around the grounds after we ate. A few people were singing karaoke or dancing, some poker players, some swimmers. There was a jigsaw puzzle in progress, so we worked on that for 45 minutes! Getting some laundry done tonight -- I love having an efficient washer and dryer in the RV that works well! When we were checking out RV's at Lazy Days in Tucson, all the newer fancy ones have dishwashers now too!!!
Anyhow, looking forward to getting some exercise tomorrow.
2/24/14 Havasu
We left the RV a little after 8 and got to the trailhead at the SARA park around 8:45. There were many cars there, so had to park in the overflow parking lot across the road. The "Mountain Crack" hike was great -- 4.6 miles total. It started going thru a wash that was like walking a sandy beach, but with rocks in it. We then went thru a slot canyon -- nice and shady and cool. The narrowest part was about an arm's length. We had to do several "slides" on the seat of our pants! One slide was about 7 feet tall-- someone had put a 3 foot ladder at the bottom, so by sitting down at the top, you could get your feet on the rungs of the ladder, and sort of slide and step down at the same time. It was more rugged than we expected, but really fun! Out of the "crack", we were back in a wash to walk, then a path took off upward where we could get a really nice view of Lake Havasu and some big rocks. We sat and had our snack, enjoying the view. There was actually a picnic table and a porta-potty near the water, but we would have had to climb up another huge hill, then climb down to that area. The porta potty must get serviced by boats. We went up and up the high side of the canyon to walk the rest of the way. The trail branched off many times. We really did not run into many hikers, despite the many cars at the trailhead. We saw a man hiking alone behind us, so we waited for him, and he said to just follow him -- I don't think we would have made it back easily, since there were many branches to the trail -- he had us walk up on the side of the hill instead of back in the wash, so that was easier walking. He was a Canadian who has been coming to Havasu the past 10 years. There is a whole club of Canadians that come down and rent houses from Nov to March -- I don't think I would want to be here that long! We got in the car and drove to the London Bridge area to find a bench to people watch and eat our picnic lunch.
After going back to the motor home and cleaning up, we drove into Parker and went to the Colorado River Indian Tribes Museum. There were nice displays of artifacts plus artwork from current artisans-- baskets, beads, pottery. There was an interesting exhibit about Postal CA. This is where they had a Japanese Relocation center during WWII. About 160,000 Japanese Americans were taken from their homes and businesses in CA, NE, and AZ and taken to the camp, fearing they would be traitors. Interestingly, Larry recalls one of his college roommates, Edgar Iowamoto, had told him that his parents were in one of those camps during the war.
After that, we drove to Bluewater Casino to see a traveling exhibit of Leonardo De Vinci! There was nothing original, but there were copies of many of his most famous paintings. The rest of the exhibit had wooden models of many of his inventions -- it was interactive, so you could try them out-- he knew a lot about physics -- had many systems of levers, pulleys, etc, and models of his hang gliders, wings, an early "helicopter". The casino was about half full of people, and smoky, so I sneezed my way out!
We wore ourselves out! Tomorrow we may either hike, or take our fold up bikes to Havasu and ride the bike paths. We saw some pretty things to day hiking, but this man made waterway is not as nice at all as Lake Powell.
2/25/14 havasu
I gave Larry the choice of hiking or biking today, and he chose biking.
We drove up to Havasu City (we are 30 miles south) again. Larry had a catastrophic experience last night-- he sat on his glasses and bent the ear pieces, so he wanted to get somewhere to have them bent back in shape so he was not seeing everything "cockeyed". The Walmart had an optical shop, so we headed to the north side of Havasu where the Havasu Mall was. Along the way, we saw a bunch of workers scooping up burro "do" on a little golf course on the side of the road -- we have often seen about a dozen burros on that little course. Hobby Lobby was on the way, so I popped in, but just looked, didn't buy anything, tho it just kills me that they have a Hobby Lobby and we don't!! We drove a few more miles to the mall -- it had a Walmart, a Dillards, Penneys, Famous Footwear, Rues, and sadly, not much else. The Rotarian we talked to on Sunday had told us that that they had built this big mall a few years back, and it has not thrived. It is an outdoor mall -- sort of like Uptown in ABQ, but it is 80% empty stores. Anyhow, the lady in the optical shop said she would not be held responsible if she broke the glasses, but Larry told her to go ahead. She was impressed that the wire ear pieces were really strong, and she got it bent back in shape -- did not even charge us!! (These glasses cost us around $600 with a discount in Alamogordo, so they ought to be pretty strong!)
We then drove to the Lake Havasu Museum of History. They charged $5 but it was worth it. A few videos to watch, lots of Chemihuevi Indian artifacts, and lots of info and photos about the relatively short history of this town-- the Parker Dam, the mining industry, the historic steamboat operation -- Mr McCullough really was a visionary-- the population was 1000 in in 1964 (the year I graduated from high school), and over 50,000 now. The London Bridge was quite the investment, but also has paid off in the tourists it has brought to the area. One man who worked there told us that the local airport was not thriving well either, but last week, some Canadians bought half of the airport-- not sure what their plans are. Most of the people we have met here are either full time RVers or Canadians!
We had a picnic lunch overlooking the water, then got our fold-up bikes unfolded to take a bike ride. We first rode along the bridge channel walk where we had seen lots of bikers on Sunday. Then we saw a sign that said "no bikes allowed" (!), so we inquired about the designated bike path on the "island" on the other side of London Bridge. We got directions and rode the 3.8 mile loop. It went past lots of new housing developments on the island, got over to the water, past 2 little lighthouses (there are like 40 small light houses in the area along the water-- there is a light house ass'n that builds and maintains them)-- just got to see parts of Havasu that we would not have seen from the car. it was a walking path as well -- bikers were assigned to go one direction, and walkers the other, so we did not have to pass a lot of walkers (except those who were walking the wrong way!). The dog population appears to be quite large here-- seems like every walker had 1 to 3 dogs! It was sunny, in the 70's-- just very nice. We did a lot of downhill the first half, and worried about the last half, but it really was pretty flat fortunately -- these speed bikes don't go uphill real well.
On the way back to the RV park, we stopped at Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge. It is an area that has cottonwood & willow trees, and is a big bird refuge. I parked Larry on a shady bench and did the 1/2 mile hike to the end of the finger shaped island. There were lots of ducks -- a lady let me look thru her binoculars -- just looked like a lot of ducks. The sign said there were blue herons and many other birds -- some permanent residents, other migratory. They had a little "refugio" -- a refuge pool of water for an endangered species-- the pupfish! The name of our local baseball team!! Pupfish have been around for many millions of years, and are very tough -- they can survive in water saltier than the ocean and up to 113 degrees in temperature! -- but now they are getting endangered. They weren't very big-- 1-2 inches, and not very beautiful either.
When we got back to the RV park, we decided to use the pool since it is our last day. The water was about 86 degrees -- really nice. We swam some laps, then sat awhile in the hot tub -- talked to a lady from San Diego who has been full-timing it since last April. She and her husband have worked as campground coasts at some places along the CA coast-- they work 3 days on, 3 days off -- sounds kind of fun. They went all the way from northern CA to Key West this past year. Interesting lifestyle.
Tomorrow we head to Indio CA. We have been watching the LA, CA news channel and they are expecting some storms this weekend, so we may see some rain -- always welcome in every desert, of course, tho in LA, they are worrying about floods and mudslides.
2/26/14 indio
Journal Wed Feb 26,2014
We left the Emerald Cove RV Park in Parker this morning, and drove about 125 miles to Indio CA, the Indian Waters Resort. We had stayed here around 15 yr ago when we actually bought into the Western Horizons RV club -- doubt that we will ever get our money's worth out of that purchase! This is still a very nice RV park -- lots of activities on their calendar -- swimming pool volleyball, pickle ball, shuffleboard, card games, dominoes, and even have a bridge game tomorrow night that we signed up for! After lunch, we went to the concierge desk where a lady gave us brochures. We also went to the Indio Visitor Center a few miles away to get more info. We decided to go to a Thousand Palms -- not too far away and had some hiking trails. We drove thru the driest looking desert imaginable, then found an oasis in the desert. They had a little visitors center and a trail map. We took the McCallum trail -- an easy 2.02 mi walk with only 100 ft elevation gain. It started at the visitor center which was surrounded by huge palm trees. It then went thru a wash -- very sandy-- like walking on a beach. It ended at a loop around the McCollum Grove where there was a large pond! There were benches to sit in and it was very cool and quiet. The trail guide describes the trail as an adventure(!) thru a palm oasis, across an earthquake fault zone, and thru a desert wash. This is actually one of the largest grove of desert fan palms in CA -- trees up to 150 yr old. This is the only native palm to CA and is found only in areas where water is at or near the surface. These palm trees are not trimmed at all, so have very long "skirts" where critters live. The fault we walked thru is actually the famous San Andreas fault which stretches from the Mexican border to San Francisco. The pond is actually formed by water seeping along the fault -- those little pupfish live in it! Anyhow it was a nice little hike and it was in the 70's with a little breeze-- would not want to do this in the summer for sure.
The weather is supposed to change tomorrow night-- lots of rain for Fri and Sat, so we plan to get up early and go to Joshua Tree Nat'l Park in the morning, then we'll play bridge in the evening. We found a duplicate bridge club on the internet also, so may spend the rainy days playing bridge!
2/27/14 Indio
Even tho the rainstorm hit LA, it did not make it here yet. We drove to Joshua Tree Nat'l Park, leaving here around 8 AM. We got to the Cottonwood entrance on the southeast side, and the visitor center had a sign that they did not open till 9, so we just started driving thru the park. It was sunny, but very windy -- and the wind was chilly. The first several miles just looked like desert, but it gradually changed. We went thru the "Ocotillo Patch" -- they just seemed to be growing in one area. Then we got to the Cholla Cactus Garden -- just as suddenly, there were thousands of "teddy bear" chollas on both sides of the road. As we drove on, they just disappeared, and we started seeing Joshua trees all over. Reportedly, the Mormon settlers named them after Joshua in the Bible. They are not a tree at all, but in the yucca family. There were thousands of them from that point on -- of all shapes and sizes -- some of them reminded me of saguaros, others looked like yuccas. This Mojave Desert is the only place on earth that they grow. So the first part of our ride thru the park, we were in the Colorado desert, then transitioned to the Mojave as we went up in elevation. We drove past the Jumbo Rocks (HUGE boulders) to the Barker Dam and took the hike -- only 1.2 mi. We walked amidst the boulders to a pond with a dam built in 1900 to hold water for cattle and mining. It is a big birding area now. We then drove on to Hidden Valley to take a 1 mile loop hike among the gigantic boulders -- once thru the boulders, there was a lovely valley where "rustlers" used to hide cattle that they had stolen and would rebrand them. It was nice because we were usually shielded from the wind in this area -- fortunately the wind was not blowing dust at all. After our little hike, we found a picnic table near the boulder area and had our lunch. We kept driving on to the north entrance visitor center-- sort of did it backwards. I got a map and there were several more hikes that appealed to me, but Larry was hiked out -- it really was a little too windy today. We watched the film at the visitor center. It talked about the ancient history of the area-- not formed by big oceans like the Tularosa Basin, but by volcanos, faults, water seeping into cracks and breaking boulders off, making huge rock piles as the granite lifted up.
We just relaxed in the RV in the afternoon, had leftovers for supper, then went to play bridge at the activities room of the park. Only 6 couples signed up(!), so the organizers went to watch a movie, and left us with the other couple. They were very nice-- from Reno -- just been RVing for about a year. She was a public health nurse and he worked with an insurance company for ski resorts when they lived in CA. They were both good players-- Sal plays duplicate a lot, Frank just plays party bridge 3-4 times a month-- says he likes to talk while he plays bridge -- indeed he does! We played 3 rounds of Chicago style scoring and it was fun. Walking back to the RV, it looked like it was getting cloudier, cooler, and windier, so that storm from LA may indeed show up tonight.
Friday Feb 28, 2014 Indio CA
It rained a little during the night -- did not look all that bad this morning. We decided to do museums -- they did not open till 10 AM, so left around 9:30. Even after rush hour, there was still a lot of traffic, and then it started raining a lot harder. We took Rt 111 which took us from Indio, to La Quinta, Indian Wells (quite fancy!), Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, and finally to Palm Springs-- all these burgs are pretty much connected. We parked behind the Palm Springs Historical Society Museum, and it was really pouring by that time. We had a big umbrella, so did not get too soaked. The history museum was interesting-- told about the early Indians who ended up getting a pretty good deal. In the 1800's Ulysses S Grant gave them a lot of land in the area which they never sold -- includes the airport-- so the tribe here is among the richest tribes in the US -- they collect a lot of "rent". The McCollum family moved here in the late 1900's because they had a son with TB. They focused on the water supply and built irrigation systems over those that the Indians had built in the past. The same complex had Ruddy's 1930's General Store -- this guy Jim Ruddy had a collection of general store merchandise that he merged with a collection of another guy who kept merchandise and store fixtures in his basement -- so all the stuff is unused merchandise-- signs, tobacco, clothing, medicines, soap -- a lot of familiar brands-- cans of Jays potato chips ( I remember that!), Quaker Oats, Ivory Flakes, candy bars (Mounds, Almond Joys, Butterfingers, Baby Ruths), etc) -- dating back to the 30's and 40's. It cost 95 cents apiece to go in this exhibit. In the same complex was the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum -- literally hot springs. There were Indian artifacts, and some stuff about Indian leaders during the 1900's, as well as historical info about the local Cahuilla Indians. It was pouring again when we left and started driving west on 10 to go to the outlet malls. There was one big mall the Desert Hills Premium Outlets -- it is very large and they are in the process of constructing a whole bunch of new stores. The Cabazon Outlets were just across the street-- seemed pretty new only about 12-15 stores -- we enjoyed the Columbia outlet store and got some stuff there. Either the sun was shining, or it was pouring cats and dogs!!
We headed back to the RV, stopping at Sam's to pick up mostly fresh fruit to last the next days. We went out to eat supper (1st time we have eaten out since Tucson) at Cactus Jacks-- only a few miles away, but rated high on Urban Spoon. From the outside, it looked like a dump, but inside it was very nice, and we had a delicious prime rib dinner.
Hope it does not rain as much tomorrow!!!
3/1/14
We drove to Desert Hot Springs this morning to visit the Cabot's Pueblo Museum. It opened at 9 and we signed up for the guided tour. We browsed the gallery and gift shop -- they had a lot of pottery made by a Mexican tribe the Matas-- very pretty things. They also have artists who make jewelry out of the pottery that cracks during the firing -- also very pretty pendants, earrings, bracelets. Good recycling!
9:30 was the first tour, and we were the only ones that signed up for it. There were other visitors that just came to look around, I guess. Our docent was Sylvia Roundtree (not an Indian) and she gave us a very interesting tour of the pueblo style >5000 square foot house,. Cabot Yerxa actually had Dutch roots -- his father came from Holland in the 1800's and changed the spelling of his name-- might have been something like Yerstra (my guess since I have Dutch roots too!). Cabot must have been a very intelligent person -- he left home at age 17 and moved to Alaska to make his fortune. Yet he never made much money. He came to this area in the early 1900's and had the opportunity to "homestead" -- if he stayed, built a house, and lived in the house 7 months of the year for 5 years, he could buy the land for $10. He and his wife and baby son Ronald came, and he built several little houses. After a few years, his wife couldn't stand it any more and divorced him, moving away with his son. Cabot gathered pieces of wood, pieces of broken windows, and eventually built a pueblo style building -- all with recycled materials. He often fashioned wooden window panes into the shapes of broken glass that he could pilfer. Some of the "pueblo" is built of wood, and some is adobe type brick which he made himself with mud and straw + added cement-- some of the walls were 3-4 feet thick. He built 35 rooms, with 150 windows and doors. During his time in the area in the 30's and 40's, there was a doctor named Dr Coffee When Cabot was in his early 60's he met another woman who was a theosophist (some religion that embraced a lot of religions) -- he married her. She often lectured and had people to come to the house where they could all meditate together. We got to see her quarters which included her own kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, sitting area., and meditation room. On the lower floor, he had his own bedroom, which was just a cave like chamber that fit a twin size bed! There were exhibits with his tools-- he did most of the building and fixing things all by himself. After they both died, another guy took ownership, then another, and eventually it was given to the city to maintain and make this museum -- I don't think Cabot ever threw anything away!! In the back area among some other sheds and a water house, there was a 40 ft statue of an Indian, sculpted from a 750 year old Sequoia. The sculptor Peter Toth has sculpted a series called the Whispering Giants, scattered in the US and Canada. It really was a very interesting tour -- the docent was great -- we got to go into rooms of the house that the general public do not get to enter.
After lunch, (it was raining lightly by this time) we drove to the Duncan Bridge Center. Larry had called this morning, and we were scheduled to play in the 299 average game -- your points + your partner's ACBL points must be <299 -- so I brought Larry down to my level! This bridge center is so nice -- they had a huge room just for them -- never had to pack up tables and chairs. They charge $8 apiece per game -- guess they have to pay for the rent on this building! They have games every day at 1, some morning games, and one night game on Wednesdays. We had 18 tables in our group. There were another 12 tables on the other side of the room for pairs that had >299 points-- the hot shots! We played east- west and it was nice that most of the hands ended up playing east- west, so we got to play a lot. We came in 7th, even with a >50% game, so we were "out of the money", but still had fun. A lot of the people were snowbirds who winter here from Canada, Bangor Maine, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and a lot from the "west" -- California coast. A few people live here full time, but had moved here after they retired. There were actually a few people in their 40"s playing!!-- we're not used to playing with "young" people.
We grilled a steak for supper and are just relaxing tonight. Tomorrow we will attend church, hike, and then maybe play bridge-- I emailed the couple that we met on Thursday night to see if they want to play tomorrow night.
3/2/14
We attended Shepherd of the Valley UMC this morning. They just have one service at 10AM. There were about 150 people there. Their chancel choir sang -- 10 women, 8 men. They did not have an organist, tho there was an organ. The choir director / pianist was a young man late 30's or early 40's, but the choir was old like our choir. When the acolytes came in, I had to gasp a little. There was a boy about 9 or 10 and a girl around 12 or 13 -- she was dressed like a hooker!!! Black shirt, short little skirt, black thigh high boots!!! I can't believe her mother would let her go to church like that! The minister was young -- 40's, and was pretty good. There was a lot of congregational singing of hymns and some praise songs, and people actually sang out (not like our church at home!!). The minister said he would be available on Ash Wednesday at 3 different times if people wanted to have ashes -- he emphasized that the ashes were from palm fronds-- he related a funny story about a pastor who decided to use toner since it is like a dust. He put it on the foreheads, and when they sweated at all, it turned to semi permanent ink, lasting several days! There were 9-10 kids for the children's sermon. It was communion Sunday and they had the back rows come first, working their way up to the front row -- seemed to be a better traffic pattern than our church. People were fairly friendly.
After church, we headed back to the RV for lunch, then put on our hiking stuff to go hiking at Tahquitz Canyon. The Indians charge you to hike (!) so it cost us $10 apiece. It actually was good hiking weather, since it was in the hight 60's and overcast. The trail was pretty well marked and went along a stream. There was lots of water in the stream after the rain the past 2 days-- the path was a little muddy. It was only 2 miles round trip, but seemed longer since there was a lot of climbing up. At the end of the trail was a really nice waterfall -- I love destination hikes! This waterfall is one of the areas that the movie "Lost Horizons" as filmed at in the 40's -- so we have found our ShangriLa!! They had a little film at the visitor center, talking about the Indian Tahquitz, who was a shaman that turned bad. He was banished, but legends claim he still returns to steal the souls of people.
Tonight, we invited the couple we met last week in the RV park, Sal and Frank, to come play bridge at our RV. Tomorrow is our last day in Indio! It has been fun.
3/3/14
We drove to the Salton Sea this morning-- about 30 miles away -- certainly off the beaten path. Geologically this used to be part of the Gulf of California, but became landlocked. It is 35 miles long, 15 miles wide. 3 rivers flow into it, but there is no outflow, so it is 227 feet below sea level. In the early 1900's, a company was hired to irrigate from the Colorado River for agriculture. In 1905, there was too much water runoff, and the irrigation canals burst, flooding the Salton Sink for 18 months since it was the lowest part of the area. A salt mining company got flooded out and even the railroad tracks got flooded and had to be rerouted. Interestingly, in the 1950's, the Salton Sea became a popular resort area with 2 yacht clubs, a large marina, and championship golf course. But the water kept getting saltier, which affected plant and animal life. The ranger said that even now, on summer weekends (can't believe people would come out in the summer!), they have boats lined up to be launched. The water looks brownish black in color, but is actually very safe for swimming and boating. It has become a bird sanctuary -- we saw many seagulls, pelicans, egrets today. There used to be 4 kinds of fish here, but now only one-- surprisingly tilapia. Tilapia is normally a fresh water fish, but they adapted to this salty water -- much saltier than the Pacific ocean -- and are thriving. Fishermen apparently love coming here. There is a bit of a fishy sulfur odor in the air -- the algae in the rivers (they also get run off from irrigation canals) get eaten by bacteria, causing the odor -- it was not real bad. When we hiked along the beach, I picked up some stuff that looked like thin sea shells and some curlique shell like stuff that crunches under your feet as you wall. I brought them to the ranger-- he said the thins objects were dry fish gills(!) and the other stuff was a type of barnacle -- very thin shelled. We watched the video -- again interesting that Gen'l Patton trained troops in the area during WWII. Before Sonny Bono died, he wanted to find a way to preserve this area, mainly for the migratory birds. A Restoration act was passed in 2003 to investigate ways to keep the water from getting even saltier. At the south end of the lake is the Sonny Bono Salton sea Region. We were surprised how many RV's were there -- lots of camping spots, hookups, picnic tables-- I'm assuming all these people come there to fish. The lake looks beautiful, and it was fun to watch the birds, but I would not want to stay there!
The ranger gave us some other sightseeing tips. We tried to find the Bat Cave Buttes hike, but could not figure out where the trail started. We then drove a little ways to another Palm Oasis and hiked thru. In the center of each oasis we have gone thru, there is an inky pool of water in the middle. We went back to the lake to picnic.
On the way back to Indio we stopped at the Oasis date farm. Apparently Indio is the date capital of the USA and 90% of dates come from this area. A lot of the different types of date palms were brought over from Iraq, Iran, and Northern Africa, and they have thrived in this climate. We watched the video -- a lot of work goes into growing the dates -- need lots of irrigation, they have to climb up and manually thin out the date cluster, then they cover the cluster to protect them while they ripen. We got to sample several types of dates grown there (a little too sweet for me). We then had a date shake -- pureed dates mixed with ice cream -- very tasty!
It has been an interesting trip. So many people RVing down here are Canadian. All the people we saw at the Outlet Mall last week were Asian-- felt like we were in Singapore! Everyone of them had multiple shopping bags -- I would think this stuff they were buying was all from Japan or China and would be cheaper there! We have liked the RV park a lot- -beautifully landscaped with lots of grassy areas, blooming colorful bouganvillea and pansies. We have not even used all the amenities here-- the pool, pickleball courts (still have never tried this), pool tables. I think we will want to come back some day. Tomorrow, we will drive as far as Tucson, then head home on Wednesday. It has been a fun trip.
