Category: Uncategorized

This time of year, the weather in Desert Hot Springs can be very cold, very hot, sometimes windy, and just about anything in between.  After our friends left for Anza Borrego, Mo and I settled into what we thought might be a quiet week of taking care of the Tracker’s electrical issues and then enjoying the simple life of morning swims, walking the dog, writing, reading, and enjoying the warmth of winter sun.

A Google Earth shot of the Coachella Valley from the North with Palm Springs on the right side of the image and Desert Hot Springs just out of view at the bottom of the image

It wasn’t quite as simple as all that because taking care of “things” required driving to “town”. Town means the long strip of cities that line the strip of the Coachella Valley from Palm Springs at the far western edge at the base of Mt. San Jacinto through Indio at the far eastern edge as the valley reaches the open spaces near the Salton Sea.   In addition to Palm Springs, there are Coachella, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City.  It is sometimes referred to as “Greater Palm Springs”.

Each of these communities has its own personality, and there are slight differences between the opulence of the huge country clubs and golf courses that line the boulevards and the type of architecture that prevails.  When searching for anything, you first need to figure out in which town it is located and then decide which route you will take to cross the dusty open desert to the south side of Interstate 10 and then to your destination.  As many years as we have visited Desert Hot Springs, Mo and I are pretty good at navigating the valley and making our way to Costco or Trader Joe’s, or maybe the quilt shops in La Quinta or the zoo in Palm Desert.  It takes a bit of getting used to, but we manage.

When we were finally alone with no big social agenda on Tuesday, we knew it was time to find a place to help with the electrical connection between the rig and the car.  The best place we could find that could look at the problem was the U-Haul store in Cathedral City.  We spent the better part of a morning there with some kind men, looking at all the possibilities and making the final determination that we would have to return on Saturday for a formal appointment to rewire the Tracker connection where the electrical cord connecting it to the MoHo was plugged in.  Mo, of course being Mo, went home and spent some time fiddling with the thing and continued to check fuses in the MoHo and sure enough she found the problem on her own,  It was a simple fuse and when we hooked up to leave the following Monday, she had saved us over $150 and a wasted Saturday.

We took time to relax after that visit to town and didn’t leave the park again until the next afternoon when we traveled back to Palm Springs to enjoy a good traditional Mexican meal at a traditional Mexican restaurant.  The Las Casuelas restaurants in Palm Springs, California, are a family-owned business that began in 1958. The restaurants are known for their authentic Mexican food and hospitality. 

We chose the Las Casuelas Original Restaurant just up the road from the Las Casuelas Terraza, where we ate with our blogger friends Rick and Paulette back in 2011 during one of our first visits to Palm Springs.  The food was good, traditional, and satisfying, with few of the flourishes that make California cuisine Mexican food considerably different than this traditional meal.  

I even loved the rice and beans with a flavor good enough to actually eat instead of pushing them around on the plate to get to the enchiladas.  On that day, we had no trouble returning to the RV park with the winds still high but not so high that the roads were closed by dust storms. 

late afternoon sunlight on the windmills lining Indian Canyon Road on the way back to the RV Park

On Thursday afternoon, we decided it was time to visit the historic Cabot’s Pueblo Museum on the north side of Desert Hot Springs. The Pueblo Museum is fascinating in itself, but the story of the man who built it is rather incredible. 

Cabot Yerxa began building the pueblo in 1941 when he was 58 years old. The pueblo was to be a museum and home for Cabot and his second wife, Portia. Cabot Yerxa was a man who took risks, traveled, and was one of the founders of Desert Hot Springs. What we learned about in our visit is Cabot Yerxa’s legacy as community visionary, artist, humanitarian, and environmentalist.

In 1913, at the age of 30, Cabot homesteaded 160 acres in what is now Desert Hot Springs. In need of water, he dug a well with a pick and shovel near his home and rediscovered the now famous hot minerals the area is renowned for. He dug another well 600 yards away from his home and located the pure cold water of the Mission Springs Aquifer. The two wells, one hot and one cold, led Cabot to name his homestead Miracle Hill.

a totem carved from a complete redwood tree with the feather done with incense cedar

After proving his homestead, he relocated to Washington, was drafted into the U. S. Army, and traveled to South America and Europe. Eventually, he returned to the area in the late 1930s to make Desert Hot Springs his home. 

The Hopi-inspired building is hand-made and created from reclaimed and found materials from throughout the Coachella Valley. Cabot used recovered lumber from his original homestead. Additionally, he purchased abandoned cabins and dismantled them to use the materials for the pueblo, going so far as to straighten out used nails. Much of the pueblo is made from adobe-style and sun-dried bricks.

a cupboard filled with Cabots collected antiquities

Filled with Native American art and artifacts, souvenirs of Cabot’s travels around the world, and Cabot’s own works of art, the museum officially opened to the public in 1950. The Pueblo has four stories, is 5,000 square feet, and includes 35 rooms, 150 windows, 30 rooflines, and 65 doors.

Mo delighted in seeing many of the same collectibles she has at our home in Grants Pass

When Cabot died in 1965, it seemed that his pueblo legacy would deteriorate into ruin.  This article (linked here)  in Palm Springs Life explains how one man worked to save the Pueblo and how various donors and the City of Desert Hot Springs stepped in to save this amazing piece of Desert Hot Springs History.

Portia Cabot was a beautiful woman

It only took about 45 minutes for us to complete the self-guided tour narrated by our phone, but it was a fascinating place to see.  I was especially intrigued by the story of Cabot and his second wife, Portia, a woman of grace and beauty, well educated in the arts and familiar with esoteric arts and religions of the world.  It was hard to imagine her walking up the tiny staircases to the rooms Cabot built for her and living this kind of desert life. 

This was the largest, most lovely example of an old palo verde tree I have seen recentlyIt was a lovely day once again, beginning with our swims and our walks, a bit of culture with the museum visit, and a good dinner back at home before we settled into our evening TV watching.

Cat Spa has a pretty nice workout room if one doesn’t feel like walking the desert like we do

Just a little side note: when we are traveling, we try to watch a couple of episodes of whatever Netflix show has caught our fancy by mirror casting the program that is playing on our phone to the bigger TV in the RV.  At Catalina Spa, the phone signal is just weak enough or has enough competition that the casting app doesn’t work well.  Of course, watching on the phone uses free data, according to my phone plan, but using the hotspot to make things work on other devices uses data that will eventually reach a limit and begin to cost us.  We watched our shows on the larger screen tablet using the hotspot on the phone, which worked fine.  I will let you know just how fine when I get home to the Verizon bill for extra data used.  Ah well, another cost of traveling with the luxury of staying connected.

It was a good thing that Saturday wasn’t wasted, thanks to Mo’s efforts, because it also happened to be her birthday.  The winds at Desert Hot Springs had picked up, something that often happens this time of year, but the heat was unusual.  The last few days we were there, the winds were blowing between 30 and 35 miles per hour with gusts to 50 mph.  Before leaving for Palm Springs on the pretty, sunny, and very windy morning, we made sure the awning was put away, the chairs were lying flat on the ground, the fans were going, and the windows were open to keep Mattie comfortable in our absence.Lobby of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum

Our Birthday celebration in Palm Springs was a highlight of our time in the desert,  We visited the beautiful and informative Aqua Caliente Cultural Museum (link here) in downtown Palm Springs located in the Agua Caliente Plaza that houses the museum, the Sec-He Spa operated by the tribe at the location of their sacred springs and a lovely, meandering pathway that is lined with native plants, waterfalls, and a babbling stream.

Projected image of the floor of the sacred sprins that moved and rippled

The museum is a treasure.  It was originally founded in 1991 and created to share the history and culture of the Agua aliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which include 9 individual groups.  Master planning for the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza that encompasses the Museum and the Spa at Sec-He began in 2015.  In 2017, JCJ Architecture was recruited to design both buildings and the surrounding outdoor spaces.  Based on a conceptual design by the architect, the inspiration for the museum’s curved shape comes from traditional Cahuilla basketmaking.  The footprint of the building represents a basket start, the first few coils of a new basket.  The construction of the cultural plaza began in 2018 and was completed in 2023,

Mo and I have a little bit of a story for this special piece of Palm Springs.  The entire plaza area used to be a big free parking lot, where Mo and I would park every year when visiting the Thursday night street market in Palm Springs.  We were a bit daunted when we returned in early 2019 to find the entire lot fenced off with big signs touting the coming cultural plaza.  I was delighted to see our parking lot transformed so amazingly.

As we toured the state-of-the-art museum, I was impressed with the fact that the tribe has learned to adapt and thrive despite the centuries of invasion by whites into their lands.  The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is a federally recognized Native American Tribe with 31,500 acres of Reservation lands that spread across Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, and into the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains. The Tribe currently owns and operates the Indian Canyons Golf Resort; the Agua Caliente casinos in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City; the Indian Canyons, including Tahquitz Canyon and Tahquitz Visitor Center; the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum; and the Spa at Séc-he. By the way, I did finally learn how to say this word: Tahquitz is pronounced  “Tahk-a-which”.

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (ACCM) Collections are mostly comprised of objects that represent the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (ACBCI) and, more broadly, Cahuilla culture and history. Collection items are divided into three major areas: Objects and Artifacts, Archives, and the Library.

The Objects and Artifacts Collection contains a wide range of formats, including baskets, pottery, textiles, beaded items, fine art, archaeological materials, and memorabilia. The extensive collection of Southern California Indian baskets contains examples attributed to Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Serrano, Luiseño, Cupeño, and Kumeyaay makers. Pottery items in the collection consist of both historic and contemporary vessels from Southern California and the Southwest.

The Archives Collection contains primary and secondary source items, including printed materials, rare books, newsletters, photographs, government documents, newspapers, postcards, oral histories, and audiovisual materials.

The Library Collection largely consists of reference books and reports that discuss American Indian and international Indigenous cultures. The Library also contains many standard titles on Cahuilla culture and history.

Mo and I hiked to this waterfall in 2017

We learned so much about this group of people who have retained their unique identity within the urban melee that fills their once-sacred lands in the Coachella Valley.  I especially loved the special effects that illustrated the development and movement of the changing landscape with a great earthquake in the 1850s, and the coming of the stage line and the railroads, the highways, and the cities.  The animated depictions of the sacred pools and waterfalls of the Indian Canyons in the vicinity were spectacular, almost like being there.  I appreciated that the animals depicted were sculptures and not stuffed creatures. I especially loved the beautiful animated creation story shown in the theater in the round.

Mo and I left the museum plaza with a leisurely walk along the river, listening to the waterfalls and watching the sun glistening on the palm fronds in the wind. We were both very impressed with what the tribe has done with this sacred patch of land in downtown urban Palm Springs.

We left the plaza feeling energized and yet rested by the presence and sounds of water everywhere around us before driving the short distance from the museum to the other cultural center of Palm Springs on Palm Canyon Drive, the heart of the city.  Here, we had an unlimited choice of restaurants of every possible type to choose from for Mo’s birthday meal.

We decided on the Tuscan Grille, a restaurant set back in a sunny courtyard with outdoor seating that was shaded and protected from the wind.  The restaurant is old-school Tuscan, much like the popular kitchens from a decade ago that are now considered a bit dated, but I do love the look.  

The menu was especially enticing during the weekend brunch and happy hours from 11 to 3.  Everything we ordered was truly delicious. 

Mo had a chicken salad caesar wrap that was so good, and I enjoyed pasta Roma with one big fat prawn added for extra delight.  

My cocktail was a lime basil cucumber martini, which was incredibly yummy.  We sat there feeling pampered and happy with our choice for Mo’s day. No cake or candles appeared, just the way Mo likes it.

Traveling west on old hwy 111 about 20 mile out of our way to get home

The day didn’t shift from all the loveliness until we started back home by way of Indian Canyon Road across the valley back to the north.  Every attempt we made to cross the freeway led to closed roads and detours and finally I just gave up and followed the Google Map suggestions for getting around the roads that had been closed due to the high winds.  It was quite dramatic, with dust clouds rising to hundreds of feet and winds blowing at 40 miles an hour. 

Almost back to Dillon Road

After a bit of a delay, we did finally get home to our little house, and a little dog happy to see us and get her bit of Mo’s chicken as a treat.  Mo decided that the birthday was perfect.

We ended our week at Catalina spa with morning swims, afternoon reading and writing, and mentally preparing for the next chapter in our desert sojourn as we planned our southern route to the “real” desert where we would again meet Phil and Joanne for a couple of days boondocking in the wilds of Ogilby Road. 

Departing Catalina Sp and RV Resort on a sunny windy morning heading east to Ogilby Road

As I write this morning, the sweet emptiness of Ogilby Road is just a memory, and we are settled into the clean and open space dry camping in the overflow area of the Boneyard Vista Family Camp at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.  Despite being within hearing distance of a busy road, it is a quiet place to be.

The week to come will include time with our friends here in Tucson before we depart for Southeastern Arizona and another visit to a place I have never seen, the Chiricahua Mountains.

There is probably no way that I can convey the power of the blowing winds here in Desert Hot Springs today with a simple photograph. We are both familiar with desert winds, with each of us having spent years at one time or another living in the desert.  We have actually spent time in this very RV park, pummeled by wild winds for at least part of our visit nearly every year since 2010.  Still, when the winds come, it is always a bit of a surprise, and until it happens, I forget how much it drains our energy.

We will be leaving here tomorrow morning, traveling south and east toward the wide open space of Ogilby Road, north of the American Girl Mine.  For those who don’t know, the area is popular with winter boondockers and is not far from Yuma and the Mexican border.

As usual, I begin the story for this week with the current moment before I settle down enough to write about our past week here in the desert.

I ended the last story with the departure of our friends Nickie and Jimmy, who are now back in Nevada City, experiencing the first snowflakes of the winter.  Not good timing for them, but I am sure Nickie will tell you all about it in her upcoming blog posts.

I will now return to last Friday when I left off.  After our friends had left, Phil and Joanne departed for parts unknown to go hiking.  Mo and I were definitely ready for some downtime and a bit of relaxing at home.  We both did some computer work, and I wrote the last blog post before lunch.  

Shannon sings and plays guiter

Mike is the sound guy for the band

Something Mo and I discovered last year during our visit was the informal music Friday afternoons at the Pavilion here in the lower park area.  Shannon is wife to Mike, our early morning swim companion, and the two of them are grandparents to 3 kids who live near their home in British Columbia.  There aren’t many people who like to swim at 6 AM, but Mike almost always is in the pool before we are.

It is hard to describe how good all these musicians are without including a video, but as everyone knows, phone videos don’t always pick up the sound anything as good as it actually is.  Suffice it to say that by the time the last set ends up at 3, most of the folks are up dancing and having a good time.  It is a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

The best part is that the dogs love it too, except we do leave Mattie at home since she can be a bit of a brat around other dogs when she is on a leash.

That evening, we learned that Phil and Joanne’s friend Loi was going to be in Palm Springs for the weekend.  Earlier, we had discussed going up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and the decision was made to go on Saturday after learning that it was something that Loi also wanted to experience.

Mo and Sue at the top of the tram ride in 2010.  A lot more snow that year

Mo remembered our last visit on the tram in 2010 and wasn’t interested in spending another 40 bucks and most of a day with a big crowd of Saturday tourists to do it again.  Phil cleared out his car so that I could ride with he and Joanne, and we departed the park to meet Loi at 11 at the tram parking lot.   Of course, as I mentioned, it was a Saturday, and by 11, all the parking lots were nearly full. My memory of this experience from 2010 was very different. This time, there were a LOT of people and a lot of shuttles moving people from the parking lots to the entrance where tickets were purchased. 

Phil dropped Joanne and me off at the beginning of the ticket line and drove back down to park the car and meet Loi in her car.  By the time everyone was in line, the nearest entry ticket was for 1:37 PM.  It was just a little bit crazy, but we did find a reasonably shaded place to sit outdoors and escape the hot sunshine while we waited for our tram entry time.

Loi an Joanne trying to stay cool while we waited 2 hours for our turn on the tram

Once we entered the car, I was glad that I had come.  I hadn’t remembered that the floor of the cable car rotated. These are the world’s largest rotating tram cars, traveling over two and one-half miles up the cliffs of Chino Canyon to an elevation of 8,515 feet.  

Each car can accommodate up to 80 people. At the top, there are two restaurants, two documentary theaters, a natural history museum, a gift shop, and over 50 miles of hiking trails into the pristine wilderness of the Mt. San Jacinto State Park. During the approximately ten-minute journey, tram cars rotate slowly, offering picturesque and spectacular vistas of the valley floor below.

Once at the top, we were at a bit of a loss as to where to go, with few available maps of the trails that made sense and so many levels and so many people.  After looking around a bit, we decided on having a late lunch at the casual restaurant before going outside to take photos of the desert views far below.

It was interesting to see so many families and kids, many of them carrying various kinds of snow toys and ready to play.  But the trails were icy, and we didn’t see a lot of snow that would have been easy sledding for little kids.

Phil and Joanne at the desert overlook

I am going to digress a bit here and share a moment that was not my best.  Phil, Joanne, and Loi decided they wanted to take the zig-zag paved trail to the bottom of the canyon to hike the lower trail a bit.  I did think I could possibly start down with my walker.  (I haven’t mentioned yet that I was allowed to take my walker on the rotating tram car.  The facility is very accessible, even to wheelchairs.) Sometimes, that walker is a great people barrier, allowing me to maintain some personal space in situations that are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder.  I thought I could go down the pathway but discovered that my legs just weren’t strong enough, even with the walker brakes, to keep the walker from sliding, and I gave up and returned to the patio at the top of the trail.  

View down the Discovery Trail before we decided to try it.

I sat there, feeling incredibly stupid, as I watched my friends, little old ladies, old men, kids, and people of every shape and kind going down that trail and huffing their way back up.  It was another wake-up moment for me on the IBM journey.  In case you haven’t been reading long, I have Inclusion Body Myositis.  Look it up.  I devolved into a serious pity party, sad for all I have lost and unable to be thankful at that moment for what I still have.  I had sunglasses on in the bright sun so I could bawl my eyes out safely and not get caught.  Until Joanne showed up after deciding that going all the way to the bottom was stupid and caught me crying.  Empathetic as Joanne has been with me throughout the years, her sense of humor won me over, and I was able to laugh at myself.  I can still walk, and many people with this disease cannot. 

When Phil and Loi returned, they said there wasn’t much down there except an icy trail and some really huge Jeffrey pines. 

The three of us at the top of the tram where we can see our RV Park location far below in the distance

The return trip on the tram was just as lovely as the ascension, and by the time I returned home to tell Mo the stories, I was over my silly episode.  Mostly.  It still is a bit frustrating at times for me to remember how strong and fit I was until just a few years ago, but I do try hard to be appreciative about what I still have that many don’t. Not always easy.

On the next day, Sunday, Phil and Jo hung out with Loi.  In the afternoon Loi came to visit at the park and Phil, Jo, Loi and I meandered over to the pavilion to play cards at the comfy tables under the pergola in the shade.  

John and Carol and sweet Jimmy at Harris Beach State park in Oregon

We played Skip Bo, a silly game that Mo and I played on a rainy day long ago with our friends John and Carol, who taught us how to play and provided margueritas for all that wet afternoon at Harris Beach.  It amazes me how many memories we have of friends we have met thanks to this blog and to theirs.  Carol and John no longer blog much but they are around on Facebook and are active in their work with Fantasy RV tours.

On Monday morning Hartwigs departed for a week at Anza Borrego State Park and Mo and I settled into what was to be a quiet week after all the activity of the previous week.  It was just what we needed.

The hyacinths I brought from home so I would miss their bloom loved the hot desert

Now it seems that my writing time is ending, and I will have to continue this story in the next post.  It is 6:15 and time to head for the pool, so we don’t miss swimming with Mike before we depart the park for the open desert. There are some fun activities I want to share, including the amazing Cabot Museum visit, updates on the Tracker connection issue, and Mo’s birthday celebration with just the two of us in Palm Springs.

To be continued:

 After arriving safely on Monday afternoon and getting settled into our site, I checked in with our friends to see how everyone was doing.  Jimmy and Nickie had been here for three weeks and so had already done many of the things we wanted to show Phil and Joanne for their first visit here.  However, the first priority for us the next morning was a swim in our favorite pool

It was a bit surprise to step into what we expected to be balmy warm waters to discover that the pool was barely 85 degrees.  It felt warm to Joanne, who is used to swimming in a cooler pool at her fitness club, but not to us.  We are used to the pool being a good 95F.  This year, as Nickie warned us, there have been a few issues with the well pump and the temperature of the pool has varied a bit.  We still enjoyed our swim, but it wasn’t quite the silky warm bath we expected.

After some discussion, Nickie and Jimmy took off for parts unknown and Mo and I with Phil and Joanne decided that a visit to the Ten Thousand Palms Oasis would be a good starting point for a short walk for me and a longer hike for them into the desert.  Nickie had warned us that the oasis was much different than in the past, with floods and lack of funds to maintain the property causing serious damage.  We thought maybe we could at least walk down to the oasis even though the parking lot was gated.

Once we arrived however, we discovered not only a gated parking lot but signs saying no hiking was allowed in the area except on Wednesday through Sunday.  It was a bit of a disappointment because the photo below is what I remembered and wanted to share with my friends.

Mo and I have enjoyed many wonderful hikes in this area over the years, and we loved it for the shade, the water, the sound of the streams, and the wonderful visitor center that explained so much about the landscape, the San Andreas Fault that underlies the oasis and the native plants in this area.

Ten Thousand Palms Oasis is a private reserve, and it has suffered severe damage from flooding, and now from lack of funding.  This is what it says on the website: 

“We are a private 880-acre Nature Preserve within the Coachella Valley Preserve. The Center for Natural Lands Management (CNLM), a nonprofit tax-exempt organization, owns/manages Thousand Palms Oasis in an ecologically beneficial manner consistent with local, state, and federal environmental laws. Founded in 1990 in California, CNLM protects sensitive biological resources through professional, science-based stewardship of conservation lands in perpetuity.”

Instead, signs directed us to park a bit down the road at the Pushwalla Palms trailhead, and an interesting hike through open desert country to another smaller palm oasis. I have good memories of hiking the Pushwalla Palms trail with good friends Laurie and Odel back in 2010, but it isn’t necessarily a good hike for weak legs and hot temperatures.

Sue and Laurie Brown hiking the Pushwalla Trail in December of 2010

On this hot day in February, Phil and Joanne, and Mo and I, parked our cars along the highway and started up the trail. (A little side note here: RVr’s often used their towed vehicles as a sort of garage, and all the back seats are usually full of “stuff”.  Hence, it is often the case that only two people per car are manageable without a lot of juggling.) The views from the top are quite spectacular and I was thrilled that I managed to climb the steep beginning portion of the trail to the overlook.

Joanne at the beginning of the Pushwalla Traill

Mo and Sue at the first overlook on the Pushwalla Trail

I watched Phil and Jo continue up the trail but had no desire to push my IBM legs any further in the heat.  I was thrilled to manage what  I did, with just about a mile of hiking.  Mo and I waved goodbye to our friends and traveled back home to the welcome coolness of the RV at the park. On the first few days at Catalina Spa, it was warm, but not too hot to stay comfortable with fans and open windows throughout the afternoon.

Visiting in the evening with our friends, we all decided that Wednesday would be a good day for the six of us to visit the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens on the southern side of the Coachella Valley in Palm Desert.  Mo and I are used to traveling the many routes from Desert Hot Springs across the Valley to Palm Springs and the many communities that line Highway 111 through the valley.

This was the first time we had visited this part of the desert without seeing wildflowers in full bloom in every direction.  The most prolific flower in this area is the sand verbena, creating carpets of purple across the sandy soils of the valley.

A Photo from a previous year of brittlebush and purple sand verbena along Varner Road near our campground at Desert Hot Springs 

This year, there was very little rain, and the desert landscape was dry and barren, with only crinkled brown stems where the verbena was on the ground and the brittlebush shrubs were covered with dried branches and no new buds or flowers to be seen. 

We expected the Living Desert to have a bit more color since it is partially irrigated, but the lack of water was evident there as well. The beautiful natural gardens depicting habitats throughout the Americas showed serious damage from the drought situation in Southern California.

Most of the habitats at the Living Desert are spacious with much-needed shade for the animals

The animals were still wonderful, and we were entertained by knowledgeable docents and volunteers who shared the stories of the important work that the park does to contribute to the protection of endangered species, with an emphasis on careful genetic management.  

I especially enjoyed the discussion of the difference between the white rhino and the black rhino.  White rhinos are big and have square noses, and black rhinos have a prehensile nose.  Originally, white rhinos were the only known species, but the name was a mistake in translation when someone mistook “wide” for “white”.  Thus, when a new species was discovered that wasn’t a white rhino, they simply called it a black rhino.  Both species of rhinos are a gray tan color.

Nia is still too immature to breed, but the plan is to mate Nia in about two more years with Jaali, who is also at the zoo.  The purpose is to help the world population of black rhinos, with only a little bit more than 6,000 animals left existing in the wild.

The park is quite lovely, with winding paths that are often circular.  The six of us started together, heading toward the giraffes, which are always a favorite.  

A yearling giraffe in the distance and one of the older boys reaching for leaves.  The newborns are not expected this year until May.

I was interested in the black rhinos, and Phil and Joanne followed Mo and me while Jimmy and Nickie headed back to the giraffes.  Mo and I started looking for another favorite of ours, the cute little meerkats.  Mattie sits much like a meerkat, so we always love watching them.

The four of us never saw Jimmy and Nickie again until everyone was almost finished with touring the park.  In the meantime, we enjoyed seeing animals from around the African continent, in addition to the special displays for North America, South America, and Australia.

The cheetahs are another favorite, at first sleeping in the shadows.  Our patience was rewarded when they decided to wake and travel slowly across the habitat.  The docent told us that the cheetah races that we saw a few years ago are no longer needed because the three cheetah sisters figured out they didn’t need to race to get the treats offered at the other end of their area.  We loved seeing how incredibly fast they were back then.  This time, they simply sauntered, but doesn’t that look like a magnificent hunting animal?

We were all amazed at the speed that this tortoise displayed walking toward us.  I don’t think any of us have seen a tortoise walking upright on all four legs as this one was walking.

Joanne and  Phil at the Living Desert

We ended our shared time at the Kookaburra Cafe, where we had a great salad and drinks in view of the Big Horn Sheep habitat. With some urging from Mo, I stood up in the middle of the space and got a few long-distance shots of these wonderful animals in their perfect element.

There is so much to learn at the Living Desert, and each time we go, I am impressed with the wealth of knowledge about the animals, their breeding and habitat needs, and funny little tidbits of information that the docents offer throughout the park.  It was a nearly perfect day.

Once everyone was back home at Catalina, we got together a bit to discuss plans for Thursday.  It is interesting trying to coordinate different styles into something cohesive.  Mo and I are the only crazy ones who like to swim at sunrise and neither of us particularly likes going to the pools in the afternoon and evenings.  Jimmy and Nickie love to swim after long hot days on one of the many trails that they explore either with hiking or biking and Phil and Joanne also enjoy afternoon and evening swims.

One thing we all love to do, however, is eat, and after such a great experience with Jimmy and Nickie last year at Tommy Bahama’s Marlin Bar we decided it would be a good choice with options for everyone.  Palm Drive is lined with many restaurants with streetside tables and any one of them would be a good choice to enjoy dinner before the Thursday night Street Market.

We had a great time with excellent service and delicious salads, sliders, and other goodies in addition to some yummy cocktails for some of us.  I especially loved the frozen specialty drink flight, mostly because it was so pretty.

After our early dinner, the six of us meandered through the market, sometimes together, other times not, and we all enjoyed the evening light over the mountains and the sparkling lights of the many bars and restaurants.  

It felt like a very happy evening for almost everyone.  It was especially happy for me because I dropped into a ridiculously expensive store called “Johnny Was” Palm Springs, and bought a beautifully impractical silk kimono in colors I couldn’t resist.  

In the past, when we were in the Palm Springs area, I made the rounds between the many quilt stores that used to be here.  Most of them are now closed, so I could justify my luxurious purchase because I wasn’t buying a bunch of quilt fabric this time.

Our friends Jimmy and Nickie left on Friday morning to return to their home in Nevada City, California. Mo and I were glad that our time at Catalina overlapped at least a little bit this year and we could spend some time together.

From left: back row-Joanne, Jimmy, Phil, front row-Nickie, Mo, Sue

Bye-bye to two of our good friends until next time. We are lucky that these two live close enough to us that we manage to visit each other every now and then and spend some good times together in the mountains of California or at the beach in Oregon. Just a side note here, for any readers who don’t know this already: we met Jimmy and Nickie thanks to this blog and Nickie’s blog, where we commented on each other’s writings long before we met in person many years ago.

We still had a few days to share with the Hartwigs before we parted ways for a time, and those stories will come next:  to be continued.

As I sit here attempting to recreate the previous two weeks, I am cooled by the noisy air conditioning fan blowing directly on my head.  Even though the weather app says that the outside temperature is a balmy 90F, the MoHo outside thermometer is reading 109.  I suppose it is somewhere in between those two numbers, but the only really cool place in the MoHo at this moment is right beneath this air conditioning in the chair that Mo brought in for me a bit ago. Thank goodness for hookups and air conditioning. 

We aren’t spending much time on the hot patio at our site at Catalina Spa these days.

I thought it might be fun to add a photo of conditions at home just a couple of days before we departed. I am making an important note to self regarding our departure dates next year when we head south to the deserts.  This is the latest we have ventured to Desert Hot Springs and it is the hottest weather we have experienced in this part of California.  I have learned my lesson.  I don’t enjoy being cold, but heat like this is worse.  The pavement and even the sandy trails are too hot for Mattie’s paws, and the sun beating down on the side of the MoHo is heating up the interior walls so much that they are untouchable.  We cannot put the awning out to protect the sidewall from the heat because the wind is blowing just enough to make extending the awning unsafe.  Let’s head South we said!  Let’s leave the rain and snow behind we said.  

This season our friends Phil and Joanne decided to travel south with us and arrived at Sunset House on Friday evening before our expected departure. Daughter Deborah has known them as long as I have, since 1977, and came over the evening they arrived to visit and enjoy time together.

Last summer, Phil and Jo purchased the materials and pattern for a quilt they loved and I managed to finish it in time for our southern trip.  Joanne wanted something bright to cheer up their motorhome and I think this quilt did the trick.

The next morning there was a perfect break in the winter weather and we departed from home without incident right at 8am.  Traveling south on I-5, we had no snow or ice on the road and only deep snowbanks on the edges of the curbs in Mt Shasta where we fueled both rigs in order to give us plenty of fuel to reach our destination for the night at Flag City RV Park in Lodi, California.

The entire drive was completely without incident and the sunlight was brilliant.  The skies were so clear that we could see the coast range to the west and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east.  Traffic was light all the way to Lodi and winds were almost non-existent.  It may have been the easiest trip south we have experienced in years.

As we continued south on I-5 the next day conditions were just as perfect.  I must have said a dozen times how amazing it was that there was no traffic and no wind on I-5 all the way to Highway 58 west of Bakersfield.  

Of course, even though we no longer camp at Orange Grove RV Park, I still needed my winter fix of sweet navel oranges.  We urged Phil and Joanne to continue east over the pass toward Tehachapi while we stopped to buy some oranges from the Californa Fruit Depot just a couple of blocks south of the freeway where we used to exit on Edison Road at Orange Grove RV Park.  We fondly remember the days when an overnight stay there yielded as many oranges as we could pick from their trees, early morning free coffee and fresh donuts, and a great free rig washing station.  Things change over the years, and sadly Orange Grove became much more expensive, donuts only offered once a week, and most of the oranges gone on trees no longer well cared for.

I bought two bags of perfect oranges at the Fruit Depot in less than five minutes and we were back on the road.  There are several exits in Tehachapi that will lead to the Mountain Valley RV Park near the airport and we decided to take the middle exit.  We slowly crossed a bumpy railroad crossing when I heard a loud crunch and within seconds we felt a strong bump into the RV.  I knew immediately that the car had come loose, but it wasn’t until we got out to see how bad it was that we realized the stinger that goes into the hitch receiver had snapped and the car had rolled forward into the RV.  The tow hitch on the car had rolled into the pavement under the RV and nothing would move.  Within seconds three young men jumped out of their cars and started helping us.  Within no time they had the car released and told me to move the rig to the side of the road and Mo drove the car off the tracks. Later we realized how lucky we were that there wasn’t a train coming and that those kind young men were nearby and willing to help.

Mo and I remained amazingly calm as I drove the rig to the park with Mo following in the slightly damaged Tracker.  When we settled in and had the chance to check out the damage we saw that spare tire rack on the MoHo was bent, the cord for the power supply for the Tracker from the MoHo was damaged and even with slight damage to the left front fender of the Tracker the headlight still worked.

One of the helper guys suggested that Home Depot was open and we might be able to get a new stinger before they closed. Mo and I reconnected with Phil and Jo at the campground and filled them in on our situation and then drove the Tracker to Home Depot where we found a stinger.  Once back at the campground, I heated up our pre-cooked meat loaf dinner while Mo worked on the damaged power cable that connected the car to the MoHo.  Worst case scenario we could drive separately to Desert Hot Springs if needed.

Needless to say, our sleep that night was a bit restless.  The next morning Mo realized that the cable worked for the running lights but not the turn lights or brake lights.  It was daylight and the Tracker is small enough that the lights are visible on the MoHo when we are hooked up so we hooked up everything for our last travel day and headed east on Highway 58 with Phil and Jo following.

Kramer’s Corner where Mo and I spent a rather noisy night on one of our return journeys back to the  northwest.

It was another uneventful day with beautiful weather and light traffic.  Highway 58 from Tehachapi to Bakersfield was once a difficult road, with just two lanes and a lot of truck traffic.  It has been improved in the last few years and Kramer’s Corner at the junction of Highway 58 and Highway 395 is no longer quite as important as it once was.  We did stop at the Pilot there for fuel and Mo and I fondly remember a couple of noisy overnights that we spent there in our travels in the past.  

Once we reached Barstow, I was was thrilled as always to once again be driving Higway 247 between Barstow and Yucca Valley. Mo did a great job taking photos through the windshield and only a few bug splatters may remain  in the photos.

Down the last steep hill between Yucca Valley and The Coachella Valley where Desert Hot Springs is located.  That is Mount San Jacinto in the bacground at over 10,000 fet tall.  This part of the trip always feels like we are going home

We arrived at Catalina Spa and RV Resort in early afternoon as planned, and were delighted to discover that we were assigned our previous site number 23 with a short walking distance to the pool.  Phil and Joanne were just a couple of sites away from us and directly across from our friends Jimmy ad Nickie Wilkinson, who had been at Catalina for three weeks with plans to leave within a few days of our arrival. We were happy that our schedules managed to overlap for this visit.

More to come as I continue to write about the week we shared with Phil and Joanne and Nickie and Jimmy.  In the mean time, the sun has set, the night has cooled and we are settling in for the evening with nothing to worry about except how soon we will rise for our morning swimg.

 I know that anyone looking closely at this post will see that I wrote it on the 5th of February,  I almost didn’t write a post for January, but I needed to be sure that the big black books that I publish every year didn’t have a glaring empty spot for the first month of 2025.  

At the moment, I am watching more snowfall, with a lot of rain mixed in.  As is often the case, there was no snow at Christmas, no snow throughout January, and then February blew in like an ice demon with more snow than we have seen here in Grants Pass since we have lived here.  

At the moment, Interstate 5 is at a crawl or a standstill, depending on when you look at the drone footage or the trip check cameras.  It is so cold and damp and icy and wet outside that I can barely make myself open a door to give the hummingbirds some warm food.  But all this is for another story, one that I may completely forget by the time I am through with what is hopefully a warm and sunny February.

For whatever reason, (pick your choice, lack of sunlight, gray skies, politics, cold weather pains,) I have been somewhat depressed this month.  I am not normally a depressive personality but found myself waking every morning with an oppressive feeling of doom.  Sometimes I would wake in the night realizing that I had been crying in my sleep.  Mo is much more evenly balanced than I am, and yet she has been very patient with this gray pall that has hung over me for much of the month. 

It was so bad that I actually called the doctor asking for some help, maybe an antidepressant.  I have never taken one, and he prescribed something simple for me.  I think the thought of taking it kicked me out of the worst of my depression and with additional doses of vitamin D3 I seem to be doing better without having to succumb to drugs.  (I do not consider a shot of whiskey now and then, an extra big cup of hot coffee, or a glass of wine as drugs.) I have used all three this month, with a chocolate or two thrown in for good measure.

But enough of my whining, and on to the real stuff that made the month of January an Ok month.

This was the early morning view out the bedroom window before I started taking the lights down

Because winter is so very dark when the sun sets before 5PM, I am reluctant to take down the Christmas lights.  I wait as long as I can before I begin the process, taking my time.  I first work on interior house decor, then finally the village is packed away with Daughter Deborah’s help, and finally I step outside and begin taking down lights.

All the indoor stuff stacked and ready for boxes

With so much fog keeping everything outside wet I needed to bring it all into the garage to let it dry out before packing it up.  I made a commitment that anything that I don’t use every year will go to goodwill and the bins you see on the left side of the garage are where it all gets stored.

I started the project on January 5th and finished the house stuff on the 8th.  It then took me two days to take down the village the following weekend. Matthew took down the roof lights on the 13th.  So it was just a little over a week for the entire project, and I didn’t work so hard that I wore myself out.  I think about this every year.  How many more years will I do this?  I have no idea but I am not ready to give up yet.

Our next-door neighbors told us how much they loved looking out their windows in the early morning and seeing the windmill all lit up.  Matthew didn’t take down the windmill lights until the end of January.  It made the darkness a bit more bearable to have that bit of color down in the lower pasture.

According to my calendar, the dense fog inversion in Grants Pass began on January 6th and didn’t leave us until January 20th.  It is almost certain that if we have a dry month without rain, the high pressure will cause the cold fog to fill the valley.  We know that just above the inversion layer there is bright sunshine, and sometimes people will travel up in elevation and post photos the the beautiful views above the gray.  If the inversion lifts, it is often because the high-pressure system is leaving and a low-pressure storm system is moving into the valley.  I laugh because then the foggy gray gives way to rainy gray.  But for me, rainy gray is better because at least it moves around a bit and the clouds have some life and energy in them.

Mo and I treated ourselves well during the month, with puzzles to entertain us, pedicures and a haircut for me, a bit of shopping, and a breakfast out at our favorite restaurant.

I was inspired by one of Janna’s blogs about her artisan bread and decided to make my own, with more attention to the detail that was included in the email Janna sent to me of the pages in her New Artisan Bread Book.  The bread came out perfect.

Mo has more willingness to go outside in the damp weather than I do and she managed to do many maintenance jobs around the property in the afternoons.  I filled up a good amount of time finishing a quilt I made for our friends Phil and Joanne who will be traveling with us to Southern California this year.  Joanne saw the quilt made up last year when the four of us visited Joy of Quilting in Florence on the Oregon Coast and bought the full kit when I said I could make it for them.

On a Sunday afternoon, we enjoyed a truly spectacular performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony at the Grants Pass Performing Arts Center.  I have loved that symphony since I was a kid and enjoyed reading about the history surrounding it.  I thought that maybe everyone knew and loved the Fifth and that because it was my favorite maybe it meant I wasn’t a very sophisticated music lover, but hearing that symphony live brought tears to my eyes and I once again understood why it is often the one mentioned most often by music lovers.

Another little bit of self-care for me was a bit of old-fashioned French cooking.  Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child was an old favorite that I somehow lost in our moves.  I mentioned this here and there and lo and behold I ended up with three copies of the book.  One for Christmas from Deborah, one from Maryruth, and one arriving from Amazon ordered by my sister in California.  Crazy.  

I decided to make a classic roast pork in a casserole.  In my mind, a casserole is that glass thing that you bake something in, but in Julia’s version, it is a heavy-lidded pot that can go stovetop for rendering bacon fat for browning the roast and then covered and put in the oven for baking in moist heat.  Of course, I couldn’t settle for just any pan for such a recipe and went to our local Kitchen Store where I was shown the amazing French cooking pots made by Emile Henry.  It was a ridiculously expensive pan, a super treat, and may have been what really brought me out of my funk.  The pork roast was the best I have ever made,

At last, toward month’s end on January 20th, the sun broke through the fog and lit up the world around us with a breathtaking brilliance.  Mo worked on a water system she had developed for our long line of shrubs along the front of the property and I raked and cleaned out several flower beds.  

we waited every day for the afternoon sun to appear before going out to the yard to work in the beautiful light.  I was so grateful for sunshine and each evening we noticed a tiny bit of daylight added before our early sunsets. 

Mo is the one who hauls the cart to the trailer with the debris that I add to the cart.  I would wear down a lot faster if I had to do the raking AND the hauling. She also does a lot of raking when I wear down and can’t keep up. Mo is a lot tougher than I am any more.

The chrysanthemums along the walkway don’t seem to understand that it is now midwinter and they should no longer be blooming.   I cut them back anyway, because by spring they will be completely unmanageable.

The latter days of January were filled with fun times with friends and family.  The book club had a meeting on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Red Lily Winery, where we laughed and ate goodies and shared wine flights.  

Oh yes, we did actually talk about the book and chose another one for next month.  The book we read last was called “The Island of Missing Trees” by Elif Shafek.  The book was mostly good, but a couple of us had the same reaction.  It was well written and interesting until it got boring and then interesting again and then we would lose interest.  There was so much beauty in the writing, and the story was sad but good.  We all learned more about the complex historical relationship between Greece and Turkey.  I knew a bit of this from my friends Erin and Mui, originally from Turkey, but I didn’t realize that the shifts in population between the two countries affected Cyprus as well.  The conflict between the Turkish people and the Greek people on Cypress was every bit as bad as the conflicts in Ireland, with a fenceline separating people who hated each other.  I would recommend the book even with its flaws.

The very next day was Daughter Deborah’s birthday and we celebrated with a small family gathering with me and Mo and with Deb’s son Matthew and his sweetie Katty.  Deb asked for patty melts and carrot cake and both were truly delicious.  We had a lovely time for most of the afternoon laughing and sharing stories.

Mattie loves having company and is very polite as she joins the family for meals.  She doesn’t beg, but she does have a very intense gaze until the meal is over and she gets a bit of a treat.

Mattie spent much of the month on the couch or the loveseat or in my lap in the rocker with a blanket. She doesn’t like the cold very much, loves lap time with the blankie, and loves lying on the rug in front of the fireplace.