Palm Springs How Do I Love Thee....

Let me count the ways:

1. It's not Quartzite
2. It is a true oasis
3. They have the palm plantations to justify the name
4. Old Hollywood still reigns supreme on the Palm Springs Strip
5. For this old gardener, the desert landscaping makes me swoon
6. The county campground was extraordinary, convenient, clean, quiet and incredibly beautiful
7. It is a REAL resort community with something for everyone, rich or not-so-rich, if you like theatre (bingo), golf? (bingo), mountain biking? (bingo), shopping? (double bingo).
8. ALL OF THE ABOVE....

All I can say is that it was the warmest spot that we had all winter, but it was the sweetest softest heat I have encountered in the desert. I loved the palms, real date palms and they came in hundreds of acres. The facilities were wonderful, the people kind and the traffic manageable. What else could anyone like me (a dedicated snowbirder) want for Pete's sake??

Case closed.

Photo's of our Palm Springs experience:

Date Palm plantation

More Date Palms

Dry desert landscaping.

Palm Springs House

The view over Palm Springs.

Palm Springs landscaping.

Palm Springs overlooking the date palm plantations

The following  photos are taken while driving the "Strip" in Palm Springs.

Something always going on!

At the campground.

Our camp site at Lake Cahuilla County Park. 

The campground with the mountains in the back ground.

Sunrise over the desert at the campground.

Quartzite Arizona

Valentine's Day dawned, and we were off to Quartzite Arizona after breaking camp in Tucson. The entire trek across the Sonora desert was quite flat, hot, dusty and boring. Rick was determined to be romantic on this most auspicious of romantic days, so he glumly announced that the only stop we would be making around mid-day would be Gila Bend, Arizona. I don't suppose any of you have been there so let me describe it for you. It is flat, hot, dusty and boring. But I really didn't want to disappoint the man from his romantic quest, so I suggested that when he got gas (at a flat, hot, dusty boring truck stop) that he ask the lady inside where the best place in town was to eat. She told him it was definitely L'il Italy, on the main drag. Well, I don't really think there is any other drag to be honest, Gila Bend is a bit deprived of population, and eating establishments other than the ubiquitous Subway and McDonalds (TWO of them!)....happily for me, we saw the L'il Italy come up, a very nice adobe style building with a large lot for the RV. We tucked Molly into the fifth wheel where she would be cool and we went in for our Valentine Day's lunch. Needless to say the menu was basically Italian. Rick's mouth was watering for a pizza so he ordered himself that. The special for the day was homemade spaghetti and meatballs, so the Barbie one of us went mad and ordered that.

Golly, was that food good. The meatballs were better than mine. It came with a homemade roll that had been baked in the pizza oven and had a nice crispy bottom crust. YUM YUM YUM. After a simply fine meal, we continued on our long, flat, dusty, and not-so-boring trip to Quartzite. Amazing what good food can do as a mood enhancer!!

The main focus in Quartzite is the boondocking and snowbirding plus the annual Quartzite Sports, Vacation and RV Show. Thankfully we just missed the last one on the list, and the place was relatively empty of mad keen RVers. We pulled into our slot at the RV Park and opened the truck door and fell over flat with the heat. At 4 PM you could easily have fried an egg on the tarmac. The club house was serving a free Mexican food dinner, and here we were all stuffed up with Italian!!  We went over anyway and had a bowl of (free) ice cream and carried back an extra bit for Molly who adores vanilla ice cream.

Although everyone was very nice to us, there we were parked on a heat-radiating gravel and concrete slab, in the middle of a flat, hot, dusty and boring desert plain and wondering why on earth ANYONE would want to spend their winter here. So far, I have no answer for you...

Parked in Quartzite in a sea of gravel next to our puny shade tree.

This inventive rig was park just up the way from us. An old Airstream trailer on a flat bed Kenworth.

Driving from Arizona to Central California.

Tomorrow we leave the Tucson area and start the journey west and north up the pacific coast. From here we will drive to Quartzite, Arizona and dry camp for the night on BLM land. For those of you not familiar with the term, BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management and a US federal agency that manages federal public lands in the western states. In general it is open desert and ranch land and camping is allowed for up to 14 days in any one area and then you are to move on to keep a maintain a low impact on the environment. From Quartzite we will spend a couple of days in Palm Springs, California before we drive up to the San Francisco Bay area for a few days. Here is a map for you to look at.

A: Amado Arizona
B: Tucson Arizona
C: Quartzite Arizona
D: Palm Springs California
E: Coalinga California
F: Vallejo California

An Exceptional Day...

Today was another one of those exceptional days. We decided before leaving Mexico that we wanted to drive up to the ski area on Mt Lemmon in the amazing Santa Catalina mountains just outside of Tucson. We had no idea what we would find at the end of the 27 mile paved road which climbed and climbed up through the various canyons, twisting through various stands of hoodoos, amazing rock formations that to me resembled  the heads of Easter Island. We kept passing the various markers for 5,000 ft then 6,000, 7,000 and finally 8,000 feet. We left behind the dry rocky slopes and graduated to pine and oak and then up to a bit of snow left on the northern sheltered slopes near the top.

We were pleasantly amazed at the ski village at the end of the route. It apparently is a year round village with permanent residents, a few stores and a community centre. We puttered around there for a bit and then realized that our 27 mile trip had taken almost 3 hours and we had better skeddale back down if we were to make it back for tea and cookies.

Below is a little photo journal of the day. Some of these were shot through the windshield of the truck so there is a little glare.

Looking out over the Tucson valley.

Snow on the shady side of the mountain. Our first snow of the winter.

At the ski area.

Cottages at 8000 ft. elevation.

In the pine forest.

Arizona-Sonoma Desert Museum...

Today was the much anticipated trip to the Museum that we missed on the way down. It turned out to be a beautiful spot in the desert, and a different sort of experience. The views and the scenery were spectacular, consisting of extended vistas across the Sonora desert. We were a bit surprised by the layout of the Museum and the untraditional presentation of zoo animals housed in amongst the gardens and pathways but we spent quite a bit of time exploring the 2 miles of pathways before we caught a cup of Java on the terrace of the coffee shop. After exploring the gift shop and the outside space, we were glad that we had arrived shortly after the opening time of 8:30AM as hordes of visitors were now lining up at the entrance. I thought it slightly over rated, but still a worthwhile venue to enjoy the extraordinary setting and learn first hand something about the amazing diversity of flora and fauna in the Sonora desert biome which extends over 100,000 square miles in two countries and five states. Photo tour below:

Having Coffee At the Museum.

The drive over Gates Pass Road on the way back from Tucson.

Amado Arizona

Well here we are, finally arrived in the temperature zone we have craved. Today at 2:45 PM in the RV Park at Amado Arizona, it finally reached 83.1 farenheit. Last night it dipped to 45 f which gives you some idea of the temperature extremes in the desert country. We are in the valley of the Santa Cruz River between Tucson and Nogales. This area is one of the most historic in all of the USA. The little arts town of Tubac just south of us is a historic gem, the second oldest settlement in the US (the oldest is Saint Augustine in northern Florida). We have an agenda while we spend the day here. One of my more illustrious ancestors (Lt General Sir William George Holmes) and his wife settled here after WW2, next to the amazing historic mission of Tumacacori just 2 kms south, and the General was involved with the Tubac Arts Council. He apparently was a decent painter himself and he spent his retirement years painting local scenes and subjects.

Pub in Tumacacori

Both he and his wife are interred at the columbarium at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Nogales so this morning we decided to visit and pay our respects. It was a lovely spot, beside the church.

 Luckily for us a parishioner was watering the meagre landscaping and chatted with us for a few minutes. He told us some of the history of the church and explained why the Santa Cruz River flows north from Mexico. It rises in the mountains of Arizona, then flows south into Mexico and curves around and flows north through the Santa Cruz valley. Eventually it flows into the Gila River, turns westward and ends up in the Colorado. At least it used to. Now the river dribbles into oblivion before even reaching the Gila, a victim of water diversion along its course. Although it looks very unimpressive
,

Santa Cruz river. 

 it has a very high significance to the peopling of this valley by the Hohokam natives hundreds of years ago and has supported agricultural life alongside its banks for the peoples who followed them.

We spent a good hour or two exploring in Tubac. This past weekend was the annual Arts Council Festival and was hopping with activity, but today was quiet and a good time to go seeking for my General. We stopped at the Presidio State Park Museum and talked to the volunteer at the desk. I told him the story and he offered to consult with the local Historical Society and check on any research material that they might have. We then explored the site of the old Presidio and walked the Old Town, and then visited the Arts Council and Gallery...

 Site of Spanish Presidio

Barbara and Molly on the grounds of the Presidio

Below are a few of the buildings in "Old Tubac"

There is still quite a bit of the old Tubac still to be found despite all the commercial attractions for the tourists..

Mexican Pottery for sale

All in all it was a very enjoyable and entertaining day and we really appreciated the chance to unwind and relax and get to stretch our legs.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Tucson for some shopping and visiting the Desert Museum which we missed on the way down. We are also going to follow the mountain drive up the Catalina Mountains and try for some nice photo ops up there. Unfortunately we may not have internet for the next few days, so we won't be able to post those photos right away. Just be patient and you will receive them as soon as possible.