Goodbye to Palm Springs

We have had a great time in Palm Springs and we leave with some reluctance, but we are also excited to be getting back on the road again!  Some random images from our stay here:

Our claustraphobic little space at the Happy Traveler

Relaxing by the pool at the Happy Traveler

The dessert case at Sherman's, the best Jewish deli we've ever found outside of NYC

Downtown Palm Springs

Great band we saw at Pioneertown, about 45 minutes outside of PS

Palm Springs art museum

Palm Springs has a great little art museum, specializing in modern art, Cahuilla Indian art (mostly baskets) and Western art.  They offer free admission on Thursday afternoon, so we spent a few hours here and then went to the village fest street fair held every Thursday for some gyros and tamales.

Driftwood horse

Figure made from steel blocks

Palm Springs Tram

Palm Springs is nestled at the foot of Mt. San Jacinto, the second highest peak in southern California, nearly 11,000 feet high.  The aerial tramway just north of town takes passengers up to the 8,500 foot level in about 20 minutes, transporting them from the desert floor to an alpine pine forest. This tram is one of the highest and steepest in the world.

We rode the tram and hiked around the San Jacinto wilderness area for most of a day and loved the change of scenery.  In a normal year, there would be lots of snow up at the top, but this year it was mostly clear and dry.

View from the tram

Palm Springs from the top of the tram

Palm Springs Air Museum

World War II is, for me, the "best" war of the twentieth century.  An incomprehensible human tragedy measured in millions of lives lost, and starring some of the most vile and evil regimes in modern history, it was a war where the United States was on the side of the good guys and changed the course of history for the better.  It was in many ways the period in history that showed the best of who we are as a country.

The Palm Springs Air Museum is focused on the WWII period of aviation and has some wonderful planes and exhibits.  Many of the docents are veterans of WWII and Korea and add to the experience immensely. This museum had many planes where you could sit in the cockpit or the navigators station and really picture what it was like to fly them.

B-29 bomber

Herb gave us a tour of the B-29

Quartzite, Arizona

Quartzite is a tiny desert town about 20 miles from the California border, home to about 3,300 people for 10 months of the year.  But in January and February, Quartzite hosts the largest assemblage of RVers in the world and becomes temporarily the third largest city in Arizona--drawing 1.5 million people!  Seeing as how we were in Blythe, just 20 miles away, and the bluegrass festival was over, we decided to come on over to check it out.

Quartzite sits in the middle of Bureau of Land Management federal land where they allow dry camping (without hookups for water or electricity)  in any of several areas.  These areas are literally miles across, so you can drive out into the desert, find a cactus you like and park next to it.  So here we are, about four miles from town out in the desert.  I'll get some more pictures tomorrow of the sea of RVs as far as you can see.  But it's cool because there is so much room, it isn't crowded.

So the other claim to fame for Quartzite is that it is probably the world's largest flea market, specializing in RV stuff, rocks and crystals, and the usual assorted junk.  Flea markets take over the entire town, every large parking lot or vacant lot is covered with tents, booths, stands, signs, flags, air-powered bouncy figures and barbecue joints.  It is pretty amazing.  We plan to spend a couple days here, then head back to the relative civilization of Palm Springs.

Where the h#ll is Blythe?

Blythe is a town of 20,000 (well, actually if you don't count the residents of the two state prisons here, more like 10,000) on the California side of the Colorado River  bordering Arizona. We came over from Palm Springs for a bluegrass music festival this weekend. We took our trailer and are dry camping with hundreds of others in the county fairgrounds. 

 

We took a free tour of the Palo Verde valley when we got here and it was very interesting.  We had a local farmer as a tour guide on the bus and we visited a cotton gin and a hay processing plant.  I know it sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry, but it was actually great to see how cotton is grown, harvested and processed.

  

Raw cotton

Cotton harvesting machine

Raw cotton from the fields

Finished bales of cotton

Lynnae examining the cotton plants

  The hay processing facility was really interesting, because they collect the hay from local farmers, compress it into bales and then ship the bales to CHINA and JAPAN, all of them.  It turns out that hay doesn't grow all that well in Asia, because it is too wet, but the real kicker is that all those containers of stuff going to America from China would return empty, so the cost to ship the bales of hay to China is [practically zero... lower than shipping it up to central California.

Now THIS feels like a milestone

California residents again! At least for a while...