Who gets a cold in the desert?

Apparently we do!  Donald received the gift of the sniffles and a cough a day before the 25th and Kim received a seemingly worse version the night of the 25th.  We haven't had colds in years, so this is quite annoying.

We did go to the RV park Christmas dinner, and it was a bit of a mix up but we managed to find a place to sit and enjoyed the little entertainment portion.

Of course, the 3 pm eating time was a new time for us, and when we went home it felt like 10pm, instead of 5:00, so we had a good laugh over that.

 On Boxing Day we both decided it was boring sitting around moaning about our colds, so we headed out for a drive. First stop was Thousand Palms, right on the San Andreas Fault line. Cool! ( yes, literally, it was way cooler in the palms ).

Unshaven Palms.  Not like the naked ones in Beverley Hills. I am talking trees here, don't get any ideas. Trivia: did you know that underneath the palm, in the natural brown leaves, it is almost 20 degrees cooler?

Then..... Up Up Up the highway " Palms to Pines"... and my goodness what a road that is.  Donald asked at some point about the view - HA! There was no way I was looking over the edge, as I was busy putting my foot through the floorboards and trying to squeeze apart the passenger seat handle with my right hand. We did stop at the viewpoint, and it was lovely.  Unbelievable to look down at the road we had just come up. We watched the one and only RV ( big sign before the start of the highway said NO TRUCKS! ) chugging and chugging steadily up that road.  I said his wife was probably fainted already or yelling and Donald figures he did it on purpose as a shortcut to San Diego. In any event, he would have used a ton of fuel.

See the little grey winding strip in the picture below? Yep, that is the road.  No shoulders, no guardrails. Drivers in beemers going like mad.  Sheesh.  Give me the prairie roads.

 We continued on almost to Hemet.   Today, still not wanting to be around anyone with our colds and since it is supposed to be turning cold and maybe rainy, we drove up to Joshua Tree and went into the National Park through the east gate called Joshua Tree, imagine that.  More on tomorrows blog. No roads from !#@$% will be mentioned.

Feliz Navidad

We went back to College of the Desert, this time on a sunny day - even the coffee has Christmas sprinkles!

 

The Date shakes did not look very appealing, but we came for the Gyros, and they were delicious and their booth always had a lineup! 

We cooked our Christmas Turkey this evening on our Salton roaster outside.  I am sure the neighbourhood was loving the aroma! 

don't turn your back on your cat - that paw is about to grab the biggest bone off the plate.

Our best warm wishes for all readers and family during this Holiday season time.

Street Fair in Palm Springs

Every Thursday evening, six blocks of downtown Palm Springs are closed to a Street Fair and it was quite enjoyable.  The temperatures were on the cool side, and at the end of our stroll through the streets we stopped at Burger Mary's to sit near a lovely fireplace, warm up and enjoy a couple of huge burgers. Burger Mary's deliver your bill in this wacky red high heeled shoes - perhaps the " mary" wore such shoes?

The drive over and back to Desert Hot Springs was interesting because of roads still closed due to mud and rain/flood damage. The turn off onto Bubbling Wells Road still have large humps of mud you have to drive around.

Earlier in the day we did the dog park thing, meeting some fellow rv'ers and their dogs.  How come they ask for your dog's name, but not yours? I offered it anyway. So, our old girl met Monty, Gidget and Angel.

I wish I could have posted some pictures, but my wee little camera just does not like taking night pictures.  Perhaps a new camera is in the plans for the future......

Today's plans are to visit the local grocery store, get that turkey into the Salton oven and check to see if we are still set up to go to the RV park Christmas dinner.  It is finally sunny out again, so some outdoor plans need to be made. 

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!!

Good day for Ducks

 

An enjoyable day in the rain, and these lovely little ducks certainly look like they were having fun!

The dog and Kim went for a walk up and down the streets of the RV Park and they eventually  made their way over to the Dog Park, only to be the only ones there in the downpour.

Our little old dog walked right by the ducks and did not even seem to care as she is more interested in the smells and scents from other dogs.

Donald went out this afternoon without the help of his navigator,( who was cutting out all the pieces for a new quilt top ) and relied on using Gertrude, our GPS.  It worked just fine.  There were still roads closed in the area due to flooding, and signs of flooding in more of the washes.

Today we saw our first Road Runner in the wash next to the RV.  Beep. Beep.

Signing Up

Yesterday morning we had a great visit from a park " concierge", who was checking to see if we had settled in, had questions, and did we know about all the activities.  We were very pleased with this unexpected visit and that started our day off most pleasantly.  He also informed us that the rain we are (not) enjoying had resulted in a local busy road ( Palm Drive ) being closed on the other side of I - 10.

It was raining so hard, that any outside activities were not going to be attractive, so we did some shopping, and of course we did drive to see why the road was closed!  It was bumper to bumper traffic, but Donald enjoyed that, as he could take a good look around! Now that is enjoying your trip, when you can enjoy snarled up traffic ! Ha! One of the golf courses ( Cimarron ) was closed, as quite a river was running through it.

We stopped by the clubhouse, and signed up for Christmas Dinner - we are to bring buns and butter and a salad.  The ham will be provided.  I purchased a turkey the other day from Costco and that will be cooked on Christmas Eve as really, it just isn't Christmas without turkey bunwiches for leftovers. The turkey will be cooked in our Salton Roaster that we have brought along.

Today, we do not have any sightseeing plans again because of the rain.  Donald is going to fix and replace a shelf in the 5th, and I think I will be organizing and doing some quilting.  Tomorrow is the quilting group here at the Sands.

For Rick and Paulette: yes, there is a little river running down the washes in the park now!  I will try to take a picture later today.