WHOOOOOSHHHHH

What a busy day!
1. Visit the Dog Park. Duty done. 2. Go to Caliente Swap Meet/Farmer Market 3. Palm Springs Air Museum

The Swap/Farmer Market is held in Desert Hot Springs in a storage compound. That is actually a good idea - it is paved, clean and the vendors can just wheel their goods back into a storage lock up when done.  It costs 50 cents each to enter.  We didn't buy a thing.  There was only one local food vendor and we already had our bag of oranges from last weekend still to use up. Very windy at the meet. Whoosh.

 

Then, we were off to the Palm Springs Air Museum as today they had a special presentation and fly over.  An amazing place! We got there about 11:30 am and self toured the hangers, looking at the Army side first, then the B17 hanger and lastly the Marine/Air Force hanger.  The museum specializes in World War 2.  At 1:00, there was a great Program as part of their " Victory 65th Anniversary of WW2".  Today was " Island Hopping the Pacific".   The Marine/Navy/Air Force hanger has a great sound stage set up, and today hundreds were in attendance, including many, many vets.  A Presentation of Colours by Cathedral High School opened and closed the event.  The Palm Desert High School Choir, dressed in tuxedos and long black dresses, sang the American National Anthem and closed with America the Beautiful.  The 50 plus strong choir was top notch! Very moving.

 

I took 66 pictures today, and it is hard to pick the best to post.  At the end of the program, was a demonstration flight of a T33 Jet.  If that was not exciting enough, while the T33 was warming up on the tarmac by the museum, right in front of us four marine jets ( likely from Twenty Nine Palms Marine Base ) took off. WOW!!!!!! The word fast  is the key word here! WHOOOSHHH! And of course, they look very different and very 'space age' compared to the T33 Jet we were waiting to see take off. As we had no idea that was to happen, I could hardly get my camera ready quickly!

 

And below is the T33 Jet that demonstrated:

It was fun to read all the exhibits and read about ships in the Pacific Theatre, and their battles.  The artwork on the planes is a story itself.

Fly By of the T 33 Jet 

There were many 'docents' or volunteer WW2 Veterans who were more than happy to answer any of your questions or tell stories.  The T33 Jet belonged to the Museum, and many of the planes came from the estate of Robert Pond.  Some are flyable.  The pilot was a current Air Force pilot, likely donating his time, in order to gain more fly hours.  His passenger, as the T33 is a 2 seater, was one of the Museum's mechanic's, who had never flown in a military jet. I'll bet this was one of the best days of his life today - the jet flew low level fly by's 5 times in front of the museum. 

Fantastic day. Drove home through a sandstorm, with caution signs on the road advising that driving was at our own risk!  We have pulled in a couple of the 5th wheel slides to lessen the noise.  And CONGRATS to the Seahawks! See that Lynch whoosh down the field through 8 defenders?

Pioneertown and Sons of the Pioneers

With the weather warming up here in California, we drove up to the Yucca Valley to have a look at Pioneertown.  The Sons of the Pioneers singing group were business partners with a man named Dick Curtis, to build this town in 32,000 acres for movie sets for television and movies, in the mid 1940's.  The first western movie was made in 1948: Cisco Kid with Leo Carillo and the last movie was in 1995: Howling 7, New Moon Rising.  Now, I am such a young lady that I do not remember the Cisco Kid, and I only know of the Sons of the Pioneers from Bayfield Al, but Donald thought everyone knew about those shows from when they were kids.  Sorry dear, it was Superman and Rocketship 7 out of a Buffalo, NY t.v. station for me!  Yes, yes, I know about Roy Rogers and Dale Evans!

This little town has seen better days - it was in disrepair, and it looked like the recent heavy rains a couple of weeks ago have taken their toll on the main street.  It was still fun to look and take pictures and it was a cool day to take the dog with us - there was snow on the street!

Of course, we had to have lunch at Pappy and Harriet's, which at one time was a biker bar, and with the few patrons here today, it maybe hasn't changed much from that!

 

 

Another enjoyable day, and tomorrow we are off to the Palm Springs Air Museum. Oh yes, found another quilt store nearby - hey - actually Donald found it and he suggested I go! Whoo Hoo! I did !

And we went Dancin' Dancin' whooooo

No, the Bee Gees were not the band playing at the dance, but we had fun.  We have not really participated in any of the RV Park activities so far, and with only one week to go, we decided to do a few of them so that we have a real good 'feel' of this park.  The dance started early at 6:30 PM ( hard to get used to these earlier activity hours ) and was finished by 9:30.  It was very entertaining, and we sat with some real characters and had a blast.  Donald even danced a couple of dances!  Well, you know those Saskatchewan boys have to do a good polka when it comes up!

I finished a quilt top on Wednesday at the quilters group, and stocked up on some more backing fabric before we head off.  Yes, we are in the planning stages again as we head off to Arizona soon.  We are looking at Vegas sometime in February to meet up with Donald's sister and brother in law from Saskatoon.

In the meantime, we are feeling like we are running out of time here and didn't see all what we want to see, so I guess that means we'll be back!

In and Out - Finally Donald gets to try it!

We have been looking and driving by the In and Out burger place, wondering why it is always so busy.  We tried to go there yesterday, Sunday, and it was so crazy busy, we said forget it. Today we did all the laundry in the morning, and for lunch headed to the In and Out.  What a great place - simple menu.  Kim talked to a fellow waiting for his meal for some time and then we sat with another fellow while we ate our lunch.  The second fellow, even though retired for over 30 years, was trying to impress upon us that it would be a good idea to buy property here. Ha, maybe he was a long retired realtor! Anyway,  we always enjoy talking to local people in the areas we visit.

A highlight at laundry time ( gee, can there be a highlight at laundry? ) was meeting some people from Yorkton, Saskatchewan ( near where we have a cottage ). As the fellow had coffee last week with a friend of ours, it is always a small world.

Kim's energy has returned, so watch out. Now we go back to some plans and touring.

Happy 25th Birthday to Nathan!!!! We love you! Mwahhh.

On the upswing

of getting over our colds.  Today was the first day of going out that I didn't want to turn around and come right back to the couch or bed.  Woo hoo.

We initially started our day looking for the local Farmers Market, or Swap meet, that is only a couple of miles from here.  Even though signs were out both yesterday and today that the swap was on, there was no one around the lot and we did see lots of vehicles checking it out as did we.  Perhaps next weekend.

So now what to do.  We started looking for some date farms to tour, but we were not very organized - that was my fault as the navigator/reader of local happenings and places.  My cold has rattled the wee brain cells and I haven't been on top of things.  So, we went off without a plan and hence we were not able to locate an 'tour' date farm.  We kept going onto the Salton Sea as it was not that far, and ran across hundreds ( yes, hundreds ) of toy haulers and motorhomes pulling custom cargo trailers.  The highway was full!  They were obviously coming out of the Anza-Borrego Park, and had enjoyed the weekend there.  You know when you pull into the gas station and the fuel offerings were the normal gases, plus diesel and RACING FUEL.  I told Donald to be careful not to pick that hose ( oh, Rick, that would be a scary thing! ) he said if we start to go fast down the highway then he picked the racing fuel. Right. Jokester.

 

We had a quick look at the west side of the Salton Sea, and we would like to go back and go down the east side. Some bird watching is in order, I think.

 The skies were looking to be a little dark, so we headed back to Desert Hot Springs.  Donald just had the truck detailed, so he didn't want it to be mucked up.  Well, I guess we won't be in with the desert toy/in the mud crowd!

 We had a very late lunch at a mexican restaurant near Costco, and it was very good.  It was also near a fabric store ( Joann's ).  I wonder how much fabric fit into this car parked near the store?

 

Oh, and that Farmers Market we were looking for first thing in the morning?  Well, a half tank of fuel and a day of touring later, there was a fellow right on the corner of our RV Park selling fresh oranges.  We'll be eating oranges till the Happy California cows come home.