Coachella Valley, Etc. – November, 2011

We spent a little over two weeks in the Coachella Valley, first in Desert Hot Springs and then in Indio.  Because we’ve done a fairly thorough job of seeing all the sights in the area this time we mostly paid visits to the shopping emporia all along that glittering strip from Palm Springs to Indio.  We even made the drive further west to the outlet mall in Cabazon and were delighted to see almost all of the retail spaces were open for business and the parking lot quite full for a weekday. 

The small cities that stretch along I-10 from Palm Springs in the west to Indio in the east all run together as one.  There are many attractive residential areas where the famous and near-famous live (or lived).  Heavy applications of water keep the lawns green and the flowers blooming; you can’t help but wonder what happens if the water runs out.  The nearby mountains are sometimes difficult to see thanks to blankets of smog rolling eastward from Los Angeles.  During our entire stay my eyes burned and I did a lot of coughing and sneezing.

Roger and Cathy drove up from their winter quarters in Niland to have lunch with us one day.  It was great to see them again and spend some time catching up on all the chit-chat from when we saw them last in early spring.  If the timing is right, we may catch up with them again in March.

Our next stop was Colorado River Oasis in Ehrenberg, Arizona where we found old buddies Galen and Betty Jo work-camping and other friends Jim and Pat camped at the river’s edge.  We were expecting to see Rick and Carol toward the end of our stay but they revised their travel plans and came in early for just a few days.  At least we were able to have a little visit, and some of Carol’s delicious oatmeal pie, before they headed north to Lake Havasu.  They’ll be back but long after we’ve flown the coop.

As part of their work schedule at CRO, Galen and Betty Jo have to act as activity directors or over-seers.  They’d never played Snakes and Ladders before and so we dug out the rules and the equipment and set about “teaching” them the game.  One set of rules was particularly appealing….verbal abuse of opponents is encouraged and we’re all good at that. 

Another day we drove north along the river to Parker, stopping in Poston along the way to visit the memorial dedicated to the 17,000+ first and second-generation Americans of Japanese descent incarcerated there following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The protrusion at the top of the memorial is actually a spout to keep rainwater from staining the column.   The internment camp was smack in the middle of the Colorado River Indian Tribes’ reservation.  Although we couldn’t be sure, we think we found some of the old barracks still in use as housing and as part of a Head Start facility.  A '”no trespassing” sign kept us from exploring further.  We’d hope to visit the CRIT museum at tribal headquarters but it was closed for the long Thanksgiving weekend so we had to content ourselves with celebrating Black Friday at Beall’s Outlet and Wal-Mart in Parker. 

Given that most full-timers are a little on the silly side, we joined Pat and Jim at the river bank to give our “mascots” an  opportunity to enjoy the view and do a little fishin’.  Here’s Gus and Gunther trying their luck.  Good thing we weren’t counting on them to provide the fish for dinner.

 

Just before heading to Mesa to hibernate for the winter, we had a chance to have lunch with our pal, Betty, at her winter digs  in Desert Center.  She was, as usual, up to her ears in “projects”.  On the drive over we were well past Blythe before realizing we were going to be an hour early for lunch, having forgotten we’d be in a different time zone as soon as we crossed the Colorado River.  It took us no time at all (literally!) to drive the 50 miles to Desert Center but two hours to drive back!  A Senior Moment strikes again.