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| Our RV Park in Indio, CA |
The
motorhome was not in motion for a month – a lame excuse, but an excuse
nonetheless, for my lack of blogging. The truth is – we were busy: busy
relaxing for the month of January in Indio, CA (i.e. Palm Springs) at a great RV park that
kept us constantly on the move. I played a lot of pickleball (for the
uninitiated, it's kind of a cross between tennis and ping pong, played on a court
1/3 the size of a tennis court with a wiffle ball). It’s not hard to pick up if
you are a tennis player, but it takes a long time to become truly competent. I
was making progress until I slightly pulled a muscle in my calf and was
sidelined the last week we were there. Oh, well. Best of all, it was a great way to meet
the snowbirds (most of them from Canada) who swoop down on the desert year
after year like homing pigeons.
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| Lew's hiking, view over Coachella Valley |
Meanwhile,
Lew took some lessons, but mostly stuck to hiking, at least twice a week.
Together we visited two local desert preserves to hike some intriguing trails.
One, the Coachella Valley/1000 Palm Oasis Preserve took us through two oases,
along the San Andreas Fault line, and through a hillside of wildflowers, a gift
from the rain gods who visited the area the week before! The other, a loop
trail at Whitewater Canyon Preserve, gave us the opportunity to hike a portion
of the Pacific Crest Trail as it wound its way up the side of a mountain.
Difficult, but not overly so, we had beautiful expansive views of the
valley below and the snow-covered mountains in the distance. Both hikes were
wonderful, making us all the more determined to try different desert trails
next year when we return.
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| One of two oases at 1000 Palms Preserve |
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| Wildflowers in the desert with snow-capped Mt. Gorgonio |
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| Along the Pacific Crest Trail at Whitewater Canyon Preserve |
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| Scenery at the Preserve. Mt San Jacinto in background. |
And
return, we shall, mid-February to mid-March, 2020, to rekindle some friendships
made this year, to attend some early rounds of the Indian Wells Tennis
Tournament, and to see some sights we missed this year (for example, Joshua
Tree National Park, which was closed due to the government shutdown). We heard
too late about some great restaurants we’d like to try, and, of course, what’s
a visit to this part of the world without a chance to see the ponies at the
polo matches!? That is just sooo, us!
Other
activities, besides pickleball and hiking, included visiting a date farm (and
sampling lots of yummy dates – Lew had a date shake), attending a few services
at the local UU church, playing tennis with someone who moved to Palm Desert
from Anacortes, touring Old Town La Quinta, dinner at the Polo Club, visiting
friends who winter there, and a quick trip to San Diego to see friends and meet
with our financial advisor. At the park, we never wanted for something to do: a
New Year’s Eve dinner and dance, a sock hop and potluck, Friday afternoon happy
hour, bridge, twice weekly (I got it started and ended up doing some coaching
for newish players), hot tub in the evening, bike rides, and, lots of time to
read and relax.
The
time passed quickly – but all good things must come to an end (and, besides, we
were both getting antsy to get on with the rest of our adventure). The motorhome
was in motion again on January 29th, as far as Phoenix, where it now
sits, awaiting our return. We are still in motion, in the car, on our way to
Breckenridge for a week of skiing, with a brief stop in Colorado Springs to
visit friends and hike on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in the Garden of the
Gods.
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| Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs |
As
ready as we are to move on, I look back on our last five months and think about
what we’ve learned. Clearly, we need these long respites to relax, regroup, and
refresh ourselves. We know that we have to build them into travels, as surely
as we need to plan our various excursions. We’ve also learned that being
spontaneous isn’t always easy and we will have to learn to balance our desire
for spontaneity with our need to reserve RV space during popular times in
popular locales. But we’ve also learned to be flexible, what with government
shutdowns and such. We WILL enjoy what we do get to see and do!!!
I’ve
learned that I need to meet people on our travels – not an easy task, since we
often stay only briefly in one place. I will need to channel my inner
mother/father and start conversations with our camp neighbors more often. And,
I need to stay in touch with “old” friends a whole lot more – traveling can be
lonely, especially when your traveling companion isn’t the most gregarious
individual in the world! I recognize
that the telephone works most of the time…I will endeavor to use it more! And
I’ll learn how to download audiobooks from the library to my phone!
Another
thing we’ve learned we need to balance is our love of nature with our plans to
see museums and other sights located in urban areas. Lew’s photography is his
way of recording the amazing natural world in which we live and will give us
fond memories of that part of our trip. I will try my best to convince him to
occasionally take pictures of people and other experiences!
The
most important thing we’ve learned is how very fortunate we are – to have our
health, to be able to travel, to have amazing natural and man-made wonders at
our fingertips in our own country, to be financially able to indulge in what is
really a luxury few people are afforded. For all of these reasons, we are
grateful. And we are grateful to be in MOTION AGAIN.
