03-02-2025 Our Second Week at Catalina Spa and RV Resort

 

There is probably no way that I can convey the power of the blowing winds here in Desert Hot Springs today with a simple photograph. We are both familiar with desert winds, with each of us having spent years at one time or another living in the desert.  We have actually spent time in this very RV park, pummeled by wild winds for at least part of our visit nearly every year since 2010.  Still, when the winds come, it is always a bit of a surprise, and until it happens, I forget how much it drains our energy.

We will be leaving here tomorrow morning, traveling south and east toward the wide open space of Ogilby Road, north of the American Girl Mine.  For those who don't know, the area is popular with winter boondockers and is not far from Yuma and the Mexican border.

As usual, I begin the story for this week with the current moment before I settle down enough to write about our past week here in the desert.

I ended the last story with the departure of our friends Nickie and Jimmy, who are now back in Nevada City, experiencing the first snowflakes of the winter.  Not good timing for them, but I am sure Nickie will tell you all about it in her upcoming blog posts.

I will now return to last Friday when I left off.  After our friends had left, Phil and Joanne departed for parts unknown to go hiking.  Mo and I were definitely ready for some downtime and a bit of relaxing at home.  We both did some computer work, and I wrote the last blog post before lunch.  

Shannon sings and plays guiter

Mike is the sound guy for the band

Something Mo and I discovered last year during our visit was the informal music Friday afternoons at the Pavilion here in the lower park area.  Shannon is wife to Mike, our early morning swim companion, and the two of them are grandparents to 3 kids who live near their home in British Columbia.  There aren't many people who like to swim at 6 AM, but Mike almost always is in the pool before we are.

It is hard to describe how good all these musicians are without including a video, but as everyone knows, phone videos don't always pick up the sound anything as good as it actually is.  Suffice it to say that by the time the last set ends up at 3, most of the folks are up dancing and having a good time.  It is a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

The best part is that the dogs love it too, except we do leave Mattie at home since she can be a bit of a brat around other dogs when she is on a leash.

That evening, we learned that Phil and Joanne's friend Loi was going to be in Palm Springs for the weekend.  Earlier, we had discussed going up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, and the decision was made to go on Saturday after learning that it was something that Loi also wanted to experience.

Mo and Sue at the top of the tram ride in 2010.  A lot more snow that year

Mo remembered our last visit on the tram in 2010 and wasn’t interested in spending another 40 bucks and most of a day with a big crowd of Saturday tourists to do it again.  Phil cleared out his car so that I could ride with he and Joanne, and we departed the park to meet Loi at 11 at the tram parking lot.   Of course, as I mentioned, it was a Saturday, and by 11, all the parking lots were nearly full. My memory of this experience from 2010 was very different. This time, there were a LOT of people and a lot of shuttles moving people from the parking lots to the entrance where tickets were purchased. 

Phil dropped Joanne and me off at the beginning of the ticket line and drove back down to park the car and meet Loi in her car.  By the time everyone was in line, the nearest entry ticket was for 1:37 PM.  It was just a little bit crazy, but we did find a reasonably shaded place to sit outdoors and escape the hot sunshine while we waited for our tram entry time.

Loi an Joanne trying to stay cool while we waited 2 hours for our turn on the tram

Once we entered the car, I was glad that I had come.  I hadn’t remembered that the floor of the cable car rotated. These are the world’s largest rotating tram cars, traveling over two and one-half miles up the cliffs of Chino Canyon to an elevation of 8,515 feet.  

Each car can accommodate up to 80 people. At the top, there are two restaurants, two documentary theaters, a natural history museum, a gift shop, and over 50 miles of hiking trails into the pristine wilderness of the Mt. San Jacinto State Park. During the approximately ten-minute journey, tram cars rotate slowly, offering picturesque and spectacular vistas of the valley floor below.

Once at the top, we were at a bit of a loss as to where to go, with few available maps of the trails that made sense and so many levels and so many people.  After looking around a bit, we decided on having a late lunch at the casual restaurant before going outside to take photos of the desert views far below.

It was interesting to see so many families and kids, many of them carrying various kinds of snow toys and ready to play.  But the trails were icy, and we didn’t see a lot of snow that would have been easy sledding for little kids.

Phil and Joanne at the desert overlook

I am going to digress a bit here and share a moment that was not my best.  Phil, Joanne, and Loi decided they wanted to take the zig-zag paved trail to the bottom of the canyon to hike the lower trail a bit.  I did think I could possibly start down with my walker.  (I haven’t mentioned yet that I was allowed to take my walker on the rotating tram car.  The facility is very accessible, even to wheelchairs.) Sometimes, that walker is a great people barrier, allowing me to maintain some personal space in situations that are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder.  I thought I could go down the pathway but discovered that my legs just weren’t strong enough, even with the walker brakes, to keep the walker from sliding, and I gave up and returned to the patio at the top of the trail.  

View down the Discovery Trail before we decided to try it.

I sat there, feeling incredibly stupid, as I watched my friends, little old ladies, old men, kids, and people of every shape and kind going down that trail and huffing their way back up.  It was another wake-up moment for me on the IBM journey.  In case you haven’t been reading long, I have Inclusion Body Myositis.  Look it up.  I devolved into a serious pity party, sad for all I have lost and unable to be thankful at that moment for what I still have.  I had sunglasses on in the bright sun so I could bawl my eyes out safely and not get caught.  Until Joanne showed up after deciding that going all the way to the bottom was stupid and caught me crying.  Empathetic as Joanne has been with me throughout the years, her sense of humor won me over, and I was able to laugh at myself.  I can still walk, and many people with this disease cannot. 

When Phil and Loi returned, they said there wasn’t much down there except an icy trail and some really huge Jeffrey pines. 

The three of us at the top of the tram where we can see our RV Park location far below in the distance

The return trip on the tram was just as lovely as the ascension, and by the time I returned home to tell Mo the stories, I was over my silly episode.  Mostly.  It still is a bit frustrating at times for me to remember how strong and fit I was until just a few years ago, but I do try hard to be appreciative about what I still have that many don’t. Not always easy.

On the next day, Sunday, Phil and Jo hung out with Loi.  In the afternoon Loi came to visit at the park and Phil, Jo, Loi and I meandered over to the pavilion to play cards at the comfy tables under the pergola in the shade.  

John and Carol and sweet Jimmy at Harris Beach State park in Oregon
 

We played Skip Bo, a silly game that Mo and I played on a rainy day long ago with our friends John and Carol, who taught us how to play and provided margueritas for all that wet afternoon at Harris Beach.  It amazes me how many memories we have of friends we have met thanks to this blog and to theirs.  Carol and John no longer blog much but they are around on Facebook and are active in their work with Fantasy RV tours.

On Monday morning Hartwigs departed for a week at Anza Borrego State Park and Mo and I settled into what was to be a quiet week after all the activity of the previous week.  It was just what we needed.

The hyacinths I brought from home so I would miss their bloom loved the hot desert

Now it seems that my writing time is ending, and I will have to continue this story in the next post.  It is 6:15 and time to head for the pool, so we don't miss swimming with Mike before we depart the park for the open desert. There are some fun activities I want to share, including the amazing Cabot Museum visit, updates on the Tracker connection issue, and Mo's birthday celebration with just the two of us in Palm Springs.

To be continued: