Desert Hot Springs

We left Yuma after three weeks and headed to Desert Hot Springs, CA for a one month stay before we head north.  Before going into California we fueled up in Arizona where diesel is about 30 cents a gallon cheaper.  This was the first time we put fuel in the rig since the middle of October, as we have only traveled about 400 miles in that time.  That sure will change when we head to Alaska.

The day we left it was windy, but not too windy to be driving.  That said, the drive through the sand dunes area along I-8 was like driving in a snow storm with sand blowing across the highway.  

Just a bit down the road we turned north along the Salton Sea and the wind diminished enough the we could see this snow capped mountain in the distance.  It has been a long time since we have seen any snow.

Little did we know that we would have a wonderful view of the peak from our campsite.  While we can see two snow capped peaks, the weather in Desert Hot Springs has been very warm.

We are staying at Sam's Family Spa about 15 miles from Palm Springs.  The park has four different pools of mineral hot springs and a nice sized swimming pool.  The water is natural, not chlorinated, and is changed every couple of days.  It is a bit busy on the weekends but not during the week.

On several afternoons we have taken advantage of the sunny skies and have just hung out around the pools.  Life is good!!

The park is a little oasis with a small lake the attracts a nice variety of birds.  Left is a Great Egret,  middle a couple of unusual ducks and right is a Snowy Egret.  There birds are free to come and go, but seem to hang out here where they are well fed.

Look closely for the Night Heron nesting in the palm tree. 

Of course Palm Springs is pretty up scale as it is the home of many famous visitors.  There are stars of the famous in the sidewalk downtown.  Left is the star and statue of Sonny Bono who was once the mayor.  Middle is the huge statue of Marilyn Monroe who was discovered here and visited many times.  Right, Nanc is checking out the star of her teenage idol, Ricky Nelson.

This past weekend was the Palm Springs Chalk Art show.  There were many wonderful works of art.  Nanc is checking out one that was best viewed with 3-D glasses, really neat.  The one on the right shows a different view depending what direction you are looking.  There was an X to mark the best spot to see the Rubik's Cube falling into a hole.

We think this one was the best.  The picture I took when it was done did not come out very well.  The texture of the blacktop added greatly to this very detailed work.

This black and white drawing was also very good.

Another great piece.  If you are in the Palm Springs area in March don't miss the chalk art show.

While the weather has been sunny and warm most days we did have a couple of days of bad wind.  One day it was so bad that several roads between Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs were closed.  I can't imagine how bad they were if this one was OK to be open.  The worst of the blowing dust was in the valley.  It was windy, but not this dusty at Sam's.  The blowing dirt is something we had never seen growing up in Pennsylvania.