Laughlin ...again

Mar 18        Caliente Springs RV Resort - Laughlin, Nevada           208 miles   

Got up early to a chilly morning, 45 degrees. Made our way to Laughlin, Nevada. After driving 3 hours, we needed a break and stopped at a diner called Jitter Bug in Vidal, California. Pretty good food but when we got to Bullhead City to fill up gas, Joe realized he didn't have his credit card.

I called the diner and the waitress was waiting for our call. That meant driving back 1 1/2 hours. Luckily, she lives in Laughlin so she actually delivered it to us that evening.

Joe and Gregg

We camped at Riverside Casino, dry camping for free. Joe's friend Greg met us for dinner. Greg retired from HPD but now lives in Bullhead City, AZ. We did the buffet at Riverside, so junk! What a waste of money.

Dry camping site

Mar 19

We had a fun day in Laughlin, NV and Bullhead City, AZ which is right across the river. First, we went to the Upholstery Shop to get a quote to fix our sofa. It's starting to peel and looks real ugly. It's going to cost around $650 but we need to wait till next time.

Then we went to Home Depot to look at plants. I wanted to buy this plant that I saw at the RV Resort in California. I found it and bought two.  It's called Dwarf Bottlebrush Little John. Joe said we probably can find it in Hawaii but I didn't want to take that chance. We put it in a flat rate box and sent it home. Hope it survives.

Lunch was at Black Bear Diner. Very, very good. They have restaurants all over but we've never tried it. We both enjoyed our lunch.

Before dinner we took a walk along the river back in Laughlin. We came across a family of raccoons. Kind of surprised us, we've never seen raccoons here before.

For dinner we went to the Prime Rib Room in Riverside Casino, $16.99 per person. We really like this place. I enjoyed the salad bar and prime rib and Joe tried the chicken cordon bleu. He said was good.

We enjoyed our two nights here. The weather is supposed to be kind of bad later this week so off to Las Vegas tomorrow.

Back to Desert Hot Springs

Mar 11      Thermal - Caliente Springs Resort     48 miles

I picked some fruits this morning before leaving. Oranges, lemons, and pink grapefruit.Was nice that this campground had all the citrus trees but the area was kind of stinky with plenty flies.

We're headed back to Caliente Springs in Desert Hot Springs for another week.

After we left Oasis RV, we parked at Fantasy Casino, left the RV there, jumped in the Kia and did some errands. Took us over two hours. We went to Cardenas, Trader Joes, Sprouts, and Walmart. Should be good for the next week.

Love the blooms 

Then we checked in at Caliente Springs for another week, we just love it here. Same deal as before, Passport America rate $203.

Joe cooking dinner

Mar 13      Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

Today we went to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It's an engineering marvel featuring the worlds largest rotating tram cars. It takes ten minutes, goes up two and a half miles, beginning at the Valley Station, elevation 2,643 feet, and transports you to the Mountain Station, elevation 8,516 feet. It was very cold at the top. probably mid 30's.

Valley Station

Leaving Valley Station

Up on top we discovered Mt San Jacinto State Park. The park has over 50 miles of hiking trails. We did the Desert View Trail. A one and a half mile loop trail that leads to five scenic overlooks of the desert valley. It was moderately strenuous with short rocky climbs. The hardest part was getting back to the Mountain Station. It was switchbacks all the way.

Nice view of the valley below

Clouds sitting on the mountain top

We were happy to get back down to the Valley Station, was real cold on the mountain.

Mar 15     Palm Springs Street Fair

Every Thursday evening, Downtown Palm Springs transforms into the Palm Springs VillageFest, also known as the Palm Springs Street Fair. The street fair features art, jewelry, crafts, food, sidewalk performers, and farmers market.

It starts at 6 pm but we got there around 4 pm because everyone told us parking would be crazy. This is in downtown Palm Springs, so lots of shops and restaurants and fun to just sit and watch all kinds of people while waiting for the fair to start. At 6 pm, the fair started and we walked the whole area. Lots of fun just checking everything out. It was very crowded when we left a little after 7 pm.

Mar 17   Happy Birthday to me

We went out holoholo all day! First was a craft fair here at the resort we're staying at. Nice stuff, lots of home made things. I bought a pretty magnetic bracelet.

Then we went to another street fair. We went a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to go back. The Street Fair, at College of the Desert is considered one of the top things to do in the Palm Springs area.  It's an open-air shaded shopping experience that happens every Saturday and Sunday. I bought some cute stuff.

Off to lunch at Fantasy Springs Casino. The special at the buffet was fresh corned beef....so good!

Next stop was Costco. We needed a few things and I found some cute casual dresses.

Back home, I did some laundry and we had dinner. It was pretty cold and windy, about 51 degrees but I hit the pool at about 730 pm. Joe met me there a little later and we had a nice relaxing soak.

Perfect day, perfect birthday.

I have a little of everything

Our week here at Caliente Springs is coming to an end. We leave tomorrow morning and we'll be driving to Laughlin. We really enjoyed our time here. We learned to play pickleball, and did a lot of water exercise classes, met a lot of nice people, and really enjoyed the mineral waters to soak in. We'll definitely be back!

Anza Borrego Desert State Park & Borrego Springs

Mar 09     Caliente Springs Resort - Oasis Palms RV Resort       43 miles     1 hour

We played some pickleball this morning then packed up and drove to Oasis Palms RV Resort. The address is Thermal, Ca but its on the outskirts of Thermal near the Salton Sea.

This RV park is in the middle of agriculture land. There's orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees on property that we can pick. We'll be here for 2 nights. Passport America rate is $20 per night so total $40, no tax. We went swimming in the afternoon in the pool and tried the hot tub. Kind of dirty looking but the temperature was nice. As we were walking back from the pool, we notice the air was kind of stinky. We think it was the pond but not sure.

Can barely make out the Salton Sea in the distance

Mar 10     Anza-Borrego Desert State Park & Borrego Springs

It took us about an hour to drive to the park. Kind of boring, very dry desert area. There was an area where they do a lot of off roading. Looks like this is the big thing out here. Lots of trails in the desert hills with lots of RV's and trailers boondocking around the area.

After going to the visitors center at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park we went on a 3-mile roundtrip hike into Borrego Palm Canyon. The trail leads to a cool, shady palm oasis. This was a pretty easy hike to start but then we started going uphill on the rocky trail. It got pretty challenging in some places, especially the end where we had to do some rock scrambling. Very nice hike and beautiful scenery, we got a good workout.

Making our way into the canyon

We had a couple of water crossings

Getting closer

Finally....the Oasis

This park normally has a great spring bloom but not this year. It was a very dry winter so hardly any

blooms. We were supposed to camp at this park a couple of nights but I cancelled because the main reason was the flowers and there wasn't too much.

Found some blooms

After lunch we drove to Borrego Springs and checked out Galleta Meadows. Here, in the middle of the desert, is a magical menagerie of free standing sculptures. Numbering in the dozens, the metal creatures appear almost natural in the desert landscape. The work is truly unique.

This is a baby camel nursing

Check out the details on this dragon

We drove to Fantasy Springs Casino for dinner. We just love the buffet there. Tonight they had prime rib. The prime rib was okay, but everything else was excellent. The best was the fresh pasta bar. You pick what you want, so I got shrimp, spinach, and mushroom. They saute everything in a pan, add the sauce you pick, then add the pasta. So, so good. Plenty in one serving but delicious.

Desert Hot Springs

Mar 02       Fantasy Springs Casino, Indio - Desert Hot Springs     27 miles     40 minutes

We camped in the Fantasy Springs Casino dirt lot last night and everything was going good until a semi truck pulled in around one in the morning, parked pretty close to us and ran his generator. So irritating, I was so frickin mad!!

Today we checked in at Caliente Springs Resort in Desert Hot Springs. Caliente Springs is a 55 and better resort. Yes, we now qualify to stay at these old fut resorts. It's located in the greater Palm Springs area and is known for the natural hot mineral waters that continually flow into their hot tubs and pools on property.

Nothing fancy with the sites

Hot tubs are fabulous

We'll be here for one week. They honor Passport America so we get half price, $203 for the week. Real good deal considering how nice the amenities are. The pool and hot tubs are amazing. We can learn to play pickleball here, something I've been wanting to learn. Also, water exercise classes which I really enjoy.

Very nice mineral water pool

Mar 02   The Living Desert Zoo

The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is located in Palm Desert. We got our tickets through the Costco website. Two adult tickets for $22.00. This is a good deal, the normal adult price is $19.00 per person. Real nice zoo with lots of animals, wish we had our grandbabies with us. We spent a few hours just walking around and checking everything out. Very enjoyable and the weather was perfect.

Leopard Tortoise

Common Chuckwalla

Big Horn Sheep

African Warthog

Camel rides for the kids

Mar 03   College of the Desert Street Fair

The Street Fair at the College of the Desert is considered one of the top things to do in this area, where locals and visitors alike can spend their day with an open-air shaded shopping experience second to none. They had everything you can imagine. It happens every Saturday and Sunday from 7am - 2pm. We got there at 9am and spent a little over 2 hours and bought a few things. It was pretty crowded and when we left there were still a whole bunch of people coming in.

After that we went to a shop called Glossy. I got a good tip about this store. All swimsuits $29.00. Of course I bought a suit! The suit I bought normally retails for $60-$70. It was hard to limit myself to just one.

Bob & Joe teaming up

Mar 05

We've been enjoying our time here at Caliente Springs. The past few days have been kind of chilly but we still manage to hit the pools everyday. The mineral waters are so relaxing, can't get enough.

We went to learn pickleball this morning and had so much fun. The people here are so friendly. The instructor Bob was so patient with the newbies. There's pickleball every morning so I think we'll get out there a lot this week.

Joe enjoying some pool time

Mar 06

We just love it here. Pickleball in the morning, then right after, I go to a water exercise class, then just relax in the hot tubs and pool for about an hour. By this time, it's time for lunch and some relaxation at home. We try to have an early dinner then back to the pool in the early evening. What a life, I could do this everyday!

Joe grilling our dinner

Mar 07     Joshua Tree National Park

This morning we drove to Joshua Tree National Park about 45 minutes away. We stopped at the visitors center to get some information and buy some souvenirs.

Our first stop was the Hidden Valley hike. A 1-mile trail that winds among massive boulders through this legendary cattle rustlers hideout.

Next, we did the Barker Dam hike. This dam was built around 1900 to hold water for cattle and mining use. The dam today forms a small rain fed reservoir used by park wildlife. Birds abound!

Barker Dam

Joshua Tree National Park is huge, over 792,000 acres. We just did the main loop through part of the park. We made a stop at Skull Rock, then had lunch at Split Rock. I wanted to do another hike but we were both exhausted. We came home and soaked in the hot tubs. What a great way to end the day.

Skull Rock

Split Rock

Mar 08

Another day of pickleball, water exercise, and pool time. This is our last night here. We enjoyed ourselves so much, we booked another week here. We have reservations at another park for two nights, then we'll be back on Sunday.

Desert sunrise