Life in a Southern Town

First off – Happy Birthday to my wonderful companion of 34 years! So happy to be enjoying this adventure with you! ❤️

Travels may not always be super exciting, and by that I mean interesting to read about. I think that’s mostly a good thing! Hopefully you won’t fall asleep reading this, but if you do, use it your advantage!  There’s a whole industry involved with helping people get to sleep…

In this segment we traveled from the Santa Barbara area, through L.A. and over to Palm Springs.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find any resorts that met our standards directly in Palm Springs, so after much trepidation and second guessing, we booked a 10 day stay in Desert Hot Springs, about a half hour North of PS.  Part of the second guessing came from the little detail that this park is for guests 55 and over.  Admitting I’m in that category was the first battle.  But Tami hasn’t hit that mark yet, so we had to sneak her in past the armed guards and keep her out of site during daily inspections.  Of course that’s an exaggeration.  I don’t think the guards were armed.

It turned out to be a great stay though (so nice we will likely embrace the parks for old folks) and we met some nice neighbors.  People that have been RVing for 20 years are a wealth of information for us newbs!  One noteworthy fact about this stay is that shortly after we arrived I got an email that said there were cougar sightings within the park.  I wasn’t sure if this was a double entendre or if I should actually be afraid but I knew Tami would keep them at bay regardless of the type of attack.  The main thing I learned from the email was to not run away as this will cause the cougar to give chase.  And since here they zoom around in golf carts, there’s no chance of escape on foot.  I did wonder though, why don’t they just put up a sign that says ‘Cougar Free Zone’?  I guess Desert Hot Springs just hasn’t embraced the ideas of Seattle ‘progress’ that I’m familiar with.

Besides the great restaurants and shopping in the area, Joshua Tree National Park was a day trip I was excited to make.  The North end of the park is one of those places on earth that seems unearthly.  It’s a combination of the strange looking Joshua Trees and piles of boulders that look like they were purposely piled up for reasons we can only speculate, by giant creatures that can lift them with ease, (lets just say Orcs for the LOTR fans).  The effect is as if you’re wandering through WhoVille, or a set from Star Trek where the crew has been beamed down to an alien planet.  My Tricorder didn’t pick up any signs of intelligent life though.  Strangely, it never does. (Except for Tami of course).

Being back near the city, combined with shorts and t-shirt weather was a welcome change of pace.  We got caught up on supplies, I got my booster shot (Tami got hers before we left), and we dropped anchor long enough to get some Prime deliveries.  I did some morning jogs around the park, little Wyn-Wyn joined me for those, we strapped on the Oculus and played some Beat Saber (and Synth Riders – great Quest game), we started the new season of Yellowstone with the rest of the world, visited the farmer’s market at the park entrance to stock up on fruits and veggies as well as amazing homemade chips and salsa, watched the weekly Seahawks losses, and just spent a lot of time outside chill’n and grill’n.  IE – everyday, mostly uneventful life in a warmer climate.  Unfortunately, while we were enjoying life, we were watching the horror unfold in and around our home town in WA.  Even beyond WA, roads we’ve recently traveled are now completely impassible!  This goes along with a paragraph below, but always trying to see the big picture, I wonder how I fit into that and how and why things happen (or don’t happen) to us.  Once again, I’m thankful we’ve so far avoided serious weather, and I hope everyone back home is safe and above water.  

One thing I do miss about home is my music room.  But having some time in the sun, I broke out the acoustic and played some tunes on the patio – even met a fellow guitar man but despite discussions, plans never worked out in our favor for an impromptu jam.  Seeing some of the concert shirts worn in the park, it could easily be that I stand a better chance of finding a fellow rocker to jam with in the 55+ places!  Hair Metal Forever!🤘

I’m not one to believe in fate, things that are ‘meant to be’, or things labeled supernatural, but at times the level of coincidence is uncanny.  The  Simulation Hypothesis may seem as out there for some as most religions do to me, but sometimes it just makes sense.  As a computer guy, explaining the weirdness of life in terms of the code I know just seems to fit.  So last week I’m trying to figure out where we’ll be in the next few months and the route I was drawing takes us through tornado alley.  And at the worst time of year to boot!  Looking into that further, I go down the rabbit hole of trying to figure out how other full time RVers deal with that, and one certainty is the need for several weather apps and also a NOAA radio.  So starting with the apps, I find one that gives me weather alerts for whatever area we’re in.  I install and move on to the next thing.  But then that evening, my watch pings me to tell me there is a high wind and fire warning for the route we’re going to take next, starting the morning we were scheduled to leave!  Throwing aside fire danger as low probability, high winds range from no fun at all to really dangerous when driving our rig, and the forecast is for 65 mpg gusts.  Definitely toward the dangerous side.  So whereas all of this must be coincidence, it happens often enough that it makes me wonder why.  Had I not downloaded the app, we wouldn’t have known.  We left our little oasis a day early, and had a mostly pleasant drive into our new home state even though I did have to use the air horn a couple times.  One guy even waved at me with a single finger for that.  Californians seem to be really friendly on the road.

As I re-read this entry I notice it may be a bit more snarky than usual.  I have no idea why. We are having a great time but I’m going with it since that’s who I am.  When I sit down to write I have no idea what’s going to come out – it’s kinda like an Ouija board, my fingers just move and I let them go.  But thanks for sticking with it if you made it this far, and Tami and I want to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!  For us, it will be the first time we’ve ever been away from our kids during the Holidays.  We’re cooking a turkey in the Enterprise, and we’ll do a FaceTime, but we’ll certainly miss the normal routine of spending the afternoon with the kids eating chips and clam dip, the turkey and 50 side dishes, and the love and laughs that come with our typical family dinners.  We have a lot to be thankful for, and we don’t take it for granted, but hard to not give hugs on Thanksgiving.  For those of you getting together, don’t miss the opportunity to show your appreciation and love for friends and family.  We’re very thankful for all of you!  -G&T