We knew that it was going to rain today. Richard had that barometric headache he gets before it rains and we could see the wind was picking up this morning too. What a great day to get stuff done outside and inside Newman! The workers, working on the interlocking driveway next door weren’t singing as much this morning, so they didn’t wake us up with any noise.
But before we started our chores, it was nice to be able to pick fresh fruit for our breakfast!
Freshly picked pink grapefruit! In the back of our casita, hanging over the patio area, is a navel orange tree and a pink grapefruit tree. The owners of this RV site, told us on Sunday to pick as many fruits as we want to, because they will go to waste if we don’t. I think we may just take them up on that offer, before we move sites on Thursday!
This pink grapefruit was as delicious as any we had picked in Florida! We even travel with a grapefruit knife and grapefruit spoons too!
As soon as breakfast was over, I started on cleaning the inside of Newman, and Richard started on the outside. When we are ‘rolling’ we really don’t have a lot of time to deep clean, so it was nice to get the cleaning done today on a bad weather day. I used the nice ‘orange glow’ spray on our cherry wood cabinets and not only does Newman look spiffy inside with glowing cabinets, he smells good too! I’m not a fan of housecleaning, but I do like a clean rig and its nice to have a small space to clean, which doesn’t take very long to clean.
Newman has not been washed since before we left Fort Erie on October 16th, 2021.
We always bring our big RV brush, telescoping pole, and bucket with us to be able to wash Newman on the road, if time and resources permit.
Looking mighty spiffy now Newman!
Good job Richard. Newman looks like he fits in now, in this swanky place!
We decided since it was 100% chance of rain and flooding, that we would not go to Joshua Tree National Park today, which is what we had originally thought we would do today.
’Izzy’ the Ionic. Heading out for some more retail therapy today.
We decided to go to the PGA Tour Superstore in Palm Desert as our first stop. The rain had started, but it was still light rain and the temperature was a pleasant 17C.
We had about a 20 minute drive from Indio to Palm Desert, to get to the PGA Tour Superstore.
What a selection of golf clothing at the PGA Tour Superstore! I really had to restrain myself because they had so many different brands of golf clothing, some of which I have never heard of before.
We were quite surprised when we entered the PGA Tour Superstore, because about 50% of the customers and even some of the staff, were not wearing masks. As of tomorrow, December 15th, the State of California has re-mandated that anyone indoors at a public venue including stores, restaurants, sporting events, concerts, and theatres must wear a mask. We have been so used to seeing everyone wearing masks indoors in Canada and even most of this trip, that it is a bit freaky, seeing people wandering around stores, without masks on! Maybe they feel comfortable because they’ve already had their 3rd shot, or maybe they are just non-compliant, regardless, we are wearing our KN95 masks everywhere we go indoors, despite what others are doing! And we are really looking forward to getting our booster shoot on Thursday.
We decided to take a drive up to downtown Palm Springs to see what had changed, and wow! what a difference downtown Palm Springs from the last time we stayed in Palm Springs. Palm Springs seems to have ‘gone Vegas’. Big huge chain stores and more being built. Part of the charm of Palm Springs was the ‘rat pack’, low slung, buildings that were straight out of the 1950s, but that has definitely changed now on Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs.
Heading towards Palm Springs, the rain was getting much worse and the sky was black.
So what is the big deal about Palm Springs anyway? How did it get this ‘vibe’ that attracts everyone to come and stay here in the middle of the desert?
The Hollywood studios had a ‘two hour rule’ that required actors under contract to be available within 2 hours from the studio for any last minute film shoots. Palm Springs is about a 1 hour and 50 minutes drive from Los Angeles, so the ‘two hour rule’ helped put Palm Springs on the map. In the 1930’s Palm Springs became the #1 desert getaway for movie stars from L.A. Las Vegas didn’t become a Hollywood destination until the 1940’s. Famous residents with Palm Springs hideaways included Albert Einstein, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Kirk Douglas, and Cary Grant. Famous women who would visit Palm Springs were: Marilyn Monroe, Dinah Shore, Lily Tomlin and Liz Taylor. America was much more puritanical in those days and every movie star lived under a constant veil of surveillance and paranoia. Gossip columnists wielded immense power in those days, but word soon spread that there was a beautiful desert sanctuary where one could be relatively safe from the gossip columnists eyes. Gossip reporters worked for pennies, but survived because they would be reimbursed for their travel expenses, but only up to a range of 100 miles. Palm Springs is 107 miles from Los Angeles, so the gossip reporters didn’t come to Palm Springs to spy on the movie stars! The weather in Palm Springs was always warm and reliable and that also meant celebrities could relax by the swimming pool at a local hotel and also take in a round of golf.
We were desperate to find somewhere to have lunch, but didn’t feel like another fast food restaurant for lunch today, so we actually ended up back at the parking lot for the PGA Tour Superstore, where we had seen an authentic Mexican restaurant. Richard went into the restaurant and ordered us take out and we again ate our lunch in the car. We talked about how many times over the past year we have eaten lunch in either Jerry, Kramer, or Elaine, and now Izzy! I guess it has been the safest thing to do under the circumstances!
Definitely an authentic Mexican restaurant!
Chicken taco salad, with retried beans, rice, guacamole and a homemade taco shell.
Cheese quesadilla. They were delicious!
We had planned on BBQ this evening and doing a tri-tip roast that we had picked up at Trader Joes with homemade chimichurri sauce, but after such a late lunch, we’ll save the tri-tip BBQ for tomorrow after golf.
Richard went into Whole Foods for me to pick up some things I needed to make the chimichurri sauce and I decided to browse in Nordstrom Rack. The prices in Nordstroms were definitely not great before Christmas, so nothing really caught my eye, but I did find something that I think will come in very handy on our upcoming long road trip to Florida.
If you have ever had Starbucks gruyere cheese and bacon egg bites, you will know how delicious they are! I left a pound of bacon out of the freezer to defrost, so Richard can cook it tomorrow on the stove top in our outdoor kitchen. I will make some egg bites before we leave Palm Springs and then whenever Richard needs a quick snack while driving, he will have some great protein to keep him going. Egg bites are also great on a toasted English muffin! At 19.99 for this little gadget, it is much easier to use than our propane stove or turning the generator on to use the oven!
Tomorrow we finally get to golf in Palm Springs! When we booked our tee times through ClubCorp’s Clubline reservations about 2 weeks ago, I had wanted our golf days to be split apart, so we wouldn’t be golfing two back to back days, but given how the weather has turned out in Palm Springs, it’s probably good that the golf games were set up for tomorrow and Thursday. Tomorrow we are playing Mission Hills, The Arnold Palmer course, which we haven’t played before. We’ve got a 12:14pm tee time tomorrow, which should just see us finish our round before dark. FORE!!!!
So our day today really was a little bit of ‘this’ and a little bit of ‘that’. It was nice to be able to take the time to clean Newman this morning and also to have some retail therapy time too. We’re trying our best to relax here in Palm Springs, because we know we’ve got a very big journey ahead of us to get to Florida before Christmas! Now if the weather would only co-operate, perhaps we’ll even get in the pool and hot tub on Thursday before we leave Palm Springs!
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