Beautiful ! !

The sky is absolutely beautiful tonight ! !   We are moving on Wednesday to Pio Pico in Jamul, San Diego County.  Sorry to leave here but excited to see my brother and nieces.  

Sunnylands Center & Gardens

Ken isn't feeling well today so I went with our Canadian friends George and Dorothy for a visit to Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage.  Have never heard of this place before today but it certainly appears to be a very important place to many of our Presidents since Richard Nixon.  Walter and Leonore Annenberg built this 200 acre estate and historic home as a retreat, not only for themselves but for world leaders.  Many a US President visited here and did business while also enjoying some down time on the golf course.  It is said that the Reagan's attended about 18 New Year's Eve Parties here.  The Annenberg's established the Annenberg Foundation Trust to "address serious issues facing the nation and the world community." Lots of bipartisan meetings have taken place here over the years with a much less structured format than would occur in Washington.  President Obama was here about a year and a half ago when he met at Sunnylands with Chinese President Peng and some important things were discussed.  

Hard to tell, but these river rocks are covered in water that is recycling on both sides.  It is totally full of water.

This little hummingbird sat there for a long time while Dorothy and I took it's picture.  


Beautiful gardens and free to boot ! ! 


On the way back to Thousand Trails we decided to stop at the In N Out Burger joint...  Oh my, never have I seen it so busy.  There must have been 20 people working, shoulder to shoulder, behind the counter and maybe a hundred customers in the store.  Two buses had just stopped in after we ordered.  Next door is Carl's Jr and Del Taco.  They are empty and people are using their parking lots...  Sad for them.  We parked a block down the street and walked back. Couldn't park in the other stores lots..  Just couldn't. LOL........ Good burgers ! ! 

Beautiful Desert

Drove around today as it is Ken's birthday and he wanted to go check out the vendors at the FMCA Rally in Indio.  After spending a few hours there we headed to Olive Garden for a late lunch...  Enough left for dinner too ! ! !  On the way and out and about we captured these great shots of the surrounding mountains.  It is really beautiful in a deserty (is that a word) way ! !   There has been a lot of flooding around here, especially up against the mountains.  We saw, for the first time, sand piled about two feet high by the "snow" plows. Very interesting...

Can hardly separate the clouds from the snow...

On to Palm Desert

Today is a big moving day, about 10 - 12 miles from Desert Hot Springs to Palm Desert.  LOL.  It was windy and pouring rain yesterday with talk of flash flooding all afternoon and evening.  We went to lunch with Vonnie & Claude, Ken's sister and then bundled in.  The sky got very Oregon like.  Low clouds and no visibility.  Woke up to this in the Santa Rosa Mountains, no snow yesterday... Very pretty today, sun and snow in the mountains.  Can hardly tell that it rained in the Desert Hot Springs area.  Dillon Road is like a roller coaster with deep dips.  Almost none of the dips showed any evidence of water.  The closer we got to Palm Desert then we saw the "flooding" signs and all the mud and gravel on the roadways.  

This is the mountain that the Palm Springs Tramway is on.  We think it is San Jacinto.  Took this picture on the way over to Palm Desert.

Threats of more rain in the second storm that should hit this afternoon.  Nice that we got all moved in and settled before it hits.  This park really shows that it rained hard yesterday.  People we talked with said that there was at least six inches of standing water in the park yesterday evening and the sand is quite muddy.  Never been here in the rain before.    

This is home for the next month.  It is emptier than we ever remember  Hear that it is because the Canadian money is not worth as much.  Usually there are lots of Canadians here.  Huuuummmm..  Waiting to hear about my surgery getting scheduled and so that may change our plans.  

Desert Hot Springs

Changes to our schedule happened yesterday...  We just really were so cold that all we could think about was a full hookup, 50 amp site after about two weeks of basically dry camping ! ! !  Now that says something as we gave up this weekend in Plaster City in the desert with my niece, her husband and a million of their closest friends and family ! ! !  LOL. Would have been so fun but I was too cold.  Made it to our RPI, last minute, reservation at Desert Pools in Desert Hot Springs.  Have never stayed here before but it is about a mile from where Ken's sister, Vonnie, now lives.  Hope to be able to see more of her but she is just getting sick so we will see how that goes. When we move to Thousand Trails in Palm Desert we will only be about 12 miles away.  We traveled from Bakersfield, about a five hour drive and beautiful through the Tahachipi Pass and the Lucerne Valley.  Took highway 58 most of the way and then turned onto 247 and then 62.  NO TRAFFIC.  We got to miss all the Riverside, LA traffic on Highway 10. 

Met up with new Fantasy RV friends, Stephanie and David White.  They were going to dinner at Grill A Burger and then going to the Fleetwood Mac cover band performing at Spotlight 29 Casino.  They invited us to join them...  Fun to get to catch up with them.  

Watched the Rose Parade on TV this morning while remembering that we were there in person last year.  Was absolutely freezing and raining last year so we really appreciated the warm RV, sun shining in the windows.  It's 10:30am here now and 60 degrees.  I think it will be a warmer stay now ! ! 

Happy New Year everyone ! ! !  Wishing peace, health and happiness to all !