So on January 26, 2009, we left our stay at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, San Onofre Beach, and drove east to the Salton Sea on SR 22 then up Hwy 86 thru the Coachella Valley ending up at our next RV park, Desert Springs Park, Desert Hot Springs, CA.
A note about the Coachella Valley. It is a loose confederation of towns/small cities that stretch from the Banning Pass (east of San Bernadino/Riverside) roughly a SE direction to the North end of the Salton Sea. The communities are Desert Hot Springs, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Thousand Palms, Bermuda Dunes, La Quinta, Indio and Coachella (city). Most of these small cities range from 20,000 to 45,000 population. The economy ranges from the very, very rich behind gated community in multi-million dollar homes to the less fortunate to older trailer homes in the unincorporated outskirts. This area has grown immensely since I was here in 1982. I would no longer want to live in the heart of the Valley but some of the outskirts are still OK.
Our RV park sits on top of a hot spring and heat the pool/soaking tub. There are 70's RVs; mostly snowbirds with a few permanent residents.
We visited the Palm Spring's Air Musuem, a drive up to Joshua Tree National Monument (desert is not blooming yet due to cool weather) and will go to Cabot's Desert Museum next week Peter Toth is there restoring an Indian carving he did some years ago-he is the artist who carved the big wooden Indian statue in Red Lodge in the late '70s. He stayed with us at the Alpine Village Motel while he created the statue.
And of course several drives around the Valley just gawking.
There are a lot of RV parks in this area. From our park, moderately priced, to those with every possible amenity and golf courses and a price tag to match.
As most of you know this has been a very, very cool winter on the West coast. We were never really warm at Camp Pendleton and quite cool here until the last two or three days.
The recession is in full swing here and a lot of commercial and residential developments abandoned in various stages of completion. We visited one (took the model home tour) that had completed the last 40 or 50 homes before the roof caved in. This was a really nice gated community with access to golf, pools, spas, tennis courts, etc. Part was dedicated to 55+ and the remainder to family type neighborhoods. Houses which sold less than two years ago for $576,000, now on closeout for $230,000 or make an offer. These are beautiful homes with privacy, RV parking space, granite counter tops, tile roofs, etc. Just over the back fence was a development that was started and only sold a very few homes and now there are hundreds of site remaining; some with nothing on them, some with foundations, some framed-every stage of completion. The builder went bankrupt and there it sits. Yes, the situation is grim.
On March 2nd we will leave for somewhere in Arizona. Don't know for sure our plans after that. May go to MT on the way home for Bode's baptism on April 19.
All is well with us. Keelan is doing great with the RV life. Going to Santorini, Greece, 7-24 June. Then leaving again mid July to MT, ND, MN, MO and ???????-probably Mexico for next winter. Have to do it while we still can.
Cheers!
Dwight (Pa Pa, Grandboppy), Bev (Grandma, Nana Bev) and Keelan
No comments:
Post a Comment