Moving to Sky Valley

We wish we would have taken advantage of the weekly rate at Golden Village Palm Resort in Hemet, California, because their activities certainly looked like fun. Their residents were also very friendly, and we met many more of the Canadians that move to the United States for the winter. We have spent so much time with Canadians we're beginning to talk like them. They end many of their sentences with "Ay?!" So we are catching ourselves doing the same, if you know what we mean, ay?!

But we are back on the road headed east to another resort in the southern California desert. We are also driving closer to those mountains that loom ahead of us.

As we made the last turn onto Dillon Road, we passed a field of solar panels and windmills. We have seen this combination over and over in the southwest.

We are now parked for a week at Sky Valley Resort. We've stayed at a long list of resorts over the last few weeks, all compliments of the half-price rate through Passport America. We would never be able to stay at such places with their $50 per night rates. But cut that in half, and we are happy campers! We rode our bikes through this sizable resort, where many of the spaces have their own palm tree. Most of the sites have park model homes on them, with a few RVs sprinkled here and there. There are also orange trees throughout the park, and they are blooming right now. It's like living in a perfume factory when we walk around.

This resort has four different swimming pools, and we haven't even counted the number of hot tubs. They are unique because they are naturally heated from underground mineral hot springs. In fact, the water has to be cooled to bring the water down to a temperature that won't boil the residents. We went swimming in the 55+ pool, but there is also a family pool for those youngsters less than 55. We thought people might be tired of our swimming pool pictures, so we took a photo of one of the ponds instead. The mountain in front of the resort is part of the Joshua Tree National Park, the main reason we are visiting this area.

We found that there are many interesting places within 20-30 miles of our new home. We took advantage of our central location to visit places like Palm Springs. Situated right below the San Jacinto Mountains, the only thing more prominent than the mountain are the never-ending palm trees.

Some of Hollywood's biggest stars have homes in this posh city. With street names like "Bob Hope" and "Dinah Shore" and "Frank Sinatra" we felt like we had already been introduced to some of the city's most famous residents. Walking down Palm Canyon Drive, we spent some time sitting down with Lucille Ball for a chat.

Mark also chatted with Sonny Bono, who became Palm Springs' mayor after his music career broke up. Sonny wanted to open a restaurant in Palm Springs, but the city bureaucracy had too many road blocks for investors like him. So he ran for mayor, on the platform of making Palm Springs more business-friendly. Now he is immortalized with a statue downtown by the fountain.

Just like Hollywood, Palm Springs has a "Walk of Stars" that feature some very recognizable names from film and television.

All this name-dropping and rubbing elbows with the local celebrities was nice, but the reason for our trip today was Village Fest. Every Thursday evening from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., the main drag of Palm Canyon Drive is closed to all traffic. Signs are posted that cars must be moved Thursday afternoon, and they are serious about that. We saw more than one tow truck forcibly moving those vehicles that didn't heed the parking restrictions.

Within thirty minutes, the palm-tree-lined street turns into an outdoor festival. Tents line both sides of the road, and the street becomes a pedestrian walkway. It was an amazing transformation!

Speaking of transformation, we couldn't help but notice the tall person on the left hand side of the picture above. Mark took another picture using his stealthy skills. This is certainly an interesting place to do some people watching.

Since we didn't need to do much shopping, we mostly did people-watching. There were musicians on every corner, and "The Lord of the Cello" certainly wears an interesting outfit.

The cello player morphed further when he added head gear to his ensemble. As weird as he looked, he really was a good electric cello player.

We were gawking at other creatures on Palm Canyon Drive. It was fun to stroll beside this man walking his dog through the crowd. We heard murmurs over and over of statements like, "It's as big as a horse!"

We stayed at the festival until after dark, enjoying a beautiful desert evening. Our only purchases were things we could eat--bread and fresh fruit. We feel like we have been immersed in our new home town in a very Californian way.