We had a nice day moving to Palm Desert, Palm Springs and relaxing by our campground.
It’s another beautiful day outside, and also moving day. We leave the beach today and start heading inland and making our way to the east coast. We go to Palm Desert, which is close to Palm Springs, CA as that will be our base to visit Joshua Tree National Park.
I had a bit more stuff than usual waiting for me outside, so when I finished my writing, which was around 8:30, I went outside and started working on packing. The bikes were still down, and we had not pre packed anything. The truck bed was a mess, and I also had the heated water hose box to find a place for in the truck. As I got rolling, Carol was up and also started going. Carol also finished some laundry this morning, so she’s all set for the week. The girls were up, changed and ate breakfast before doing anything else. They helped me a bit outside by washing their buckets, and taking down the tree light, then they stayed out to not be on the way. We were rolling out of the campground by 11am, which is perfect timing.
I had looked up the drive and it was pretty easy, straight up north on a major highway, then straight east on another major highway. The campground is right off the highway, so pretty easy drive. Pretty much right out of San Diego the scenery was already starting to look more desert like… and it got drier and drier, warmer, and less and less trees as we got closer and closer. We had a pretty uneventful drive, soaked in the views, made one pit stop as we were pretty close already, and were at the new place in under three hours. I was watching the tires a bit more today, as it has been a while since we were out in warmer weather, so I wanted to see how they’d behave, how high the pressure and temps would go, etc. All seemed fine, both tires on the passenger side were registering pretty much the same pressure and temp, getting to a max of 59psi, and 97F. On the other side, the rear tire was at 57psi, with temp of 88, and the front tire was at 54psi, with temps of 88. That last one seemed a bit off, but nothing for me to worry about. The temperature outside hit 88 at some points, so I have seen a 10-15 degree difference between outside temp and tire temp. Seemed all normal to me. As we were arriving, we could see our campground from the highway, and it looked like a nice property, with tall palm trees.
The check-in process here was normal, and actually much more relaxed than other Thousand Trails. Sometimes they ask for insurance info and registration, but this one didn’t. The guy was super nice, and even told us a few spots he recommended. The campground is nice with all the palm trees, and concrete with sand spots. As we rolled in and paid more attention to the spots, all the trees actually make it a bit more challenging to maneuver. We first got in to a spot we felt was nice and well located, but it didn’t work for us as the slide out would hit a tree, and if we moved ahead to avoid it, the door would be hitting another tree. It was tight to then get out, but we did, and found another spot just a bit ahead. It is actually nice, even though there are trailers on both sides there’s plenty of room in between. Once we were parked, we did our normal thing… girls were playing right away with sand and whatever they found.
Carol and I were unpacking, unhitching and connecting everything back, as usual. It didn’t take long to be done, and while we were setting up it was quite warm. The inside of the trailer is a bit too warm, so we have windows open and the fans going. The sun beats right on the slide out side, which is where most of our windows are. I was enjoying the view here as we setup, it’s very pretty. Lots of tall palm trees, and all the sand around us gives an extra feeling of being in the desert. The girls were enjoying playing outside. When Carol and I were done we just sat outside a bit, and made the list for a grocery run, and then Carol left with Bia.
Bella stayed and wanted to play something with me, so we played battle ship. That was fun. And it was so nice to be able to do it outside, and feel nice and warm.
You know, I always have this good feeling when we arrive at a new campground and are done setting up. It feels nice to be in a new place, new view, feels like a new home every time. It’s hard to explain better, but I always look forward to moving, and then arriving and being all setup, and just letting it sink in. We usually just hang out and relax after we are setup, and it’s very nice.
It didn’t take long for Carol and Bia to be back, then the girls started playing a game and making videos. The game was that they’d each get a bag, and would have to eat whatever was inside. Later it changed to one would get a toy and the other something to eat, and they piked the bags without knowing what was in them. I was in charge of filling the bags.. hahahahah…. Let’s say the contents ranged from proper toys, to hair combs… and food ranged from yogurt to raw garlic. hahahahaha… it was fun watching them have fun with it.
Carol started making dinner, she made stuffed red and green peppers using my family’s recipe and it turned out great, I had 4! She also made the dough for crepes as Bia and Bella wanted some, so after the girls had some of the stuffed peppers, they ate some ham and cheese crepes. I was trying to get the wifi here working, and it kept giving me errors. It felt like I got passed to the end a few times, but then it kicked me out. So after almost two hours trying different things, I gave up, and am hoping they didn’t charge me for anything without making it work.
When dinner was ready, we all came inside to eat. I had the TV on with just whatever was on live TV, we ate, chatted and enjoyed feeling warm and having windows open. Then the girls got ready for bed. Carol had done laundry, so it was time for them to switch bunks again. Bella was not too happy, but, that’s the deal. We helped them get their stuff all back and they watched TV for about 20 minutes. After we put the girls to bed, we started planning our trip for tomorrow to Joshua Tree National Park. I researched a few sites that had recommended one day trips, and put the sequencing of stops together. We are hoping to leave tomorrow by 11am, and maybe stay at the park until past sunset so we can see the stars. Joshua Tree is one of those sites ranked as super dark skies, so it is great for stargazing.
After I finished the itinerary, I got ready for bed and was out almost as soon as I hit the pillow, as usual. It was around 10:30.
We had a nice day moving and enjoyed the warm day in Palm Desert, CA.