Sunday, January 12, 2014

Idyllwild to Palm Springs (area)

Trip down the mountain was more beautiful than going up the mountain, but also fraught with steep downhill slopes in some areas.  Going from 7500'ish feet to near Sea Level, in 75 minutes, was actually pretty graceful.

The trip wasn't like some mountain ranges, such as when went from Death Valley to Pahrump, NV.  That was both a steep, and long, uphill travel followed by an equally steep, and rapid, descent.  Sure, in some areas it was little steep but for the most part everything was generally gradual, except when heading into the Valley with hairpin turns and steep dropoffs.  These would've been great on the scooter, but alas, can't tow the RV with a scooter.

With this still being California and all, I wasn't really surprised when actually entered the valley.  Housing project upon housing project, and a gated golf course every block it seems.  This is definitely a snow bird's paradise.  Some people warned me about the humidity in this area, and they were not mistaken.  The temperatures here now are really nice, but definitely can feel the humidity.  It's not as dry as most of the other places which have been to.

Stayed at one of the Thousand Trails parks for six days before heading to the FMCA rally.  This was a mediocre park and was pretty unimpressed with it.  There were date palms (but alas I had no date) towering over most of the sites, sparse brown grass in most areas, and we were all packed in close.  Not like sardines, but pretty close nonetheless.

One great thing about this park is it was right off the highway, I-10.  This is great, however, since so close did get a lot of the highway noise.  There is also a train track across the highway, behind some trees, and while couldn't see it, many trains passed on it every day.  Refreshing to hear the train as it's a more efficient means of transporting goods.  Though, in an ideal world, everything would be fairly local.

One major downside to the park is that they have been having problems with theft lately, so much so that they warned me about it.  Thought wouldn't have a problem, but someone actually took my tie-down strap, only one.  It is one I use to tie down the scooter to the motorcycle lift.  It is somewhat (extremely) important that have four of them to secure it in place.

Other than these couple things, the people who work there are great (except one lady talked to in the sign-up office, but that coulda been me also).  All of the fellow campers there that I talked to were also great!  Not sure who walked away with my tie-down strap, but they were the exception to the rule.

I continue to be one of the youngest people at the parks I go to.  There was a younger family that was diagonally across from me in Idyllwild, but they were exception to the rule.

This is the park where Pia's last days were also.  Don't think anything here exacerbated any issues as they were already in the works.

Either way, still in the area for this week.  Then heading away again.  The FMCA rally was pretty good, and will make a post soon about it.

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