A week at Desert Pools

Time to move around the corner for our 'out week'. The campgrounds in our membership parks allow you 2 weeks in, then 1 week out before your next 2 in. It works fine for us as all our friends are doing the same thing and you catch up to different people all the time.
We are enjoying this 90 degree weather while watching the rainy stuff at home. I'm swimming 46 lengths 4 times a week. It was 70 lengths at home so I'm in a bigger pool here and loving the sunshine outdoors. This mural is outside the swimming pool with the golf carts lined up alongside. You can see a small yucca cactus in bloom. We saw bundles of larger blooms in Mexico on the roadsides where the people sold them as food.

Shopping with Joanie

Joanie and I went off to Costco to get her a Cybershot camera just like mine but alas, you could only order them online, so we went off to Gottschalks where we met Sandy and Peggy from the Park. Still lots of time on our hands so we checked out the thrift stores near El Paseo Drive - the ritzy part of Palm Desert. We picked up new sets of 3 orange name brand golf balls, still in the box for $1.00 ad I got some Ralph Lauren navy golf shorts, with the $69.99 tag on, marked to $9.99. Because it's now winter here and they have too many shorts, they'd been marked down to $2.99.
Now that's my kind of shopping.

Golf Cart Parade

We have finally got rid of the smoke from the fires today. We've been surrounded by it for 3 days but it rained on the coast last night and we can see our mountains for the first time since Thursday. The 29 separate fires are down to about 9 still burning at present.
We had Don and Lila, and Van and Edie over for happy hour yesterday. It was fun to sit outside visiting and catching up.
We went down to Palm Desert today and watched the 43rd annual parade. It's hard to imagine that there are only golf carts under these. This started as a Celebration when golf carts were made street legal is the early 60's and now is a tourist attraction.
Then because we were half way there, we carried on to Shields Date Farm and had a date shake for lunch. As usual - delicious!

New Neigbours

Most of the people coming in right now are fire evacuees. Two couples arrived at 11 p.m. last night across from us. Dad and mom work for Allstate Ins.on the National Catastrophe Team. Son does too, so all fulltime RVand grandchildren are with them until school interferes? They're from Alabama. The people behind are from Redlands and schools are closed so a 4 day weekend. A couple with 4 teenagers are here from Lake Arrowhead and may be able to return home in a few days but 1 school burned down and there's no power. These are only the ones we bumped into.
Thank goodness the Santa Anna winds quit today at the coast so hopefully they can contain most of the fires.
However, for the first time we smell smoke today. The ocean winds are now blowing everything inland and it smells here. The sunset is clouded by smoke and the Pass to LA is filled with it. The moon was amazing tonight, bright orange from the fire.

Fire Disaster in California

What a horror story. The Santa Anna winds are blowing from east to west and flaming fire infernos that defy any firefighting. We're 3 hours east but all you see on the news is devastation with over 28 fires burning from San Diego to Los Angeles and beyond, now coming inland. There are helicopters scooping water and large DC 10's doing the same, including a couple from Quebec. Our Mars Water Bomber from Sprout Lake on Vancouver Island arrived tonight and will be fighting by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Over 1 million people have been evacuated from their homes, many freeways are closed, the rest jammed with evacuees, the sparks are spread by the winds for miles starting new fires, the National Guard are here helping in every capacity. We've even seen the flames and coverage on BCTV. This exhausted firefighter shows it all.

Santa Anna Winds

Edie and Van are here in the park and Don and Lila are at their mobile.
California is being battered by incredible winds out on the coast with wild fires springing up. We're here safe and sound with no worries. I talked to a couple in the pool and they were at the Thousand Trails Resort in San Diego and had to evacuate, so came here. It took 6 hours at 10 -15 miles per hour due to the jammed highways.
We went for a Sunday drive today for shopping and lunch at the Sizzler but felt guilty when we read this sign.

Arrived at Catalina Spa

Finally 'home' again for the winter. We're back at our home park and one of the first to arrive, so many empty spaces. The volunteers are just arriving and as this is the earliest we've ever been here, it is amazing to realize how much work is done by the volunteers to make this park such a nice place. It was a shock to see the brown dirt where grass will soon be. No water in the summer just killed it. The pruning, cleaning, gardening, office work, entrance guard etc. are just starting. It's great to see familiar faces again. I practically have the pool to myself.