Last Day in Indio

Wow -- the Romance and Sex life of the Date -- how can we resist? Actually, we couldn't, so stopped at Shields Date Farms to learn about this interesting fruit. Remarkably, some 95% of all dates grown in the USA are grown in this immediate area.
Shields had free samples of many different kinds of dates that they grow right here. I never realized how good fresh dates were and sampled many of them. Of course, we had to purchase some to take back to the coach.

We learned that dates like hot and dry areas like this desert, BUT, they need lots of water. Kind of an interesting requirement in the desert. These trees are all well irrigated and the low humidity seems to be ideal for the growing of dates. The bags you see on these trees hold in the pollen and protect the young dates from rain which can damage them.

Later on this afternoon, we were invited to take a boat ride with our neighbors, Lyle and Marg from Alberta, who have a beautiful Newell coach and volunteered to show us around.

They have an electric deck boat that is wonderful to ride around the park with. There are about 2 miles of waterways to explore and we had a great time. This waterfall is in the golf course area.

Here the boat is ready to go under one of the two bridges in the park. We really enjoyed the flowers surrounding the waterway.


Orinda and Marg enjoyed talking about the area and the beautiful surroundings. We will remember this beautiful park and have really enjoyed our stay.

Palm Springs, CA and Ruby's Diner

We toured down to the Palm Springs area today which was a beautiful drive down Highway 111. When we reached Rancho Mirage, we spotted the Ruby's Diner and had to stop for lunch. This was a great place and was a classic 50's diner, but with all the modern benefits. Orinda loved it and lunch was great.

One of the best parts of lunch were the classic cars on display. I liked the early 50's Packard which was in great shape. I especially liked the "safety steel dashboard". No wimpy padding or airbags in this baby. Now this is a car!

How about this 1960 Caddy? Real cars have fins and lots of chrome. There were a couple of classic car dealerships around, but Orinda would not let me stop!

A coach wash and touring the resort

The famous photo dog, Cody, said it was time to get him back in the blog! Here he is on our dock in front of the coach surveying his terrain.

We were walking through the park today and saw a crew washing a motorhome. Wow -- did they do a great job! I asked how much to wash and detail the coach and the answer was $50! I signed up on the spot.

There were about 12 guys working together with almost military precision. 3 guys with pressure washers, one on the roof, others on the sides. the rest washed with soft brushes and then dried and polished the coach. They washed the roof, sides, wheels, tires, and the insides of all compartment doors. COOL! They finished in about 25 minutes and were on their way. Great job.

We also took a very nice tour of the resort and looked at some of the lots for sale. This lot overlooked the lake and the wonderful view of the mountains. While we thought the lot was great, the price was a bit steep ($400,000)! Fortunately, there are many lots at much lower prices or for seasonal rental (more our speed).

Some of these lots actually had their own swimming pools on the lot. We enjoyed getting ideas for what could be done on a lot.

This lot was owned by the CEO of Newell Coach company. Interestingly, some 16 Newells were sold in this resort last year! That is about 1/3 of Newell's annual production.

This was an interesting pool/fountain configuration that was very nice.

We liked the lots and the resort, but learned that most residents are weekenders from the southern California area, so things are a bit dead during the week. I suspect this is not a great fit for us for future seasons.

Indio Motorcoach Country Club

We were welcomed to the Indio, CA Motorcoach Country Club today and look forward to exploring this amazing park. Reserved for class A motorhomes only, the signature feature of this resort is a large man-made lake that runs throughout it. Many of the lots front on the lake and have their own dock.

Here is an example of the docks that are aournd the lake; interestingly, these are made of concrete and are naturally, very solid.

I would say about half of the lots have been built out to include outdoor kitchens, seating areas and the like. These are beautiful areas to look out over the lake and watch the sun set.

Here is our site, with our Tour parked next door to a new Newall, which is a very high end coach. This one happened to be from Alberta, Canada.
I really enjoyed the many flowers and landscaping features throughout the park. There is also a par 3 ggolf course that Rick will have to check out. We are looking forward to doing some more exploring of this park int he next few days.

Review of the Rancho Resort

We started our last full day at Rancho Outdoor Resort by attending the non-denominational church service in the park. Wow -- what a great service. The 50 or so folks attending were very friendly and welcoming and the service was excellent. There was a special music program that was very good and Orinda and I really enjoyed it.
Afterward, we went into Temecula's Old Town, a quaint shopping district that offers all kinds of interesting shops.
We decided to have lunch at the Hotdog Shoppe which turned out to be a great choice (Rick picked this one!). They featured all kinds of dogs -- Orinda got the famous southern "Slaw Dog" while Rick picked the Pastrami Dog. Both were excellent! Plus, we got to watch some of the football games on the big screen. What a deal!

After returning to the RV park, we took a ride on our electric bikes and explored the park. I really enjoyed the many water features and waterfalls among the 20 or so inter-connected lakes.

Many of the RV sites back up to a lake or stream which makes for a very tranquil environment.

We also looked at some of the different kinds of RV sites that area available. This is an example of a basic site that has not been added to. Very nice and about 80' by 40', so quite roomy.

This site has a complete outdoor kitchen featuring a complete cooktop, refrigerator, dishwasher and more. It also has a waterfall right on the site. Very comfortable! These are quite common since the climate is mild and there are very few bugs, even at night. Rancho California is a resort that we will certainly try to visit again.

A visit to the Hale Observatory at Mt. Palomar

We made the 40 mile trip to the famous Hale Observatory at Mt. Palomar which is just to the east of us while at the Rancho Outdoor Resort. This is the home of the 200" reflecting telescope which is something we had read about for years.

Here is the 200 inch telescope observatory from about 1/4 mile away. Wow, this thing is HUGE! The observatory is open for tours during the day, but is quite a walk from the parking area. There are also very few signs leading up to the scope, so we took a couple of wrong turns, but eventually got to the site.

The telescope itself is viewed though a glass wall that allows you to see the huge components. The mirror weighs some 14.5 tons and is 200" in diameter. The entire telescope is about 100' high and is one of the largest telescopes in the world.

This picture of Orinda in the entrance gives an idea of the large size of the telescope enclosure.

There is also an interesting museum associated with the observatory which features many pictures of the telescope and some of the amazing pictures that have been taken.

This was Rick's favorite picture -- amazing!

Rancho California Outdoor Resorts

We arrived at the Rancho Outdoor Resort near Temecula, CA. and found a beautiful RV park. We were given a very nice site and decided to get our bikes out for a ride.


The resort also features a very nice executive golf course (par 3) with many interesting water features. Rick decided he should give it a try and Orinda rode around in the cart.

This is the water fall on hole number 1. A very beautiful hole and lots of fun to play.

There are 25 water features on the course and the RV sites surround the course, so many of the sites are on the course or on the water. Many of the lakes had waterfalls or fountains that add to the beauty of the course.

Rick had a very nice round and found that his new clubs worked well. He still needs some work on the chipping part, but things were looking up. In fact, on one hole he actually hit his tee shot only a couple feet from the hole! Too bad, he couldn;t do that on all of them!