December 1-5 we did a road trip to Palm Springs to stay with Wishart and Kathy Robson.  Wish had stayed with us in Sedona on his annual Clemson tour, so we had set a return match while they were in PS.  Also, we had decided to take the southern route out of AZ into CA rather than brave the northern route in winter, so this was a good chance to recce the first half of our route to Adelaida, CA.

It was out through the Village of Oak Creek on Rt 179 to 1-17 south, then across country on Rt 74 and Rt 60 to I-10, avoiding Phoenix and a big chunk of I-10.  74 and 60 go through some rugged country; mountain ranges, Yuma Proving Ground, and desert, interspersed with nothing but RV parks.  Yep, RV parks – we counted about 10 in a 50 mile stretch from Wickenburg to the CA border.  These places are not small – some had hundreds of RVs – many with added structures.  They are literally in a desert with road signs warning of dust storms, and miles from anywhere, or anything.  A couple had cafes and bars, but the nearest grocery store had to be 25-30 miles away!  Canadian flags and signs indicated some Canuks fleeing their winters, but to live in a desert?!  Anyway, it seems it’s also a lot of retirees on a budget as these RV parks are really cheap – well duh – living in a desert in the middle of nowhere!

Stopped just across the AZ/CA line in a small town called Blythe for lunch as it was the first town on our route that had a reasonable place to eat.  It was the A&R Bakery & Café whose bestselling item was a turkey sandwich on spiced cranberry bread.  It was a small place in the centre of Blythe with 6 tables, plus a little veranda, and orders taken at the counter.  Decided to experiment with the turkey sandwich – hey I’m an old fart on the road!  When I ordered I was hit with a barrage of did I want, avocado, jalapenos, and other stuff, to which I just answered yes – didn’t want to slow up the ordering process. Had sweet potato fries instead of potato salad as my side – yes!  My sandwich must have been 3-4 inches deep, and was delicious,  as were the fries!  One of the best sarnies I’ve had – that spiced cranberry bread really worked.  Ann had pastrami on a roll.  She said the meat was very good, but the sandwich had an overdose of mustard.   The bakery section looked really amazing so we loaded up with goodies for Wish and Kathy, which we would help with of course.

Main drag Palm Springs

Barrelled on into PS, which is actually just one of a series of villages/towns all running into each other along the San Jacinto Mountains.  Indio, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Santa Rosa, so you probably have about 200,000 people all together in one suburban sprawl.  Wish and Kathy’s house is in a small gated enclave of 8 houses, just east of downtown Palm Springs.  Really nice – complete with pool and hot tub!  Wish cranked up the grill and we had some awesome rib eye steaks with lashings of red wine for our first dinner.  Rather disconcerting that it’s dark by 4:30pm when the sun goes down behind the mountains and the temperature plummets.  Played golf, wandered around down town, doing the museums and art museums.  The Palm Springs Art Museum is fabulous!  The Weiner Collection is a semi-permanent exhibition that is truly impressive; haven’t seen so many Henry Moore sculptures in one place in my life!  Then there are the Picasso vases, Modigliani, and Paolozzi busts – just amazing.  Also, in another gallery there is a small collection of pre-Colombian pieces that is staggeringly beautiful.  An impressive museum!  After our arty morning we walked round the corner to a Japanese restaurant and pigged out on Yakitori and sake.  They also had a fried oyster appetiser that was delicious – so delicious we had two lots!  Yep, still on the fried oyster trail.  In our wanderings we found a French/Belgium restaurant called Pomme Frite so took Wish and Kathy there for dinner.  9 different ways to have your Moule Frites – yes!  We immediately reverted to our Beijing days and had steak tartare followed by moule frites, with crepes Suzette to finish.  Had a rather nice bottle of Red Sancerre, followed by a Russian River Pinot as Wish and Kathy were eating pork and beef, rather than moule frites; can’t understand it!   After 4 days of doing Palm Springs and eating and drinking to excess, we headed back to Sedona.

Tahquitz Creek GC – Bob Hope’s house back in the hills.

We thought we would do a straight I-10 > I-17 route back home, but after an hour of fighting trucks and brain dead motorists, we went back to Rt 60 and Rt 74 through the RV desert!  Good run, and nice to be back home.  Home is a fluid term when you are on the road, and home is now where our stuff is and where we kick back in our jammies and watch TV!