Happy Hour and Hot Water.... Ahhhhhhhh

Desert in the springtime… the sun is shining, the wildflowers are blooming, and the damn wind is BLOWING. On Sunday, 3/3, we pulled into Caliente Springs RV Resort which is located in Desert Hot Springs on the windy side of the valley. It was blowing like crazy and Rog was sure there must be a storm or wind advisory in effect. Nope – just the normal craziness. We're guessing it has to hit 40 or 50mph before the locals get excited. Lol.

Thousands of these "wind generators" line the valley.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised it's been blowing like crazy!

I swear the winds here can be a ripping 20-30mph and you drive across the valley to Palm Springs and it’s dead calm. On the up side, we have amazing hot mineral spring fed pools. We are booked for a week and feeling like life is good. We have made our pilgrimage to the pools to soak for an hour or more. Every. Single. Day. For that I can deal with a little breeze. 😊 

We are enjoying the hot mineral spring fed pools!

The daily Water Ball games are a kick.

Breezy but beautiful!

View from the clubhouse - love the snow dusted hills. 

We’re not generally huge fans of private RV parks since you are usually crammed in like sardines with little to show for it other than hookups. The spaces here are fairly typical, but the amenities rock! The pool system really is amazing and there are always activities and classes going on. We’ve done yoga classes three times this week and that is a rare treat on the road. 

Yoga class- 8AM Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Yep, we did it.

Riley has perks too, a spacious off-leash dog park with grass and fun new friends to play with.  We’ve been hitting that nearly every day too. 

The resort has it's own dog park and Riley had a blast!

One of the reasons we decided to hang here in Desert Hot Springs was that my Happy Hour accomplice, Elaine, was going to be in the area visiting family. We managed to rendezvous for a little soaking and sipping. 😊 Elaine, her cousin from Ohio, Gail, Rog, and I had an excellent happy hour at Trio in Palm Springs. We started with margaritas, but then watched as the bartender mixed this incredibly complex and yummy looking cocktail. He called it a Trio Fizz and said it was his creation and that it had won a bartending competition. So, Elaine says give us four of those! I cannot begin to tell you what all went into it, but the end result was something like a very adult orange creamsicle – dangerously good! (Thank you, Elaine!)

Outside Trio with Elaine- Happy Hour here we come!

The award winning (and yummy) Trio Fizz. 

Those are some happy (hour) campers.. Lol.

We haven’t just lazed around in the pool. On Tuesday, 3/5, we took Riley on a four-hour driving tour of Joshua Tree National Park. The Park includes areas of both the Colorado and Mohave Deserts. The Colorado Desert is lower in elevation, dryer, and hotter. You see lots more cholla cactus (over 200,000 specimens in the area around Cholla Gardens!). Interestingly, the best wildflowers were at the lower elevations too. At the south entrance the flowers were just fabulous!

Spoiled much? Rog rigged a fan so Riley stays cool. 

The desert is blooming!

Wildflowers for miles. Such a treat!

Rog in the Cholla Garden.

Close up of the Cholla buds. Yes they are edible, but ouch!

Give us a hug!
Nope!

The Mohave Desert area of the park is higher in elevation (over 3000 ft) and that’s where you’ll find the Joshua Trees, scrub oak and juniper. Oasis of fan-palms are also found wherever the groundwater hits a fault line and comes to the surface. Since the trails are off-limits to the pooches, we just enjoyed the pull outs and views. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the base of some really cool boulders.

Joshua Tree. Gotta say, I do prefer the redwoods. Lol.

Love the huge piles of granite boulders.

Yes! Riley finds shade in the desert. 

Mr. Sandy Lips dropped his cookie and half the Mojave stuck to his face. Yuck.

Thursday evenings Palm Springs hosts a street fair called VillageFest. It’s dog friendly so we loaded Riley up and headed over to check it out. With over 200 vendors, live music, a dance competition, and crazy crowds it was a bit overwhelming for both him and us. He did great though and was a solid hit. He is so patient and handled all the adoring fans quite well. For being such a good boy, he talked Mom & Dad into getting him his own dish of ice cream. Clearly his favorite part of the evening. Riley attracted the attention of a videoblogger at Joshua Tree National Park and at VillageFest he had lots of pictures taken with The Great Bambino, a well-dressed Sharpei with his own Instagram following. Riley may be a media sensation yet. Lol. 

 At VillageFest in Palm Springs. 

Good dogs deserve a treat. :) 

Saturday, we drove back to the town of Joshua Tree for their farmer’s market, which is also dog-friendly. We picked up produce, local cheese and baked goods while Riley charmed the ladies yet again. Lol.

Joshua Tree Farmer's Market.

Such a charmer.
Takes after his daddy. :) 

This has been a fun and relaxing week but we pull out tomorrow (Sunday, 3/10) with plans to boondock somewhere around Borrego Springs, CA. We’ve read so many good things about the area, we’re excited to check it out. Don't be alarmed if we're out of touch for a bit, we may not have much in the way of cell service or internet connectivity (yes, I will miss the resort's wifi!).