May 24, 2023 - Andiamo to Palm Desert

Woke up this morning with teeth chattering at the 55 degree f (12 c) temperature (for some strange reason we still run all our thermostats on Fahrenheit), ah, needed to put on the heat pump to take the chill off. This felt a bit crazy as we were heading into the 90 degree plus (30+c) today but before we head there, we had a little drama this morning. 

Sipping on my coffee, sitting on the coach in the living area I look at and took notice of where I had actually parked Andiamo a few days ago. Oh, I pulled her in nice and snug to take advantage of the site but didn’t realize the tree about 10 inches off the front side, hmm could this be a possible tail swing problem. Well my assessment was correct, I did my best and tried to pull her back and forth to give me some room but even with the back up assist my brain was starting to play tricks on me - hmm this way, to make it go that way kind of tricks. I was also a bit concerned as I was blocking a main roadway. I was able to make some room and then got to the point of no return, I was about an inch off and still had six feet of trailer to get past this tree. There was a hill and bush in front of me and with all the warning noises I pushed the front end of the truck into the bush to give me maximum length before making the final turn out. All of a sudden I hear Jan saying you are so close but keep going and then there was a shout and we were through. Jan said that she wasn’t sure how I did not hit this tree, she could not see any daylight between Andiamo and the tree but we didn’t hit or even scratch. I asked do you think it was a half an inch, quarter inch, eight of an inch, she said more like a sixteenth of an inch, whew. Note to self in the future, give yourself plenty of room to not only get into a spot but equally important think about getting out of the spot.

We left this wonderful, magical, whimsical park at just after 11 am and once again punched the destination into my truck GPS and wouldn’t you know it, almost 4 hours on this GPS. My google map iphone indicated 1 hour and 15 mins? Let’s just say we followed the phones route. Still scratching my head on this one. Anyway, we had a very nice drive down from the 7,000 feet. The truck handled well and we did not even smell any of that brake burning odour, got to love tow haul mode. There were some amazing view points on the way down as the outside temps began increasing and increasing until the read 34 degrees c (93 f), welcome to Palm Desert read the sign, we made it to our farthest southern point of this adventure. We are here a week, staying at the Emerald Desert RV Resort - a very nice definitely Resort feel RV Park. We are in a great spot (683) on a cement pad amongst the shady trees. This will be a great stay. We both jumped into the pool after set up.

There is a good buddy of mine and his wife bought a house here back in 2016 and fortunate for us he is down here doing some work on the house, installing solar on the roof. He invited us over for Happy Hour and a swim which turned into a fabulous BBQ chicken dinner sitting around pool in their beautiful desert oasis. 

Some pics from our day, hope you enjoy… For our cruise ship life followers we have some surprise visits coming up. It is wonderful when friends follow you and reach out when we are passing through, looking so forward to our coming visits, stay tuned.

The smiling face outside our window, and then I saw the tree.





Hello Palm Springs, Palm Desert and La Quinta in the valley below.





Now this is what I call a Desert Oasis. Congrats to my bud and family on finding and creating this gem.



All hands on deck preparing dinner

Cheers!