Sunrise At Thousand Trails RV Resort – Palm Desert, California

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,500+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 21st year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

 

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails Palm Springs RV Resort in Palm Desert, California. I’m scheduled to depart here December 21st.

 

 

Yesterday morning the sun broke the horizon at 6:50 AM. I looked out of the driver’s window looking west towards the San Jacinto Mountains. Out I went to get in a better position for taking photos…

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

The early morning sun shines upon the San Jacinto Mountains. Less than 20 miles away at the base of the mountains lies the City of Palm Springs…

 

 

 

 

Now looking east the sun is just above my motorhome among the 850 giant palm trees in this Thousand Trails park…

 

 

 

 

The sun directly above my motorhome…

 

 

 

 

A 180 degree view looking east over the park…

 

 

This is a large RV park with 401 sites.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 67 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 66 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

Washingtonia Filifera

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

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The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort…about 20 miles east of Palm Springs, California.

 

I first posted this info in December, 2010…

 

When I went to the Coachella Valley Preserve in 1000 Palms, California the other day, they have many beautiful Washingtonia Filifera also known as the California Desert Fan Palm Tree…the only palm tree native to the desert southwestern United States.

Here’s some photos I took at the preserve…

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

These beauties were all in excess of 50 feet tall…a most impressive tree.

For everything you could ever want to know about these trees, click this link,,,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonia_filifera

 

 

Recently I’ve been running blogs about my 2004 Central America trip. While here I’m intending to continue those postings while also alternating with other past blogs.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 90 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 90 degrees. To danged hot!

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

ANOTHER LAZY DAY

Look at that grumpy guy. I interrupted his reading. We were supposed to meet Jim’s friend, Bill Dob, but that fell through so we again enjoyed the weather and the park. I walked the two miles in 30 minutes at the recreation center with the Leslie Sansone video. I like it. It also gives some upper body movements that are beneficial and definitely gets your heart pumping.

This park is really beautiful with so many palm trees. Painting them will be a challenge but I took 40 pictures of palm trees yesterday with that idea in mind.

And this morning, I’m blogging on my new system 7 computer. I spent several hours learning the difference between the old one and the new one. This computer has programs that came free with the computer, some interesting stuff that I explored as well.

The palms have such individual character when you really look at them.

My friend Pam says you have to think of them as living beings, which they are.

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Today is laundry day, and packing to return to Murphys. We move to within range of the airport at Ontario tomorrow. Hope we have a signal.

 

 

RESORT LIFE WITH THOUSAND TRAILS.

In real estate they say location, location, location. We are fortunate to have a place like this in Palm Desert to enjoy. The sunrise yesterday was stellar. The palm trees were once a producing orchard for medjool dates.

We did some speed walking, about 40 minutes around the park. I was in the pool by 9:30 for a short swim, then 10 minutes in the hot tub. Ahhh!  I like traveling about, and boondocking, but spending time in a resort is an enjoyable alternative.  Great beauty makes it that much more pleasant. At 2:00 I went line dancing in the recreation hall.  It was fun and not too difficult for a newbie to catch on.

For happy hour we visited with Jan and Larry Seaberg at their permanent site. They spend winters here. We notice the parks are switching to more permanent sites and the “camping parks” as we know them are in many places phasing out.

Larry, Jan, and Jim got acquainted when they lived in Washington State about 30 years ago.

Lacy likes to socialize. She walks with everyone in the morning so the kennel isn’t as confining as it might seem.

We walked back to our site under gray skies. Two jets seemed to be playing cross-hatch.

CHOACHELLA VALLEY DESERT PRESERVE

From a distance, desert gives way to what appears to be some strange, fat palm trees clustered together in batches. Its a sure  indication of water. The Visitor’s Center for Choachella Desert Preserve sits in the middle of this stand of palms.

The center is a three room house from long ago built entirely of palm wood. The exterior has totem type carvings.

We elected to hike the McCallum Trail to Mirror Pond. We power walked three miles earlier in the morning and this trail is one of the shorter ones, though none are particularly rugged.

And those fat palms are the same graceful species we see everywhere, except in their natural, un-groomed state, they retain their fibrous, dead fronds like a cloak. Its easy to see how the desert foxes, coyote’s and cougars can find cover in this dense stand of palms.

On hot days, hikers can find respite in this spot trimmed to provide a shaded sanctuary under the palms.

The palms grow so clustered together, they make a solid front to the wind, homes for birds and smaller animals and birdsong greeted us as we approached the pond.

The pond water is constantly replaced, rather displaced by what appears to be a running creek. The center explains that the water is displaced and forced up from underground by the San Andreas Fault.

The amount of fiber these trees produce is overwhelming. The fiber is coarse and strong. One can imagine native populations choosing it for clothing,shelter, building, waterproofing and fuel.

The frond stems are tough, strong and barbed.

Layers of leather looking “shingles”  adhere to the trunk where the fronds break off.

The green fronds have fiberous threads and are also tough and unfriendly to the hands.

On the edge of the cluster, the wind keeps the trees “trimmed”. We saw lizards and a rabbit on our hike, but none of the larger mammals in the preserve. Hikers we met who took the 4 mile loop saw a coyote and a wood rat.
It was a beautiful, cool day to hike. If you go, don’t forget to bring water. For more pictures, click my link.
https://picasaweb.google.com/1579penn/22411ChoachellaValDesertPreserve#