WINTERTIME IN THE DESERT AT INDIO

“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”  Lucille Ball

Carol writes:  Indian Waters RV Resort was our home for two weeks in the California desert town of Indio, which lies in the beautiful Coachella Valley about 127 miles east of Los Angeles.  Indio, one of nine cities that dominate the Coachella Valley along the I-10 corridor, was surrounded by mountains, which made it an excellent wind corridor that is ideally suited for several gigantic windmill farms.

The most well-known city in the Coachella Valley is Palm Springs, home and playground to thousands of the rich, famous, and accomplished from almost every aspect of life.

Al needed to visit an Apple Store.  The nearest location was in Palm Desert in the ritzy El Paseo shopping district,

so we put on our campground chic and headed out for a late afternoon stop at a 

coffee shop along El Paseo, 

where we had a good opportunity to people-watch and get a good look at some of the most exclusive cars I have ever seen.  It was common in one short stretch along the street to see scores of BMWs in addition to models such as Rolls Royce,

Bentley, and Maserati.  This place was pretty classy.

During our two-week stay in Indio, we were looking forward to attending our first-ever RV rally.  By luck, a rally was being held that weekend at the Indio Fairgrounds. 

An RV rally is a great source of information about every aspect of RV life you can imagine.  We had a few dealers in mind that we wanted to visit, among them the Spartan Chassis folks, so we could talk a bit and also replenish our supply of antifreeze.

Somewhat sheepishly, I will admit that I am a worrier.  On a day when there is nothing in my personal life particularly worrisome, I can always fall back to worrying about the catastrophic meteor strike, the Yellowstone Park super volcano and, for the next two weeks… the “Big One” due to strike on the San Andreas Fault. 

At Indian Waters,

we were very near a portion of the San Andreas fault that last had a moving event over 300 years ago.  At the Coachella Valley Preserve we had a chance to walk right along the fault where an underground aquifer has found its way to the surface due to weaknesses in the earth caused by the fault. As a result of the plentiful water supply, an oasis of tropical palms has grown up in the preserve.

A series of boardwalks suspended above the water

wound through a grove of palm trees surrounding a shallow, perfectly still pond.

It was a beautiful sunny day for hike through the preserve,

… and a great opportunity to confront one’s “worries” with a hike along the lush vegetation growing up along the Coachella Valley portion of the San Andreas Fault.

In terms of size, the most dominant natural feature in the southern California desert is the Salton Sea, a body of extremely salty water 35 miles long and approximately 15 miles wide. 

In the 1950s this area was a wildly popular recreation area, but during our visit it was clear to see that those glory days are long past.  I suspect much of this has to do with lack of funds to maintain the area, increasing pollution from agricultural runoff, and the fact that the water is getting saltier every year.  The fish population has pretty much declined to a single species of salt-tolerant tilapia.  Nevertheless, a hike along the beach was a lovely walk with a wonderful opportunity for bird watching,

along a backdrop of spectacular snow-brushed peaks in the distance.

We enjoyed our stay in Indio very much, especially the warm sunny days that allowed us to do all the exploring we wanted, plus have lots of outdoor time for reading and conversation with fellow campers in what was a very friendly campground.  During our stay in Indio we came to realize that we have matured into official senior citizens, for it was here that we discovered we really liked playing shuffleboard and pickleball.

“I’m now at the age where I’ve got to prove that I’m just as good as I never was.”  Rex Harrison