Linking up with Marg at The Intrepid Reader
January 2025 - Palm Springs CA
Weekly Recap Jan 4 - Jan 10 Best Coffee
Weekly Recap Jan 11 - Jan 17 Cafe Lucille
Weekly Recap Jan 25 - Jan 31 2025
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Palm Springs CA
We received this notice from the office.
Dear Owner/Guest:
Southern California Edison Energy is scheduled to upgrade equipment in the Palm Springs area that may interrupt power to our area between 10pm on Monday 1/27/2025 until 7am on Tuesday 1/28/2025, and again at 10pm Thursday 1/30/2025 until 7am on Friday 1/31/2025. Each unit has an emergency light pre-charged in an outlet and as a precaution, do not park your vehicle in your garage during this period.
In the event the power does go out, we have a limited supply of flashlights and lanterns available at the front desk. Updated details regarding the possible outage is available at SCE.com. A condo representative will be available during the outage periods at NNN-NNN-NNNN.No impact at all.
Saturday and another 7 AM rising. I noticed that the raspberries we are eating are from Mexico.
We left at 11 for Pioneertown.
We are climbing.
The biggest tumbling tumbleweed I've ever seen!
Pioneertown was conceived as an 1880s-town from the Old West. Actors in LA wanting to experience frontier-style /Old West living came with the idea of combining a permanent working movie set and real-life residency and retail activities. Western movies and shows required the construction of false-front facade streets and towns which were then dismantled and sometimes destroyed. Actor Dick Curtis got Roy Rogers and Gene Autry to invest in his dream. It is a movie set that has fallen on hard times, its heyday having from the late 1940s to the 1960s with many TV series (eg The Gene Autry Show, The Cisco Kid) and movies having been filmed at this site.
First stop, as we donned extra layers of clothing, it is only 10 C up here and windy. We are are 4,200 feet above sea level.
John went outside to pick it up here.
Cheapest breakfast I've had in a long time. $10, bacon is hidden, and there are four tortillas wrapped up.
The buildings along Mane Street (nice pun) house several stores including the General Store and General Mercantile Shop. Typical tourist souvenirs and tchotchke were on offer as well as some local art and jewelry. No vehicles are allowed on Mane Street.
Leaving town.
Just down the road.
Desert Christ Park overlooks the high desert town of Yucca Valley in southern California. Here you'll find more than forty snow-white sculptures and images portraying scenes of Christ's life and teachings. Free admission - donations.
Desert Christ Park is a 3.5-acre sculpture garden in Yucca Valley, California. The park was sculpted and created by Antone Martin, a former aircraft worker who died in 1961 at the age of 74.
Interesting advertising signs.
John doesn't look too impressed.
Heading back down.
Owners, Jasmine & Lorenzo, were born and raised in Rome, Italy. They know Italian food, and understand that what guests are looking for is so much more than a good meal. Italian hospitality is renowned all over the world and for good reason.
You may ask, “why Spaghetti Western”?
Jasmine grew up in the countryside outside of Rome in a small town called Casali di Mentana. Ennio Morricone, esteemed composer and orchestrator, was her neighbor. Her husband Lorenzo grew up in Trastevere, in the same neighborhood as Sergio Leone. They are also both musicians and have been in love with the “Spaghetti Western” genre since they were little. They ate, slept, and breathed that culture, tradition, and style. Ever since they moved out here to the “Far West”, they dreamed of merging these two aesthetics and creating a world in which the two blended seamlessly.
We decided that we should go back to the factory outlets that we had to leave last Thursday due to a power outage. A cashier told us they had closed on Tuesday and Thursday due to the high winds.
Some money was spent.
We also stopped by the dinosaurs for a photo op. I guess they get painted for Christmas.
And here is John in 2015.
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We stopped in Ralph's to pick this up so we can have our crab legs (from Canada). These beat our plastic "stolen from Joe's Crab Shack" ones at home!
Sunday we were up at 7:30. It was chilly and it had snowed overnight. Photo taken while waiting for John to pull out of the garage.
We left at 9:30 for Costco, arrived at 9:45, shopped and were out before they officially opened, and in the car at 9:58!!
They are still calling for rain and there was snow on the mountains this morning. We did finally get a little sprinkle of rain.
We had absolutely no plans for the rest of today. John watched golf and football. I read and worked on posts.
I updated our spreadsheet with our purchases that we will have to declare going home.
The duty-free allowance for returning to Canada is $200 after 24 hours away and $800 after 48 hours. This exemption applies to goods for personal or household use.
There is nothing over the 48 hours, so $800 each is it.
We got up at 7:30.
It was a cool morning so John cancelled his golf until tomorrow. We dressed in long pants, sweaters and jackets.
We planned on going for pizza and then doing some sightseeing.
We had a choice of two places Blaze and Bill's. I opted for Bill's and it was a real local place, packed on a Monday chilly lunch hour.
John's - pepperoni, mushrooms and jalapenos. They make their own sourdough crust.
Mine - caramelized onions, roasted peppers and mushrooms. And because it was Monday a glass of wine was half price $3.75!!! You'd never see that at home!
While having pizza John thought we should go back and watch movies instead as it cloudy and spitting a little. So that's what we did!
We left the garage open, in case the power did go off (as per note) and John took his clubs into the condo.
Tuesday and we weren't up until 8! There wasn't any power outage.
John headed out to golf at 11.
Wednesday I was up at 7 and John at 8. He has a head cold, but feels okay, however I moved our supper club reservation to next week as no one wants to sit near a coughing, sneezing person.
John had an appointment with the car dealer for an oil change so I had him drop me off at T J Maxx. What a great selection I walked out, an hour later, with six tops and one for John. I would have bought him more but he always says "he doesn't need any".
The dealership even cleaned the entire car, inside and out!
We stopped at Von's for a couple of items and then home for lunch.
We spent 1.5 hours in the sun by the pool. Today was much warmer than it has been.
Thursday we left around 10:30 and headed towards the Salton Sea.
Finding a “sea” in the middle of the sweeping desert might seem like a mirage, but the Salton Sea is very real. The massive and intriguing body of water—really a huge lake—is found just east of Greater Palm Springs and makes for a fascinating day trip.
We were in the neighbourhood so we found the Roadrunner.
La Quinta’s big metal roadrunner started life not as a piece of public art, but as an installation at the 2014 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Sculpted by New Mexico-based artist Don Kennell, the roadrunner held a porch swing and invited visitors to rock and roll from its oversized beak. La Quinta Mayor Linda Evans, seemingly a regular Coachella attendee, saw the bird and was immediately attracted to the piece.
When Goldenvoice (the concert promoter behind Coachella) approached La Quinta about a four-year loan of one of the festival’s art pieces, Mayor Evans got behind the idea immediately. A year later, the giant metal bird landed at its new residence in the center of a rotary at Jefferson Street and Avenue 52 (but without the swing).
Our first scheduled stop (yes, I am that OCD planner) is a date farm. We knew nothing about dates and are not big fans although we do like them in baked goods.
Shields Date Garden - Famous for date shakes, date ice cream, and citrus. See the free movie "The Romance and Sex Life of the Date. Nope, movie wasn't running today.
The sign depicting a knight in armor pointing toward the main entrance off Highway 111, has been in use since 1953.
Skyrocketing land values in the area threatened the continued existence of Shields Date Gardens when the property was placed on the market. It was purchased by The Jewel Date Company in nearby Thermal, California, which is carrying on the traditions of the Shields at the same location with no intention of moving the Ranch Store.
I root beer float and 1 coffee date shake. These were huge and so filling!
The company was founded in 1924 by Floyd and Bess (Lugton) Shields. Floyd Shields was one of the pioneering date farmers in the still-young date industry of the Coachella Valley. He bred a number of his own hybrids and varieties including the "Blonde" and "Brunette" varieties, grown exclusively at Shields to this day.
Shields was also the inventor of date sugar and the date crystal. Date sugar adds flavor to recipes and date crystals are a unique, dry blend of dates for use in cooking, on cold cereals and in date milkshakes. Date shakes and black date ice cream are popular treats sold over the counter at Shields.
It is estimated that over 90% of the dates grown in the U.S. come from the Coachella Valley, about 35,000 tons annually. Some dates, like the Medjool, are particularly plump, sweet and fruity. Other dates are very fleshy, like the Barhi; some, like Halawi dates, are chewy. Still others are dry, like the Thoory date. Although the valley primarily grows commercial date varieties like Medjools and Deglet Noors, several small farmers still carry on the tradition of growing unique date varieties that were developed in the area a century ago.
Dates are the edible fruit of a palm tree: wrinkled, generally brown and about 1.5 to 2 inches long. They belong to a category of fleshy fruits known as drupes, which have a single seed or pit. Drupes include coconuts, olives, black pepper, various nuts and stone fruits like peaches. Dates are very sweet, usually about 60%-70% sugars, including sucrose and fructose, but they also contain about 1.5 grams of fiber, a decent amount of potassium and a little bit of protein.
Out back, there's a 17-acre walk-through date palm grove with a path that wends past 23 life-size statues of Jesus (the addition of the current owner)—the religious lesson won't be for everyone, but the loveliness of the garden transcends dogma. I'll spare you most of the statues.
There are many varieties of citrus fruits, oranges, grapefruit, limes, lemons, figs.
From this angle Jesus looks like he's taking a selfie, I guess he would be all about social media!
We made a quick stop in Mecca, because it was Mecca.
But other than the defunct famous Banana Museum, it closed during covid, there is nothing.
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Miles and miles of date palms.
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The next stop was fun. A Post-apocalyptic city on the Salton Sea.
Bombay Beach was once a thriving resort town in the 1950s, it has transformed into a fascinating location for urban explorers, artists, and curious travelers. At 225 feet below sea level, it’s the lowest city in the world if judged by elevation.
Bombay Beach was once a thriving resort town in the 1950s, it has transformed into a fascinating location for urban explorers, artists, and curious travelers. At 225 feet below sea level, it’s the lowest city in the world if judged by elevation.
"Bombay Beach, America's Lithium Low Point" refers to the location of Bombay Beach, California, situated on the shores of the Salton Sea, which is considered a significant potential source of lithium deposits in the United States, making it a "low point" in the sense that it represents a geographically concentrated area with a large amount of this valuable mineral beneath its surface, crucial for battery production in the clean energy sector; essentially, it's a place where a large amount of lithium can be extracted from the ground.
During the 1950s, Bombay Beach was a popular beach-going destination. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, and Bing Crosby[7] frequented the luxury resorts along the Salton Sea, which was known for its fishing, boating and water skiing.
Bombay Beach's decline began in the 1970s, when the runoff (full of salty chemicals) led to a warning that the salinity of the lake would no longer sustain wildlife; that occurred by the early 1980s. Many residents around the Salton Sea, including those in Bombay Beach, were eventually driven out by the odor of the dying fish, the fear of health problems, and the flooding and the draining of the Salton Sea.
The Ski Inn bar and restaurant is the only eating and drinking establishment in the town.
We stopped for a beer and pee break.
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Originally, there were five bars in Bombay Beach. However, it is now one of two bars in town, the other being the local American Legion.
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Everywhere is plastered with dollar bills. Groups will show up at the Ski Inn to chat over beers, and keep up a habit that started in the 1950s, when vacationers would write their names on dollar bills and stick them to the walls. Decades on, uncounted thousands of dollar bills plaster the place like wallpaper, covering every wall, door, ceiling, and even ceiling fan blade."
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Nice outdoor patio.
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Most of the few residents use golf carts to get around, since the nearest gas station is 20 miles (32 km) away in Niland. There are two stores in the town, one of which is a convenience store.
We accidently checked out this RV park, as GPS Guy thought this was Slab City, the Fountain of Youth. They were packed in like sardines. It is in the middle of nowhere, not cheap either.
We never did get to Slab City.
We did stop and paid our $7 honour system entrance fee into Salton Sea and that turned out to be an expensive pee in a porta-potty.
Friday I was up at 6:50 and John followed at 7:50. He headed out to golf around 11.
I started sorting and packing my clothes for this week as we move onto Las Vegas on Thursday.
Then I read by the pool for a while.
John took these as he was BBQing.
COOKING
Saturday Lunch OUT
Dinner wieners and beans
Sunday L ham, cheese, tomato, scallion sandwiches
D Spanish chicken thighs and chorizo stew with mashed potatoes
Monday L Out pizza
D leftovers
Tuesday L sandwich/leftover pizza
D lemon parmesan chicken Alfredo
Wednesday L scrambled eggs and toast
D OUT hamburger patties, mashed potatoes, beans and gravy
Thursday L coffee date shake and root beer float
D spaghetti with meat sauce
Friday L leftovers
D BBQ steak mushrooms green peppers and onions with a baked potato.
WATCHING
The Highwaymen 2019 Former Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault join forces to try and capture notorious outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
Back in Action 2025 Former CIA spies Emily and Matt are pulled back into espionage after their secret identities are exposed.
The Infiltrator is a 2016 British-American biographical crime drama thriller film.
During the 1980s, U.S. Customs Service special agent Robert Mazur uses his undercover alias "Bob Musella" to become a pivotal player for drug lords laundering their dirty cash. Later, he infiltrates the world's largest cartel, and helps expose the money-laundering organization of drug lord Pablo Escobar[5] and take down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), which had secretly taken illegal ownership of First American Bankshares in Washington, D.C..
The film stars Bryan Cranston as Mazur. This was very good, and made me look up BCCI Bank and look for Mazur's book at the library, they only had it as an audiobook.
Run All Night 2015 Mobster and hit man Jimmy Conlon has one night to figure out where his loyalties lie: with his estranged son, Mike, whose life is in danger, or his longtime best friend, mob boss Shawn Maguire, who wants Mike to pay for the death of his own son. A Liam Neeson movie we hadn't seen.
Night Agent
I finished The Husband's Secret, meh, a decent read but the reality of any of it happening that way is beyond belief. Forgiveness, that easily? I doubt it.
I also finished The Unwedding, while entertaining by the pool, made me feel like I was watching a mediocre made for TV movie that got stretched out a little too long.
