Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

How would you like to go up to about 8500 feet in a revolving tram car to get a view of the desert below---the cities of Palm Springs, Desert Springs, and the valley? We thought we would, so we did! This ride features the world's largest rotating tram cars.  It's a 10 min. ride to the top starting from Valley Station, about 2600 feet high to Mountain Station, 8516 feet high. The car holds about 80 people, and as you climb to the top, the platform you are standing on turns very slowly so you get a 360 degree view of the mountainside and valley as you work your way to the top. It wasn't easy to get photos as the car was packed going up and coming back down, but here's a view (top photo). It was AMAZING to be that high up and to see the valley below!

As you go up the mountainside and pass through Chino Canyon, you travel through five life zones--from the Sonoran Desert to an Alpine wilderness...the temperature dropped from about 87 degrees to 54 degrees at the top..and there was still snow on the ground in spots! Woo-hoo! Sparky got another snow fix!

view at Mt. San Jacinto State Park

two kids at entrance to the state park

Up at the top is Mt. San Jacinto State Park which has 54 miles of hiking trails and some primitive campgrounds. At the top of the tram ride are two restaurants, viewing areas overlooking Coachella Valley, a natural history museum, a small movie theater and gift shops. We didn't hike today--Eldy's heel is still bothering him, and I pulled a muscle playing a hard game of pickleball just before we left Palm Creek...but there is a nice interpretive nature trail which is a self-guided nature walk with signs and great picnic areas to stop and enjoy the canyon....it was 20.50 each for us to take the tram. We thought that was a decent price if you stayed awhile and explored the state park as well.....

Here's an idiot who went through a "closed" fence sign and climbed up on top of a big boulder to give a shout out to everybody below who had sense enough NOT to go there....

After we got back into Palm Springs, we decided to try a local restaurant called Azul's...very interesting place with lots of interesting people! There was a show being offered later in the evening, starring this statuesque lady who was really a man in drag.....We didn't stay for the show, but bet it was interesting. She, er, he, was going to do a show--impersonations of Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Carol Channing, and someone else. I'll bet it was a great one...she looked "fabulous, dahling"!

The food was very good, and my dessert was good, too! Isn't this a beautiful presentation? Unfortunately, being a connoisseur of creme brulee, I could tell they used granulated sugar instead of "superfine" and that just wasn't quite the way it was supposed to be!  Oh, well. A small price to pay for eating in Palm Springs and "hobnobbing" with the rich and famous. And no, Kerry, we have not seen anybody famous. We probably wouldn't recognize them if we did see somebody famous!....It's a good life, and we are certainly enjoying it to the fullest....It looks like we will stay a couple  more days at the Indio Fairgrounds for 20.00 a night...there are a couple of things we'd like to see in the area before moving on to Aguanga, CA...still our next destination..


We're going to explore some nearby RV parks and see how they compare to Palm Creek in Casa Grande, AZ, there's a festival this week in downtown Palm Springs and who knows where Eldo goes next.......

More Tire Troubles!

After a decent night's sleep at the Riverside County Fairgrounds in Indio, CA, we woke up this morning refreshed and ready to do a little exploring of other RV parks in the area before we took off.

Eldy decided to check that rear inside left tire since the tire pressure system kept saying something was wrong with it yesterday...Wouldn't you know, this morning, the manual tire gauge read ZERO psi's. During the night, all the air slowly leaked out it! ARRRRGGGHHHH! So we called Coach Net. We're hoping a stuck valve stem is all it is, because that's when we started having problems with the valve stems--when we installed the Tire Traker tire sensors on all the tires. We're thinking that the valve stem stuck in the "release" position. If somehow we ran over something that caused it to go flat, we're talking 500.00 for ONE new tire for the RV.

Rene is checking the tire for leaks and damage

Coachnet sent out a GREAT tire truck service called Pete's Road Service. They were absolutely wonderful. Rene, the technician, worked on our rear tires for over an hour and a half. It turns out that BOTH inside extended valve stems had chunks of metal worn away into a deep groove and there was a tiny hole worn through in the extended valve stem from the stems rubbing on the metal tire rims on rough roads as we traveled, causing air to leak constantly. It took about 10,000 miles on our motorhome for the wear to occur. Freightliner doesn't put rubber grommets on around the valve stem to prevent rough road friction and rubbing on the extension stems from eventually wearing the metal clean through.
This is a poor design decision, in my opinion. Our tire extensions were on the coach when we bought it, so this is a Freightliner issue. But we think everybody needs to be aware that if you install tire valve stem extensions, which are sold everywhere, you really need to be sure you have good ones, and that they are protected from the metal tire rim wall in some way, like these black rubber grommets will do for us, now that we have them on. It was really amazing to see how they worked on the motorhome, got both tires off and checked them thoroughly for leaks and damage with very little raising of the coach to get the tires off. Look at the damage caused by the valve stems rubbing against the metal tire rim after 10,000 miles on the tires! These are BOTH inside rear tire valve extensions on the motorhome. There's actually a HOLE you can see worn through both extensions!

"v" grooves worn through metal by friction on metal tire rim

Not only did Pete's Road Service replace both tire extensions, but they also put in rubber grommets to protect the stems from wearing and rubbing through the metal in the future. They didn't have the exact model of rubber gasket to put on the tire rims, (there are so many different shapes and sizes) but told us how to get the correct ones from Freightliner.  After  they were finished, we left to go to breakfast, and I got a call from the company. They had found some better fitting ones at the shop. The fellows went back to the fairgrounds at no charge to us, and replaced them and left the extras for spares.....Really professional guys that came out today, Rene and Oraldo, and they were very knowledgeable and friendly. If you need help in southern California with your motorhome, truck, etc., they have nine locations....we highly recommend Pete's Road Service. Again, we called the Tire Traker people--Darryl Lawrence, and he talked me through installing that last sensor on the inside tire. The one thing that concerns us now, is the tire pressure monitoring system does not agree with a manual tire gauge. The tire pressures vary a lot more on the monitoring system than what we show on our tire gauge, by about five pounds or so. The car tire pressures on the monitoring system agree with the Tire Traker system, so we think that maybe extensions are a little more problematic when you install them on motorhome tire extensions. As long as we are within a "normal" variation limit, we think we're ok...time will tell.....

Since we were temporarily incapacitated, we decided to stay another day! Off to the Chamber of Commerce to get information for the area. Indio is the golf mecca for this area, leading you to Palm Springs, Desert Springs and surrounding areas. Prices are high to get on the courses, they are championship courses or private....There is hiking in the area, some bike areas we might explore.....we'll see what Eldo wants to do!   Bye for now......

Tough Travelin' Day!

We got an early start this morning, around 9:00, but ran into difficulties on I-10 westbound heading into Phoenix.  We heard there were traffic problems on EASTBOUND, but we thought we'd be ok westbound. Nope! No, siree! The westbound lanes became clogged and totally stopped as we got on the other side of Phoenix.  After an hour of stop and go traffic, a highway worker stopped his truck and got out to wave traffic off the highway completely. He said an officer had been shot and killed this morning on I-10....Nobody was moving on either side of the expressway for miles......We found out later that there had been a suicide jumper on the overpass, and another police officer motorcycle accident. Traffic was a mess and I-10 was shut down for much of the day in that area.

California border inspection station-got any contraband, Eldo?

Soon after we got past the accident scene and back on I-10, our new tire pressure monitoring system showed a red light flashing, but no beeping. It said the rear left inside tire on the motorhome was having problems. But, no beeping was occurring, so we kept going....the flashing indicator for that sensor was inconsistently showing something wrong with the rear left inside tire. A few miles farther, the red light was still flashing and all of a sudden the alarm went off and it showed 0.0 psi's....OMG! Tire blowout!!!!?????? We gotta stop now!  Where are the four way flashers? Heck if I know...we didn't familiarize ourselves with that detail until AFTER we got back into the coach when it was all said and done. NOW we know where they are and how to use them! We pulled over to the shoulder and Eldy got out to visually inspect the tire and check the pressure,  the shoulder is NOT a good place to look but we didn't want to be driving on the rim....the tire looked ok...the pressure on the manual tire gauge read 90 psi. Whew! We had tire pressure at least....scared us half to death!

Because the red light continued to flash, we pulled into the next rest stop which was just a few miles from the shoulder stop. We checked the tire pressure again...still 90 psi. Luckily, there was a truck repair service guy working on a semi right next to us.  We asked him to check our tire pressure for us...he said the pressure reading was about 80 psi, which is below our baseline pressure for a cold tire on the motorhome. He was kind enough to add air for us. In the meantime, I got on the phone and called the Tire Traker people. Darryl Lawrence, the owner, was extremely patient with me and talked me through switching around some tire sensors to see if it could be a bad sensor or a problem with the valve stems...when you put on a sensor, it pushes in the valve stem briefly while making a connection. After about 15 min. of talking us through different solutions and placements of tire pressure sensors, we concluded that the inside tire valve stem pins on both sides of the motor home are not making good contacts with the pressure sensors. When the sensors lose connectivity while on rough roads, (which can happen) sometimes the monitor reads that as, "Uh-oh! You don't have any tire pressure in that tire!" And that's what is happening, that's why the monitor said we had 0.0 psi's. Once we switched the sensors around the inside back and outside rear tires, the light went off and we went on our way....we're still going to need a tire shop to check those valve stems if we want to use our tire pressure monitoring system for all our tires. The system is monitoring the car tires great, so no problems there. It's a cool system, really! Tells you the temperature of the tires as well as the psi's on them. Valve stems can be tricky with a tire pressure monitoring system.....the company is doing a wonderful job of supporting us as we work through some of these issues, and we're very happy with them......they'll do whatever it takes to make things right, we can see that....

slides are in, we can still move around

As a result of the tire problem today, and increasing wind velocity--35-45 mph winds and bad dust blowing around, with the winds getting worse this afternoon, gusting to 55 mph, we decided to cut our trip short as far as our destination of Aguanga, CA. Instead we stopped at Indio, CA at the fairgrounds there...full hookup for 20.00 a night, great price for full hookup...interesting place...Arabic designs on their buildings, the buildings have the "mosque" look, and they are located on Arabica Street off highway 111. It's pretty quiet here, there is only one other motorhome in the fairgrounds, so hopefully Eldo will get a good night's sleep if the RV isn't rockin' and rollin' too much! We didn't put out our slides because of the wind, but we can still get back and forth in the living room and to the bathroom and bedroom.....see you in the morning.....

One of the buildings at the fairgrounds

Arizona Memories

Today's a travel day...not sure what kind of reception we will get in Aguanga on our air card, so I'm going to post a few of my favorite Arizona photos and memories earlier in the day.....

Seeing my oldest daughter, whom I hadn't see in almost a year was definitely a highlight of this trip!

Palm Creek--Sewing in the sewing room, meeting new friends, and getting my friend's tee shirt quilt done.....It was a lot of work, and I winged it from start to finish! No pattern or instructions--whew! (P.S. Got a craft blog going now...it's called "Millie's Girls" It's in honor of my mother and will have contributions from my sister and I about what we are crafting--we'll report in once a week on it.)

More great memories...learning to play pickleball--great sport, great fun!

Driving the Apache Trail

Driving the Apache Trail.....hiking in Sabino Canyon...

Seeing the beautiful Tucson bridges and ramps...floral tile inlay work, native American motifs, and all kinds of color on the bridges and ramps....

Rally fun at the Gypsy Journal Western Rally in Yuma.....the "Cactus Queen" beauty contest....

Seeing all kinds of new trees, foliage, and learning what they are called... (thank you, readers!)

Arizona's state tree, the palo verde--even the bark is green!

The mission at San Xavier....

Hiking our longest hike... 5.9 miles in the mountains...

All the different colors of blooming cactus....amazing!

Arizona is so beautiful, and there's so much more to see...we're coming back in July....see you tomorrow in CA.

Last Day at Palm Creek

This morning we gradually started getting things together to get ready to leave tomorrow morning. I worked on the car AGAIN, cleaning it out and trying to get rid of a few things. It seems we keep throwing stuff in the car when we buy something, knowing we can at least put it in the car if we can't find a place in the motorhome for it. We have to be careful to keep a clear path to the back window so we can see out of the car when we drive it!

Doesn't Eldo look like a happy retiree? 

Yesterday we bought a new Thule bike rack for the car, as the Saris one had been severely cracked by somebody backing into it in a parking lot. The Saris rack stuck out quite a bit behind the car and the style did not allow you to compress it closer to the car. (It was the "Thelma" two bike model.) We now have a Thule "Helium" three bike rack with a LIFETIME warranty. Third time's the charm, hopefully, it's our last bike rack! Not only did we buy the bike rack yesterday, but Eldo bought himself a pickleball racket and some balls! All right! Now we can go "dink" around on any pickleball court. "Dinking" is when you stand at the first inside border line on a pickleball court--the area called "the kitchen" and just gently hit the ball back and forth in the kitchen area. That's a little warmup pickleball players do when they first get out on the court. You practice placing the ball in different parts of your opponent's court before you start the actual game.

My yarn supplies are starting to take over the cubby space in the RV, so I'm gonna have to curtail the yarn stash. (Woo-hoo! says E.) I always feel like when we get ready to move, we aren't going to be near a big enough city with a Michaels or a Hobby Lobby, or a good grocery store, so I get in the "stock up" mode just in case we boondock...which we've only done a few times in the past ten months that we have been full timing, and it's only been for a night. We have a residential fridge, but are not sure how long we could run the fridge on the house batteries before running them down and then needing to use the generator to recharge the batteries. But we need to experiment with that and try it out and see! That's what the generator is for! And besides, you are supposed to run your generator once in awhile to keep it in efficient condition.

Peekaboo, I see you!

check out the tail feathers on this guy!

Tomorrow, we head for Aguanga, California.....I think it's fitting that on our last day in the park, we saw TWO roadrunners today...they were chasing each other around a desert plant here in the park...and they look like they are playing peekaboo with each other! They mate around this time of year into early summer, and the male shows off his tail feathers to the female...Hm-m-m-m...maybe there was some courting going on today. (You can see the second roadrunner in the third photo behind the cactus)...Roadrunners are interesting birds....they mate for life, the male helps incubate the eggs, they raise the young together, they like to hang out in pairs, and they eat snakes and scorpions, among other things.....I think I really like these guys!  See you on the road again......

Change of Plans!

We were planning to leave Saturday for the Jojoba Hills Escapees RV park in Aguanga, CA, but they close early on Saturdays...we didn't want to pressure ourselves into having to leave at 5:30 in the morning to get there in time with having to fuel up.....so now we are waiting till Monday to go....
More time to explore!  BUT--it's going to be in the mid 90's this weekend...phooey! I would say that would be pool time, but when the pool feels like bath water, it's not very refreshing! I used to be a competitive swimmer, so I prefer cooler water to swim in...maybe we'll go find a lake somewhere, or head to the mountains, you never know! Canyon Lake, anyone?

This morning we tried to install our Tire Traker tire pressure monitoring system. What the heck is that and why the heck do we need it, you ask? Well, have you ever seen photos of motor home tires that blew up on the highway or a tow car tire that blew or got punctured? The amount of damage that would be incurred before you'd have a clue there was a problem is HUGE! I've been really worried about our Honda CRV having a tire go flat or run over something..you could go MILES before you might know there was problem, by then the damage to the wheel rim and undercarriage of the car or motorhome would be thousands of dollars for repairs. By having a tire pressure monitoring system, you have a baseline tire pressure on a monitor right on the dash. An alarm goes off if the tire pressure drops below a certain point...There are a couple of them out there, the most well known is probably the Pressure Pro tire system...but it does not have replaceable batteries. When the battery for the sensor dies for that particular system, you have to buy new sensors at fifty bucks a pop. When the battery dies on the Tire Traker system, you can replace just the watch style batteries. At any rate, we researched both of them and decided to go with the Tire Traker system.

sensor on the car tire

The manual was a little confusing, at least to us. We tried reading both the "quick start" manual and the full manual, but after pressing buttons one too many times, we were in the wrong "mode" and the unit wasn't giving us the information we needed. I usually jump right in and start pushing buttons before reading everything first, but that's because all those written instructions were confusing. So we REALLY had the unit bollixed up! (Isn't that a great word--bollixed?  The WORD even sounds confusing.) I decided to call the company, and I sure am glad I did! The gentleman (Larry?) walked me through the entire procedure, straightening me and the monitor out. Within a matter of minutes, we had the motor home and the car all integrated and info coming into the monitor--all tires except for one inner rear tire on the motor home. We apparently have one valve stem that is sticking when you go to insert and screw on the sensor. Air kept coming OUT when it should have shut off once the sensor was fully screwed into the valve stem. Wouldn't you know, that's one tire where we really need the sensor to work. We'll have to have the valve stem looked at  in the near future to see what's wrong. We tried screwing two different sensors in the valve stem and both continued to let air escape, so we're pretty sure it's the extended valve stem on the tire itself. We'll have to wait to get to a tire shop to see about having that valve stem replaced. For now, we'll check it often as we stop and refuel.

motor home tire sensor

So, the tires are all set except for that one inside rear on the motor home....We'll see you on packing and cleanup day Sunday...last day at Palm Creek is tomorrow......(sniff, sniff!) I'm actually going to miss this place in a way....it's started to feel like home..guess it took us that long (a month and a half) to have it feel like our home......

Mission San Xavier--part 2

On the tour yesterday, we learned some really interesting things about the mission which we told about and here are a few more details...in the 1990's, the mission restoration began, and a special team came from Italy. The restoration team has done an amazing job, and I guess the experience of working on such a historical project was so moving, that they left their fingerprints/thumbprints in their artwork...all the blue dots you see in the above photo are the workers' fingerprints...

The photo to the left is looking through an outside fence to another building called the mortuary.

Inside this amazing mission are symbols of different things. There is a rope styled trim that encircles the inside church walls--the rope trim symbolizes the inclusion of all who come into God's church. The floor plan of the church is in the shape of a Latin cross.

There is a statue of the first female saint,  a Mohawk Indian named Kateri Tekakwitha.

Here is another photo of the knave of the mission....

And again, of the sanctuary, which tells the story of Christmas....

Another angle of the sanctuary:

The mission is open to the public 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily. There is a small museum there which is very informative and a gift shop as well. The gift shop has Tohono O'odham baskets made right there on the reservation. The mission depends on contributions to help with the restoration. Here is a site that explains more about that....  Mission San Xavier information. We thought this was one of the best road trips we took while we were here. We highly recommend it!