Leaving Arizona we have crossed the border into California where we are staying at Desert Hot Springs, which is near to the California high desert playground for Hollywood stars of the past, Palm Springs. Desert Hot Springs is nestled in the Coachella Valley;this small town is sheltered by the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the north, the Santa Rosa Mountains to the south, and the San Jacinto Mountains to the west. Once again we are in an RV Park called Sky Valley Parks, this time it is a bit more family oriented. There are 9 pools on the site, 4 main pools and 5 spas, with all the water being fed from hot natural springs. Apparently these water have great medicinal benefits to those partaking of them including easing arthritis and back pain, diabetes and heart disease, weight loss and insomnia – all of which sound good to us. We, of course, spend as much time as possible in these pools which are a great way to cool off at the end of the day. One funny moment happened to us when we were in the pools. There was another family in one of the spas and Emily being the sociable girl she is engaged them in conversation. A few minutes later she joined us and said quite innocently “mum you see that little girl over there -I think she is ‘authentic’”. We assured her she was and probably autistic too. Poor Emily - her heart is in the right place though!
A couple of days ago we decided to visit the Coachella Valley Preserve just a short distance from where we are staying. This is an amazing place of contrasts. You start off in the most amazing oasis of dense palms in what feels likes a tropical rain forest, the reason for the lush vegetation here is the spring water. We are fascinated by the sign post indicating that the San Andreas fault line runs through here – hopefully there will be no major earthquakes while we are here!!! Anyway we take a short trail on boardwalks across the 
bog like interior of the oasis and eventually come out into the open we are now by contrast in the desert, complete with sand dunes – feels a bit like being on the film set of Beau Geste. We have come to appreciate the beauty of deserts and there are not too many people out here on the trail – splendid peace and quiet (apart from having Jack and Emily here of course who don’t understand the meaning of silence!) We continue on for another mile or so in rising temperatures when we spot another oasis – or is it? Well ,we are not hallucinating -it actually is a second oasis and we happily hide in the shelter of its lofty palms a few minutes before heading back along the trail. We really enjoyed our walk through the tropical paradise in the middle of the desert.
You may be wondering how we entertain ourselves in the evenings whilst on the road. Well we have fortunately got out of the habit of watching banal television and often read. Our big treat nowadays is watching the original series of “Little House on the Prairie”. This all started after visiting the Laura Ingalls museum in Burr Oak, Iowa and we have been hooked ever since. Amazingly there were 9 seasons of the series with about 21 episodes in a season – we are still on season 1 so there is a lot still to go at.
A couple of days ago we decided to visit the Coachella Valley Preserve just a short distance from where we are staying. This is an amazing place of contrasts. You start off in the most amazing oasis of dense palms in what feels likes a tropical rain forest, the reason for the lush vegetation here is the spring water. We are fascinated by the sign post indicating that the San Andreas fault line runs through here – hopefully there will be no major earthquakes while we are here!!! Anyway we take a short trail on boardwalks across the 
bog like interior of the oasis and eventually come out into the open we are now by contrast in the desert, complete with sand dunes – feels a bit like being on the film set of Beau Geste. We have come to appreciate the beauty of deserts and there are not too many people out here on the trail – splendid peace and quiet (apart from having Jack and Emily here of course who don’t understand the meaning of silence!) We continue on for another mile or so in rising temperatures when we spot another oasis – or is it? Well ,we are not hallucinating -it actually is a second oasis and we happily hide in the shelter of its lofty palms a few minutes before heading back along the trail. We really enjoyed our walk through the tropical paradise in the middle of the desert.You may be wondering how we entertain ourselves in the evenings whilst on the road. Well we have fortunately got out of the habit of watching banal television and often read. Our big treat nowadays is watching the original series of “Little House on the Prairie”. This all started after visiting the Laura Ingalls museum in Burr Oak, Iowa and we have been hooked ever since. Amazingly there were 9 seasons of the series with about 21 episodes in a season – we are still on season 1 so there is a lot still to go at.
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