We left Death Valley and drove 260 miles south to Twentynine Palms CA. As we went we saw beautiful terrains in the southern part of Death Valley and then into the Mohave Desert. Isolation except for Baker which is on I 15 west of Las Vegas. We stopped there for lunch and to check out fuel prices. We thought Death Valley was high, $3.59 was the cheapest in Baker. It was only $3.03 at DV. Bob had enough so we went on and here it was $2.59. Quite a savings. That will pay for a lot of our type camping. There are a lot of WINS parked here but they mostly were out touring and dinner so only saw a few.
Sunday we stuck around home after a huge breakfast at the Elk’s Lodge where we are parked. I started doing some embroidery and Bob did computer work and visited.
Monday we woke to a fantastic sunrise that only lasted about 5 minutes. After our morning hugs and mugs we caravanned to Joshua Tree National Park. We met a ranger there and toured Keys Ranch. What a rugged life they led there.
We then drove thru another part of the park on our way back home. In the evening we had a pizza party at the lodge.
Tuesday we moved to 29 Spotlight Casino near Indio, Ca. The winds were gusting to 50 mph when we left but we drove thru Joshua Tree NP and it wasn’t too bad once we got to the top of the mtn. Bob and I are hosting this gathering. When we got here we asked security about parking and they said 24 hrs only. Of course, we will try to extend by not leaving. Last January I managed to stretch my stay for 7 days. We got our mail, tried to do banking. There were 21 people in line ahead of me. I thought maybe I should turn on the TV and see if there was a run on the banks like in 1929. We had circle at 4 and there were about 10 of us. We went to the Casino for dinner and each of us put in our $5 donation at the slot machines.
The group that materialized didn’t seem to want to do much as a group. Only 5 of us toured Shield’s Date Farm and had our date shakes. We watched the movie “The Sex Life of Dates”. This place has been in business since 1950. Interesting place. 4 of us went to dinner at the café in the casino. Then after a couple of dollars in the slots it was back home.
Today’s group went to tour the Windmill Farm. 3 got lost so were no shows. The pass is filled with hundreds of wind generators. Our guide told us all about them. One could generate enough power to light over 600 homes. All the windmills in CA only provide 2% of the power to CA.
Bob and I then went to Palms Springs Tram and had dinner up at the top watching the cities in the valley light up. Our ride down was great. 
We were the only ones aboard the tram and altho it normally rotates 360 degrees he stopped it so we were always facing the lights. While it was still light the view included the Salton Sea which was 50 miles away. On a really clear day, which is rare, a view of Mt. Charleston 175 miles away could be seen. It is north of Las Vegas. Friday our group went to see the DiVinci Exhibit at the Palms Spring Air Museum. Someone took DiVinci’s designs/inventions and built them as examples. Did you know he invented the bicycle,
helicopter, pulley system, differential, parachute, the inner tube for a life preserver, diving suit for deep sea diver’s, and a lot of other things
. There were examples of his paintings also like the Last Supper & Mona Lisa. In the evening we went to the Elk’s Lodge for dinner and dancing. Back at the casino we went to pay our “camping fee” by gambling. Bob lost $10 and I won $5. So our camping fee ran $5. Cheap and we had a little exercise walking over and about 15 minutes of fun. Glad we don’t have the BIG habit some do. Until next time
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