Wed 23 Jan - Palm Springs, CA

We woke up for our last morning in Joshua Tree to a fantastic sunrise.

Today's plan was to do a last hike, Lost Palms Oasis, in the southern part of Joshua Tree National Park, before driving to Palm Springs where we will stay for 2 nights.

As we were travelling south, we passed this sign in the "transitional" area between the northern part of the park which is part of the Mojave Desert, cooler and at higher altitude and the southern part, Colorado Desert, which is hotter and at lower altitude. The vegetation is also very different. The Joshua Trees can only be found in the northern part.

The Colorado Desert has a fantastic attractive cactus called Cholla (pronounced Choya), which you are warned is hazardous because the needles go into skin easily and are tough to get out. Love the warning sign!

The narrow minded early explorers have nothing good to say about them but again we think they are wrong.

Then onto the hike to Lost Palms Oasis at Cottonwood Spring. This photo is taken at the start of the hike.

After almost 6km of "more of the same" desert landscape, you are met with this sign.

This is the first "real" oasis that Hans has ever seen. When you look down from the ridge where the sign was, you see perhaps 50 California Palm Trees.

Hans and the Lost Palms Oasis.

After completing the hike at 11.5 km, we drove south out of Joshua Tree National Park (bye bye, it's been absolutely great) to I10 (that's Interstate road 10), which we then drove west to Palm Springs. We had a quick lunch at a truck stop and were amazed at the sheer number and size of RVs on the Interstate. Many are bus size, with a small 4WD towed at the back, we assume for local driving wherever they go.

Palm Springs is the furthest west of perhaps 4 very spread out towns next to each other, and next to the San Andreas fault line too...

As we entered downtown Palm Springs, we were met with this giant Marilyn Monroe statue. Hans can report that Marilyn was wearing knickers on this occasion...

Sonny Bono was a key figure in making Palm Springs fashionable again (it used to be fashionable 60-70 years ago with all the big stars coming here to relax). Sonny was Palm Springs' mayor for many years and introduced the Palm Springs film festival and other events. He is honored with a statue downtown and his own "walk of fame" star, the most central of them all (yes, they have their own walk of fame here and it looked better than the Hollywood Walk of Fame)

 

The buildings are very Mexican style and nothing high rise. This is the centre of downtown and it is lovely.

Across the street from out motel Caliente Tropics Resort is... Hotel California. We should have checked in there instead if we knew, but of course then we would have the problem of being able to "check out anytime you want but you can never leave"...

Palm Springs is a retiree haven. On the streets it's very " white American" with lots of grey hair. The weather here is a pleasant 14 to 24 degrees, not bad when behind us in a snow topped mountain of 10,000+ feet. Palm Springs as lovely architecture, but it feels a little like Disneyland for seniors.

We bought tickets a few days ago for the The Fabulous Follies 7pm show tonight. The show is highly recommended by Trip Advisor and has received rave reviews. It takes place in the old Plaza Theatre downtown and has niw been running non stop for 22 years. What makes this show unique and famous? Every performer is aged between 54 and 83!!!

We checked into our hotel at 3.30pm and after unpacking we swam in the pool! Yes, it is winter in Palm Springs, but the pool is heated and the weather is mild (14 to 24 degrees, perhaps that explains the numbers of retirees here). The pool was lovely.

An early Mexican dinner at La Cueselas (which means casserole or cooking pot) was delicious and good value, then onto the show.

This is outside the Plaza Theatre before show time.

A very elaborate setup on and around the stage.

We can really recommend The Fabulous Follies Show for anybody coming to Palm Springs.

The show is amazing and funny, with a very humorous and quite rude host. The MC Riff Markowitz is 75 years old and we have rarely heard a more politically incorrect person on stage. He is Jewish himself, but cracks jokes about Jews, gays and lesbians and give people shit for not being dressed properly at the theatre. We particularly like his line that there will always be new cast members as some of them will die. As mentioned earlier, the dancers/singers are all aged between 54 and 83.

There was a guest singer, a former teen idol named "Lou Christie", now around 70 years old. He performed some of his hits such as "Two faces have I" and "Lightning strikes". Of course, the oldies loved it.

There was also a hola artist who could do more with hola hoops than we had ever seen. A lot of "how the hell does he do that...?"

And Frankie Avalon was in the audience... He was made to stand up and looked pretty damn good for around 70 years old.

A most amusing and long night, the show lasted for more than 2 1/2 hours including an intermission. Home to bed afterwards.

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