Palm Springs, CA - 'Clingy & Possessive'

And, we’re out of here. We got a lot done in Menifee and even had time to take a cool hike. But our time is up and we’re on our way to Palm Springs - only 73 miles away. Not a long jaunt but we go through a cool canyon with rocks piled all around and deep green valleys.

Of course, to get to Palm Springs you’ve got to pass through the Valley of the Turbines. Banning Pass is filled with wind turbines which usually are whirring along. Today, it was calmer so only a few were whirring.

Into the campground and we set up. There’s a choice here: pull-thrus with 30 Amp and back-ins with 50 Amp. We’ve been in both - although we were in the 30A pull-thrus only one night. The other difference between the two is the closeness to the train tracks. The 30A are much closer. The one night we stayed in the 30A section, we awoke with a goal: find a 50A away from the tracks. We ate breakfast, took a walk and found a place. I stayed, Gary ran back to get the car, drove it over to mark out spot and we hurried back to the RV, stowed everything and moved to our new 50A spot. Lesson learned.

We’ve been living with 30A for the last 1 1/2 months and I’ve been doing the 30A dance. Turn off the 2 small electric heaters while I cook my oatmeal, turn them back on while I eat, turn them off while I blow-dry my hair and turn them back on when I’m done. Here, not only do we have 50A, we do not need the small heaters since it is so warm. 10 - 12 degrees warmer than usual. Most locals say that we’re having April temperatures already.

We took off about 3:00 for our daily walk. Funny - today it went right by the local Rite Aid where we just had to sample their ice cream.

Then we walked back to the campground via the large sandy lot in back of the campground. Actually, in the first picture, I’m looking at the Joshua Tree National Monument on the other side of the valley.

I was intrigued by the sand fences - being the Iowa girl, I’m used to snow fences.

Have you ever had a chance to visit your past - to revisit yourself in your early days? Well, I just had the opportunity, thanks to my parents who saved all the letters I ever wrote to them while I was in college and when I moved out to New England to teach, and to Gary who gathered up these letters when we cleaned out their home and has saved them until now. He’s now in the throes of scanning everything and saving it in his computer. And there are all these letters. None dated (why, oh why, did I never date my letters?)

I talked with my parents a lot on the phone but I wrote to them at least once a month, and, surprisingly, I wrote 3-4 page letters - in my small handwriting. I didn’t know that my life was that interesting. But the content surprised me. Most of it is what I’m doing - like: I’m correcting lots of students’ tests, I visited a friend to ski, I had a date with Gary. Innocuous little details of ordinary life. But then I go into detail about some things: ‘Jim came over with 2 6-packs of Ballentine Ale and a bottle of wine.’ ‘I went down to UConn with Peter and stayed for the weekend.’ Firstly, I don’t have a clue who Jim is. Peter I remember but I also went into detail about the sleeping arrangements: we pulled his bed apart and I slept on the mattress on the floor and he had the box springs. 2 six-packs? Ale? Wine? But I didn’t even drink and still don’t.

One of my favorite lines is: ‘I have $500 to invest. How can I find out the best way to invest? Is there any firm that gives advice on general investments?’ I hope my parents told me to keep it in a savings account for emergencies.

Did my parents need to know all of this? Did I need to tell them that I forgot to pay my insurance premium and was driving without insurance? What ever was I thinking?

But the funniest thing: at one point I called Gary ‘clingy and possessive.’ Remember - Gary is scanning all of these. Whoo-eee. Now, this is in his computer. Ouch.

Yep, I got to relive my past in all of those letters.