Bubble of Love and Beaches of Fish....

January 18, 2013

I’m confused as to where I left off so I’ll simply pick up where  I want to, which will be at what I call the “Bubble of Love” – Oasis Palms RV Park in Thermal, CA.  We went here on the advice of the previous manager, Ann, who we had met in Redding at another park.  Our surprise was evident on both sides when we entered the office to see…..Ann!  I mentioned our roaming Roku, asking if that’s a problem, and she answered in the best way possible:  “Why would that be a problem.  We currently have Louie the cat who greets everyone every morning.”  Greetings and love followed, as well as a walking tour of the sweet park, set in an old citrus orchard.  She guided us to site #3, a pull through, with orange trees to our left, other campers to our right.  

TC at Oasis Palms Firepit

Oasis Palms Orange Trees Right Outside our Window!

Blue's Site at Oasis Palms

OP Music Night

OP Orange Tree

OP Pond

OP Pool Table

OP Pond

OP Pool

Us at OP Music Night

OP Common Room

OP Cat on a Stool

OP at Night

We set up and ate.  I always seem to need a quiet evening to re-establish myself after a move.  The next morning I was eager to see what the park offered.  It’s in the center of farmland and date palms, although right on a busy highway, 86 S.  The orange, lemon and grapefruit trees are laden with beautiful, organic fruit; we were encouraged to pick as much as we wanted.  I planned on doing just that.  We headed to the pool for a day of sun and water, sooooo looking forward to bobbing.  The pool temp is a little cool, but they were working on it.  The spa however, was perfect.

This is the routine at Oasis: head to pool where the crazy Canadians are set up in four chairs facing the sun and the pool, drinks in a cooler, laughing and talking.  These Coquitlam glass braziers come here for a month every year, to let loose and enjoy the sun.  I love listening to them as I lounge and read and doze, picking up little aspects of their lives, eh?  The pool has been heated a few degrees and is now delightful.  I bob with the glass wife on our respective noodles and floaties.  She is a talker not a listener, so I listen.  Their lives are caught up in the business her father started 60 years ago, but they’re burned out.  Glass wife is 50 and wants to start a new life as a personal trainer – this last year she started working out with great success, and wants to share that passion.  Glass husband is 44, funny, hard worker, loves his drinks.  He likes to dive in the deep end of the pool after getting hot.  They frequently bring appetizers – for everyone – to the pool in the late afternoon.

At four, there’s a happy hour at the firepit in front of the large pond.  It is a beautiful gathering, wood is provided, drinks in hand, chairs circling the fire.  This is the crux of the place, the circle where everyone comes together, loosens up, have a conversation about our lives.  Who can resist a fire and the lounging around it?  Not us! Not everyone in the park comes, but enough to be a party.

And this is how it flows, day after day.  Pool, party, and in the middle of that is many conversations.  Ann and her husband Michael walk in and around everyone, making sure we’re connecting, enjoying, being heard.  We have great talks with neighbors on both sides of us, do our laundry together and talk more, sit in the spa and talk even more.  We meet the one armed guy and his wife across from us, the German guy in the very fancy Mercedes van, Louie the cats owner and his friends, the Washington blowhard and his wife.  I tried steering clear of the blowhard, don’t need that in my life, but alas, they’re Seahawks fans.

The common room with the pool table, computer with wifi, books and movies galore, also holds a large flat screen which we stake out for the Seahawks game on the sixth.  I make pupus and we snack while watching a great game – wasn’t it a killer?!  Blowhard’s wife walks in to watch a bit while doing laundry, and she is delightful, funny, sweet.  They’re born and raised in Port Angeles so we talk about commonalities.  She eventually brings blowhard in which is painful for me.  At 56 I don’t need distasteful people in my life, in fact, avoid them at all cost.  But here he is, blah blah blah.  Ton Ton leaves to take a shower and blowhard helps himself to the pupus.  As we’re watching a play, blowhard suddenly says, “That’s right, n-word to n-word!”  His wife looks at me nervously and giggles.  I gather myself.  I want the next words out of my mouth to be meaningful – not angry, judgmental, shaming.  A few more plays are made and he says, “Oh I shouldn’t say that, it’s African American.”  I reply, “I can’t believe you used that word.  Why would you say that?”  His wife acts uncomfortable and puzzled, mentioning something like, “Oh really?”, as if we all use the n-word secretly or openly.  I say, “Tony and I would like the word completely taken out of the English language, it’s that offensive.”  End of discussion, back to the game.  I am happy that I stopped myself from just my usual reaction and was able to breathe.  That's all my meditation and spirit class.

At the fire later, of course, blowhard comes to me, talking, talking about nothing that I’m interested in.  I turn to another woman and we strike up a conversation so that I can remove myself from blowhard.  The next morning as we’re leaving, Mrs. Blowhard makes sure to find me and gives me one of their rv’ing cards (many people make cards to hand out), espousing a hope that we’ll meet up in Yuma.  Not likely, me thinks. In fact, NO!

We reluctantly leave the Bubble of Love for Cathedral Palms RV Park in Cathedral City, to be closer when Julie flies in to PS.   Tony sets us up as I go to the airport to pick up Julie.  Happily the sun is out for her arrival and we run an errand to pick up our mail in Desert Hot Springs, giving her a little tour.  I discover that she has been to PS many times as her grandparents lived near Rancho Mirage.  We also go to the store for some refrigerator stock for her, and I untangle my pharmacy issues.

Julie is treating herself by staying at the Andalusian Court a few blocks off Palm Canyon Drive in PS.  The original building is from the ‘20’s when it was called the El Poco.  The newer buildings are eight bungalows of pure delight.  #4, her bungalow, was the home of Lucy and Desi, and little Desi, for two years.  It is, in a word, delightful.  Kitchen, bathroom with Jacuzzi tub, large bedroom, living room, outdoor patio with private hot tub and fire place.  The service is personal with one of the owners currently manning the front desk, Tony, while his partner is still in Seattle.  They commute from Seattle!  In the middle of the bungalows is the gorgeous pool, with plenty of lounging, towels, greenery, birds, a BBQ for the guests use, seating around tables – and not a soul in sight.  

Bungalow #4 Jacuzzi Bath

Bungalow #4 Bedroom

Julie and I at El Gallito

We spend the next week commuting back and forth between Blue and Julie, driving around, lounging at the pool, eating some great steaks that she made us.  Not having experienced this commuting before, I did find myself torn between wanting to be home and on MY schedule, and feeling obligated to share our life style with Julie.  My heart wasn’t as generous as it should have been, I think, which is something I want to meditate and think on.  I’ve known Julie since 7^th grade, although she’s been in and out of my life due to moving away in high school, getting married (briefly), having two boys, moving to Australia, then eventually St. Louis.  While in St. Louis she seemed to come into her own, relaxing into who she is and what she wanted from life for herself and her son Matt.  In the ensuing years we met each Christmas time at the Pink Door in Seattle, having the best Italian food, catching up on books and films, life, family, friends.  I liked those dinners.  She eventually moved back to Seattle to be near her parents and son Adam.  We still meet at the Pink Door but now during summer when I’m home, and it doesn’t seem the same to me.

Anyway, she was gracious and flexible which helped me adjust to this new schedule, and for that I am grateful.  The week flew by and she was soon on her way back to 36 degrees and the Seattle shit rain, to start work again after a several month sabbatical.  Tax season begins for 2013!

January 14, 2012

Cathedral Palms RV turned out to be an OK park, despite warnings from our mainstay website, RV Park Reviews.  We think what’s happening is they’re trying to upgrade after it got run down.  Very nice pool and spa, good site.  Roku happy, what else is needed?!  We met some old acquaintances from DHS, Anna and Paul, the Norwegians from Seattle; made some new acquaintances from BC – very nice couple.  It then came down to the 14^th, the day we were to leave – and we had nowhere to go.  Another neighbor had told us when she called around to what were to be our last two RPI choices, they had very limited availability, because the Canadians were coming, the Canadians were coming!!!  We didn’t think much of it because we’ve always found a place, but we were moving around then.

I looked at our atlas around the Salton Sea, where we hadn’t been able to explore yet, and found a State Recreation Area that could work.  Took awhile to get here as I drive the car and TC Blue, so we communicate through the cell phones.  I tell him the direction/road numbers/etc, he disagrees.  We pulled into the first campsite which is a big parking lot and beach, the volunteer ranger with the big blue eyes and great smile suggested we might like Mecca Beach just up the road. 

Mecca is a jewel of a place in the funkiness that is the Salton Sea.  We parked sideways with a view of the water and beach, snug against the solar restrooms that are broken.  The rest of the park is for tent campers and no hook-ups.  We love our little spot, peaceful, quiet, serene beauty.  There is a constant train going by but we like the clackity clack – no whistle for once.  There’s also a beach full o’ dead tilapia – the Salton Sea is a strange and wrong body of water.  Fifty percent more saline than the oceans, fertilizer runoff from the farmlands, fish run out of oxygen and die by the thousands, birds eat the fish and get sick…very wrong environment.  There’s a bit of a smell in the air.  Oddly, Roku never took an interest in the fish when we walk to the beach.

 M

Mecca Beach BBQ

Mecca Beach and Jet Stream

Mecca Beach, Our Site

Mecca Beach Egret

Mecca Beach Dead Fish

Mecca Beach Pelican

Mecca Beach Pelican

Mecca Beach Sunset

Mecca Beach Roku

Mecca Beach Roku

Mecca Beach TC and Roku

January 15, 2013

One of Tony’s Masonic friends heard we were in the valley and called to arrange a lunch at their place in Rancho Mirage.  Georg and his wife Nina, American Danes, live in a 1950’s – 1960’s quintessential Palm Springs home.  Oh we love it!  It’s in a non-gated community with little rock houses curved into a circle around a pool.  They have exquisite furniture inside and out, and great details all around.  Georg cooked us a lovely scallop lunch.  The best part, however, was the conversation!  Nina is beautiful, smart, well educated, opinionated and interesting.  After a brief sojourn into politics we determined that they are strong to moderate conservatives, and we, of course are moderate liberals.  She has some very strong feelings about big government, welfare, minimum wage, Obama as dictator – many ideas based on the Nazi parties rise to control.  She feels America is going in the same direction, that if no one speaks up against big government’s controls over individuals, we will end up just like Nazi Germany.  We had a wonderful talk, again, respectful, passionate, interesting.  We will love seeing them again.

January 18, 2013

TC off to the foot doc and I get a much needed day to meditate and catch up on my online class.  Did both with flying colors and loved having the time to myself.

January 19, 2013

What a marvelous day!  Slept in until 11:00 AM, don’t know why.  Was up at 4:00 for about an hour and the sleep I get going back to bed is usually sound.  As usual we left around 2:30, heading 30 miles away to Niland and Slab City.  We first spotted a sign for the “Fountain of Youth” RV park, and subsequently saw what looked like a city of rv’s on the nearby hill.  We turned off and drove up to “FOY”, as they call it, which turned out to be a little city of its own.  We were blown away.  Bill at the gate encouraged us with a lot of vitality, to look around, go to the store, the pools, the restaurant.  He said they want us to move there, the sooner the better, because the people are marvelous, the pools the best, the sites fantastic ….. whew, give it a rest Bill!

We drove around and around – about 600 sites of both rv’s and mobile homes – and a killer view of the Salton Sea.  The little “town” is a sight to behold, someone really put a lot of thought and work into FOY.  We went to the bathrooms and on our way out ran smack dab into Dorothy and Mary from Oasis Palms and Mecca Beach.  A great reunion was had by all and we gave them TC’s email so that we can keep in touch.

The latter is a free for all of RV’s, buses, vans, trucks – camping for hours, days, years, decades – at what used to be Camp Dunlap.  The residents call it the “Last Free Place on Earth” and it very well may be.  I found it utterly fascinating, Tony thought it disgusting.  There are NO services out there, no water, sewer (where do they dump?!), propane, electricity.  Many of the “sites” are marked off with tires or rocks, there are a few dogs roaming around (god I hope they’re fixed!).  The campers are scattered over a wide lot of land, some close together, some far, far apart.  Looks like many don’t run anymore, not sure what they all do for money.  Near the entrance is the famous “Salvation Mountain” that a guy has been working on his whole life, I think.  The name comes from the intention to bring folks to Jesus.  It’s got a lot of paint on it.

Slab City

Slab City

Slab City

Slab City Fancy Trailer and Truck

Slab City Shoe Tree

Niland Cool Building

Niland itself is a poor little dirty town with not much left to it – all dried out and put on a shelf.  The mountains around this valley and the Sea in the middle is so breathtaking.  Home again to the kittehs and a fried egg sandwich.  Yessssss.