A Shriners Golf Outing

Shriners International is a fraternity based on fun, fellowship and the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth.  In the Westwind RV Park the Shriner membership are active and we were invited to buy raffle tickets for a drawing they were having on Saturday that included three new bicycles as prizes.

We bought some tickets and attended the drawing that was held after a morning golf outing in the park.

Neither of us won a bicycle, but one of Bill's tickets was drawn and he walked away with this nifty bag of dice games, LED hat lights, and trinkets.

Mr. Lucky!

✨

A Bike Ride Through the 1% Houses

Indio, California, where we are staying, is a pretty well-to-do town by Michigan standards.  However, down Highway 111 west toward Palm Springs the real estate values rise steeply.  On Friday Bill loaded up his bicycle and decided to check out some of the towns while Karen did laundry.
(Karen needed some "alone time" with the washing machines and dryers)

Indian Wells was impressive so the bicycle trip started there.

The eight-feet wide sidewalk/bike trails were smooth as you pass gated community after gated community.

This was a typical common area in one of the neighborhoods.

This was the main gate to one of the county clubs along Highway 111.

Without exaggeration, you can ride or walk for miles along this trail and never see a dandelion or a weed of any kind.  Beautiful landscapes and flower gardens were everywhere.

Bill came across this small memorial park honoring military personnel from the local area.

The memorial was built to honor the fallen.  By reading some of the plaques, Bill was surprised to find out that Dwight Eisenhower had a winter retirement home nearby in Indian Wells, California.  Eisenhower loved to play golf.

Bill had a memorable bike ride on another beautiful warm day - as he got to see where the rich folk come to play.

🚵

Quite A View From the Hidden Sands Golf Course

Here is the view looking south from the first tee of our RV golf course.

Now if you look closer...

you can see the towering mountains nearby...

...just past the wind turbines.

The vistas near Palm Springs are impressive.

🌄

On The Road Again in California

We left Pala, California  on Saturday morning and headed north toward Riverside,CA then caught I-10 southeast toward Palm Springs.

We have seen fields of wind turbines before, but as we neared the Palm Springs area we were surprised to see the magnitude of windmills out here.

There were hundreds of them with no nearby residents to complain.  We also saw plenty of solar panels scattered across the desert floor as well.

We found sites available at the Hidden Sands Golf and Racquet Club Resort near the town of Desert Hot Springs, California.  The towns near Palm Springs have confusing names that include Palm Desert, Thousand Palms, Indio, and Cathedral City to name a few.

The resort we ended up in has a lush, green golf course.  Google Earth shows us that there are numerous golf courses in this valley.  We plan to explore on Sunday.

Our resort is old and the sites are tight but on a Saturday in these parts we cannot be too picky or we just might end up in the desert doing what they call "dry camping."  The winds on Saturday afternoon became rather strong so we soon understood why all the wind turbines were assembled nearby.

🚩

How About a Game of Golf?

This year we brought our golf clubs from home, so we dusted them off and teed  up at the Fortuna De Oro 9-Hole Golf course on Friday.

The course is not fancy and it was a warm and breezy afternoon.

Show-off Karen did not take a mulligan on the first hole, and instead shot a two on the par 3 for our only Birdie of the day.  Luckily for Bill, her true form came back on the next eight holes.

The Fortuna De Oro course is fairly long, and we walked with pull carts.  With all the swings we took we got plenty of exercise.  After 9 holes we were ready for a drink and supper.  It was a fun afternoon with plenty of fresh air.

🌴