Palm Springs sejour summary

We have been so busy there has been little time to update this blog, so here's a quick summary of what we have been up to the last few days. I tried adding pictures to this post too, but the bungled up blogger.com wont let me do it so you'll have to make do with the boring one on your left for now. Yep thats me writing this stuff.

Tuesday:

The day starts with the earthquake. Even though we're still out in Palm Springs, the whole motel wobbles for 20 seconds as the 5.4 quake hits LA. Afterwars we go to the spa for a massage, the way I always handle an earthquake.

The massage was very nice, altough I would have liked a more brutal kind. I ordered "Swedish" because I am Swedish, but it turns out that is just the name they gave to the wimpiest massage. How fitting. Jaana also had her toenails painted turquiose before we left. At "Del Taco" (the smaller competitor of taco Bell), they have a Tuesday desert discount which gives you 3 hardshell tacos for 1 buck, which is a pretty good deal even though the tacos are on the lower end of the quality spectrum. I had 6 of them, before Jaana decisevely drove us 3 hours straight into the desert to find a special bush.

Now this particular Creosote bush is supposedly the oldest living thing on the planet, at 11,700 years of age. Interesting, and I too wanted to pay my respects and also to see if I could use a fraction of it to make a concoction out of it to prolong life. During the long desert drive I had time to reconsider, as in most stories on eternal life the potion usually brings death to everyone except someone with a Pure Heart, and I am not ready to gamble as I think the odds are turning more and more against me with each passing year.

Either way, we got to the supposed location, .6 miles off a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, with a wire-fence with signs saying "BIOLOGICAL PRESERVE" or something similar. Now, if you're like me, coming across a fenced off area in the desert with a label like this would instantly have you thinking that they are 1) Attempting to create a super-warrior through mixing human and creosote DNA, 2) Keeping a super lethal life form 2 miles under the desert floor in an isolation bunker, 3) both.

Jaana climed right in through the fence, and I quietly wondered wether the lawyers or the telekinetic mutant-king warrior would get her first.

Turns out we couldn't find the bush. There is about a bazillion of them, they all look alike. However, it is an interesting project, and if we move out here I will absolutely try to find it again if it hasn't died from old age by then.

Wednesday

We spent most of this day recovering from the Creosote hunt in the desert through hanging out at the pool. It is warm like heck, and we're pretty alone in being outside in the middle of they day. I quite like it though. After lunch we went down to Cabazon outlets and looked at a lot of junk. I got myself a pair of Nike running shoes for 49 bucks. Thats like 25 quid, which was a real bargain I thought. Now I just need to get back to running too. Jaana also got some shoes, lady Clark's. They were perfect, but when we got home she realised they were terrible, so we will be returning them on our way back into LA tomorrow.

Thursday

We wanted to fit in another hike before going urban again, so we drove down to Ansa-Borrego (passing the wierd-ass Salton sea (which I think is a crazy nude hangout spot but Jaana tells me it's not)). Ansa Borrego is a low desert park. We arrived around 2pm after a longish drive. It was seriously baking. At 112 degrees you don't just play around outside. It is HOT. Turns out the ranger station was closed, as noone comes to visit in the summer heat. Except for us.

So, we walked the .6 mile kiddie trail, which led us back to the ranger station in a loop, where we sat down in the shade, perispiration dripping from everywhere. Just as we are about to leave, a stray ranger pops out the door looking like he's ready to invade Poland, and he expertly tells us all about his park. He was a really great guy and he told us it would be humanly possible to do a short trek this time of year provided we had at least 2 litres of water per person with us for every 3 miles we intened to walk.

He suggested a short drive up to Palm Canyon trail, this is a short, 3.5 mile hike right into the desert, through a gulch ending at an oasis. The pass leads up via a plateau and that is the danger spot, as the ground is so hot you can cook on it. The ranger told us to expect around 122 degrees on the plateau, and then a cool 90 at the oasis.

Said and done, we both wanted to do it, we did it, and it was very hot indeed. Jaana struggled somewhat at the plateau, and I kept asking if she wanted us to turn back, but I love this hard-headed woman of mine, and she pressed on. I was quite surprised at how easy it was for me to deal with the heat (which was really unlike anything I have experienced before, even in Death Valley). I found it MUCH harder and more draining to walk around Edinburgh this last winter than the hike today.

The oasis was nice, Jaana covered herself in its water (I didn't like it even though the ranger had said it was good enough to drink), instead I took a leak (well what'cha gonna do when you keep rehydrating every 5 minutes?) and supported the enviroment with some much needed liquid of my own making.

We sat around for 30 minutes or so, the sun began to set, and the hike back down was much much easier, as it was both down hill and now in shade.

On the way back to Palm Springs, we took the S22 eastward out from the park, and got some great views and a reall cactus-to-palms-to-pines drive up in the mountains and a completely different eco system, to me reminiscent of the Sonoma valley of northern california. Very beautiful. Jaana expertly drove us through the Santa Rosa mountains, and back town in PS in about 2 hours, and I even managed to catch the Daily Show on TV before writing this.

Tomorrow we're going back to LA to see our lawyer, and we have managed to get cheap reservations at a luxury hotel down town through some wierd-ass auction website. How about them apples?!