Borrego Springs, California

We've spent the last two nights here in Borrego Springs at a nice RV park called The Springs.  We were told that this park was the park to end all parks, but it hasn't lived up to its billing.  The park is full of kids, for one thing, which is fine, except that it makes for a lot more noise than we're used to in some of the adults-only parks.  Mike just reported to me that a passerby claims it's been noisier than usual, being a 3-day weekend.  (Happy MLK Day!)  I have nothing against kids, but having raised my own, I prefer the relative quiet of my own fully-grown, self-contained children.

The sites are nice and well thought out in the way the RVs are staggered to allow as much privacy as possible.  There are no divisions between sites, however, and so there is no actual privacy.  There are some lovely mineral baths, however, and we like those a LOT.  In addition to a warm lap-swim pool, there is one larger hot tub that is at a nicely warm temperature, and then three separate hot-tubs-for-one-or-two little tubs where the temperature is quite a bit warmer.  It sure feels good on my arthritic knees, feet, and hands.  And being mineral baths, we don't have to sit inhaling chlorine, which tends to be strong in these parks.  We might decide to come back for the mineral baths alone, perhaps on a weekday when there are fewer people--but not this year.  That will have to wait for the future.

Another noteworthy point about this area is that it is designated as a "dark sky" area, meaning it's good for stargazing.  That isn't surprising since we are just on the other side of the mountains from the Palomar Observatory.  With a waxing nearly-full moon, the stargazing hasn't been that good, but it's still nice to have a dark sky at night otherwise.  That would be a draw for the future as well since we travel with our 10-inch telescope and set it up at various times.  We'll be doing that when we return to Death Valley in a couple of months. 

We drove into the tiny town of Borrego Springs to check out the many galleries in town.  They were somewhat disappointing.  A couple were closed because it's Sunday, including the one potential fabric store that was pointed out to me by a reader (thanks, Daniel).  I was able to look in the windows of a few and snoop around some others, but I didn't see anything that really lit me up.  (I'm always on the hunt for the one perfect souvenier that will memorialize the whole trip.  I'll have to keep looking.)

Tonight we've decided to eat out at one of the several Mexican restaurants in town.  We do not have very good Mexican food in Oregon, and so we try to get out and enjoy it whenever we're in Southern California.  By the way, Mike and I both went to high school in this area.  We are both graduates of Vista High School, which is just over the hill from here, about two hours away.  We enjoy visiting the area, but it has become so densely populated in the past 36 years since we left that it is just unbelievable.  It doesn't look at all like it used to when we were married near here in 1975. 

We ran into some boys selling avocados, oranges, blood oranges, and tangerines.  We bought a bag of avocados, blood oranges, and tangerines for $10, and we've been eating oranges ever since we arrived.  The avocados aren't ripe, but again, our avocados in Oregon are so tasteless that we enjoy buying them local when we are down here.  Mike's dad used to grow avocados and send them to us in Oregon.  He passed away in 1995, and we have mourned the passing of his avocados almost as much as we mourned his passing.

So tomorrow we are off to somewhere else.  We have some repairs to get done on the trailer:  the broken jack motor and possibly replacing the batteries.  We haven't completely decided where we'll head next.  That decision will have to wait until morning.  Until then, take care, and enjoy the remnants of your weekend.