Desert Hot Springs Activity

We enjoyed the warm weather (90*) and sunshine back at Catalina Spa RV Resort.  I went to line dance class every morning at 8 AM. We made a Costco visit and relaxed in the pool fed from an underground hot spring. We went into Palm Springs on Thursday evening for the weekly VillageFest open air market. 3 blocks of artists, food and music.  Friday, we toured the Air Museum at the Palm Springs Airport. Creators designed two exhibit wings, one for the Pacific Theater and one for the European Theater in WWII. We were lucky to see a B-25 land and take off.  On Saturday, we went to the College of the Desert where there is a HUGE market every weekend. Food, music, art, clothing, home accents were just a few of the offerings to spend your money on.  In the afternoon, we drove to Indio to the Coachella Valley History Museum where they were hosting a Heritage Festival celebrating the community cultures of the Cahuilla, Mexican, Anglo, Native American, Armenian and Japanese. There were Jr Historians at several exhibits giving brief bios.  The Historians were 3 and 4th graders from a local school. Very impressive. We heard General Patton talk about his experience in training troops in the desert near Indio. We also listened to Dr June Robertson who was responsible for painting the first striped lines on highways and for starting the Coachella Library. There was a date museum where we learned that dates weren't really indigenous.  They came from the Middle East and North Africa so the annual Date Festival had camels and the Queen dressed in traditional Arabian costumes.

So nice to eat outside.

These are rescue horses at VillageFest.  As a fund raiser, the organizers
were selling carrots to feed the horses.

This sign says "you can add props, move the man's arms and try to make
him smile".  Two boys were doing their best to get a reaction.

Grounds in front of the museum

Sonny tries out the cockpit in a old cargo plane.

An artist created this Viet Nam war mural.

The museum had several newspapers from WWII.
This one had the story of Al Brady,
"America's second Dillinger and public enemy #1 "
being slain in Bangor, Maine where I was born.

These canvas sleeping cots were aboard a
transport ship used in the Viet Nam War.
During the long trips, troops played cards and
bingo, read, smoked, drank or left graffiti on the
bunks.  

The B25 noisily arrives.

$450 for a 20 minute ride

We took a mural tour of Indio with Big
Wheel Jeep Tours. Artists have a created historical
picture stories from old post cards, photos and letters.

The area is known for its humming birds
which are illustrated here.

Museum gardens had many cactus in bloom.

Long and skinny cactus.

These buildings were called "submarines" and were first built in the Coachella Valley in the 1920s as sleeping rooms in the desert.  8x10 in size, sometimes used to keep produce cold.  The rooms were cooled by evaporating water trickling down the metal burlap-covered walls. In the 1950s, 100 were still in use in the train yards for the crews.

Koshin Taiko Drummers.  

Fabulous musicians called
"Barnaby Finch's Jazzgrass Band"
Children were demonstrating some
free dance expression.