We left Vallejo Ca, from my mom’s house, on the previous Friday determined to begin our journey towards the desert.  It was a “now or never” moment.  On the way down on I-5, we spent the night in a rest stop.  Not much sleep was to be had as the noise of semi’s coming and going kept us awake all night.  Still, the excitement of the trip spurred us on, despite the sleepiness  the next day

We decided to try and drive all the way to Desert Hot Springs as our destination the next day.  The grapevine was intense as the van is pretty loaded down with gear and supplies, and swayed with the weather and the roads, but it took it in relative stride.  We drove in and out of rainstorms all day, passing breathtaking panoramic, desert landscapes.

We stopped at a rest stop at the base of  Mt. Edna and the San Jacinto wilderness near Palm Springs.  The mountains are majestic and surround the area, rising up to 10,000 feet in the air into the clouds.  Finally made it, never thought I’d see it, a culmination of years of dreaming about migrating and living in the deserts in the dreary winter.  Now to make the yearly migration permanent!

The van is small, but doable.  Everything is tightly arranged and packed.  We have to operate as a team, and highly cooperate to make it work.  We have electricity, water, heating, cooking, 3 laptops, beautiful stereo system that integrates cell phone answering and talking and all laptop audio through bluetooth, wireless internet for all wherever we go provided by Verizon, lot’s of on-board food supply, and loads of storage.  We’re only short on room, though we have a large family tent to setup when in camps.

We finally entered the town of Desert Hot Springs, California, a town of around 25,000, after some 6 hours or so of driving.  The town is built on the attraction of the natural mineral water that is pumped from the ground.  There are hot sping spas everywhere.

We felt a bit deranged from loss of sleep for two days plus the travel, so  we rented a hotel room for the night to ground and acclimate.  Part of the deal is we got to soak in natural mineral waters that come out of the ground, and are pumped into an Olympic sized pool, and 8 hot soaking pools of various temperatures, plus the use of a dry sauna for the day, plus all facilities for the next day until 10:00 at night.  Remarkably, it is $5 per person for the entire day’s use of the facilities.  We’ll be back for soaking, and sauna.

Palm Springs Wilderness

We spent the next day checking out Palm Springs, looking at the health food scene, as well as scoping the town.  It was much more upscale than Desert Hot Springs, and had a pretty good vibe going on.  The food scene is a bit dismal; one would strive to have on-board hydroponic gardens, as well as an extensive knowledge of wild foods, and a plentiful stock of other foods, herbs and other staples on board their rig.  We are pressed for space, but manage to have a decent stock, despite being in a van, which we’ll show you later.

The next night, we camped, boondock style in the Spa’s parking lot.  Many travelers were doing the same.  You can just park off the lot in the sand, use the hot spings and sauna for $5 all day till 10:00 at night, then spend the night.  Listened to music at dinner, did some internet work, then watched a movie on the big laptop before dozing off.   That night in the van was our best sleep yet, deeply restful, and no charge!

Feels like I'm home!

Will catch up to the present in the next segment…