Salome, Arizona to Palm Desert, California – 11 April 2024

We said our goodbyes to Arizona and headed for Palm Desert in California. The last time we were at this RV park in Palm Desert was April 2022 with memories of extremely hot weather and lots of sand.

The Thousand Trails park looked pretty much the same as the last time we were here, but quite packed, so much so that it was quite difficult to find a spot in the 50 amp section, so we ended up on the 30 amp side. The weather was extremely hot again – too hot, but we made daily use of the pool.

On the way into Palm Desert we started having issues again with the brakes of the RV which were not talking to the truck’s brake controller. In addition, two of our tires got screws in them. Derek managed to replace the one tire and got the other tire fixed in town. We also managed to get hold of a mobile RV technician who was able to diagnose the brake wiring issue. Once again we replaced the magnet on the brake assembly as the wiring had melted.

The second day we were there it was in the 30’s so we waited till late afternoon before going for a walk in the East Indio Hills on the Badlands trail.
There was classic badland topography on this trail which had been formed from thousands of years of erosion and an active San Andreas Fault. We hiked through slot canyons, in the shadow of tectonic uptilts, and along a prominent ridge with 360 views from the Salton Sea to San Gorgonio Mountain. It was a great hike – what I would imagine Utah to look like.

The following day we went for another walk in the desert – this time along the Roadrunner and Chuckwalla trails. There was a great view from a lookout across the Frank Sinatra drive and Rancho Mirage in Palm Springs. There were Palm trees as far as the eye could see. Not suprising, Palm Springs is the date capital of the US, producing more than 80 percent of the dates produced across the entire country.

Lately it seems we are losing so many good friends, family and pets to Cancer, so it was nice to see a monument near the trail head celebrating Cancer survivors. The sculpture was the work of Victor Salmones. The five figures at the back were cancer patients with their supporters entering treatment represented by the maze. There is fear, determination and hope on their faces compared with the front three who had just completed successful treatment.
In Canada, Cancer survival rates depend on the stage of cancer at diagnosis and the type of cancer, but generally for all types of cancers combined, about 64% of people are expected to survive at least 5 years after their cancer diagnosis.

We discovered that Jax had really hurt his paws on this walk. He had not been wearing his boots as the ground was not that hot, but obviously the rough stones had taken their toll. He had a number of sore little red spots on his feet which he wanted to lick raw all the time. We bandaged his worst foot and for the next few days made sure he wore his boots whenever we went out. Poor thing!

After 3 days in Palm Desert we were ready to move on. We went through our normal pack up routine the morning of the move and then I then waited outside the RV with Jax as Derek connected the RV to the truck. This was when he found out the truck did not recognize the RV brakes again!! Major panic as we tried to get hold of the mobile technician again. The tech came over a little later but just to be safe we extended our stay in Palm Desert for a couple of days. Major pain as this always has a snowball effect on all our other reservations.

Finally, after another visit the next day, more brake replacements and further diagnosis, everything was fixed. We decided to leave that afternoon even thought it was late to attempt to catch up on some of our other reservations and headed to Castaic.