Palm Canyon at Borrego Springs

The saga continues! Today, we are off on the second stage of Parents Day Off…a.k.a. Grandpa and Grandma Fish take the grandkids while their parents get to relax. Kate, grandkidlet #5, arrived at our condo on Monday morning. While Grandma went shopping, Kate and Grandpa brought the motorhome down to the condo to pack it and get it ready for the “Great Adventure to Borrego Springs”. Everything was stored and ready to go by about 4:00 pm, including “Valentino”, Claudia’s beta fish and out trusty companion, so we fired up the engine and headed out. Since our reservation for the Palm Canyon Campground at Borrego wasn’t until tomorrow, we stopped at the Western Horizon RV Park in Ramona for the night. Our good friend, Jerry Fiske, was there as well and we had a great evening catching up on adventures while Kate watched the Disney Channel. Tuesday morning saw us heading for Borrego about 10-ish. The drive was easy, and colorful, as the wildflowers were still in bloom.

We pulled in

Mona and Claudia...kickin' back!

and the ranger let us grab two spaces across from each other, one for us and one for Mona and Bob and Riley and Jack, the other two grandkids on the trip. Mona and Bob arrived within an hour and the kids bonded immediately (THANK GOD!). They were soon lying on the outdoor rug at Mona and Bob’s trailer busying themselves with paper and colored pens. I worked up a good sweat getting all set up. We had the same two sites as we had last time we were here…right on the coyote run! We were all kicking back with the appropriate adult beverages when Kate spotted a blacktailed jackrabbit. All of a sudden, Grandpa Fish turned into the Great White Hunter and led the kids on a bunny hunt. Several of the varmints were spotted during our excursion. Kate swore she even saw the “ear” of a coyote. OK, back to relaxing. There was a nice breeze so the 92-degree weather wasn’t bad if you sat in the shade. RV awnings are a godsend! Dinner was steaks (perfectly prepared on my new tripod fire ring grill) and cheesey-broccoli.

The new invention!

Dessert was, at the kids demand, “baked slugs”.

Cooking "slugs"!

This is how to eat a "slug"!

Night came early and sleeping was easy…until 4:00 am when the local coyote population started up with a round of “Let’s catch the Rabbit” or some similar game and woke us all up. Luckily, the game (or the rabbit) was short-lived and we soon went back to sleep. Wednesday morning breakfast was “Mickey Mouse Pancakes” for Kate and regular pancakes for us. We then took the kids to the Visitor Center to see all the exhibits and to go to an hour-long ranger presentation.

The kids at the Visitor's Center

Upon returning, Bob, Mona, Claudia and the kids made the obligatory trek to the local thrift store, the site of many great treasure finds in the past. Kate found some “magical (high heeled) shoes” and a “rock star” belt. The wind started to come up so we all came in the motorhome to watch Shrek. I counted three ripped awnings in our immediate area. Rule #1 in the desert is “Never leave your rig with the awnings out”. Violating Rule #1 can be expensive! Dinner was a cooperative effort of carne asada and several sides that we all ate inside our rig due to the wind. That did not deter us from a campfire with s’mores but I will have to admit the wind subsided once the sun went down. We got a late call from Davis Cabinets about the dinette install. They were having trouble with their morning job and asked if we could come to Indio Thursday morning instead of Friday. Since the wind was up and it was looking worse for tomorrow, we agreed to pull out one day early and get it done on Thursday.

So…Thursday was an up-at-seven, grab a quick breakfast and head for Indio morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve driven the Salton Sea road. We got to Indio at 9:30, met at the local Wal-Mart, got the new dinette done by about noon-thirty

The new dinette.

and headed for home on Hwy. 111. Interesting road! Very narrow and winding with lots of turnouts to let faster vehicles go by. We got home about 3:30 and got the rig unpacked (mostly). After the 6:05 train commuters relinquished their parking spots on the side street, I moved “Godzilla” to the street for the night. Tomorrow we will finish unpacking, straightening, rearranging, cleaning and repairing and move it to the storage yard. Another successful trip!