Goodby Vegas hello Hemet

We arrived in Hemet California on the 10th for our first Tiffin Rally. Tiffin is the manufacturer of our motorcoach and they sponsor 2 rally's a year. Their rally's are mostly social with a few seminars. Although we enjoyed the dinners & entertainment, our preference are rally's with lots of educational sessions. We met our friends Cathie & Ray and really enjoyed our visit with them. We've met some really nice RVer's.


Cathie & Ray enjoying dinner and perfomance by the California Cowboys.


Bob & Judy Tiffin...owners of Tiffin Motorhomes.


Since we have never been in this part of California we decided to extend our stay here for another week to see some of the area. Hemet is about 40 minutes west of Palm Springs so we toured Palm Springs one afternoon and again another evening for dinner.

The high temperature yesterday was 99 degrees. Fortunately we spent the better part of the day in the high desert were the temperature at times was 20 degree's cooler. We drove to Joshau National Park. Joshau NP is land were two desert ecosystems meet - the Mojave and Colorado deserts. The Colorado Desert is dominated by abundant creosote bushes. Adding interest are small patches of the ocotillo and jumping cholla cactus - both of which were in bloom. The Mojave Desert is a high desert, slightly cooler and moister than the Colorado Desert and is the special habitat of the Joshua tree.

The park is over 1 million acres and the drive through it is 64 miles long.


Colorado Desert


The Joshau Tree is to the Mojave Desert as the giant saguaro cactus is the Sonoran Desert. The Joshau Tree is a giant member of the lily family and looks like a large yucca tree.


Joshau Tree




Mojave Desert with forests of Joshau Trees



Throughout the park are many displays of exposed granite monoliths and ragged mountains of rock formations. Geologists believe these formations were born more than a million years ago by continous movement of the earth's crust, the effects of molten liquid & erosion thus producing the mounds of uniquely shaped rocks we see today.


Rock formation




Skull rock ... you need a little imagination!


Jumping cholla garden. They get the name "jumping" because they break off easily if touched. They tell us you don't want to get stuck by one of these...very painful and hard to remove.


View from "Key View" - elevation 5134


Joan resting at Key View observation point.


Hiking path to Cottonwood Spring...that I never found...but the walk was nice.


The desert in bloom.


Caught another spectacular sunset on our way home.

We will be leaving here Thursday morning for the Grand Canyon.

Hope all is well!

Las Vegas

We extended our stay in Las Vegas one extra day to take advantage of a few of the attractions. Just walking through the casino is a tour in itself, with the beautifully appointed lobbies.


Bellagio Lobby


Glass mushrooms


Bee made from dried chrysanthemums and sunflowers




Water show in front of the Bellagio. Water formations play to music.


We saw the Terry Fator show. His career spanned 40 years as a stand-up act, not all that well known. As soon as he won America's Got Talent, the Mirage offered him 5 year contract for $100 million. His "casts of thousands" fills the stage with singing impressions of celebrities and unbelievable ventriloquism. His band and backdrops add to his performance. It is a great show and highly recommended if your in Vegas.


Opening character - the "Impersonating Turtle".



Winston


One evening we had dinner on Freemont Street and enjoyed the outdoor show. Fremont Street was the original Las Vegas Strip and still has a few older casinos, but to compete with the newer more elegant casinos they had to come up with something to continue attracting tourist. Thus the birth of the "Fremont Experince". They closed off a four block area and turned it into a pedestrian mall. It features a huge overhead canopy, equipped with a $17 million digital video display complete with 12.4million bulbs. The show runs for about 10-15 minutes every hour beginning at 7 pm. The best was Don McClean's American Pie and the other performance we stayed for was the Doors. Based on the number of people roaming around that area I think they came up with a winner.


Shot of Fremont Street





Don McCleans American Pie




The Doors


Not sure who or what this is but it's fun just to watch everything going on around you.

Hope all is well!