By Thursday night JoAnne was feeling like she was going to
live after all. To celebrate we headed back to Sherman’s Deli. For those of you who might find
yourself at Sherman’s someday, this is #12 on the menu.
On Friday we had planned on getting up early and heading out
to the Southwest Arts Festival in Indio. A very overcast day and a steady rain
spoiled our plans – now that is something you don’t hear very often in the
desert. Instead, we stayed inside and watched movies, paid bills, and played on
Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook and Google +.
While it continued to rain much of Friday night by early
Saturday morning there was enough blue in the sky as my grandfather used to
say, “to make a pair of overalls”. So, it was off to the arts festival.
On our way to Indio and just a few miles down the road from where
our RV is parked we saw a sign for the Coachella Valley Preserve. Hmmm…
I wonder what that is all about? We decided to pull into the parking lot and
check it out. Yes, this was another one of those “unexpected” gems. As luck
would have it, docent (and retired Palm Desert High School English teacher)
Harlan Walker was getting ready to take a walk down to McCallum Oasis and invited us to walk with him. The two and one-half hour
walk flew by. The total hike is only 2.2 miles but Harlan turned out to be a
wonderful guide and he gave us an amazing lesson on the area history, as well
as an overview of the oasis plant, bird and animal life. One of the more unique
features of this preserve is the stand of Fan Palms. The Fan Palm is the only
native palm in California. The oasis also owes its existence to the fact that
sits right on the San Andreas Fault. If you are in the area you owe it to
yourself to check out this preserve.
Talk about a change in environment. Our next stop was the Southwest Art Festival,
which featured over 300 artists and was located at the Empire Arts Festival in
Indio. We had a fun time strolling between the booths and marveling at the wide
range of creativity and talent. As far as art festivals go this was a very good
one.
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