An Attempt to Pow-Wow

We began our day early as we knew it was going to get pretty warm here (sorry!) and we wanted to get in a good bike ride. Perfect timing, early on a Sunday, and the traffic was "manageable". There are sporadic sidewalks and bike lanes but let me assure you...you're taking your life in your hands using these 24 inch wide lanes on roads where the speed limit is 50 (as it is on almost every road here). Yes, even the side streets are , I guess, considered highways in the Palm Desert. So we headed out by about 9:30 to La Quinta Old Town where there was a nice little Farmers Market. On the was we passed a profusion of fruit trees....orange, grapefruit and lime...on the boulevard. So we helped ourselves. Pretty sure all that beautiful fruit would go to the ground and eventually to the dump (or the Farmers Market) anyway.

Our Stash

Roads, though dangerous, are really flat so the 5 miles or so to La Quinta went pretty quickly. On the way, we also passed many beautiful golf courses and residential areas (all gated).



Golf anyone?



The only thing we bought at the Farmers Market was a huge head of leaf lettuce. They did have nice bags of oranges and grapefruit for $5 but we already had my basket chock full so...

We took a different route home and drove past the Empire Polo Club. No matches or we would have checked it out. In the afternoon we went swimming and hot-tubbing then had an early dinner so we could go to the Fantasy Springs Casino as they had a Pow-Wow this weekend. I have always wanted to attend one and I was quite excited all week at the prospect of my first Pow-Wow. Though I checked on-line, there was no "schedule" posted, just that it was from 11-8 Saturday and Sunday. Great...we left about 4:30 so we could, in theory, see some dancing and then the finale parade. However, after arriving and asking around we found out the dancing was all done and only the awards remained. Oh Rats!  Well, we made the best out of it and went to the casino, got a beer and I just had to waste a few $ on the slots. I have no idea how to play anything else at a casino, and neither does Jeff! It was kind of fun plunking away at a machine into which I had inserted $10. At one point, I hit big and was up $50!!! But as we all know, gamblers like me, just keep playing until it is all gone again. Should have cashed out, Dammit! One more Corona and we headed home.
We have just two days left here and I am already bummed to leave. In the pool today we met a Canadian (rampant here) who swore we would never see a prettier spot in the U.S. I tend to agree.

And we decorated for Christmas!!!