For 11 of the past 12 years I have attended the Indio regional Family Motor Coach Association rally. Jo has attended all of them since we were married. Our Golden Spike chapter parks together and we treat the rally as one of our chapter rallies with our own events interspersed with events of the main rally. For better coverage of the rally, you can look at the blogs in early January done by a member of our Golden Spike group, at http://travelbychance.blogspot.com
On Sunday Jan. 8 chapter members gathered at the parking lot of the closed Sams Club in LaQuinta about 3 miles from the Indio fairgrounds where the rally is held. We gathered so that we could arrive as a group Monday morning and be parked together. We were given extra space for holding our chapter events in the midst of all of our parked motor homes.
After parking our motor home Monday morning and setting up, Jo and I set off for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, perhaps a 30 minute drive from Indio. It was completed in 1963. The parking lots are just off I10 a few miles up Chino Canyon. Here we had just started up the tram. Neither of us had ridden it before. We highly recommend it!
There are five towers from which the cables are suspended. In passing each one to car swings back and forth a bit. The car takes its passengers from about 2600 ft. to 8500 ft.(a little over a vertical mile!) in 10 minutes!
The views from the top are spectacular, especially on a clear day such as we enjoyed. Below, Palm Springs is in the Cochella valley foreground and Indio is in the far right distance.
A great view of the wind turbines lined up to generate electricity in the windy pass.
There was snow at the top, but we nevertheless took a 3/4 mile walk along Long Valley.
Jo enjoyed a bit of a rest along the trail while waiting for me to catch up. The sudden change in elevation made walking uphill a challenge because of my mild COPD.
On the way down I caught the other car coming up. The cars are quite new and most of the car rotates as they go up and down, except for a few feet in the center where the operator is stationed.
As we were coming down afternoon shadows highlighted the topography of the surrounding mountainous area.
Our group gathered at all hours for camaraderie . My railroad lantern adds to the illumination behind the white bowl.
Bob and Dottie Poole were given a cake in recognition of their 50thweddding anniversary.
About 35 members of our group are gathered in front of a mural in the auditorium building. Jo and I are near the far right. This usually is our Golden Spike Chapter’s largest rally during the year.
Here is a daytime view of our socializing area. We had two group meals here, with a few happy hours, too!
One of our chapter’s jobs at the rally is to distribute ice cream bars for ice cream socials at noon on Friday and Saturday. We enjoy making so many people happy. We gave out over 5000 ice cream bars in the two days.
Of course, the ladies handing out ice cream bars require supervision!
Here are just a few of the motor homes lined up for display and sale at the rally. Many of them this year were used top-of-the-line models, with pricing accordingly!
No comments:
Post a Comment