Day 6.

The Rose Parade is over, we are at Desert Hot Springs staying at Sam’s Family Spa and RV Resort.  THere are numerous other RV resorts here but most of them are over 55 (we aren’t there yet) so we have not investigated them fully yet.  That is OK.  Sam’s is nice, a bit pricey but you do get access to their hot pools.

We slept in as good as we could and hit the hot pools early in the day.  After days of cold weather it was so wonderful to have every body part warm!  I didn’t want to get out but knew I would be a prune soon.  That afternoon we went into the Palm Springs area and  did some bills!  How exciting.  I get paid once a month and it was time to do the bills whether at home or not.  This was good practice for the future on the road.  I have every bill but one setup to pay electronically.

After camping out at a Panera to do the bills we heading to watch a movie.  We saw the last Hobbit movie (thankfully) in 3D and IMAX!  Normally I don’t care for 3D movies as the director tries to overemphasize the 3D effects.  However, this movie did not do so much of that it just used it as an added effect not the only one.

Back to the trailer where we had hookups and could heat it to our desire.

Day 7.

Even though we saw a movie yesterday, we did it again today!  This was our portion of the vacation to relax and unwind.  The WBCCI part was fun and very loosely scheduled but there still was a schedule.  Here we didn’t have one, which was nice.

We went to see Unbroken.  This is the movie that was based upon the life of Louis Zamparini, grand marshal of the parade.  It was a good movie and very inspiring.  When you feel like you are having a bad day, watch this movie.

We had a late lunch, shopped around a bit and then went back to see another movie!  This time we saw Wild.  It was a movie about a woman that went through a lot in her life and decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.  We thought the movie would be another inspiring movie but it wasn’t quite what we thought.  They could have told the same story without some of the more graphic elements.  However it was rated R but was disappointing in that respect.

Day 8.

Last day.  Time to go home.  But not before spending some more time in the hot pools.  Had to get one more in before we left.

We went home via an alternate route, that we have done before.  Hiway 62 through Yucca Valley, then hiway 242 toward Victorville.  However I did a slight change.  I stayed on 242 at Lucerne Valley which turned north toward Barstow.  Normally we head on hiway 18 through Victorville.  This way we would not have to fight going through the Victorville area and I see that as a plus.

Hiway 242 had a slight hill in the middle of it but nothing bad.  HOWEVER, on the downhill portion I found something interesting.  On many roads you will see elevation signs at every thousand feet and normally at the summit.  This road had those but it had one more.  On the northbound downhill portion coming into Barstow there was an elevation sign.  It read “Elevation 3305”.  This sign was NOT at the summit and I found that to be a rather odd elevation to report.  I have google’d it but cannot find anything about it.  I have sent an email to CalTrans.

We got lunch in Barstow and pushed on.

Roxie got to drive the rig again on her favorite route:

She even pulled it into the rest area along the way.  Here she is in action:

We got home in the dark, put the trailer away and settled back into our home lives.

Click here for my Rose Parade pictures I put into Flickr.

Also our friend George sent the kissy picture to me.  Note, don’t take a flash picture of a reflective jacket!: