I thought Oma should be our guest blogger especially after saying “I wasn’t really paying attention to where we were going.” So without further ado….

Well Oma decided to let her hair dry in the desert breeze so I will take back over. She is in her lounge chair, beach cover up on, and hair in rollers- true movie star style. For threat of my life I am not posting the pic, however, I’ll definitely be saving it in my “blackmail folder”. Chris- let me know if you need a copy.

Steven got up early to run the Art Smith Trail. He somehow has an over-abundance of energy. By the time he arrived back Oma and I had the bags packs and water secured. We drove to Indian Canyon to hike the Andreas trail to see an oasis. After paying for the entrance we snaked our way through the desert. The oasis was clearly visible in the distant. It was very close to what one would imagine, a cluster of palm trees with running water. Despite being what I imagined it was still breathtaking. We did a one mile hike and, not learning from the previous day, we had Vera start out hiking while Steven carried the litter. We hiked through the oasis with a running stream next to us and lush palm trees overhead. The trail began to head uphill and out of the oasis. The views were spectacular looking out over the canyon. We came across an influencer couple (instagram variety) who were setting up various photo shoots along the way. We held our breath as they obliviously almost walked directly into a cholla cactus. We did learn from yesterday and remembered the snacks!! Vera walked a good half mile before resorting to the carrier and snacks.

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Back in the car, we decided to drive a bit further to Palm Canyon and a promised waterfall. The roads were twisty, curvy and I was thankful for our GINORMOUS automobile until we reached an area called Split Rock. The road went in between a rock wall and a gigantic arrowhead rock and it was a tight squeeze for sure. The truck has an interesting arcade style feature in which the seat vibrates if it thinks you are going to strike something. I have no idea how this is a safety feature because while nerve-wrackingly trying to drive through a rock having my bum bum vibrate made it all the more stressful. After squeezing through we drove to the top of the overlook and had Steven recon the area. The waterfall was dried up so we packed back up in the car and headed into Palm Springs.

We settled on a Mexican restaurant for lunch and feasted on typical mex food and margaritas. Back at the homestead naps were in order. Of course after naps we utilized the pool and then decided to stay in for dinner.

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