January 21 through 26, 2011

Friday 21~~~~We drove to Indio, California where we will be staying at the Elks Club for a week, we have stayed here before and we like the park, it is always full and it has a line of campers lined up boon docking until a spot opens up. They don't take reservations, so we were lucky we were on the ball today and pulled in early, we got the last spot, they have about 45 camp sites and that is a whole lot for an Elk's Club. We are parked by the lemon and orange trees and it is so pretty and also so nice to go out and pick and orange for breakfast. (pictures) On Saturday and Sunday we drove to Palm Springs and we did some shopping, we stopped at the College of the Desert ( a large Weekend Market) but it was about ready to close, so we went on our way and found other things to do. Monday 24~~~~ We stayed home and we went for a long walk (my new goal to do everyday) and of course we wound up at McDonald's so Kent could have a frappacino and a glass of water for Sharon!!!!!!!!!!! Kent grilled us some fantastic steaks for dinner dinner tonight while I made the side dishes. Tuesday 25~~~~~Today is Thresa's birthday, I miss being home for the kids birthdays. We drove to Quartzite today, it is about 112 miles from Indio, our friends Cyndi and Howie are camped there out if the desert for a week with some fiends, so we hope to see them while we are there. Quartzite is a very popular place in the desert between Indio and Phoenix where people go and just camp out in the desert with no electricity, water or sewer. It is windy there and your RV gets very dusty, I haven't been able to talk Kent into camping there yet for three or four days. There is a large flea market there in a huge tent where many vendors have their booths with almost anything you could want to buy is there. We walked forever trying to find the food booth where they made Indian Tacos, Kent had one there several years ago and we walked until we found them. I got my walk in today for sure!!!! I have posted a picture of a vendor who sells home made ice cream, notice the tractor that cranks the ice cream. There was a vendor there from Texas who was selling the cutest little animals called Sugar Glider's (Petaurus Breviceps). They are small arboreal marsupials which originate from the rain forests of Indonesia and Australia. As their common name suggests,they possess a gliding membrane, similar to the flying squirrel, that stretches from their wrists to their ankles and it allows them to glide (not fly) from tree to tree. The female sugar gliders have a pouch where they carry their young. In the wild they spend almost all of the life in trees and they live in colonies of 6 to 15, their territory consists of about seven trees. Sugar gliders make excellent pets and the adapt quickly to captivity and can develop very strong relationships with their human keepers. They soon learn your voice and your scent, they are pocket size, very intelligent and love to play. They have a life span of 12 to 15 years if taken care of properly and they do better if they have a cage mate. Two males or two females are perfect, as you probably don't want to increase your family. The man selling the sugar gliders had pockets in his shirt where his pet loved to cuddle and sleep. He took his pet out and had a man in the audience hold the sugar glider in his hand up high in the air and the vendor called him by name and the sugar glider jumped from the mans hand to his masters pocket so fast, you hardly knew he did it. They play at night and sleep during the day. We visited with a couple who bought 2 of the sugar gliders, the cage, food, toys and little pouches they wear around their necks for their baby to sleep in and be with them to comfort them and train them to recognise them. They are so cute and lovable, but with our rag doll cat Pepsi, I don't think we have room or time for another animal. I think the cost of the two animals and the cage and accessories was about $500, they aren't cheap. Here is his website to check them out. travelingcageman@yahoo.com (pictures of the babies)