Thursday, October 21, 2021
So, last year the tossing of the states revealed Nevada as the destination for this year. We immediately decided we would go to Lake Tahoe, and furthermore, that we would make it a double state year and add California, as Lake Tahoe is right on the border. We have very particular rules (no, really!??) around counting two states in a year, including spending quality time in each state. This means either staying in a border city and planning activities in both states or picking up and moving halfway through GW. We have only done this seven times out of the 24 years of GWs and were looking forward to the opportunity to increase out state count. After all, we are 61 and 62 years old, and we have done 29 states and DC. That means we have 21 states left. We are leery of needing to clamber over the Colorado mountains at 81 and 82 years of age, so the opportunity to easily do two states was attractive. Alas, God sent the fires, and our Lake Tahoe Airbnb was smack in the middle of an evacuation site. So, we changed our destination to southern California in a relatively fire-free area. And now, here we are, at the foot of Joshua Tree National Park, 20 minutes from the Palm Springs airport.
Our travel day was uneventful. My husband Eric was grateful that for once I was not flying out at the crack of dawn, and instead had chosen a respectable 10:30 am (EST) flight that went through Las Vegas. Lori’s flight out of Portland left at 8 am (PST). After accounting for all the time zone and flight length differences, Lori ended up having to hang out in the Palm Springs airport for almost 4 hours waiting for me. We are always happy to sit around waiting for each other, as there is always a book to read or people to watch or whatever. Despite the horror stories we’ve been hearing lately about the sudden rampant disorganization of Southwest Airlines, my flights were smooth, easy, and on time. I arrived in Palm Springs at 2:30 pm (PST) and Girls Weekend officially began!
We had rented our car from Turo, my new rental car option of choice. It’s like the Airbnb of car rentals, and you are using someone’s personal car. The rates are noticeably less than commercial rentals, and so far I have no complaints with the quality and cleanliness of the vehicles. We picked up our cute little blue Honda Fit in the parking lot and set off for Desert Hot Springs, where our Airbnb is located. Lori’s brain apparently fell out of her head while packing for this trip, and she forgot her National Park pass, her hub/port that allows her to unload pictures from her camera to her laptop, and seemingly every charger she ever owned. So on the way, we found a Best Buy so she could replace those items, a Chase Bank so she could get the cash she has also forgotten, a Starbucks to grab a couple of iced chais and a bottle of water for me because I was absolutely PARCHED, and a Total Wine store for a nice bottle of Cabernet.
We found our apartment and easily navigated all the codes to get in, and then spent some time lugging our bags up to the second-floor space. Lori and I both have some bad knees, ankles, and feet, and are almost at a point where we’ll have to start paying attention to whether or not stairs are involved in our lodging choices. By the time we had moved everything up to the apartment, it was about 6:00 pm. We explored our space, settled down for a nice catchup chat, and then headed out to find a grocery store so we could stock the kitchen. After we returned, we unpacked, made a quick dinner, and then started watching Squid Game on Netflix. We made it about halfway into the second episode before calling it a night (actually, Lori was already asleep on the floor by this point, so really it was I who called it a night, woke her up and told her to go to bed.)
Even in (or perhaps because of?) its lack of remarkability, this day has been quietly wonderful. Girls Weekend is truly the saver of souls.
The saver of souls .. Girls Weekend. I love it.
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