Checking out the better half

October 30, 2021

Borrego Springs loop, take 4

Don slept in late this morning and said he wasn't feeling great (I think he over did it yesterday in the heat) but was willing to do a ride if it was short. That was fine with me.

While I waited for him to get some coffee in him and wake up enough to ride, we watched the goldfinches hang out on our niger seed feeder. While we saw lots of goldfinches in southern AZ last winter, we didn't realize that they were also here. There are also lots of other bird flitting around the trees, but they never stay still long enough for me to ID them.

For our ride today, I suggested that one that would take us over now familiar roads to de Anza Golf Estates to do some looky-looing at all of the fancy homes.

I had read that back in the day, as Palm Springs grew in popularity, Hollywood icons were soon in search of a new hideaway to relax, play golf and have fun. It was Borrego Springs that welcomed Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, James Dean, the Rat-Pack and others.

Many of the homes built in the 1940's to 1960's in the country club were designed by famed modernist architects in the Mid-Century Modern styles that became known as Desert Modern.

It was a pleasant flat ride and we enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful homes. The older ones backed up to the golf course while newer ones were placed along the outer edge. No lack of money here!

We circled through the estates, all the way up to the mountains before exiting the area and heading south toward the town. All though we were in the "cheap seats" here, many of these homes were also quite nice.

Once we reached the downtown area, which really isn't much, we did a little shopping. I was on the hunt for some souvenir placements with desert scenes on them, but haven't had much luck. None of the little gift shops I stopped in carried anything like that.

I was able to get a couple of ID books covering cactus and birds of this region while Don bought a sticker with ocotillo on it for our sticker collection. We put our US state sticker map on the inside of our outer door and have also been adding stickers from national parks/state parks we've visited or stayed in. Kind of fun with good memories.

We also stopped at a garage sale that was being held as a benefit for the state park. I got a cute necklace while Don bought some DVD's.

In another little shop we finally found some local dates! The owner of the shop used to grow dates in the area and still had a source for dates up in Coachella. They were HUGE, so we bought a 3 lb box for what we thought was a decent price and will enjoy them cut up in our morning oatmeal.

As we walked from shop to shop, we also went by several real estate agencies where we could look at the 'homes for sale' flyers posted on the their windows. We had wondered about the prices in this area.

Not that we're in the market, but we've been curious about how pricey properties could be. We've seen lots of land for sale on our rides but imagine the cost to build a house would be high. Getting water could be a problem.

The date guy told Don that the valley was moving to reduce their water consumption to 70% by 2040. I wondered what would happen to all of the green golf courses? Maybe you'd be golfing on the sand among the all of the cholla and creosote bushes! That could be a hazard for sure. Watch out for those cactus spines!!

While some properties were in the $1-2 million range, others seemed more in line with houses in Denver. The kicker could be HOA costs on top of what it costs to buy the house.

Back home by noon, we both took it easy the rest of the day. Don went to the pool (I burn too easily, so avoid swimming outside) while I sat in the shade and read a book on my Kindle.

This evening we were treated to a gorgeous sunset since there were actually some clouds around the mountains. But no star gazing tonight since the clouds impeded our views.

We have birds! These pretty goldfinches loved our niger seed sock.

I saw this sign on some vacant desert land on our ride. Does 'off grid water and power' mean that you'd better have solar and a big water cistern tank for your house?

On our stroll through the downtown area, we walked by this store that was selling lots of metal sculptures. Some were quite expensive - over $1000, and looked similar to the ones we've seen in the desert. But we had no idea if they were done by Richard Breceda or made south of the border.

How would like this guy by your front door?!

We found some dates today! They are quite yummy as a snack but will reserve them for our oatmeal.

We had some a beautiful sunset over the mountains tonight due to these clouds.

Today's ride: 11 miles (18 km)
Total: 368 miles (592 km)

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