The SOL Tour - June 30-July 1

So after a relatively short ride through the Arizona and California desert, while skirting the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, we arrived midday at our next destination Palm Springs. After calling around a bit, we settled on the Extended Stay America Palm Springs. The room itself was as spacious as any other ESA property I've ever visited. In fact, the front desk agent told us that our room was recently renovated, which we noticed by its new carpet smell. Unfortunately, the bed itself was uncomfortably hard, the least appealing of our cross-country trip thus far. The location was a short car ride but lengthy walk (especially in the desert heat) to both the downtown area and the airport.

After spending the afternoon resting, I decided that I would take a walk towards the downtown area. Using the hotel's free wi-fi, I was able to discover through our laptop connection that the temperature just before I left at 9:00 pm was a stunning 97 degrees. When I cheerfully announced this news, my snow bunny companion turned over and went back to sleep.

The moonlit evening indeed did not bring as much relief as I would have thought. I also found it curious that there were stretches of undeveloped land without streetlights, which might make one feel uncomfortable but I never felt unsafe. Eventually I made it over to the Spa Resort Casino. After passing several Native American casinos in NM and AZ, this is the first one I actually stopped in. As casinos go, it was a decent property. If I had a gambling jones, I would have thrown a few coins or chips in. But I was more interested in satisfying my thirst, so I grabbed a drink before leaving to explore more of the town. When I went outside, I noticed that the actual hotel and spa was diagonally across the street from the casino.

Walking further north downtown, I started to notice by the name of some establishments as well as the clientele that I was apparently in the gay and lesbian-friendly district. I already knew that Palm Springs is popular with the LBGT community so this satisfied my curiosity of where the watering holes might be. Eventually, I found myself in the middle of a nice looking town center called Mercado Plaza. By now it was around 10:00pm and I was realizing that I had not eaten dinner. So I ended up choosing to nosh at a called Matchbox. It's an slightly trendy Italian restaurant on the second floor of the Plaza complex. Looking over the menu again, I believe I probably ordered the Bistro Burger. Between the nice views and hip downtempo electronica playing in the background, it was an enjoyably mellow meal.

Walking around a little more, I thought I had found a "shortcut" but somehow found myself getting lost instead and eventually ended up somewhere near the Spa Resort Casino again. I knew where I was going from there and made it back home by around midnight.

The next day, we had breakfast at a nearby IHOP before departing for the City of Angels.

States visited:11.