17 Palms Oasis with LoloThis trip all came about because of a chance meeting at the Yosemite campground dump station with a fellow Lazy Daze owner. After the usual rhapsodic exchange about the wonders of their rigs that takes place between all Lazy Daze owners, we moved onto topics other than RV modifications and determined that we had enough shared interests to make for a nice evening of wine and cheese together.

During that evening, Ted and Molly (our new Lazy Daze friends) offered us their campsite at Anzo-Borrego State Park for 6 days in February, since they would be traveling to Europe instead. They further tempted us with the statement that it would be absolutely the best campsite we ever stayed in. We bit and agreed to coordinate the timing of their cancellation with our reservation.

I am so so glad we did, as January in Santa Rosa turned out to be one of the rainiest months in history. We were more than ready for some desert sun. Plus, Ted and Molly were absolutely right about the campsite - it was incredible. I’ll describe it later in the journal.

So, we had six days to explore Anza-Borrego, and after that, we would figure out where to go from there – probably more desert if Herb has his way. The problem was that after our nice warm week in Anza-Borrego, it looked like a cool front with rain was moving over the entire west coast. Even Furnace Creek in Death Valley was forecast to have snow.

My trip planning wheels started churning, which always frightens Herb. A few text messages later, I had arranged for the boys and their girlfriends to meet us at Joshua Tree the following weekend, which happened to be Presidents Day, to rock climb. Even Andrew’s girlfriend’s parents, who are very good friends of ours, enthusiastically agreed to join us for the weekend. I was going out a little bit on a limb here, because we didn’t know yet whether we could even get campsites during what was sure to be a very crowded weekend at JT.

Fortunately, unlike the kids, Herb and I are not encumbered by pesky things like jobs, so we were able to arrive in Joshua Tree on Thursday, ahead of the rush, and grab two campsites next to each other in the Jumbo Rocks Campground. Even with the early arrival it was challenging, and we wouldn’t have stood a chance if we waited until the weekend – once again reinforcing that it’s great to be retired, or in the kids’ case, it’s great to have parents that are retired and like to do the same things you do.