At my age, a road trip is not my first choice if I have to do the driving. However, if it is less than 4 hours I will consider cleaning my car to make it look less lived in, especially if I’m picking up a few others to join me. A week ago I picked up one sister at the San Diego airport and the second one at the Palm Springs airport. We had rented an Airbnb close to Joshua Tree National Park and planned on hiking, hot-tubbing, spa treatments and eating. I’m still stiff, sore and chunkier. But it was worth it.

In spite of having a workable kitchen we ate our meals out. We found a breakfast place the second day by accident as our first choice in Pioneer Town didn’t open until later. We ate there everyday since. We repeated a pizza meal as well. The area eateries did not disappoint.

There was a clean big hot tub in the backyard but we opted to do massages instead. Luckily we found a spa that could take all 3 of us at once and were delighted, enough so, that my two sisters went back the next day for another one.

The desert surrounded us for miles and miles. While it was a little early for flowering, we found it beautiful, warm and peaceful. We spent one whole day in Joshua Tree and another around Yucca Valley. No snakes, but we did see a coyote, some quail and a few roadrunners.