May 19, 2015 - The purpose of today's adventure was just to have some fun. No museums, no historical sites or anything like that because we went to play on ATVs in the desert at Off Road Rentals in Palm Springs. Notice that the main office is an old railroad caboose.
We drive by here every time we're headed to Palm Springs and we've been curious to see what it's like. There is desert junk everywhere around this place, which adds to the atmosphere. We watched a three minute safety video and then we got fitted for helmets and goggles. If we had gloves on with metal spikes, it would nearly have approximated the set for a Mad Max movie.
There was a relatively flat area at the bottom, which was lined with tires, and it was a good place to get used to our ATVs.
After a while, we were able to climb the hill in the soft sand. However, once we were up there, we found out the safest way down was to go straight down! That was a little unsettling at first.
For a couple of old folks like us, it was quite the thrill. We drove around like kids, playing for over an hour. Because you have to lean into each turn to make the ATV go where you want it to, it ended up being a fairly strenuous exercise. However, the adrenaline helped.
This Google Earth screen shot gives a nice aerial view of the site. The main office "caboose" is located on the right under the red dot and we were able to drive our ATVs all the way up the hill on the left until the smooth sand stops and the rocks begin. Where the tire rings stop, everything to the left is on a steep incline.
After our ride, we stopped at the Grand Oak Steakhouse in Cherry Valley for lunch. I had the roasted tomato soup and their Black Forest sandwich with lettuce, tomato and aioli sauce on a home made pretzel bun. Judy had the cream of potato soup and a Grand Oak burger with Provolone, lettuce, tomato, avocado, aioli sauce and house-made garlic-rosemary fries. After all of that desert sun and sand, the Newcastle Ales helped to wash down the road dirt. This adventure was just fun, fun, fun, and we'll probably do it again.
