by Bob Sparrow
Marriott Desert Springs Hotel
As you read this, I’m in ‘The Desert’. No, my worlds travels have not taken me to the Gobi or the Sahara Desert, but rather the Colorado Desert, more specifically, Palm Desert. Yes, this week I’m at our timeshare at the beautiful Marriott Desert Springs. Those who have been following us here for a while, have read about some of our exploits at this timeshare that we have never traded away and never missed spending a week, or two, every year. It’s a place that is only an hour and a half’s drive from our home, but that drive takes you into a whole different world.
After nearly 30 years of enjoying many of the things that the desert has to offer, I thought it would be interesting to try and discover some things that we have never seen or done. My search of the Internet provided me with this list of the following attraction options:
Inside Ruddy’s General Store
Ruddy’s General Store
This store is a recreation of a 1930s general store, where proprietor, Jim Ruddy has assembled a collection of nearly a century of Americana. Items that he’s collected are in their original packaging and a majority of them hold their original contents. I already hate shopping, but shopping for things you can’t actually buy or use is out of my ‘fun zone’.
Volkswagen Spider
This former auto repair shop has a 28-foot tall, metal spider, made from old Volkswagen Beetle parts. The property was once the Hole in the Wall Welding Shop, and now is just called the Hole in the Wall. The structure is adorned with cacti and metal spider webs. If this is as bad as it looks, I’d have to have a ‘Hole in my Head’ to spend any time looking at a giant, metal Volkswagen spider.
Babies
The Naked Bridge
Also known as the ‘Bridge of Thighs’, it is a 140-foot overpass created in 2003 at a cost of $500,000, so people could walk naked across this bridge. There are five-foot canvas panels along the bridge to ensure that only the heads of crossing nudists are seen and thus prevent fender benders from happening on the street below. Yeah, that’s what I really go to the desert for, to see senior citizens walking across a bridge naked!
The Babies
These 10 sculptures of babies appearing to crawl in a sand pit are found in the Palm Springs Museum courtyard. They are intended to be a statement on the negative influence of big tech and data in our lives. These babies have no faces, rather a ‘bar code’ appears in place of their face. With any luck, my GPS won’t be able to find this creepy place.
Shiprock
Where’s the Spanish galleon?
According to tourist information, “Shiprock gained its name from its uncanny resemblance to a Spanish galleon, but no matter what photo I pulled up, and there are plenty, I never saw any resemblance to a Spanish galleon. It sits at the bottom of a prehistoric tropical sea that existed over 250 million years ago. ‘Uncanny resemblance’??? No matter how I looked at this heap of rock, I just couldn’t ‘see’ the ship, maybe it’s better in real life – I’ll never know! What I do know about Spanish galleons, is that when Columbus discovered America, he got over 3,000 miles to the galleon! Rim shot!!
Romance Theater
Shield’s Date Knight
Floyd and Bess Shields opened the Shields Date Garden in 1924; finding that date competition was very strong in the Coachella Valley, they created a slide show with a recorded sound track and called it, ‘The Romance and Sex Life of a Date’ and put a mammoth Knight in Armor just off Highway 111 to direct people to their date farm. It’s open all year – don’t miss it! Sorry, not my idea of a ‘date night’!
So, if this is what I’ve been missing for the past 29 years, I think I’ll continue to play golf, enjoy fine dining and have a rum and coke while I watch the sun sink behind Mt. San Jacinto from the deck of our condo. But perhaps you’ve found something here to make your next trip to the desert a unique one.
You’re welcome!