California Golf 1

Sunday, 6 January

After 5 consecutive nights in the same RV park, Sprinty tied his second longest consecutive non-rally stay, which was the five nights we stayed at Riverside RV Resort near Port Charlotte last January.  The longest non-rally stay was in Yuma, CA last week, which ties seven consecutive nights at the rally in Lakeland, FL last February, and the FMCA rally in Perry, GA last March.

The rain system that moved in about 4pm yesterday seemed to be a light drizzle off and on.  By this morning, we had sunny skies in Quartzsite.  Checking the weather to the west, we saw the rain was also wrapping up, so we decided to get some golf in.

Our original plan had been to visit Joshua Tree National Park for a couple of days, then play some golf.  Note, there are no golf courses in Quartzsite.  And for the first two weeks of the government shutdown, it seemed like it might still be possible.  We kept checking on the campgrounds at Joshua Tree for whether they were open, and they were for awhile.  A few days ago, we learned that all of Joshua Tree National Park has been closed.  We can only hope that the kids back east will figure out a way to play nice before long so Sprinty can play in Joshua Tree National Park sometime on this trip while we are in the vicinity.

Our Plan A for golf was Lake Tamarisk Golf Course in Desert Center, CA, located about an hour west of Quartzsite.  As we got close to the golf course, we could see there was no one playing golf on the course.  We were not sure if that was a good thing (not being crowded) or a bad thing (closed).  We pulled in the parking lot and found no cars.  Recall we’ve had this happen before in Louisiana.

Turned out Desert Center, CA, got a lot more rain last night that we did in Quartzsite.  Enough that the fairways were squishy, and two holes were flooded.  So the course was closed.

On to Plan B.  Our destination for the night was in the vicinity of Twentynine Palms, CA.  As is typical, we got underway from Quartzsite with no fixed plans - no tee times, no campsite reservations - only a list of possibilities.  As we planned to play golf at the Marine Corps Base in Twentynine Palms on Monday, we picked Roadrunner Dunes Golf Course, a 9-hole golf course adjacent to an RV park in Twenty Nine Palms to play.  We knew from Google satellite that the course was a desert course, and looked very brown, even for a desert course.


It was another 1-1/2 hours drive that went through California desert as well as the Sheephole Valley Wilderness.  Another name for a lot of desert and not much to do.  No real roads into the wilderness, no evidence of things to see or do.  Some of the hills looked like they were man-made heaps of construction rock than natural rock.

As we arrived at the golf course, we saw one golfer playing on the course.  As we pulled in to the parking lot, we saw only two other vehicles.  And the golf course was open.  We decided to walk the course.  After warming up, we headed out.  Darrell opened with a par on the first hole to Kris’ bogey.  Nice start to the day, but it would be one of only three pars Darrell would have all day.  Kris was making great tee shots, and we both struggled with hitting short shots off sand and dirt (not much grass on the fairways), and the greens were really bad.  Among the 10 worst greens we have ever played.  We were determined to have fun, and we did.  Kris finished with a par and four strokes in front of Darrell.


A quick check on Google maps found a Starbucks on the Marine Base a few miles away.  So Sprinty volunteered to take Kris to Starbucks so she could buy.

While on the base, we went by the golf course to make sure it was not going to be a repeat of the course we played earlier in the day.  After making a tee time for tomorrow, we checked out the FamCamp on the base and found the reviews, which were not very positive, were accurate.  The FamCamp was an old family housing neighborhood where they removed the homes.  We did not see but a couple of empty sites, and no evidence of a bathhouse.  We decided to go back to the RV park by the golf course, Twentynine Palms RV Resort and Cottages.  Our pre-planning had found that they had vacancies.  We were able to get a nice back-in site with hookups.  

After getting Sprinty settled, Darrell headed for the hot tub while Kris headed for the showers.

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