Flash Flood Watch

Friday, 1 February

The rain quit before bedtime last night, and we woke up to sunny skies this morning.  We later learned that it rained about 3/4”.

After checking the weather forecasts again, we amended the travel plan.  The weather forecast for the Aguanga, CA area and Desert Hot Springs, CA included a Flash Flood Watch for Saturday.  A very moist and intense storm is forecast to dump heavy rain on Saturday, with rainfall amounts of half to one inch per hour.

Our original plan was to enjoy another dry camping night at the Jojoba Hills Escapees Resort in Aguanga, CA, and use the rain day to travel to Desert Hot Springs for a night or two.  Driving in flash flood conditions did not seem to be a good idea, especially as our driving route was through the San Jacinto mountains, one of the areas specifically mentioned in the flash flood watch.

Plan B time.  We decided to drive to Twentynine Palms, CA where less rain was forecast, both for Saturday and later in the week, and no flash flood watch had been issued.  One of the advantages of living/traveling in an RV - don’t like the weather, move.

After breakfast, we took a stroll through the RV park to see the rest of the amenities.  This is a fountain dedicated or the visionaries who established the Escapees Co-Op in Aguanga, CA.

We then headed for Warner Springs Ranch Resort to play golf.  Originally, we were going to go later in the day to take advantage of the cheaper afternoon rate.  With 2-1/2 hours of driving after golf, we decided to play earlier even though it cost a little bit more.

The golf course is in the rebuilding stage.  It has a new owner, and apparently was closed for four years.  The course condition was not resort quality, and was reminiscent of some struggling mom-and-pop courses we have played.  However, as the only golf course in that area of California, we could not be choosy if we wanted to play.  We were the first golfers of the day at 10:45am, so we got to play at our pace with no waiting.  Kris opened with a par on the first hole, which set the tone for the front nine.  Darrell was hitting inconsistently and his ball played in the sand too many times so he trailed by three strokes at the turn.  On the back nine, Darrell started hitting a little better and avoided sand on eight of the last nine holes to finish ahead by two strokes on the day.  

Starting a little early and playing at our pace allowed us to finish before 2pm.  We then took California 371 and 74 from Warner Springs over the mountains through Anza to Palm Desert.  Sprinty handled the windy, twisty mountain roads well, taking advantage of several of the turn outs for the sportier cars to pass.

In Palm Desert, we made a brief stop at a Starbucks along the way for Darrell to pay up.  The rest of the drive to Twentynine Palms was pleasantly uneventful.  Tonight, Sprinty is back at Twentynine Palms RV Resort, a campground he stayed at last month.  Sprinty got a back in site that is only two spaces from the site he had last time.