The winds were gusting pretty good when we woke up Friday morning. At first I thought, and hoped, it might be the sound of a jet engine as the desert wind has been mostly absent this year – just one bad day in 6 weeks! But, it wasn’t, it was definitely wind and it seemed we might be in for a not so good day.
I knew we were definitely due for a few gusts here soon. At the dog park, all the owners quietly whisper about the “W” word as if even mentioning “wind” will make it suddenly appear. Unlike rain, freezing or snow in other parts of the country, it’s the wind that is the biggest weather culprit here in the desert.
These windmills look quiet, but trust me, they were spinning!
During the 3 years we’ve been coming to Desert Hot Springs, I’ve kept a record of days when the wind is strong enough to prevent normal outside activities like golf, barbeques and swimming. It averages out to about 3 days a month, so we can definitely live with that as the rest of the time, it’s pretty much perfect – sunny and hot!
On these occasional windy days, Paulette and I have taken to just hopping in the truck with the muttzo’s and taking off somewhere. Downtown Palm Springs, in the shadow of Mt. Jacinto, is protected from the wind and is normally calm as can be even when it’s blowing up a storm here just across the I-10.
That’s exactly what we did after lunch yesterday, we thought we’d check out the Palm Springs Dog Park. It’s located next to the airport and in behind the Palm Springs City Hall and municipal complex. As expected, when we got out of the truck we noticed only a very slight breeze, hardly anything at all. What a difference.
This is the downtown Palm Springs Dog Park – no wind there
This dog park is separated into 2 sections, one each for small and large dogs. It’s o.k., but it’s mostly a gravel surface and no where near as nice as the lush green grass at our RV Park. It was also about 10% the overall size of the park at the Sands. There were quite a few dogs there though, so we stayed for about 45 minutes to give Molly and Rylie a good run around. We weren’t sure if the wind would let up enough to allow us to go to our park later in the afternoon.
The other night we watched the Olympic Hockey Game between Canada and Switzerland. We could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from coast-to-coast in Canada, when 22 yr. old superstar Sidney Crosby rifled a wicked wrist shot past Swiss goalie, Jonas Hiller, in the shootout to give Canada a 3-2 win.
Swiss goalie Hiller making another save off of Canadian superstar, Sidney Crosby
Hiller was other-worldly as he faced 49 shots on goal compared to only 20 for Martin Brodeur of Canada. Some of the saves were absolutely incredible as time and again he foiled the offensive onslaught put on by Team Canada. So, Canada is now through to the medal round, and fortunately, they won’t have to face the Swiss again in this tournament!
Part of the rabid, sell-out crowd at Canada’s game vs the Swiss
Canada escaped a shocker, but the other co-favourite for the Gold Medal, Russia, didn’t. They, like Canada, ran up against a red-hot goalkeeper, Jaroslav Halak, and lost to Slovakia by a score of 2-1.
Just watched more of the Olympics last night.
Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting!
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