At Last!

Our new office
Our new digs

At last we are back on line. We have been having trouble with our net connection--we kept getting dropped. After several hours on the phone and computer with the tech, Duane got us straightened out. Now I can type away with impunity! Here we are at our new home for the next six months. We have enjoyed our travels on the way here, except for a rather sweaty night at the BLM at Quartzsite, but not it is time to get busy again. We arrived Friday and have been aquainting ourselves with the nearby towns that run along the valley along I10. So far we have made cursory explorations of Thousand Palms, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Desert. These towns all run together with town limits marked by the names of the towns on the bottoms of the street signs. So far we have found the closest Wal-Mart, post office, church, Barnes and Nobel bookstore, and all the quilt stores. We have our priorities, you know. Tomorrow we plan to fine the Michaels craft store. Alas, no Hobby Lobbys on the west coast! Tomorrow we also plan to start aquainting ourselves with the many hiking trails here at Coachella Nature Preserve. We visited with our neighbors and fellow docents (sounds classy doesn't it). Barb and Bob have been here 5 years and will be our trainers in the welcome center. They don't hike, so we will be on our own there until the guided hikes start in October. Meantime we are to aquaint ourselves with all aspects of the 20,000 acres of our new home. Our boss Jenny is the head of the Center for Natural Lands Management, the non-profit group that owns and manages this little oasis. There are several other federal and state managers. The preserve is part of the Sonoran Desert. It's hot now, but the evenings are cool and the days will start cooling off soon. For now we go out and about in the am and try to stay cool in the afternoon. By the way, the visitors center is directly behind the coach on the other side of those palms. We scoot through the gap and come out at the back of the center.

I guess I've bored you enough for now. Louise and Duane