We became friends with Nancy and David within minutes of meeting them for the first time in 2017. Our friends Mark and Linda had encouraged us all to cross paths in our respective RVs at Lake Powell while we were all out on our own respective adventure trips. We got along so well with Nancy and David (Mark’s cousin and her husband) that we joked about perhaps having been friends in a former life. Despite living on opposite coasts, we’ve connected again several times and enjoyed every minute.
That was an interesting time in our lives to meet because Linda, Mark, Doug and I were all brand new to and totally excited about RVing, while Nancy and David had been touring in their RV since 1995 and still loved it. Unbeknownst to all of us (including themselves), Nancy and David had already begun their transition to the next chapter. After spending a few winter months in Palm Springs (the winter before our 2019 visit), they were realizing that it was time to wrap up the RV chapter and start on the next one. They’ve since downsized to 2 smaller houses, one in Eugene for the summer and one for winter in Palm Springs, and the beloved RV has been re-homed with other members of the family.
David and Nancy’s college buddy, also named David (so we’ll call him David O), was visiting from Hawaii when we stopped in. It seems everyone connected to Nancy and David are good people and we had a great time getting to know David O. Now, David (not David O) has a database with every restaurant in town and all the early-bird or happy-hour specials and their winter hours. He and Nancy check them all out regularly. They took us all out to one of their favorites for dinner. Wonderful!
Fortunately we were visiting on a Thursday night – a few blocks of downtown are closed off and turned into the weekly VillageFest where everyone comes out to the food trucks and street vendors, so that’s where we headed after our early dinner (and extended conversation!). For extra fun, this week’s festival was on Hallowe’en Eve so vendors and patrons alike donned their best costumes and much mayhem ensued.
We learned that, among other things, Palm Springs is an artists’ community. As we walked around the downtown area, Nancy and David took us on excursions and detours to poin us to funky artwork jammed into all kinds of little spaces, between buildings and among palms in parks, and including the celebrated Forever Marilyn statue!
Although this was again a short visit due to our respective schedules, we’re so glad we were able to connect! (Thank you to David O for your travel stories and book rec’s – hope to catch up with you again someday in Hawaii!)
For anyone interested, more Palm Springs pix…
