March 8, 2024 (Fri)
9:00 am Campsite at Borrego Springs
Every morning, Gini pulls out a bin full of pills and arranges them for us. Yup, we are now the cliché old people who take lots of pills. We have pills to:
· avoid migraines
· reduce platelets
· aid swallowing
· maintain eye health
· thin our blood to avoid strokes
· induce sleep
· calm anxiety
· adjust thyroid levels
· reduce diarrhea
· calm hot flashes
· promote overall health
· and longer life
And this doesn’t even include the vitamins!
Worst of all—none of them are chewable or fruit flavored.

Our pill case
We did our laundry a couple of days ago, so today it’s Shower Day! (You can tell we’re on vacation by the excitement we show for simple things.)
An important part of Shower Day is pre-soaking in the hot tub. It’s a stressful life, but we’re learning to cope…

We do a bit of pre-soaking before our showers
There are bougainvillea here! Where Robert grew up (Oahu), these plants were everywhere, but they don’t exactly thrive in the Pacific Northwest. Here in Lambville, they’re not everywhere, but they are in a lot of places and seem to do pretty well.

Gini and some bougainvillea
Day 24 Travel

Our travel on Day 24 (Fri)
March 9, 2024 (Sat)
A “superbloom” is when a bunch of wildflowers bloom in the desert—beyond what they normally do. We don’t know if we’re going through a superbloom, because we’re not usually here. There doesn’t seem to be a Superbloom Regulatory Agency that pronounces whether this is, in fact, a superbloom.
What we do know is that there’re a bunch of blooming flowers and that there’re a lot of people who are driving out here to see the blooming flowers.
So we are going to declare that this is a superbloom.
We drove out to a park called Anzo-Borrego Wildflower spring blooming fields Park, thinking, “Aha! This should have some flowers!” It turns out to be a pull-off on the road (not a “park” as traditionally thought of). Also, there’s no flowers.
We turn around and head back when Gini suggests we take a side road we had taken before on our way to the Salton Sea (it leaves town without going through those two pesky stop signs). Sure enough, we see a section of the road about half a mile in length where a lot of cars have pulled off and people are frolicking in the fields of flowers.
So we pull off and take some pictures (below). Robert, who is into super heroes, mutters, “These flowers don’t seem to be able to fly or have X-Ray vision, so we’re still not sure if it’s a Super Bloom, but it’s bloomy.”

Robert amidst the superbloom

Gini in the middle of the superbloom
We also notice that there’s a lot of people in town suddenly. Seems like everywhere we turn, we see some more out-of-town folks. Hmmph. Our sleepy little grocery store, which usually has one person in line suddenly has lines extending all the way back to the pickles!
Tourists!

Our quiet little grocery store gets packed!
In the news we see that back home in Woodinville, there is rain, hail, and a windstorm. The wind blew a tree across some power lines, so our housing development/mobile home park was without power for most of Saturday afternoon. If we’d stuck to our original vacation plan, we would have been in the midst of that, so we’re very happy that we chose to extend our stay down here in the sunny climes of Borrego Springs.
Day 25 Travel

Our travel on Day 25 (Sat)
March 10, 2024 (Sun)
After we go swimming, we like to leave our towels and trunks outside where the sun (and wind!) can dry them. We did not count on them attracting the local wildlife.
Specifically, there’s a hummingbird who seems to think that Robert’s swim trunks would be an excellent source of nectar. This is the second morning in a row that he’s buzzed all around the swim trunks looking for a meal.
We have dubbed him, Cleetus the Idiot Hummingbird.
We think Cleetus won’t be in the breeding population for too much longer, and we are thinking of starting a GoFundMe for him (or possibly her or them?) so he can go to a Hummingbird Assisted Living Facility.

Cleetus the Idiot hummingbird
Once again, it’s time for Harvey to relieve himself. Lest you think that it’s Robert doing all the work, we have a picture of Gini doing her part in emptying the tanks. Her job is to make sure that the hose doesn’t suddenly break loose and start spewing its contents everywhere (especially on Robert).
This happened. Once. It will never happen again!

Gini does her part in helping to empty tanks
In the afternoon, Robert tackles a nasty chore. We’re not naming the chore because Gini is afraid that our readers (you) will know she is weak and lazy for not doing it herself. In reality, she is sensible and practical and if Robert wants to tackle it, more power to him!
Robert, of course, makes a deal: If he does the chore, it’s margarita time at Pablito’s (if Pablito’s had a listing on the stock market, you would have seen a sharp spike in its value this week thanks to the sheer volume of tequila-based beverages we’ve consumed).
This chore turns out to be a three-margarita chore, so Robert is happy!

Gini enjoys her piña colada at Pablitos’s. During this vacation, she’s had more alcohol than she’s consumed in her whole life. She’s wondering if giving up bread before leaving Washington is offsetting all the piña coladas… The scale is waiting at home…
Day 26 Travel (Thu).

Our travel on Day 26 (Thu)
Gini & Robert
Harvey Staff
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