Outdoors with Don Q: A stark contrast between two totally different worlds

The week of Feb. 21, Sal and Catali Quilici of Dayton, together with Elaine, her mom (Mary) and I traveled by two vehicles from Carson City all the way south to La Quinta, California (about 500 miles).

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It was a stark contrast between two totally different worlds. In Carson City, we had been experiencing winter weather conditions, seemingly forever, which is typical for this time of the year: furnace running off and on, all day and all night; heavy frost on the car windows in the mornings, ominous-looking gray clouds filling the skies; cold, biting winds; snow-covered landscapes; trees without leaves; dead-looking flower gardens; having to wear winter jackets and gloves; all kinds of neighbors and friends with sniffles, coughs and colds.

The five of us had been invited to join Don and Norma Reasons of Carson City for several days at one of their friends’ home, located across from the ninth green at the PGA West – Stadium Golf Course in La Quinta.

It was a great chance to temporarily escape the winter weather of Western Nevada, and we unhesitatingly accepted their generous offer.
On Monday, we left Carson City at 7:00 a.m., and headed south on U.S. 395.
Our plan was to drive south for about 160 miles to Bishop, where we would stop for all kinds of “Breakfast Munchies” and coffee at Schat’s Bakery. 
Just north of Bishop, we dropped off of Sherman Summit into Owens Valley, and immediately made the transformation from winter to spring. Yahoo! We were finally out of the snow and ice country.

In Bishop, we gassed up, tried to get into Schat’s, and quickly gave up on that idea, as the bakery was jammed packed with all kinds of vehicles waiting to get in, and wall-to-wall customers inside and outside the bakery.

We opted to continue to drive south and our journey was uneventful until we reached Kramer Junction; and then boy oh boy, the trip changed in a hurry.
All of a sudden, we were in high speed, super heavy truck and car traffic in both directions. And, it got progressively worse and worse as we made our way from U.S. 395 onto I-15, then from I-15 to I-215, from I-215 to I-10, from I-10 to Jefferson Street in La Quinta, and then to our final destination.
When you are in the middle of that high-speed, heavy-volume, multi-lane traffic, you quickly develop an appreciation for laid-back Carson City.

At 4:45 p.m. we arrived at the home in La Quinta and our epic, 9.75 hour “flight” from Carson City winter weather was officially over.

Yahoo! The five “Snow Birds” had arrived, safe and sound!
Wow! What a change from Carson City: The lawns were lush green, all kinds and colors of flowers were blooming, the fruit trees were heavily loaded with grapefruit, lemons, oranges, tangerines and tangelos, people were walking around in shorts, golfers were out on the course, and the weather was clear and sunny with temps in the low-70’s! My kind of winter!

From the back patio of our host’s vacation home, the seven of us watched golfers try to hit a dog-leg-right, around a small lake to the 9th green, and many of the “duffers” splashed their golf balls into that huge water trap (with accompanying very nasty language!), as we munched on appetizers and slowly sipped our cocktails before eating a superb dinner.

It was a great ending to a long, but eventful day.

The next morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we all dressed in shorts and either short-sleeve shirts or blouses.

Then, while the three gals went mall shopping, the three men jumped into a golf cart and went hunting for fruit to pick off the trees along the streets.
Later when we returned to the house, there were big, happy grins on our faces as we had boxes and bagfuls of mind boggling-sized lemons and grapefruit off the neighborhood trees. That fruit was huge!

Tuesday was an exact replica of the preceding day: The gals went mall shopping and guys went hunting for even more fruit to bring back home.
The three of us picked boxes and boxes and bags and bags of giant-sized grapefruit, lemons, oranges and tangelos.

Geez, once you started picking the fruit, it was almost impossible to stop.
That afternoon, the three fruit pickers had a “Ton of Fun” juicing lemons into large freezer containers, and dividing up the remaining fruit.

Early on Thursday morning, Sal and Catali had to return to Dayton due to commitments back home, and they left with their share of fresh fruit (AKA many boxes and bags in the rear of his camper pickup).

Later that same morning, Elaine, her Mom and I left the Reasons’ home and drove a few short miles from La Quinta to Indio to spend several days visiting with my relatives, Bob and Lorraine Scholes of Dayton.

Last November, they had flown in their private plane to Indio to stay until mid-April, at their California home, which is located on the 16th tee at Heritage Palms Golf Course in Indio.

On Friday, the gals went mall shopping (again, as usual), while Bob took me for a sight-seeing ride in his airplane.

I got a first-time-ever, great bird’s eye view of that entire area (including all kinds of produce fields, large fruit orchards, the Salton Sea, etc.) and took lots of photos from my co-pilot seat.

Saturday was my son Jim’s birthday. He and Kathi were vacationing in that same area in their motorhome, so we all met for lunch to celebrate that special event and to talk about our fruit-picking adventures.
Sunday, Elaine, her Mom and I left super early and drove through almost non-existent traffic all the way back home to Carson City.

Sigh, our annual trek to Southern California was over for another year.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon
Bet your favorite pigeon that he can’t tell you what Elaine and I did with all of the fruit we brought back from Southern California.

If he grins and says, ‘They made up “Care Packages” of super-sized, fresh grapefruit, lemons and oranges for lots of friends and neighbors,” he might have been a recipient of one of those packages.