My Dinner with Andre

I hatched a plan a while back to Bike Journal Reunion at the Tour De Palm Springs. Thing did not go as planned. Only 4 people showed, and then this past Saturday, my friend, Bruce Taylor, passed away. Here is he during PBP 2007:

His funeral Service was Friday Morning, so I had to postpone our get together. I finally got to Palm Springs about and checked in to the Motel 6. I had a handicapped room on the First floor, So I could park in front of my room(The manager told me to):

I went over to our designated meeting place, The Palm Springs library:

Next Door was the baseball stadium . Gene Autry Built it for the Angels to use during Spring Training. A minor league was playing a game there:

Finally, I had some Company John(L) from Northern California, and Andre(R), from Quebec City, QE:

We had perfect weather for the ride:

My Choice of routes was lacking. I was the Tour's 10 mile route, but forgot that the City Of Palm Springs closes the roads. oops!
We stopped at the Air Museum for some photos. Raymond from Orange County Joined us as well:



John had to go have dinner with Brother (likely Excuse!) while Andre, Raymond ,and myself piled into my car went over to the casino for dinner after picking up our ride packets. Once again , I was bedeviled by Details. They were having "all you can eat Steak and lobster" - which is Cauhilla for "Order the real cheap cuts for Friday night" I think mine said "Uniroyal" on it.
Andre wanted to sleep, and I wanted to roll early- so we split our differences and went our own ways. I promised to call him after the ride.
Another of the most noticeable features of Palm Springs is the windmill farms outside of town.


Here's another view from my you tube account

We were soon in the desert:

and on to Dillon Road. we're on this road for about 30 miles. This is the interesting part:

at 50 miles , there a rest stop at a Truck stop in Indio. One of the traditions of The Tour De palm Springs is that there is a band playing at each rest stop. This one was from Indio High School:

Our elevation at this time was a mighty -6 feet.

We proceeded down towards the Salton sea, where we got to about -100 feet.
There was another rest stop in La Quinta:

and a bit of climb followed by a downhill:

You'd never guess you were in the Desert:

since I left my electrolyte tablets in the car, I could, as My Friend, Mr Cramp =, showed up and slowed my down a lot. I normally don't stop at the last rest on Dinah Shore, But I needed to this time. I did make it back and Called Mary lou Logsdon and confirmed lunch ("I'm the Dirt Parking lot. Which dirt parking lot? there's only 4") I tried to call Andre, but I had apparently gotten his number wrong. I order a steak sandwich, thinking it would be a normal Philadelphia style, with chopped beef. It was a single cut of Roast beef. Note to self: Next Time I go to Palm, Springs, avoid all steak products.
I did make one more stop while i was there. I was in downtown palm Springs, where they have their own walk of fame:

I had a unique Cochella Valley Concoction, a Date Shake, that's a milkshake made with Date. very good and not as bad as it sounds(but then , I'm drink a glass of V-8)