A Rough Day

Morgan fell into some cacti tonight. And so, instead of a bedtime snack and stories, Morgan endured a half hour of Bob & I pulling needles out of his hands, legs, and backside before exhaustedly crawling into bed. (His final comment of the night to his sister was “Quiet Lily, I've had a rough end to the day”) He was a trooper and only cried a little bit, but boy, oh boy, parts of him now resemble a pincushion (a few of those spines went in deep!). Lily drew a picture to explain it all & make Morgan feel better. Note the spine on the lower left side, which is approx. 2 inches long. Ouch! I pulled this one. Bob pulled several more like it from his legs before they got back to the trailer, and we pulled countless small ones from his hands. 

Lily's picture for Morgan

I think (and hope) he’s learned lesson number one for desert living. Never ever fall into a cactus!

Of course, in retrospect, his crash into spiny misery was only the cap on a clumsy day. 

We took a break in our morning schooling to feed the ducks, swan & fish in the pond at our RV park.  The animals were quite appreciative of the treat and Morgan laughed at the fishy frenzy he created. He also somehow managed to jam a large piece of wood into his palm, which required my help to remove (think monster sized splinter from a wooden railing). Finishing up school, we headed out to swap hot for cool with a trip up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. 

Big tree

After ascending over a 1000 ft up a steep road to reach the tram station, the tram then rises a further 6000 ft, to 8516 ft above sea level on Mt. San Jacinto. That’s quite a change (it made my ears pop!). The valley floor is hot, dry, and very dusty & sandy.  As you rise away from the valley trees begin to appear on the canyon walls and the temperature drops. Reaching the top of the tram, a unique forest awaits exploration. As the whole area is surrounded by desert, only a few species live in this area.  In the winter, snow is often present, although there was no snow when we went up (other than small bits in the densest shade). It was a bit disappointing that there was no snow to play in, but it was a beautiful afternoon for a hike. 

(Desert life rule number two: you need to go up into the mountains for a change of scenery and temperature)

My favorite spot: Notch 3

We took the Valley View trail, a 1.5 mile loop, which has 5 different overlooks along a rough trail, providing absolutely beautiful views of both the valley and mountains. The terrain is rocky and the trail is often only marked by rocks or by chunks of logs on either side. Morgan always prefers to walk along the edges of a trail (or sidewalk, or anywhere else for that matter) rather than stay in the middle of a path. Usually he’s pretty sure footed, but during our walk today he wiped out at least four times. Each time he’d end up on his hands & knees or flat on his face.  And each time he’d pop back up yelling at the rock or log that had tripped him up and threatening to remove it and every other rock or tree from the area (or at us for making that darn log exist,) but never really hurt. This clumsiness often happens when he’s growing or when he’s extra tired, and he’s usually back to his usual mountain goat self in a day or two.  Usually he’s no worse for wear for these clumsy spells.

View of the valley at sunset

The hike was a bit more strenuous and took longer than expected, which meant we were all pretty tuckered out by the time we arrived back at the trailer. After a late supper back we figured we’d go over and relax in the hot pools (natural hot springs) at our RV park, before turning in for the night. Our trip to the pools went off without a hitch (although both kids were pretty wild), and we figured that the excitement of the day was done.

I couldn't have imagined that my boy would end up falling backward into cactus on the short walk back!

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for him.   

Night, night

Sleep tight

And don’t let the cactus bite!