Day 29, The Roadshow leaves Palm Springs

Next stop, Escondido, California. Leaving Palm Springs was more difficult than I had anticipated, after all, we had been there for two weeks, longer than any other destination on the Roadshow and it is a beautiful place. In addition, we had made several friends but it was time to go so go we did. It was close to 3:00 pm before we had everything packed and cleaned up so we were ready for the 2 hour drive to Escondido. I have an uncle and some cousins in Escondido so we thought it a good place for a stopover. Before I stop writing about Palm Springs, I want to tell you some of the cool facts I learned from the guys at Desert Water.

First, one of their primary water collection points is on the Pacific Crest Trail, a hiking trail that stretches from Canada to Mexico and obviously goes through California. High atop the San Jacinto Mountains, snow from the desert winter (yes, snow in the desert) melts in spring and produces huge water flows in Snow Creek. The Desert Water Agency collects the water and uses it for the City of Palm Springs. Therein lies the issue, hikers on the PCT also find Snow Creek an oasis in the desert and bathe and wash their clothes in the water thereby polluting it for the citizens of Palm Springs. If you haven't smelled a hiker after three months on the trail, you might find it hard to believe this is more pollution than a raccoon doing his business in the creek but believe me, it is. The guys at DWA confirmed that this is a real problem, so bad they have installed guards and cameras to protect the water supply, one of the reasons I was consulting with them and doing training on MikroTIk for their new wireless backbone.

Another part of their water comes from White Water creek, another snow fed creek and then they have the massive percolation fields, ponds their fill with water and allow to soak into the earth an refill their water table. This is all very hard to imaging but very interesting to see.

Tomorrow, we head south to Chula Vista. This will be the southern most point on the Roadshow so after that it's all north. We are ready for some Memorial Day R&R today while not forgetting those that died for our freedom. Have a good one!