Looking west from the top of Conway Summit, which is just south of Bridgeport, California, on the morning of March 03.Photo by Elaine Quilici

start stop back fwd

Last Wednesday, Sal and Catali Quilici of Dayton, together with Elaine, her mom Mary and I traveled by automobile for 500 miles, south from Carson City to La Quinta, way down in Southern California.

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 friends with sniffles, coughs and colds; etc., etc.

The five of us had been invited to join Don and Norma Reasons of Carson City for several days at a friend's gorgeous 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 in early March and we unhesitatingly accepted their generous offer.

We left Carson City about 5:30 a.m., and headed south on U.S. 395, hoping to be ahead of a snowstorm forecasted to drop 3-4 inches of snow by early afternoon in the Mammoth Lakes - Bridgeport, California area.

Our plan was to be able to drive south for about 160 miles to Bishop before the lead edge of the storm would hit the high country and after we had dropped off Sherwin Summit into Bishop.
It worked to absolute perfection, as the only driving problem we encountered was a fierce wind and blowing snow across the highway in the snow-covered area between Conway Summit and Sherwin Summit.

We dropped into Owens Valley, and immediately made the transformation from Winter to early Spring. Yahoo! We were out of the snow country.

In Bishop, we gassed up, and made a quick stop at "Schat's Bakkery" to buy all kinds of baked "Goodies" to take to our hosts in La Quinta.

The drive south was uneventful until we reached Kramer Junction, and boy oh boy, did the trip change in a hurry: All of a sudden, we were in super heavy truck and car traffic in both directions. We made our way from U.S. 395 to I-15 to I-215 to I-10 to Jefferson Street in La Quinta.

Finally, at 3:30 p.m. we arrived in front of their home and our epic, 10-hour "flight" from Carson City winter was officially over. Whew! The five "Snow Birds" had arrived, safe and sound, in La Quinta.

Wow! What a change from Carson City.

The lawns were lush green, all kinds and colors of flowers were blooming, the fruit trees were loaded with oranges, lemons, tangerines and tangelos, people were walking around in shorts and the weather was clear and sunny with temperatures in the mid-70's!

From the back patio of their home, the seven of us watched golfers try to hit a dog-leg-right, around a small lake to the 9^th green, and many of the "duffers" splashed their golf balls into that huge water trap, as we munched on appetizers and slowly sipped our cocktails.

It was a great ending to an eventful day.

The next morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we dressed in shorts and short-sleeve shirts or blouses, and were taken on a tour of the crop fields of Desert Mist Farms in nearby Coachella.

Don and Norma are part owners of Ocean Mist Farms, the parent company for Desert Mist Farms.

Ocean Mist (headquartered in Castroville, California) is the largest producer of artichokes in the United States, with subsidiary vegetable operations in Coachella, Huron, Imperial Valley, Oxnard and Watsonville California, plus Yuma Arizona and Mexico.

In Coachella, we toured huge fields of carrots, onions, potatoes, bell peppers, Jalapeno peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, artichokes and Cardone.

Elaine got some great photos of Don Reasons and Sal Quilici, looking like field hands, cutting Cardone (a member of the artichoke family, which looks like celery) to bring back home with us.

After the tour, we returned to the house, where Don and Sal jumped into a golf cart and disappeared for a period of time.

When they returned, Sal had a big, happy grin on his face as he proudly showed us some mind-boggling-sized lemons and grapefruit that they had picked off the neighborhood trees. I have never, ever, seen grapefruit and lemons that huge! They were amazing.

The next day, after spending most of the morning and early afternoon, basking in the warm 76 degree sunshine like a bunch of lizards, Elaine, her Mom and I drove a few short miles to Indio to visit with my relatives, Bob and Lorraine Scholes of Dayton.

They had flown to Indio in their private plane to spend some quality relaxing time, until mid-April, at their California home, located on the 16^th tee at Heritage Palms Golf Course in Indio.

After visiting the Scholes, we returned to La Quinta, and discovered to our collective amazement that Don Reasons and Sal Quilici had made yet another raid on the neighborhood grapefruit and lemon trees.

I asked Sal, just how in the heck were we going to be able to take all that fruit home, as we would have five people in a four-door sedan with only the car's trunk for all of our luggage and the bags and bags of large-sized fruit.

He got an evil smirk on his face and slyly replied, "No problem, if we run out of room, we'll send Catali and Elaine's mom home on a bus, which will give us all the room we need for the grapefruit and lemons."

Then, with the same evil smirk, he added, "Q, next year you and I are going to come down here in a panel truck, and then we'll have plenty of room for oranges, lemons, grapefruit, tangerines and tangelos."

Sigh, I can hardly wait.

Bet Your Favorite Pigeon

Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you about the seven of us playing the card game "Yahtzee," the first night we were in La Quinta.

If he grins and says, "Every time Don Reasons would put eye drops in his eyes, someone would roll a Yahtzee," he could have been one of the players.