Palm Springs Kilted Weekend April 3-4-5

**David Dalglish** · 5th April 09, 10:08 PM

Great set of Photo's.

**Panache** · 6th April 09, 09:23 AM

The cantankerous way2fractious, the incomparable Flame-Haired Celtic Amazon Goddess, and yours truly left San Jose early Friday morning to start our close to 500 mile journey southward.

Here are some photos from our trip (Sydney has already posted a couple of them)

I have never been to the desert before and was delighted when I spotted Joshua trees. I pulled over as soon as we could so we could get get a few pictures. Now taking those photos proved to be challenging as a great wind storm was in progress. Needless to say that some of our attempts would not be appropriate for a family friendly forum!

w2f and I in camo kilts

The lovely F-H.C.A.G. and her windblown husband

Our view

Getting back into our car we continued along the road. The F-H.C.A.G. had planned our trip so that we might have a chance to travel a small portion (about 2 and half miles) of what was the famous Route 66. We had hoped to find a place to stop for a picture with one of the highway signs, we found...

The California Route 66 Museum!

http://califrt66museum.org/

For our X Markers outside the USA you can find out a little about Route 66 here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66

There is even a wonderful song about that goes...

Well if you ever plan to motor west
Just take my way that the highway that the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than 2000 miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it goes from St Louis, down to Missouri
Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty
You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernadino

Would you get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Well it goes from St. Louis, down to Missouri
Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty
You'll see Amarillo and Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona don't forget Winona
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernadino

Would you get hip to this kindly tip
And go take that California trip
Get your kicks on Route 66
Get your kicks on Route 66

The gents running the place were quite friendly and we enjoyed a break from our drive to explore the memorablia of the years when Route 66 was "The Mother Road"

Richard and I sitting at a tribute to the many diners that were found along the great highway

My lovely wife and I standing next to this charmingly compact "honeymoon" camping trailer

I bought an inexpensive little charm that looked like a "Route 66" highway sign to wear as a watch fob and remind me of this wonderful weekend.

However, we couldn't linger too long as we had to get to Palm Springs and pick up a certain curmudgeon at the airport...

More to come!

**Panache** · 6th April 09, 09:38 AM

We made it to Palm Springs and found a member of the Isle of Skye Club for Men* wandering about the airport looking lost.

Since he had such impeccable taste in kilts and tartan we decided to give him a ride

Back at the hotel we gathered in front of Sydnie and Bob's room as a goodly number of other X Markers arrived for a bit of a cocktail party

Sydnie (Sydnie7)

Kent (walkerk)

Madalyne (Madalyne)

Your friendly neighborhood Moderator

w2f taking photos ( X Markers are the most camera happy people on the planet)

Mike (Gibbs) suggested an excellent Pub not too far away so we headed off for food, drink, and more good company

bigdad1 and walkerk

Everyone had a great evening and I tried liver and onions for the first time! (Tasty stuff by the by! :food-smiley-002: )

We closed down the place and left before the waitress cut off the Wizard of BC and I off from ordering anymore coffee.

We all headed to our various homes and hotels because tomorrow was the big day to meet with Hamish and Jim.

More to come.

**Panache** · 6th April 09, 10:05 AM

The next morning The F-H.C.A.G. and I called up Steve and Richard to see if either were up for a walk /hike up the great hill behind our hotel.

The Wizard of B.C. informed us that w2f was already up, dressed, and ready to go. When we asked if Steve wanted to join us he said...

err...

...well as we are a family friendly forum I won't repeat his exact words about his thoughts regarding early morning exercise. Needless to say he was not overly receptive to the suggestion and expressed a desire to return to bed.

Leaving the Wizard to his (much needed) beauty rest, the three of us climbed up a very steep and rocky hill.

With the howling desert wind storm of the day before still in my mind I couldn't help but think of the old horror movie "THEM" when I came across these industrious fellows

There were also these lovely cacti in bloom

We finally made it to the top without any of us tumbling down the slope or being bitten by a rattlesnake

The view was well worth our efforts

As we descended the hill Richard found a discarded bicycle among the thorny thicket. Even without functional front brakes and a dubious (at best) set of tires way2fractious and the F-H.C.A.G. had get in a bit of cycling in.

They spent the rest of the morning complaining that I wouldn't let then keep it and take it home with them.

We had worked up quite an appetite by the time we returned to the hotel. Being that Steve was now dressed and had consumed enough coffee to be in a slightly less cranky state we all headed out to breakfast.

Afterwards we would all wait for Ham and Jim!

More to come

**Panache** · 6th April 09, 10:21 AM

Waiting outside Steve and Richard's room for everyone to arrive

( I was surprised that the hotel allowed these two to share a room as I thought that Palm Springs had zoning issues regarding concentrating too many curmudgeons too closely together )

Ham and Jim arrive!

After having corresponded and chatted with him via Skype for the last couple of years it was strange to finally "meet" my friend Hamish!

It was my great pleasure to present Ham with his newest kilt in the beautiful Sackett tartan made by the one and only WOMPET!

A very handsome kilt Gary!

Ham and Jim

Group shot

Now a trip to Palm Springs just wouldn't be right without playing a little golf.

It just so happened that a little golf was what we had in mind!

More to come

**Panache** · 6th April 09, 10:42 AM

With everyone assembled we jaywalked across the street (there didn't seem to be a great many crosswalks to be had in our part of town, or sidewalks for that manner! I guess everyone drives!) to play a little miniature golf.

Now there are quite a number of first class golf courses in Palm Springs and at numerous tournaments a lot of really serious golf is played within the city limits

This was not such a time

Waiting to tee off

Sydnie and walkerk showing the rest of us how it's done

More ladies should play golf dressed like this...

Steve watches on as my wife attempts a tricky shot (which she utterly missed like most of those she attempted that day! *)

We started trying to help make sure her golf ball didn't go out of bounds

The Wizard has fallen and he can't get up!

Panache addresses the ball "How do you do" (note the special black moderator ball they gave me)

w2f and The F-H.C.A.G. take a rest between holes

With our game concluded (and I won in our foursome thank you very much! ) half of our party walked over to Trader Joes for lunch supplies while the rest of us ventured over to Target in the nearby shopping center.

More to come

**Panache** · 6th April 09, 11:05 AM

Hamish was a bit taken aback at the size of the Target Department store. Apparently the gentle village of Storrington doesn't have need of such. ( We were glad we hadn't stopped off at a Costco Warehouse as the shock might have proved too much for the dear fellow! )

Ham's dislike of hats is well known, but when in Rome do as the Romans do, and when out West...

Back at the hotel we all ate outside on picnic tables and enjoyed refreshing beverages

Panache, Dread Moderator of XMTS and Hamish, Kilted Legend, Laird of Lochbar, and Gentleman of Sussex toast each other's health with a gin and tonic .

After our lunch the group split up with some enjoying the pool, others a nap, whilst Ham, Jim, Kent, Steve, and I headed off the to Palm Springs Air Museum.

http://www.palmspringsairmuseum.org/

I was so busy having a wonderful time with these excellent gentlemen and learning about the amazing machines on display there that I quite forgot to take many pictures.

Here are the few that I have

Kent and his favorite prop

walkerk and the Wizard of BC beside an A-4

While not an aircraft I was quite taken with this machine

While I don't have a photo of it, it should be noted that we were all quite intrigued as how Hamish's motorcar had found its way to be on a display at the museum! Being that it seemed to be being well looked after Ham decided it might remain there for the time being.

I hope some of the other fellows post more photos of the museum for Alex's (cessna152towser) sake because it was quite wonderful. We were only able to see about half of it before the museum closed and we had to refresh ourselves and change before dinner.

Just one more