We decided to do a Trek Travel trip this year since they now have the option of using the Domane+ e-bike which exactly matches our current bikes at home. The fact that they provide graduated assistance based on the power you put out turned out to be critical since Anne developed a case of sesamoiditis (tendonitis of the ball of the foot under the sesamoid bones) and had been unable to do long walks or step class since it started in October. Although it wasn't painful, it was swollen and numb, as if she had a tennis ball under her foot, causing the foot to roll to the outside. She had insoles with that area cut out to take pressure off the injury but they didn't fit in her bike shoes. Her podiatrist okay'd the cycling trip as long as she wore clipped in bike shoes and pulled up rather than pushing down with that foot as much as possible. A little assist helps too, kind of like gaining a tail wind.

Trek Travel's Palm Springs offering drew us due to staying at one hotel the whole week so no packing/unpacking sweaty biking clothes. And their write-up sounded inviting:

Join us as we ride through Joshua Tree National Park, tour Palm Springs' hidden architectural gems and sip cocktails like a lounge singer in style. Palm Springs is a one-of-a-kind mix of eye-candy landscapes including snow-capped mountains, spiky cacti, bright succulents, palm trees, and mid-century modern architecture. It's a retro town born and raised by Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack that feels vibrant and alive in its current style, which is its very own. On our bike trip you will visit a river in the desert at the Whitewater Preserve, take a guided architecture tour by bike and spend two full days in the stunning beauty of Joshua Tree National Park, all from one perfectly situated hotel. There's truly no place like Palm Springs, so we invite you to take advantage of the desert sunshine as you discover this charming getaway.

We arrived in Palm Springs on Saturday, 11/30, just as temps were diving into the 30s in Dallas. Balmy 55-80 degrees greeted us, with chilly mornings and evenings, before the sun rose and after it set behind the mountains. But the days were fabulous, comfortable in short sleeves and sunny all week.

Landing mid-afternoon, we settled into our hotel, the Kimpton Rowan Palm Springs. It is situated right in the heart of downtown which was great since we didn't rent a car for the week.

We immediately set off on a self-guided walking tour of Palm Springs, using statues as our target destinations. There are 30-50 tall palm trees everywhere and air so dry that constant hydration is a must. We soon found bronze Lucy Ricardo and Sonny Bono looking quite relaxed although the 26 foot tall, 17 ton Marilyn Monroe statue found the area pretty breezy! The Agua Caliente statues on the median near the museum detailing the history and status of the local natives seemed unfazed by the winds. We settled on the patio of the Starbucks next to our hotel and listened to buskers playing for the tourists passing by.

Dinner was Thai Smile on the patio near the line that formed at the entrance to the totally packed restaurant. We watched the lights along Indian Canyon and Tahquitz Canyon Way, video shows of unknown origin and light fixtures reminiscent of "The More You Know" public service announcement logos.

Back at the hotel with the city lit up, we found that we could actually see the iconic Marilyn in front of the Palm Springs Art Museum from our window! We took the elevator up to the rooftop swimming pool / bar for a glass of wine. We met the father of the guitar playing, singing musician in the elevator. The performance was pretty good but there was no place to sit that wasn't so close to the fireplace that you nearly burned up so we took the wine back to our room and chilled.

There, we got a nice surprise. When we called to the desk to get ice for Anne's foot, they pointed us to the ice packed in ziplock bags that was just across the hall from us. Score! This was an immense relief as Anne could ice her foot easily every day after the rides so the swelling was minimal.

We met up with our Trek Travel tour group on Sunday morning in the lobby of our hotel. The guides, Megan and Blake, introduced themselves as Palm Springs residents and a married couple! We chatted briefly with the other 7 members of our tour group, then loaded into the shuttle to drive to Whitewater Preserve.

In the shuttle, the guest across from us looked surprised to see us. She was not familiar to us but she asked "Don't I know you? Wait, do you have a blog?!" This was our introduction to Anne S. from Seattle who told us she had googled cycling Trek Travel and found our cycling logs on stewartanne.com! We're celebrities! She was so excited and shared how much she had learned and prepared for the trip from our logs. What a delightful start to our trip!

Once at the park, we walked the area briefly as the guides set up our bikes. The trees were bursting into fall colors and a lovely stream cut through the park. Then it was on to test driving our bikes followed by the route rap. Despite Anne's sesamoiditis, we decided to do the avid route option which included a fairly steep 2.5 mile climb, thinking that the electric boost would make it doable. The guides outfitted us with an extra battery apiece which fit nicely in the back water bottle cage and plugged into the other battery so there was no need to switch out mid-climb should we run out of power.

The early part of the ride was mainly downhill but extremely bumpy. Once we were off the packed gravel, we were on a fairly paved shoulder but it had regularly paced bumps that spread across the shoulder. We were glad to be done with that, only to head up the Tramway climb. As the name indicates, the top is the access to the Aerial Tramway that hauls smarter people up the mountain sans bicycle climb. This is where we learned a few things. The default Domane+ settings require sustained effort at a power level that Anne was not producing. Therefore, she got very little assist, and when it did kick in, it died off quickly so there was a lot of lurching going on with not much progress. Also, the extra battery was not needed as she could barely squeeze out 5% of power from the first battery so it just added an extra 5 pounds. And no granny gear! She whined for the first mile, then opted to turn around, only to dread getting on the bike while on a steep downhill. She managed to stay upright but was pretty discouraged at the bottom of the hill where we met Blake at the van near the Palm Springs Visitor's Center. He topped off our hydration and snacks so all was okay as we plotted how to get the bike settings adjusted to match what Anne had at home.

After the ride, we had lunch at the Palm Greens Cafe, a hip pastel muralled patio tucked in the breezeway between two buildings. Great date smoothies.

Next we were off to Moorten's Botanical Garden, a small plot established to showcase desert native plants, also known as a Cactarium according to the Moortens.

Back in Palm Springs we cleaned up then joined the tour group for a casual social hour at the Canopy Wine Lounge. We're discovering that eating outside is very common here, even after the sun has dropped behind the mountains, taking the temperature with it. Since it's so dry, the cold doesn't feel so cool and heaters around the tables work well. We went around the table giving more detail on our residences and experiences with cycling. All except us were from the west coast: Anne from Seattle, Dan and Kendal from Portland, Leilani and Izzy from the Bay Area, Jim and Kris from San Diego. Then we headed to dinner at Birba on a beautiful softly lit patio with views of the mountains.

Breakfast was at the Juniper Table Cafe at our hotel. We chatted with other guests as they came and went, discussing the upcoming ride to Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree National Forest.

The shuttle to Joshua Tree was over an hour long so they recommended bringing clothes in a day bag to change afterward. At 10:15 we were getting the route talk and hopping on our bikes. After yesterday's ride, we considered the short route but it was only 14 miles of downhill. The long route, although 34 miles, was downhill for the first half and the long slow uphill the rest of the way was generally under 5% gradient, so we opted for the longer route.

The road surface was better today and temps were cool as we started downhill but it quickly warmed up as we started into the long slog climb. Unfortunately, the bikes were the same tuning as yesterday despite our having sent our home bikes settings to Trek before we arrived. So we both parted with the extra battery and Anne tried to put more pressure into her pedals but was not particularly successful as she was very concerned about more swelling in the ball of her foot. (Some web posts mentioned this condition could be permanent.) This resulted in a long stretch of doing about 8mph hauling a heavy bike with again little assist and a fair amount of lurching.

Somehow along the way, Anne removed her glasses to wipe them clear with the felt on the outside of her cycling glove and the rear view mirror must have popped off. She had just purchased it the day before we left for our trip, snagging the last one available at the local Trek Bike store just as they closed for the day. Her regular rear view mirror is glued on her helmet which she didn't bring, opting instead to use Trek's helmet which was part of the bike rental and did not include a mirror. But when we stopped at the top of the hill for a break, she discovered it was missing. So bummed! We started to continue but heard a voice behind us. It was Anne S. climbing the last of the long hill. We waited for her to arrive at which point she asked "Did you happen to lose a rear view mirror?" Ha! She had found it on the road and presented it to a happy Anne F. who admitted she had dropped it.

We rode with Anne S. a while, chatting about our favorite parts of the trip so far, when Stewart asked if we would mind if he went on ahead. Of course not! He deserved a chance to gun it while the Annes took their time saving a foot and enjoying the view. He blasted on up the hill and over the top (at 30mph... e-bike!!) to meet Blake on the side of the roads directing everyone to the campground where Megan was parked with the van setting up for lunch.

At least we finished the whole ride, and Blake accompanied us for a lot of it, keeping up the conversation and taking the focus off the foot. He did admit that he wasn't schooled in tuning those bikes yet as someone else had handled it on the last trip he did. Anne ended the ride with 90% of the power remaining and another round of icing in the hotel room.

After the ride, we enjoyed a box lunch at the picnic area at Cottonwood Oasis, then Anne changed into her regular clothes for the shuttle back (Stewart opted to stay in his biking gear since there is very little sweating in this arid desert.)

Dinner was again on the patio, this time at the Workshop Kitchen and Bar where we were joined by Kyle, another Trek Travel guide who was in the area and dropped by to visit with Megan and Blake. He regaled us with tales of his favorite rides, including Sonoma County and Bentonville, AR which he called his favorite ride for the cycling vibe of the area. It's a gravel ride so we'd need some research to try it but it's relatively close to Dallas. After dinner, the owner took some of us inside to check out the beautiful modern design of the dining area and describe the tall, wide wall at one end as the location of the screen when the building had been a cinema in a previous life.

The day started with breakfast at the Juniper Table Cafe at the hotel where a wonderful server encouraged us to make full use of our Trek breakfast vouchers so we took chocolate croissants back to the room. After breakfast at the Juniper Table Cafe at the hotel, we gathered near the "Pod", a moving van type storage space where Trek stored the bikes overnight in a nearby parking lot.

And, finally!, we were able to work out the tuning setup and got the bikes tuned according to our home bike settings. A short trip around the parking lot convinced Anne her e-bike was set correctly. She didn't have to use much power today, however, because the day was a relaxed recovery ride, with a slow architectural bike tour with many opportunities to stop and gawk. Trevor O'Donnell was a wonderful guide, very theatrical as he described the mid-century modern and Spanish Colonial (despite no Spanish settlers here) architecture, along with stories of the stars of screen and architecture, that drove the various styles. Richard Neutra, William Krisel, Albert Frey and Donald Wexler figured prominently in the homes built into the hills and neighborhoods of Palm Springs. The last house we visited was the Aluminaire House built of aluminum but unable to host tours since the interior is not ADA compliant. Back at our hotel, we realized we could actually see that house quite prominently from our room, far across the parking lot from Marilyn.

The rest of the day was on our own. With a late start for lunch, we ate on the patio at the hotel cafe which turned out to be a huge lunch. That afternoon, we decided to visit the Agua Caliente Museum just a few blocks from us. The history of the native people, their life on the land, their struggle with the European interlopers and subsequent reclamation of much of their sacred grounds, was well catalogued here. It even includes a graphic display of the aquifer under the city and depicted the effect of population growth on the shrinking water supply. Despite the downsides in their story, the solidarity in their tribal customs, tools and dress were evidence of their strong culture. Some of the artifacts here are over 8000 years old, many uncovered recently in the construction of the museum itself from 2018 through 2023.

With such a late lunch, and front packs stuffed with Trek supplied snacks, we caught the end of the 4-5pm free wine in the lobby and paired it nicely with oat bars and dried mango for a lightweight dinner. Then we started jotting notes to trigger memories for our log and had Blake send us the contact info for our group.

Today's route took us to the western part of Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert, starting with a a 90 minute shuttle from our hotel to Twentynine Palms. Some brought extra clothes to change out when we finished our ride, and most brought jackets since the trip up the mountains tends to drop the temperatures. After a brief pit stop at the National Park store, we headed through the "forest", a desert expanse of short cacti type trees. The trees did get bigger the higher we went and reached 15-20' tall.

The route was 35 miles with a long slog up roughly one third of the way, then a long gentle downhill the rest of the ride. Luckily, the new bike tuning made the trip uphill quite manageable even with the bum foot. Anne cranked on Stewart's One Big Player app which accommodated playing tunes that resided on my phone whereas the Apple Music Player tried to get everything from the cloud which was unreachable in the desert expanse. So up and onward we went, with wide vistas featuring scrubby grasses and Joshua Trees as far as the eye could see.

At the top of the climb was the Keys View, an overlook of Palm Springs nestled between the mountains with desert flaring out into the horizon in layers of blues, tans and grays. What appeared to be mist rising from the desert floor is actually blowing sand and dust. We snapped photos, videos and panoramas in hopes of retaining memories of the view, secretly begrudging the knowledge that there is no way an image can capture this grandeur.

Back on the bikes, it was time for the joyously long and gentle downhill. We cranked the assist on our bikes and blasted down the hill, finally getting that sense of e-bike thrill we were hoping for. It was so fun but, turning up a short steep climb, we were back at the van in no time. We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at the Hidden Valley Picnic Area, watching a rock climber on the distant mountain while we attempted to dissuade the chipmunks from eating our lunch as we tried to photograph them. After a quick change of clothes, it was back in the van for the shuttle through the wind farms back to the hotel.

This evening's dinner was at Copley's, formerly Cary Grant's guest house. Anne made a quick pit stop inside and it was quite posh with a 50s vibe. Once again we ate outside and were warned to bring jackets as the evening cooled down again. As our last dinner together and having been told that the restaurants get fancier as the week went on, everyone decked out in nice togs. The table, again on the patio, was huge and round, letting everyone hear everyone else. Blake and Megan talked about their upcoming adventure, as Blake was leaving Trek to start work at a new restaurant called Terra. Megan plans to cater breakfast for them a few days a week, hearing the calling of her other passion, cooking. In fact, our trip was Blake's last Trek Travel excursion as a leader. His new job was starting the day after our trip ended.

Our last day of cycling this Trek Travel trip included the Indian Canyons Loop, a 17 mile ride with only 500 feet of climbing. It was extremely easy with our proper tuning, using all of the assist since there was no reason to save it. A little climb toward a stop halfway culminated in a twisty, very steep but thankfully short section that brought us to a plateau overlooking an actual oasis! As everyone, including leaders, huffed and puffed to catch their breaths (Anne cringes to admit actually standing up on her bum foot, even with all the assist, to make it to the top), we gazed down on the massive palms that surrounded this tiny trickle of a spring. From here, we hiked down the hillside for about 100 yards, and wandered through the palms, checking out the historic area that had sheltered many gatherings of humans since natives originally called it home. Small birds chittered and flitted among the palm fronds which the Merlin Bird ID app identified via sound as Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Blake took two panoramas that we had never seen done before: a vertical one that caught the majesty of the palms, and a horizontal one that had us aligned on the left side and once he panned past us, we ran around to the opposite side before his pan caught up with us, so we all appeared twice in this one photo!

The rest of the ride was a quick, fun, blast back to town. Many were hurrying to get a shower before catching a shuttle to the airport but we had the rest of the day to ourselves so we settled into a more relaxed pace once back at the Pod, peeling off Trek's Garmins, returning helmets and retrieving our pedals and front packs. We scored some leftover snacks and headed back for showers, then met everyone in the lobby for goodbyes, promising to share photos and videos and watch for Izzy and Leilani on an upcoming season of The Amazing Race.

We had promised ourselves all week to visit the Palm Springs Art Museum which stood directly behind the giant Marilyn Monroe and was visible from our hotel window. And it was spectacular! Entering the museum, you are greeted with a large glass orb surrounding many square mirrors of various angles. They reflected not only the museum surroundings but the mirrors themselves such that if you aligned them just right, you were looking into infinity.

Next we checked out the David Hockney exhibit. We were not familiar with his work but were completely drawn in by his use of color and perspective as well as his many portraits. There was also an exhibit on technology and waves, exploring motion and fluidity in abstract art. Upstairs, the modern art collection started with a 12 foot stack of 3 foot diameter dinner plates haphazardly piled so when you walked around them, they appeared to teeter. Yikes!

A beautiful, colorful hand knotted rug with 245 knots per square inch melted into the floor. A large painting of a woman holding a bowl of milk looked so real it was hard not to run for a towel when she stepped forward and spilled some on the floor. The elderly couple on a bench nearby seemed entranced but ignored our asking if they liked the art, only to find that they were also art. There was western art and native art, and we made our way outside to find a small pool with statues and signage that was also more art. Behind it all was a 7 foot tall wall made of a single stone that held a plaque stating "RIPPLE MARKS FROM AN ANCIENT SHORELINE, Found at Moenkopi Formation in Northern Arizona, Geological specimen approximately 200 million years old"!!

We wandered around looking for a place for dinner and happened upon El Patio, a fantastic Mexican restaurant with a laid back vibe on their (of course) patio. Stewart was one with the Mexican wrestler looking over his shoulder as the server explained the three levels of heat in the flight of sauces. Anne enjoyed a gigantic Cadillac Margarita and the food was terrific, probably even without the tequila.

Afterward, Stewart was ready to head off to the hotel room to wind down, but Anne could not pass up the fun street fair they wound through on their way back. So they parted ways and Anne took her time visiting the tents, listening to a surprisingly good young jazz band, buying some amazing earrings that were two delicate strands of gold with a tiny pliable connector between them so they simply slipped through the ear until the connector meet the pierce. The weather was lovely, cool and dry, and the crowd was in the zone, some swing dancing in the street. After covering 5-6 blocks in both directions, she headed happily back to the hotel.

Packing up after an entire week in the same hotel was a breeze, although we had to look around since we made more use of closet space and dresser drawers than we usually do with just a day or two at each location during previous cycling trips.

Back at the beautiful Palm Springs open air airport, we were early enough to have plenty of time to relax before our flight when who should join us but Kendal and Dan! They were flying out about the same time so we had a chat about our week and plans for sharing captured memories, and then we were off.

The flight and Uber home were uneventful and the cats were ecstatic to smell all the smells in our suitcases, although they were clearly sad that Miss Nancy won't be visiting for a while. All is back to normal!