After a fantastic few days staying at Adrian's place in LA, we were heading off in our motorhome today and bidding Adrian farewell. He has been a great host for us while we have been in LA, and has been extremely helpful and generous while we have been here - letting us stay at his place, driving us around, showing us the sights, advising us on the best routes for our drive in the US etc. Thanks again Adrian!

Before we left, we walked to a nice place round the corner and had breakfast with Adrian and Elizabeth. I had a huge breakfast to set me up for the day - scrambled eggs, pancakes with strawberries, bacon and maple syrup. It was delicious. Stu was much more sensible and had granola and yoghurt.

After breakfast, Elizabeth and Adrian both left for work. We packed up the last of our belongings and got back into our home on wheels.

Before leaving LA however, Stu wanted to visit a local camera shop. As he has lost one of his lens hoods a few days ago, he wanted to buy another one. He phoned round a few places and finally found one a few miles away which had it in stock.

At the camera shop Stu darted in saying he would just be a couple of minutes, as he only had the lens hood to buy. 20 minutes later he returns, with the lens hood plus a new belt/bag for his camera! He told me that he came very close to buying a new lens too, so I should count myself lucky! I can see why he bought the belt though, as it will make it easier to carry all his spare lenses around.

With a new lens hood purchased we started our drive out of LA and heading towards Palm Springs further east. LA has been really nice, and having Adrian to show us around has meant we have seen a lot more of the city than we would have on our own. It has also given us the chance to see all different parts of the city. On our own it would have been easy to have turned up, felt overwhelmed by the size of the place and then just left after a day or so. Staying at Adrian's has made things a lot easier for us.

It would be over a hundred miles to get to Palm Springs, so it took around couple of hours to get there. As we were coming closer to Palm Springs we could feel how the climate was changing. It was certainly becoming more desert like. The wind began to pick up and there was a bit of a dust storm going on. As we got within around twenty miles or so, the winds got really gusty and I could feel the motorhome being pulled quite sharply. It was nothing too dangerous, but I had to keep a good, tight hold of the steering wheel to ensure we didn't veer off.

The area here certainly utilises the wind here, as we drove along we saw hundreds of wind turbines dotted all over the hills and valley areas. I have never seen so many in one place, it was incredible.

When we got to Palm Springs we stopped at the visitor centre for the Aerial Tramway. Adrian had told us about this place where you can get a cable car up the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. However, because of the extreme winds today (apparently today was more windy than normal) the guy at the visitor centre said that it may be just a bit too windy to go up in the tram today. Although it is open, it may not be particularly pleasant. However, the weather should improve tomorrow, so we decided to find a campsite for the night and maybe head over here again tomorrow. Stu also needs to do some work, so it may be the perfect opportunity for him to get that done while we have a day to wait for the wind to die down.

We drove to a few different RV parks around Palm Springs. The first place was full, the next place wanted $85 for the night!! However, the expensive place was very helpful in finding us a cheaper place to stay, and even let Stu call them up to check availability. We headed over to the cheaper place - although this was still $55 and you had to pay for using the wifi - and there was plenty of room for us. We parked up and settled in for the remainder of the afternoon and evening.

As the sun went down we saw some amazing colours in the sky, which looked spectacular behind the huge mountains around here. This is a really beautiful place. We shall probably stay here a couple of nights before heading further east into the desert.