Campground Spotlight
Golden Village Palms RV Resort, Hemet, California
Pickleball — a mix between tennis, badminton, and table tennis — is currently one of the fastest-growing sports, especially in the RV world. Because pickleball’s popularity has skyrocketed recently, many campgrounds are constructing courts for this unique sport. A pickleball court is 20 feet by 44 feet, the same size as a doubles badminton court, with a slightly modified net. The smaller court makes the sport more compact and easier to master than tennis.
Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, California, offers amenities such as deluxe pool and spa areas.
One RV resort in Hemet, California, is now offering a pickleball program to match the popular demand. Golden Village Palms RV Resort — now with 10 championship pickleball courts — has former Division 1 tennis players Kyle and Casey McMakin heading its pickleball program. They also have won many pickleball tournaments at the expert level. The program includes free clinics and round-robin tournaments with cash prizes. The resort’s inaugural championship season runs through May.
A cozy fire pit is among the offerings of Golden Village Palms RV Resort in Hemet, California.
Golden Village Palms is a luxury RV resort in Southern California that welcomes RVs and motor coaches of all sizes. This gated RV park offers access to approximately 1,000 RV sites and 102 resort cottages. All RV sites are full-hookup with water, sewer, 50/30-amp electric, and cable TV. The pull-through sites can accommodate 45-foot RVs and are not available for monthly or extended stays. Amenities include pools and spas, an on-site laundry facility, volleyball courts, a putting green, a fitness center, daily and weekly events, and a variety of promotional packages. One, the Pampered Pooch Package, allows dogs to experience luxury vacationing — cuPOOCHino and VIPooch amenities included (and more).
This resort’s calendar is full of fun activities, including culinary festivals and concerts. And being so close to Palm Springs, San Diego, and the Temecula wine region, there is truly something for everyone.
DETAILS
Golden Village Palms RV Resort, C8732 *
3600 W. Florida Ave.
Hemet, CA 92545
www.goldenvillagepalms.com
(951) 260-2340
* FMCA Commercial Member
Nature
Arbor Day: Celebrating Our Tall Friends
Planting trees with youngsters is a great way to celebrate Arbor Day.
April is a great month to celebrate nature — we even have two holidays dedicated to it! Earth Day is very well known, but what about the other one? Across the United States, Arbor Day is celebrated by planting trees at the end of April on a variety of dates, sometimes corresponding with ideal planting times by region. This year, National Arbor Day falls on April 29 and happens to be the 150th anniversary of the holiday.
J. Sterling Morton first proposed a tree planting holiday in 1872. The first celebration date was on April 10, 1872, and it is estimated that over 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska alone on that day.
Communities around the country organize tree-planting events or plant sales, often at parks, campgrounds, or schools. Many people will plant a tree to honor a loved one, some make a promise to keep the Earth cleaner, and others celebrate by just going outside and spending time with the trees! RVs and trees go hand in hand; what better way is there to celebrate than by camping among them?
There are so many places to go to see magnificent trees: They include California’s Redwood, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks for gargantuan trees; Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park for whitebark pine trees; Utah’s Fishlake National Forest for quaking aspens; or Southern live oaks in South Carolina. The possibilities are endless.
Travel
Outstanding In The Field
Artist Malcolm Cochran’s corn-themed sculpture in central Ohio symbolizes and pays tribute to the area’s farming legacy.
Depending on where you drive through Ohio, you’ll likely pass countless acres of farmland filled with crops and cattle. Agriculture is a key industry in the state, after all, with corn a leading commodity. So, it’s not unusual to spot a field with ears of corn standing tall in neatly planted rows. But concrete corn?
Northwest of Columbus in the suburb of Dublin, such a crop exists at 4995 Rings Road. Locals have nicknamed it Cornhenge, though its official name is Field of Corn (with Osage Orange Trees). It is a sculpture collection created in 1994 by artist Malcolm Cochran, then a professor at The Ohio State University, for a project commissioned by the Dublin Arts Council.
Cochran’s creation features 109 human-sized ears of white corn arranged row by row in a field of grass — an homage to the area’s agricultural heritage. The concrete ears stand 6 feet 3 inches tall and weigh 1,500 pounds apiece. Each is secured atop a 3-foot-deep hole filled with concrete. Three full-size prototypes were created as molds, each with different kernel patterns; the finished ears were installed in varied orientations to further replicate the randomness of nature.
What about the trees named in the artwork? They grow on the site today, a nod to the miles of Osage orange trees planted by early-day farmers to mark boundaries between fields and to create property lines.
Aside from commemorating the area’s agricultural history, Cochran’s corny design also pays tribute to Sam Frantz, who farmed the property from 1935 to 1963 and was renowned for developing hybrid varieties of corn. The field is now known as Frantz Park.
Stroll along the rows of corn and inspect the detailed kernels that cover each ear. Read the plaques that describe the role of corn in farming, the Osage orange trees, and the development of the land. See if you agree with some folks’ assessment that this stark arrangement resembles a military cemetery. Regardless, you’ll conclude it’s not an ordinary cornfield.