Palm Springs and Indian Wells, California

Arrival Sunday, March 8

457 Miles | 9 Hours

We pack up for a one week trip to Palm Springs, to enjoy another great BNP Paribas Masters 1000 tennis tournament. We are extra excited this year because we personally know 3 amazing players who we've hosted in prior years when they came through for our local challenger: Andrey Rublev (now the world #8 player), Prajnesh Gunneswaran, and Maxime Cressy!

As we pull into the outskirts of Palm Springs, Mari gasps an alarming amount of air, freaking out Datta at the wheel of the Audi. She's stunned to read on Maxime's friends & family group chat that the entire tournament has been canceled as a precautionary move for COVID. We're in shock and disbelief, but confirm this is true when we visit the BNP Paribas site.

After 5 hours of driving, there's no turning around at this point, so we forge on to Emerald Desert RV Park to regroup. Instead of pro tennis, we decided to spend a few days fixing up the trailer, swimming, hitting tennis balls ourselves, and basically talking about not going to see tennis.

The first morning after our arrival, we go out for breakfast and see a few pro players at a breakfast cafe, we hit the local DSW, one of Datta's favorites, and overhear another shopper who happens to be an ATP chair official lamenting that she just landed from Sydney yesterday and found out the tournament had been canceled from her mum back home even before the tournament officials announced it. She was trying to re-book an immediate flight back home, but the tournament was not going to pay her the fare difference, sadly.

We drive by the grounds but are waved away. We find errands to do and are just kinda lazy. Midweek the weather takes an unexpected twist as well, raining harder than we’ve ever witnessed in the desert for this time of year, with torrential downpour and winds shaking our 22' 50-year old aluminum can. On the next a sunny day, Sibri sets up a special alfresco special cafe in our campsite with a chef's menu of options to choose from including oranjus, yogurt and cookies.

We follow the news daily as the COVID situ evolves dynamically and everyone is teeter tottering between holding their breath and blinking their eyes in total disbelief.We sort of meander around, wondering if this thing is really a thing. Finally, after fixing a few things on Gypsy '68 we decide to check out early and head to somewhere a bit more interesting.

Looking back on this 9 months later, the BNP Paraibas' tagline has struck as a somewhat eerily futuristic meaning: "The Bank for Changing World."

Departure Friday, March 13