Normally our layover in Los Angeles is two nights long. This time, due to a major strike of many public sectors in our country, our layover got extended to four nights. This is a rare opportunity for us to explore California and go places we have not been to. We work as airline crew for a big European airline. My wife works as a flight attendant and recruiter for new colleagues, I work as a senior first officer on Airbus 350, as well as a type rating instructor on Airbus 330/340/350.

We love to fly to California! When we learned that we would be staying longer than usual, we thought about things to do and discussed options with our 13-member crew.

Some crew members went to Las Vegas, some went hiking to Joshua Tree National Park, and some stayed in the Los Angeles area. My wife Susi and I discussed our options. I usually rent a Cessna out of Torrance and fly to different places. I have been to over 120 airports in California, exploring new areas whenever possible. This time my wife wanted to go to Santa Barbara or Las Vegas. I said to her: Let’s go to Borrego Springs. We have been to the airport once in 2014 right before we got married in Vegas. At that time, we played Frisbee at the Borrego Airport tarmac. We still have great memories of that moment, but we never visited anything beyond the airport.

We flew to Borrego Valley airport, the weather was perfect, and everything worked out nicely.

When we called our hotel, they told us that they cannot pick us up, but I was given a telephone number of a person who provides transportation services. Nobody answered my call. So we were kind of stuck! Our hotel was a couple of miles away. We entered the great airport bar “Propeller”. Gray, the barkeeper, was very helpful and tried to find a solution/for us.

We had a quick beer and talked to Gray, who was really nice. Finally, a lady picked us up and brought us to our hotel, which Gray organized for us. As a great surprise, we were allowed to use The Propeller’s jeep to get around town. That was a really nice gesture of hospitality, which we rarely ever experienced! We took the jeep some miles north to those beautiful sport of blooming flowers. We also enjoyed exploring the many cool sculptures all over the desert. The solitude, silence and comfortable March temperatures all attributed to a very nice experience.

After we jumped into the pool of our hotel and got some sun, we visited Gray at The Propeller, where Susi got the best Martini of her life. For dinner, we got the recommendation to go to the Casa del Zorro bar, where we had awesome steaks. The bartender was very friendly and food was excellent.

After a good night’s sleep, which is not always easy with 9 hours of jetlag, we went out for breakfast to the Red Ocotillo, which was very good, then took the jeep to Font’s Point. What an incredible view over these vast canyons we could enjoy from up there. It was Gray’s recommendation that brought is up there. Without tips from people who know the area so well, we would have never found the place and furthermore would never have been able to get there at all. We took great pictures and sat there for some time to enjoy the atmosphere, which is so unique.

Finally we got to the airport, packed our bags into the Cessna and taxied out for departure. When we took off, we looked back over Borrego Springs, looked at each other and said that there really are no words to describe what we experienced in only 24 hours in that little town. We felt very happy, loved every minute of our short visit. There was the possibility to fly to many different places, many beautiful spots in California, but we decided to go to Borrego Springs, because it just felt perfect. What a great choice that was. We will certainly recommend Borrego to our colleagues to visit and hit The Propeller for their great martinis and hospitality.

Paul Zwatz