NothingToDread.com

Old and fat, young and slim, smooth and... Well, not. I looked around the pool at almost every size shape and flavor of nudist one could imagine. I tried to look at it all with a fresh eye. What would it be like to step into the world of the nude for the very first time? I looked around the pool and I tried to imagine something other than a woman reading a book, talking to her husband, or taking a lap in the pool. I tried to imagine something exciting, provocative, or erotic about the whole scene. Pages continued to turn, couples talked, and the swimmer climbed onto a float.

I briefly mistook a Montana housewife for the female costar of a USA Network original series. I ran through a mental checklist. Mrs. Montana appeared to be the same height as the Mrs. USA. They shared the same smile, and they appeared to be equally tan. They both had dark hair; Mrs. Montana had light colored streaks (Highlights?) in hers. Despite the similarities, I realized that unless Mrs. USA had followed up filming with breast augmentation, Mrs. Montana was not the female costar of a USA Network original series.

I've experienced several off-screen celebrity sightings (None of them nude), but they're rare enough that I find them somewhat noteworthy when they occur. My faux nudist celebrity sighting got me thinking about the comparison between some people's reaction to the idea of nudism and the way we often react to famous people. I might call my wife after meeting a TV star at an airport, but would I call her if I worked in television? How big would that star have to be? I just can't imagine a celebrity sighting meaning much if celebrities are a regular part of your life. The same can be said about nudity.

I looked around that pool. I studied Mrs. Montana and some of the other more attractive women around the pool at Desert Shadows Inn last week. I tried to imagine the provocative angle that some might expect, and it just wasn't there. I was nude, they were nude, we were all comfortable. It was all so... routine.

The wife and I got home from Palm Springs today. We checked into Desert Shadows Inn on Wednesday and checked out this morning. We wanted to give Tom Mulhall's Terra Cotta Inn a try, but this trip was planned on a whim. We hadn't even considered a trip to Palm Springs until Tuesday. I gave Terra Cotta a shot, but sadly there was no room at the inn.

We had a very nice time. We met some nice people and the weather was pretty good. It was great on Wednesday, but windy Thursday and Friday. Wind is something you sometimes have to live with in Palm Springs, but it beats the hell of rain sleet and snow. For most of our stay the other guests at DSI made a couple of 42 year olds like the wife and I look like kids, but a few younger folk started showing up around Friday. I didn't see any twenty-somethings but several thirty-somethings began to trickle in.

We were surprised to discover that "they had recently closed the resort's restaurant, but nobody seemed to know the reason why. I heard a few rumors, but nothing concrete enough to print. The new pool furniture was nice and I liked the new plush pool towels.

I received a wonderful 90-minute massage at the spa on Thursday from a therapist named Sheila. This was the second time I had a massage done by Sheila and I stand by my assertion that she is the best massage therapist I've ever been treated by. A massage from Sheila is definitely worth a trip to the desert.

On Friday I somehow managed to drop my 30GB iPod in the swimming pool. I don't know why, but I started laughing as I watched it shimmer at the bottom of the pool. I suppose the sight of a nude man crying at the edge of the pool would have disturbed the other guests. I need a new iPod.

Normally when I visit Palm Springs, I only complain about having to get dressed when I go home. That isn't the case this week. We stayed in one of the "Courtyard Rooms". Room 5 to be specific.

Rediscover the Golden Age of Palm Springs... classic glamour. Relax in the exclusive Courtyard Suites where every room is unique in its shape and design reflecting the classical style and elegance of 1940's Palm Springs. Designer decorated rooms with brass beds evoke the era or a private movie star hide-away complete with a secluded garden patio setting.

You can be the star of your next vacation.

Our Courtyard features ten exclusive rooms and suites nestled in an intimate Spanish-style courtyard and feature king or queen brass bed, A/C, color cable TV, refrigerators, oversized pool towels, coffee makers with a basket of exotic brews, in-shower dispensers of premier shampoos and body soaps, and feather pillows.

DesertShadows.com

This wasn't our first stay in one of the "Courtyard Suites" at Desert Shadows Inn. If it had been, it would be our last. We like to have a room with a full kitchen. It's less expensive than eating at resort's restaurant (When it's open) and more convenient than having to get dressed for a trip to town. On our last stay we were in Room 10. The room was nice enough that I wanted to send pictures to friends. We had not complaints. This time we had Room 5. I'll let them slide on the "exotic brews" mentioned above. The coffee is the typical hotel room 4-cup pod variety in a vac sealed package. I didn't notice anything exotic about it. I'll let them slide on the "premier shampoos and body soap line", but I have a serious bone to pick with them about the bed and feather pillows.

As a young United States Marine, I once spent $13 a night to stay at the San Diego Armed Forces YMCA. That wasn't even the worse place I slept, but we don't need to go there again. I would gladly trade the $207 a night mattress from Desert Shadows Inn Room five for that $13 a night YMCA mattress. I understand that Errol Flynn was once associated with the property. I don't need to sleep on his mattress to appreciate that fact. The "box spring" was so flimsy that I literally compressed in the grip of my right hand. The pillows were so old that a couple of t-shirts tossed into a pillowcase would have offered more support. Any benefit I received from my $140 massage was destroyed by one night on that mattress. I frequently awoke in pain. Sleeping too close to the edge of the bed meant risking slipping off the collapsing bed onto the floor where my wife chose to sleep last night.

I can cut the new owners some slack when it comes to the threadbare carpet, awful plumbing, and even the broken heater pump on the quiet pool. I can't forgive charging over $200 a night for a flophouse bed. The mattress and pillows in room five should have been replaced long before the perfectly serviceable pool furniture. My wife called for another room, but she was told none was available. We should have left, but we really wanted to be in Palm Springs. Normally I try talking her into spending an extra day; last night I tried talking her into checking out early.

Despite all that, I can't wait to return to Palm Springs. I'm not saying that I won't return to DSI. I just won't accept Room 5 unless they prove that they've replaced the mattress and pillows.

Twenty years ago, I had the good fortune to stumble upon a small B&B called Le Petit Chateau. Despite the fact that I was a dreaded single male, the owners of the inn, Don and Mary Robidoux, always made me feel like a member of their extended family. Since Mary always introduced me to the other guests, and both owners always gave me a warm welcome, the other poolside guests never seemed overly concerned by my presence. Besides, anybody who had ever stayed at Le Petit Chateau knew that Don didn't tolerate a whole lot of nonsense from anybody regardless of marital status. Staying at the Chateau was so much like visiting friends that I never considered staying anywhere else in Palm Springs until after Don and Mary sold the property and it began catering to gay men. That change occurred while I was living in another state where I had the good fortune to be welcomed at an AANR affiliated club that also didn't seem to mind my single status. I eventually introduced my wife to social nudism at that club.

I had the good fortune to encounter open-minded people like Don and Mary Robidoux whose screening policy had more to do with a guest's character than marital status. Since then, I've been able to share the joys of social nudism with friends who went on to experience nude recreation themselves. I never heard Don or Mary run down any of the other clothing optional inns in town. Instead of running down the competition, Don and Mary ran one of the most welcoming places (Clothing optional or otherwise) that I've ever visited.

Since Le Petit Chateau has traveled to a distant point over the rainbow, Desert Shadows Inn Resort & Villas has become my Palm Springs destination of choice. Staying at Desert Shadows is for the most part an impersonal experience. I couldn't pick one of the owners out of a line up. If I've had a conversation with one of them, I didn't know it. Desert Shadows is a beautiful property, and an excellent example of how a nude resort can successfully compete with mainstream resorts. Despite that fact, I don't feel any greater sense of loyalty to Desert Shadows than I would to the Hilton or Marriott. Therefore, I've been considering checking some of the other clothing optional and nude resorts in the Palm Springs area.

The Terra Cotta Inn has long been at the top of list of properties I've been thinking about checking out on my next nude vacation. Tom Mulhall from the Terra Cotta maintains a blog boasting "A popular clothing optional/nudist resort" as an obvious promotional tool for the resort. Tom's writing tends to take a "we're better than you" tone when referring to his competition, but that's understandable. The man is running a business. However, he makes a brief statement in a recent post that just runs right through the single male I was twenty years ago.

They told me they were surprised at how many single men are allowed at the big nudist resorts and they were surprised children were at them too. They thought they would be fun, friendly places like us.

Terra Cotta Inn @ BlogSpot

Ok, I'll be honest, I don't really like being around a lot of children either. Given a choice between a clothing optional property full of kids, and one with no kids, I'll choose the kid free zone. I understand that some couples feel the same way about single males. Regardless, the statement about single males annoys me. As I've said before, this kind of sentiment would make sense to me if we were discussing a swinger's club or Lifestyles resort.

Why do single males frighten some nudists? I can think of only one occasion when somebody said something inappropriate to my wife at a nudist facility, and that was an old married man in his fifties whose wife happened to be at another location on the property. I have news for you hotshot; some of those couples you so proudly welcome to your resort are staying with you and playing at nearby Lifestyles facilities when the latter are overbooked. Try weeding out the swingers before worrying about the lonely schmuck with a book. I understand that the swingers will be asked to leave if they behave inappropriately; however, I don't understand why the single male isn't afforded the same consideration.