The Twentynine Palms stay was especially interesting because of 29 Palms Inn. This is an eclectic array of structures occupying the western third of the Oasis of Mara, a classic California fan palm oasis. Here's a screenshot from Google Maps--
Click this link if you'd like to open Google Maps and see the image in context.
Notice the line of vegetation that marks the Pinto Mountain Fault. The grinding at the fault boundary produces an impermeable clay layer. Underground water infiltrating from the higher land to the south comes to surface resulting in an oasis, although these days human or natural hydrologic changes have caused the flow to diminish to the point that there's no longer surface water without some pumping. Some claim this place is the source of the name of the town of Twentynine Palms. During the railroad expansion in the American West, Southern Pacific Railroad was granted ownership of the oasis, as well as considerable other property along its route. SP sold the land to J.P. Roberts and his partners. They built the Gold Park Hotel, a collection of cabins east of the oasis. After a few years, Roberts decided he liked the wetter west end of the oasis better and had the cabins dragged there with a pickup truck. The new location became the 29 Palms Hotel, later renamed 29 Palms Inn. Roberts sold the inn to Harry Johansing, whose descendants have run the place ever since. They're on the 5th generation. In 1950, they donated the eastern 2/3 of the oasis to the National Park Service to become the Headquarters and Visitor's Center of Joshua Tree National Park.
