Estelle in the Palm Springs Plane Parade

Photo of "Estelle" at the Palm Springs Plane Parade

A parade from Palm Springs International Airport to the Palm Springs Convention Center included about 80 planes here for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Summit. One plane named Estelle in the Palm Springs plane parade strutted along with many other colorful and unusual planes strutted down Palm Springs' main drag.

I had to love this plane because my mother's name was Estelle.  The colors--bright blue and red--pop out of the webpage.

For a town of about 50,000 people, there sure are a lot of parades in Palm Springs--one for Gay Pride, another for Veterans Day, then there's the Festival of Lights parade a couple of weeks before Christmas.

This city seems to have an obsession with small planes--there's a museum full of them on Gene Autry and one comes carrying Santa Claus during the holidays, landing at the museum airstrip.

All of this comes at the beginning of our season, the time of year when those from the far north come to spend a few months.