So Much Better

Last Wednesday on our day off we decided to do an exploratory drive through some of the Maricopa County Regional Parks of which there are six. We chose the Cave Creek and Lake Pleasant parks to check out as they are on the north side of Phoenix and would make for an easy drive to David's place in Surprise.

Upon arriving at Cave Creek we asked the gate attendant if they were looking for any help, they suggested we talk with the park supervisor at the nature center. After a drive through the campground we knew this was the kind of setting we were looking for so off to the nature center we went. A wonderful visit with Darci, the park supervisor, and we had the paperwork in hand to get fingerprinted and to have a background check done. We told her we would let her know by the end of the day what our thoughts were.


At Lake Pleasant we spoke with the gate attendant about their needs, he mentioned they would be needing a host too. We took a ride through their campgrounds, the Desert Tortoise area was too small for us but the Road Runner area had potential. When we exited the park we spoke again with the attendant and it was in the Desert Tortoise area they needed help, nope that wasn't going to work as we wouldn't fit. When we got home we sent an email to Darci informing her we'd love to come stay and work for her. How fast could we get out of there, for sure it couldn't be soon enough.
 
Thursday we went to work knowing it would probably be our last time :) Friday we headed into the heart of Phoenix to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to get our fingerprints taken and to initiate the required background checks. We then headed to Cave Creek to turn in our paperwork. Darci was off but her assistant Kristen took our paperwork and said she would have Darci call us. By the time we were pulling out of the park we had spoken with Darci, we assured her nothing would show up on our background check and had been given permission to move in on Saturday. We will be doing some maintenance work until our background check comes in.

Our last evening in Mesa was spent going out to dinner with good friends Cindy & Paul. Cindy and I worked together for a bit last winter in TX. Where they are staying in Apache Junction there was a work opportunity but it would still be in a city, though in a much nicer rv only park. A nice dinner at Gordon Biersch Brewery and a stop at Total Wine & More to get stocked up on wine before we moved to the country, good friends and a great evening..doesn't get better than that.

Happy Campers

Saturday morning we vacated our site in Mesa without incident, no new scratches in the rig and soon we were heading north and out of the city.  When we checked in at the gate the attendant Paula was expecting us, the relief we felt was immense...we escaped the city.

Sunset from our place

We are provided with a  full hookup site, propane and laundry, we are on the edge of the overflow area and behind us we have the local rodeo arena.  We will be working 3 full days but it is worth it to live out in the desert. Saturday was spent moving in and getting our site set up for a long stay.

 

Sunday morning we headed out for a hike here at Cave Creek Regional Park, right at the campground there is the Clay Mine Trail which connects with the Overton Trail which then brought us to the Go John Trail eventually bringing us full circle.  I thought we were going out for a short hike but Dave kept wanting to see what was around the next bend or at the top of the next rise, well by the time we were done we'd hiked about 5.5 miles.

Sunday late afternoon we had a visit from our son coming to check his folks new digs...maybe we'll get them come camping while we're here.  A fried shrimp dinner left us with just a few more pounds of Gulf Shrimp left in the freezer, no more seafood until next winter when we head back to the TX Gulf Coast.




Monday we met with Darci to see what help she wanted from us until our background checks come in. We are now cleaning bathrooms in the day use area, we sure don't mind doing this for a week or two. We now have much to learn about the area, the history, plant and wildlife of the area, we need/want to hike all the trails in both areas. Looks like we'll be keeping busy.

 

We are now enjoying sunrises, sunsets and our neighbors, just have to figure out all of their names.

 

To say we are happy campers once again is an understatement. We love our new home site and look forward to what the winter brings.

Until next time...

Concrete & Asphalt

Our ride from Winslow AZ to Mesa AZ was uneventful, 6% grades and all...no problem and the truck handled it beautifully...I even enjoyed the ride for the most part.

 

Friday 10/23 we pulled into Good Life RV Resort, before too long though we knew the site we were on was not going to work for all winter. While I knew we would be among park models I did expect a little more than what we found. The site was weed infested, covered in cigarette butts and the front nose of our rig was at the roads edge...nope not going to stay here for the whole winter. Cal-Am resorts guest services and front offices are closed on the weekend...by Sunday we were fed up with the site so sent an email to our work coordinator.

By Monday afternoon we were moved over to Val Vista Villages just a mile down the road, we are still surrounded by park models but the site is in better shape and we're not in the road. We are across from the back of the laundry building...quite handy, though there is a high curb which made it difficult to get into the site. The trees on our site and the one next to us were overgrown and we did end up with a scratch just above our basement door...going to have to figure something out to fix that.

Our workamper jobs have started, we are working for the decor team which appears to be full of variety. The decor team supplies the numerous resorts in the area with decorations for all of their various events. Needless to say with the holidays coming this will be a busy time for our team. Each day last week I've done something different. One work day was spent pulling requested items for one resort, the next day was spent checking tabletops centerpieces before shipping them out and the last work day of the week was spent in the costume shop. I enjoyed the costume shop the most, the time went fast there and folks were coming and going so lots of interaction with others...just what I like. Dave spent his first day learning the areas that he'll be involved with, the next day was a bit of demolition and they are going to do some remodeling of some of the areas and his last work day for this rotation had him driving a truck to different resorts dropping off and picking up stuff....now as long he doesn't get lost.

One more day of work week two, the last two days of work haven't been good. No help for Dave and his coworker loading and unloading trucks, Dave's tendinitis in his Achellis heel is rearing it's ugly head...not good. My jobs have remained the same, with Veterans Day coming we have decor going out and Halloween coming in it's non stop work...but of course there's always the ones who work hard at doing nothing...very discouraging. 

Our first night in Mesa our son David and daughter in law Laura came for a visit, so nice to see them...it's been almost a year since we last saw them. They were gracious enough to treat us to dinner at the Cornish Pasty the night we arrived, thanks you two very much. We've also been out to see a few friends since arrival. Our friends Curt and Glenda of Camp Lowry are local, great to see them and we look forward to some get togethers this winter. We also stopped to see our friend Cindy, she arrived 5 weeks before her husband Paul (saw him in IA on our way down) can't wait to get together with them too.

It has taken awhile to get this post together since we've not been happy. We've already realized that concrete and asphalt mega resorts like Val Vista just aren't our thing. Changes are in the works.

Until next time...

Takin' It Easy

Tuesday we left Albuquerque heading westward on I40, up over the Continental Divide no problem. Across the Arizona border...loosing another hour, that makes a 2 hour time loss in 2 days...thank goodness Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Savings, no more time changes for 6 months. Moving right along since it's now downhill, soon ominous clouds started gathering in the west, so easy to see, as my mom says. "I can stretch my eyes".

I have the NOAA app on my I-phone, 5 miles from our exit it starts alerting we were in a tornado watch, then the skies opened up with hail, we got the rig off to the shoulder and along with other like minded souls waited out the storm. 20 minutes or so and we could move along to our last stop for 3 nights.

 We are staying at Homolovi Ruins State Park, just 3 miles east of Winslow AZ. We are in site 18 and have what we believe is one of the best sites in the park. Our views out our window is expansive, in the evening we can see the lights of Winslow off in the distance. Close enough to the interstate to be a great place to overnight, could be a place we come back to when heading into Phoenix.

 While here of course we went into Winslow.

 To stand on the corner with Don Henley.

This area is steeped in Route 66 history, we've traveled different parts of the Mother Road. In Arizona much of Route 66 is covered over by I40. Around here at times all you'll find left is old telephone lines and nearby if you look close you can see the remnants of the old road.




Homolovi Ruins SP was once where the Anasazi people tilled the Little Colorado River floodplain before finishing their migration north to join the Hopi living on the mesas. In 1986 in an effort to preserve the area the Hopi people supported the idea of a state park. The park is still part of their homeland and they continue to make pilgrimages here.

While Homolovi Ruins SP has a large footprint there are only 3 hiking trails here and two ruins. We spent one morning exploring the park, because of the rain and the muddy trails we only made it to one of the ruins. We enjoyed the two trails we hiked and one set ruins we toured.

Can you see our silver truck between the buttes

While coming west Tuesday we passed Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert. Today we headed back to visit the park, 4 more stamps for my National Park Passport. We have been here before and that time spent most of our time in the Petrified Forest area, this time most of our time was spent in the Painted Desert and on the Blue Mesa. 

    



Painted Desert Inn a stop on Route 66 and now a historic landmark.

 Route 66 traveled through the Petrified Forest

Puerco Pueblo and petroglyphs.

We took a hike from the top of Blue Mesa down into Blue Forest.

 Then we had to hike back up to the top of Blue Mesa-got my cardio

Tomorrow we head in to Mesa and soon we'll begin our workamping jobs. Once we've got our schedule then we can start making plans with friends who are already in the area.

Until next time...

On The Road to Arizona

We left Wisconsin on a beautiful Tuesday morning, the first part of our ride was through Iowa's Driftless Area. More rolling hills until we reached US 20 and headed west. We picked up I35 and headed south. Our destination was an overnight in Ankeny at Prairie Flower COE to visit a friend.

Praire Flower Campground is located on Lake Saylorville and has beautiful sites. They are electric only, concrete pads, some with outstanding views of the lake. Some have shade and others none. Another great COE park...think we'll be back.

Site C82

 Last winter we became friends with some of the workampers at Gulf Waters, Paul and Cindy have become good friends and we always have fun whatever we do. Paul and Cindy have been volunteering at the Oak Grove day use area on Lake Saylorville, just next door to where we were camped. Unfortunately Cindy had already left for Mesa AZ and her winter position as office manager at Meridian RV Resort in Apache Junction. After setting up we found Paul down at the lake with a stringer of yellow perch. Needless to say Dave really wanted to get a pole out but it was already late in the afternoon. Paul treated us to dinner at Fong's Pizzeria in Ankeny, quite different and very good. Of course no pictures of the whole evening, too much catching up going on. Thanks Paul for a great dinner, see you in AZ soon. I've said it before but it bears repeating, we have so many friends already planning on being in AZ for some or all of the winter...it's going to be a fun winter.

On the road the next morning by 8:10, 380 miles later we arrived at El Dorado State Park in El Dorado KS...south I35 all the way with bypasses around the major cities.  The terrain has transformed from crops to range land, though we are zipping by I enjoy watching the changes of the countryside, the style of homes and the small glimpses of life I get along an interstate.

El Dorado State Park is about 8 miles off of I35, we took site 29 in the walkin area. Great Verizon and we easily got a signal with our portable satellite. We'll be here for two nights with FHU's, a little decompression time from all of our visiting.





We enjoyed our down day at El Dorado, took a walk through the campground and then rested my back which decided to bother me for no reason.

Our next stop was at Roman Nose State Park in Watunga OK, most of the time we love state parks, well this one not so much. Sites were tight in our area, in other areas they were pretty sad looking.

We were there over a beautiful weekend and the park was full. We did get out an enjoy a few trails in the park.

 Our next stop was Amarillo TX for an overnight at Oasis RV Park on the west side of town. We had thought to go to Palo Duro Canyon State Park for a few days but heard there was no internet so instead we took an afternoon ride into the park. Now don't get me wrong it was a great park and all but when you've already hiked in the UT/AZ/CO National Parks it just doesn't compare.

While in the area we of course drove by Cadillac Ranch and had dinner at The Big Texan, both Route 66 landmarks. This was our second time for dinner and we enjoyed another great meal...we could even take home leftovers this time.

For the last week or so we have been a few stops behind our friends Gail & Rick of the former blog Gypsy Turtles, we fist met them in the summer of '13 in Vermont.  Gail was the first blogger I met and encouraged me to take the blog public. So many great friendships have resulted from taking the blog public. Today we decided to stop on the west side of Albuquerque at High Desert RV Park where they are spending a few days.

 
It was great to see them  and again thank you Gail & Rick for dinner...see you soon. They are on the way to Yuma where they plan to winter...I know there will be a few more meetups over the winter.

Friday we head into Mesa, tomorrow our travels will take us to Winslow AZ and Homovoli Ruins State Park.It's been a fun trip south, still don't think it's set in we're not going back to VT. Seems like we're away for the winter again. Guess when we don't head north east in the spring it might set in. Life is good.

Until next time...