Wickenburg and SKP North Ranch

 

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in the fruit salad.

 

Wednesday we took yet another drive.  This time we were in the Jeep and headed north.  The problem with our location and every place we want to go is that we’re on the wrong side of the city of Phoenix.  Getting through it adds about 70 miles to any trip we think we might want to take.  Needless to say, it took us a while to get through the traffic and through the city.

Wickenburg is a little town (population about 6500) with a very colorful past.  The town itself looks like it’s right out of the Wild, Wild West.  Well, maybe that’s because it really is.  There were constant conflicts between the the settlers in the area and the hostile Indian bands.  Gold brought the settlers here and gold kept them coming for many years.  There are many mines in the area as well as ghost towns. . 

The streets of the town even remind you of that era.  You’d think you were in cowboy-ville and we’d certainly like to check the town out a little bit more.  However, this day we didn’t have time to do a lot of that.  It was just a trip to scope the area out.

We also made a stop at the SKP North Ranch RV Park.  We’ve visited quite a few of the SKP parks but this was our first time here.  We were a little amazed to discover that many of the “homes” at the back end of this Escapee park were on deeded property.  There were a few for sale signs and we checked out the price.  They weren’t cheap.  We were thinking that perhaps the folks didn’t realize  Arizona had just gone through a major slump in real estate prices.

Terry stopped by the office to pick up some information.  Normally the SKP parks and their volunteers are just about the friendliest ever.  Not so in this case.  She was professional and cool but friendly is not a word that Terry used.  We were told she was ”having a bad day.”

There were also RV lots and an area for short term stays.  We stopped and talked to several who were parked on the rental lots.  Parks like this are so unlike the parks where snowbirds return year after year after year. The neighborhood changes constantly. Every newcomer to a SKP park is looked at like a future potential friend.

Another thing about this park we liked is that it borders BLM land and has a gate at the back of the park for ATVs to enter and exit.  One fella even gave us a trail map of interesting things to see on the trails.  He encouraged us to spend a while at the park riding the ATVs and especially to the old ghost town of Stanton.  However, he did indicate that one would have to go up Suicide Hill on their ATV to get there.  Now do you think I was excited about doing that?  NOT!!  The name certainly didn’t make that trip sound inviting.  I’d like to do the ghost town but not if Suicide Hill is the only way to get there.  He said it wasn’t that bad but bad to him and bad to me probably are two different things!!  The park has Verizon and ATT service.  We always check that out because cell service is important to us.

We had originally planned on meeting Sandie and Jim at Superstition Skies for another evening  of entertainment with Brant and Kerry.  Jim was fishing at Canyon Lake and he didn’t quite make it back in time.  We’re letting Jim take the blame for none of us being able to go.  However, secretly we were happy (but don’t tell him that ‘cuz we want him to feel guilty).  After our drive of the day we were pretty zonked so we were a little relieved our outing had been delayed for one more night.

<<----- Sunning on a picnic table – hadn’t seen this before and would NEVER do it.

Another little outing in our future is – Quartzsite!  Okay, we’ve been there before and actually done quite a bit of boondocking in the area.  We’ve also stayed at one of the local parks.  In January this little hole-in-the-wall town bursts at the seams with thousands of RVs for the annual RV show.  People congregate in groups there from all over and it’s quite an exciting adventure.

We already planned on meeting a group in January at Quartzsite.  However, we’re in search of a secure place to park over the holidays.  We had originally thought we would just fly to Washington over the Christmas holiday but now we’re thinking we might just drive.  Flying would be cheaper, of course, but if we drive, we have our car and we can come and go as we please. By moving down the road a bit, we save a couple hundred miles each way by traveling from “Q” over traveling from “G”.  We’re thinking why not just park there in December. Who knows what we’ll do until we do it.  Anyway …. in a few days we might make this little trip to check it out. 

In the meantime on Thursday …. we’re going to relax and ride the quads – perhaps.

‘Tis life on the road.