Arizonian–A Snowbird Park

Speak when you're angry and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.

Guess what I saw out the motorhome window Sunday morning?  

This little coyote just wandered down the road and out of the park.  Well, I guess he wandered out of the park.  At least I saw him walking down the road.  Then, I saw a second one when I was out walking Duchess. 

This is the first year we have booked any RV park for a whole month at a time.  Normally we have opted to stay more at locations where there aren’t full-time or most-time residents.  I guess you can’t call them residents but I’m sure you know what I mean.  I’m referring to the snowbirds who come year after year to the same park.  In the past we have always felt that these parks were more like staying in a regular neighborhood where everyone aleady knew everyone else.  The Thousand Trails, Elks, Famcamps, and COEs have always been more our cup of tea.  The people seem  eager to meet others and just a bit friendlier.

I’m not saying people aren’t friendly in the snowbird parks but definitely not as much as a regular campground where there are more RVers instead of snowbirds.   I think different types of people search for different types of parks.  Unless the snowbird parks are brand new, folks have already established relationships with others by the time you show up and it’s a little more difficult to connect. So, why did we book a park that was a snowbird park?  It was because this park allowed us to ride the ATVs in the park and had acres and acres of state land around it also for riding.    Isn’t that what counts? The ATV group seems pretty friendly.  For now it works because we figure we’ll do our own thing – whatever that is – and ride in the desert when the mood strikes.  There are a few other parks that also allow ATVs and we certainly plan on checking them out this winter too.

Last week we went to the little potluck affair.  It was nice and we were lucky in that we sat across from another newbie to this park.  We’ve met a few newbies so I’m sure there are even more around.  Then, Sunday night we went to the ice cream social.  I’m not so sure it’s a social event.  Even though there are quite a few tables in the North Hall some of the long ones were pushed together into one long table and that’s where they all sat – together, shoulder-to-shoulder, hip-to-hip  – at the one table.  There was no room for anyone else .. none.  I should have taken a picture.  We did find two other folks away from the mighty long table at least to sit by until the ice cream social was over and they headed back towards “home”.

Card bingo followed.  We’ve played this at other parks and always played with four per table.  We had intended to play.  It can be fun.  We had our quarters and dimes.  However, we didn’t because we weren’t at the right table.  There was only ONE table playing … can you guess which one?  We walked out.  The tables aren’t set up to allow folks to mingle and the person in charge concentrated only on the big table. We hadn’t seen it like this before.  The activity director is having a short meeting Monday morning.  That might be interesting.  I plan on attending but promise to keep my mouth shut … maybe.

After the meeting there is another event listed on the big calendar in the North Hall.  It’s shuffleboard.  Being the introvert that I am, I thought I’d walk over there and see if outsiders are allowed to play.  If outsiders aren’t allowed to play with the card group, will they be allowed to play with the shuffleboard group?  Who knows? Maybe I’ll ask.  Do I really want to play shuffleboard?  Well, not necessarily but now I’m curious.   I’m sure that the different activity groups consist of different people.  It’s not that I’ve ever played before so I might just be pushing my luck.  The scary part is what if they really let me play?  The nice part is that it’s raining right now and the chance that anyone will want to play shuffleboard in the rain is another thing so I’ll probably just have to wait for another day.  Whew!

Either way we’re here to ride and mingle with other friends in the area. We also have really nice neighbors at this park.  So, afterwards?    Well, maybe towards Quartzsite!!   Jim and Sandie are coming over for dinner on Monday and we’ve already got plans for Wednesday so things are working. 

RV Park Update – Memory Bank Overflow

Memory is a net: one that finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook, but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking.

 

I’m not sure where to start.  My mind is stuffed with lots of new knowledge and the memory bank is even overflowing. 

It’s amazing what you learn from people doing laundry.  We had lots of loads of laundry and normally that hasn’t been an issue in the past.  We either stuck it in the kids’ machines or inserted quarters.  However, this place has these little cards you have to buy.  The machine only takes $5 bills and you can only do one transaction at a time.  First you have to buy it, then you have to fill it with $$$.  Figuring out how to buy the thing, then adding money to it was a chore in itself.  However, the hardest thing was getting the machines to turn on using this card.  Now I’m a techie person but this was way beyond me without help or some little info sheet to read.  Thank goodness, my new friend, Mary, came to the rescue.

It’s also amazing how many people you meet walking their dogs. The normal thing is to greet and exchange names and site numbers.  Once they walk past I’d already forgotten their names because someone new was approaching.  I wonder if a “hey you” works around here.

 

Next we decided to do the potluck thing that was scheduled Halloween night.  I had lots of things I wanted to find out about quad rides.  I figured that would be the place to track some of the riders down.  Everyone likes to eat.  Remember we still had one to buy since we sold the Ozark in Washington.  Another fella I met in the laundry (pretty popular place, you know) told me not to buy a little one.   I forgot to ask what he meant by “little one” but just knew I didn’t want a BIG one.  So, it was off to the potluck to get some answers to questions. 

One thing we did discover is that the trail riding is usually finalized  when the MEN have coffee at 6:30 AM to 7:00 AM each morning!  You think that’s early?  Have you ever noticed how many people are out walking in these parks even way before that time?  Now you all know I’m out of bed before then but the tricky part is getting ready to get outside.  What is the chance Terry will ever make one of these coffee get togethers to find out where the event of the day is?  That’s an easy answer -- almost zero.  However, we did discover he’s not the only one in that group who doesn’t make them. Why don’t they organize these better and post them?  I bet it’s because they don’t like the commitment thing any better than we do.

We met SO MANY people who had so many different names.  I’ll never remember their names.  Except I remembered Mary and Beverly.  I’m good with association.  Mary rhymes with Jeri so that one was easy.  Beverly?  Well, I called her the dog lady.  She does a lot of pet sitting for people in the park.  I had already heard about her and wanted to chat a bit.  We knew we still needed to figure out if we were driving to Washington over Christmas or flying?  Duchess doesn’t fly.  However, Beverly just might be the answer to leaving her here while we fly.  That would certainly be the easy way.  We like easy ways.

We still had a lot to learn on this quad thing.  Before heading south we tried out the Trail Boss, I really liked it and thought that might be what I wanted.  However, we put the skids on when we got here.  What I really thought I wanted was different from what I learned I should want.  So, now the search is on for a 4x4 and a utility.  I’m not so sure I’m real thrilled with this.  The utility ones are bulkier and heavier. I know I’ll stress when it comes time to pulling the heavy ones north but maybe I can just cross that bridge in a few months.

Another problem I have is that some of these are so ugly.  They look like hunters should own them … ugh!   And, I just can’t buy one that isn’t “pretty”.  Unless I can find another red quad, I’m going to have to buy a different helmet.  Remember my helmet is red.  I certainly can’t wear it on a green or blue quad!

Other than that I also discovered a big calendar on the wall in the North Hall.  The activities are planned out for ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE.  There were even sign up sheets for these activities.  I knew I was in real trouble when I saw that --- commitments beyond 24 hours.  Oh boy … I’m not sure the chalk and eraser work here as well as they do on my own calendar.

Like I said … my memory bank is overflowing with all the recent stuff I’ve had to add to it.  This is a whole new thing to me being on the road  -- staying in an RV park for more than a couple weeks or so. You can tell the trouble I’m in when I've added all these different thought patterns in one little blog.  Yep ….I think I’m definitely in trouble here. 

Arrival in Phoenix - An ATV RV Park

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

Isn’t it amazing that when we go to bed knowing we have to get up early that we wake up often and many times very early?   I had a flight to catch Wednesday morning.  It was an early flight.  I used to like early flights but now even though I get out of bed early, I don’t like getting ready before it’s even light outside.   Just to be sure I wouldn’t oversleep my iPhone alarm was set for 3:00 AM, 3:15 AM and 3:20 AM.  That should do it.  Right?

My intended flight departed from the Portland airport at 6:00 ... about 40 miles away.  I still had to park and go through security and that obviously takes time.  At least that’s what I planned.  I’m sure you know about my planning and sticking with the plan.

First of all, by 2:30 AM, I was wide awake.  It wasn’t too much after that that I was on the way to the airport.  By the time I arrived at the Portland airport I had decided I didn’t want to fly to Phoenix via Dallas.  My task was to find a flight that would go non-stop and move my arrival time up by several hours.  Not a problem.  I found one flight after another.  Just as soon as I put my name on one airline’s list, I’d find another I liked better.   By 10:30 AM I had arrived in Phoenix on Alaska Airlines.

I took a picture of the picture on the wall of a prior ATV event.  This was a photo of everyone getting ready to take off from the back of the resort.

Sometimes it pays to be flexible.  It took four separate airlines and four separate listings to secure myself a seat but I was flexible and obviously it paid off.  What a morning that was but I was several hours earlier than planned and everything worked out.

As mentioned a few days back, we had originally planned this trip to check out a couple winter destination RV parks.  This is what we wanted to do.  There were several reasons for changing our mind about wintering in Arizona over Texas.  One of those reasons was that Terry would be close to his mom.  You know what they say about the best-laid plans.  Well, our original planning for the trip was changed and Terry was already in Phoenix when I arrived due to a medical situation with his father.

Yes .... the temperature was a chilly 103 !

The temperature was HOT.  It was certainly a bit warmer than we had been experiencing in Washington State. 

Gold Canyon is just a tad east of Apache Junction.  Now Apache Junction is a tad east of Mesa and even a bigger tad east of the Phoenix area.  That’s actually not a bad thing.  This time it is exactly what we wanted.  We wanted to be outside of all the traffic.  Gold Canyon is definitely outside of all the metropolitan traffic.  That’s where we went.

A little putting green at the park ..... the green will be greener once the temperatures go down.

There are a few other RV parks in the Gold Canyon area and lots of them in the Apache Junction area.  If one were to choose Apache Junction over Gold Canyon, there would be so many choices from super fancy to super drab.  And, as you might guess, the monthly cost varies according to the park.

We had a few necessities and a few wants.   As you know by now, we were actually looking for a park where ATVs were welcome and there were lots of areas to ride without loading and unloading them all the time. On top of that I really wanted a pool and a hot tub plus a paved road for riding my bike.  That’s a few of the things we were looking for.  Well, the park also had to welcome Duchess.  Perhaps, that was our #1 priority.

Yippee!  A pool and a spa is available.

We were also hoping our first stop would be our last stop.  And, it was.  We visited the Arizonian.  Actually, everything listed above was at this park.  Perhaps, that’s why it was first on our list.  With temperatures over 100 degrees, you could guess that it was certainly empty at this time.    Not much was there.  Well, there were a few folks who had already moved in but most were smart and were still up north where it was cooler.  However, winter is just around the corner and this place will be full in a few months.  In addition to rows set aside for RVs, the park also had a dedicated row just for ATV trailers.  We thought that was pretty darn cool because we hadn’t thought of that but definitely needed it.

There was a new recreation building under construction.  Not that there wasn’t already a nice one because there was but  the new building will be huge when completed.  At the rate they are going, I’m sure it will be done way before we get there.  

Will we have to take up tennis since there is a tennis court ??? 

We were happy.  We were pleased.  It was time to pick out a spot in the pet area.  Now that took a little doing.  It’s not often we really have this much of choice.  It took a while but we finally selected one on a corner across from the ATV trailers and close to the pet walk.  Actually, Terry picked it out.  You always have to have someone to blame and he wanted the trailer close.  The only thing left to do was plunk down the bucks.  We did that too.  Whee!  I’m glad that’s behind us!  Mission accomplished.

Inside the de la Cruz Restaurant

We also found a little “hole in the wall” Mexican restaurant just a short distance away.  It was de la Cruz.  We loved it.  The food was great and cheap!  Obviously, in a few months we’ll drag Jim and Sandie there and maybe even talk Doug and Toni into joining us.  Who knows?

 

Speaking of Toni … guess what I found for her?    I believe these are close to her favorite little refreshers.  Well, we’ll throw a couple at her as they pass by us on their way south … maybe.  Since I never check luggage on an airplane, do not ask how I got them to Washington for her from Phoenix.  What we do for people!!

Later that evening it was more food.  Terry’s mom had her heart set on Olive Garden so that’s where we went.  If we’d known that, we probably wouldn’t have had lunch.  Well, maybe we would have.   On Thursday I HAD to make a stop at IN-N-Out.   I couldn’t imagine leaving the Phoenix area without a stop at IN-N-Out.  That would have been horrible.  

Leaving Terry behind, it was to the airport to catch a flight back to Portland.  This was definitely a whirlwind two days for me.    Come to think of it, it wasn’t even two days.  The trip was uneventful.  I love trips that are uneventful.  In another six days we have another trip on our schedule.  This time it will be to Chicago to watch Justin "graduate" from bootcamp.  

Terry and his mom