Water
and electric sites for $15 a night and a free dump station just
around the corner, what else can you ask for?
Things
are winding down for our winter break but we have a few things to do
before then. From Bisbee we circled back thru Casa Grande and then
headed up to Prescott Valley again but instead of staying with John
and Debbie we dropped in at a Shanty Shakers RV Rally at Orchard
Ranch RV Resort.
 |
| A happy bunch of Shanty Shakers |
We
like to surprise people and I think we achieved that. Our hosts Garth and Judy had everyone over for dinner TWICE and had side
trips to local spots laid on. A potluck at John and Debbies, catching up with everyone's news and
San Diego happenings filled in the rest of the time!
 |
| Our gracious hosts Garth and Judy (right) |
 |
| Potluck. |
 |
| Jerome iis one of many mining towns in Arizona |
Pretty
soon it was all over and we had to decide where to go for the next
week. November 1st was approaching rapidly and with it our
arrival at Sundance 1 for another winter. It's amazing that will be
the 5th winter out of the last 6 that we will have been in
Sundance!
 |
| Sedona is famous for the vivid red rocks |
So
what to do? I am due to be in another paint out in Sedona in mid
November. We've heard a lot about the place which is rightly famous
for the Red Rocks on which it is built. In order to have a feel for
the place we decided to spend a few days exploring the area first.
 |
| Flowering cactus |
We
stayed at the Elks Lodge which unfortunately was closed for most of
the time, and from there we looked around.
 |
| The Church on the Rock |
First
impressions where of traffic. This place is jammed with it! Driving
south on 179 along a marked scenic highway we saw a backup that
lasted 3 miles coming the other way. There weren't any wrecks on the
road, it was pure congestion. Every scenic overlook was full,
stopping at the Church on the Rock we found the last parking space,
People were everywhere pushing and shoving. Not our kind of place at
all.
Time
to move on and we have less than a week before the big winter
layover, but only a couple of hundred miles to go so we thought about
where we would like to spend the next 4 days and the Escapees North
Ranch came up.
 |
| Wickenburg is a Western Town. Even the street signs wear cowboy hats!! |
A
pleasant spot about halfway to Casa Grande and part of our RV'ing and
Escapee history since we did “RV Boot Camp” before we even bought
an RV.
 |
| One of the several Antique Stores |
Since
then we stayed there in the first couple of weeks fulltiming whilst
we waited for the house to sell and again when our friends Graham and
Elaine came over from England and we went to the Blue Grass Festival.
 |
| This is where Elaine bought her Fox Fur stole that she wears in 1940's events in UK. |
That
all seems so long ago! North Ranch was just as we remembered it, low
key and friendly and fairly busy. It won't be much longer until the
snowbirds stream in after Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Naturally
we visited the Elks Lodge! We collect the unique “Pins” (Badges
to our UK friends) that each lodge have and when we checked we didn't
have one from here. As usual a great big Elks welcome awaited us and
we were soon chatting away with a whole new group of friends. They
invited us to partake in a dice game and we won a drink for 25c. We
were invited back the next night for dinner and Bingo and because my
membership number ended in zero we won another drink for 25c so
dinner for 2 and 2 rounds of drinks came to less than $20! We had a
tough time tearing ourselves away, but we had to.
November
1st means it's our last day traveling for this year. We are due
back in Sundance today for our winter stay. E-mails are arriving for
the various groups and clubs we are involved with, we can feel the
call of “Home”. Fill the rig up with propane, put the fuel
stabilizer in the tank and fill it for the last time. Back the rig
into our “New” space (It points us the opposite way from the one
we've been in previously, which gives the patio shade during the
day). Set the jacks, put out the slides, set the satellite dish, plug
in the power, water and sewer.
We're
HOME!
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