From Quartzsite to Tucson - a week has gone by so fast

On Saturday, Oct 29 we packed up Dos and Dolly and headed east to the Phoenix, Mesa area with an overnight stop at Saddle Mountain RV resort in the dusty little hamlet of Tonopah, AZ.  It was a very nice park with very friendly folks.  A large park with lots of open spaces but I'm sure they'll fill up pretty quick now that November is here.  I wondered why the buildings on the property looked a little derelict and empty and met a lady cleaning up the laundry room and asked her about them.  Apparently the motel like structures were built there after the RV park.  The rooms were like dorms and housed workers building the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station that is not too far away from Tonopah.  After the station was built the buildings were kept there for the maintenance crews who come in to do maintenance work on the power station.

lots of room at the inn

this saguaro is very old and needs a little support just like we do sometimes.

I have only one concern about the RV parks we've been staying at; no shade or very little shade for our rigs.  Otherwise most of the parks have been very clean and full of friendly folk.  I just don't know why northerners want to plant themselves out in the middle of nowhere in the desert with the dust and wind blowing.  Give me the ocean anytime. 

The next day we moved on to Mesa and found the Palm Gardens RV resort at 2929 E. Main Street in Mesa. 

The entrance is very small and easy to miss.

This is a well established resort with lots of park models and mobile homes that are kept in very nice condition.  There are quite a few owners who live there all year round.  Between the permanent homes spaces are left for the snowbird travellers who have not yet found their winter homes and we were one such family.  I had a laundry room and bathrooms right across the street from our site.  It was so nice not to have to travel a hundred yards or more to find the washroom facilities.   We stayed here two night, Oct 30 and 31st. 

We were invited to the Hallowe'en party on Oct. 31 in the community hall so we decided to get a free meal.  The hall was just one row behind us but we had to go around to get to it but when we got there we just laughed.  The room had tables set up all around the perimeter and most of the seats were taken by folk who obviously knew each other or they wouldn't have been all dressed up in the costumes they wore.  Wouldn't you know I didn't bring the camera.    We sat down and at once folks around us were asking where we were from and if we were staying the winter.  The dinner was chili, cornbread and cream puffs for dessert.  The chili was really good and spicy and although I'm not a cornbread fan, this cornbread was spicy and sweet at the same time.  Yummy.  The cream puffs are superstore variety.  After dinner they started to play games.  I felt a little silly watching them, so we left not long after dinner.

This was another very friendly park.  The managers went out of  their way to make us feel comfortable and even moved us to the site next to the one assigned to us so that our rig wouldn't be scratched up by the nice shady trees along the edge of the next lot.

While we were in Mesa we did a lot of running around.  We found a fuel filter (after much running around) for Dos and would have bought two of them, but they were $60.  a piece for a filter that is not very big.  We'll buy one when we come back through on our way home. 

I found a Joann Fabric and crafts store almost right behind a great Chinese buffet.  I picked up about three yards of very nice material to make little heart shaped pillows for breast cancer patients to put under their arms to keep the weight off their incisions.  More on that when I start making them.  I'll get the pillow batting in Mexico.

We started to use our water filter we picked up at Camping World in Henderson.  The water in Arizona is awwwwful; the filter takes a lot of the taste out. 

On November 1, 2011  11-1-11  we packed up and got outta town.  Our next stop was the Sunscape RV Resort east of Casa Grande, AZ.  It took about an hour to get there from Mesa.   It is another one of those stops in the desert.  Across the highway is a golf (?) course.  We drove over there to see it.  It is more a green tee box and green on each hole with desert in between the two.  We set up Dos and hopped into the car and drove into Casa Grande (about 16 miles west).  We passed lots of fields of cotton.  Now that is a dirty dusty job working in the cotton fields; and they have modern machinery making all  the dust.  Doesn't help that it is so dry out there.   It seems to me that they are planting their crops so that they are growing some, harvesting some, planting some, and having the land lay fallow.  I can understand the dust storms being created out here. 

We looked for Food City supermarket and found one on Florence Blvd.  It was full of all kinds of interesting foods.  There were a lot of Mexican/American shoppers and the produce and foodstuffs indicated that they were the main customers.  If you are south this way and looking for good prices on produce shop Food City markets.  They are much cheaper than the Fry's or Albertsons, etc.

I'll be back soon with some photos and more info on the trip from Casa Grande area to Tucson.  Later my friends.