La Paz County Park. Caravan Club

April 16-20. Lazy Daze Caravan Club, La Paz County Park, Parker, AZ.

We were invited to the Lazy Daze Caravan Club campout. Arrived on Wednesday. Dry camping in an open field very close to the Colorado River. There were 57 rigs in attendance. Each morning there was a coffee hour starting at 6:30. During the day people played washer toss, horse shoes, etc. Carols friends are teaching her how to play Mexican Train. It’s a domino type game. There are boxes of books piled on a table. You put your extras in the box and take what you want. Carol restocked her book supply. There was a large off-leash area plus the river so Gopher had a good time as well. On Friday & Saturday nights we went out to dinner with friends. Saturday afternoon was the general meeting of the Caravan Club. We were made new members. Our member number is 4957. We had a wonderful time meeting so many nice people. Especially Don & Carol Ashley from Prescott, AZ and Bill & Francis Surbrook from San Diego, CA. They introduced us around, took us to dinner, and spent lots of time with Carol. We hope to see them all again perhaps this winter if we get to this area again.

We left on Sunday morning about 8am for the Montclair, Ca area. Our ultimate destination for the first leg of this trip. We’re staying at the East Shore RV Park in San Dimas. It’s a County park about 20 minutes from the Lazy Daze factory.

We both wish Gopher wasn't as protective of Carol as she is. Especially when men approach Mom quickly. She lunges at them like she's going to bite. It happened twice at the Caravan Club campout. Fortunately no harm so far but it makes us both nervous. I keep her on a very short leash when other people are around. When she's away from the camper and away from Mom she's a completely different dog. Calm, well by her standard at least, and friendly. She's Carols dog, make no mistake of that. In some ways I don't mind. When I go into a store and Carol & Gopher stay in the camper I know no one will get close to Carol without Gopher going ballistic. Oh well. In other respects she's a good dog. Just need to watch her closely with men when Carol's nearby. I'm going to make up a sign saying "Stay Away From the Dog" and put it outside the camper.

Buckskin Mountain State Park. Parker, AZ

Roosevelt Lake to Parker, AZ

Left Roosevelt Lake about 8:30am, Sunday. Drove through Phoenix and stayed at the White Tank Mountain Regional Park which is just west of the city. A nice campground in the high desert area. Lots of cactus. Our campground is in a suburb of Phoenix. There were hundreds of newly built homes. As best we could tell, few were occupied. Reminds us of the overbuilding back home. Some of the same national builders; Pulte & Centrex. On Monday morning we took the long way to Parker, AZ. Drove through miles of open land with the occasional ranch.

Stopped in Parker for gas & shopping then on to the Buckskin Mountain State Park. The Park is right on the Colorado River. We have a little view of the river from our campsite. The water is clear & cool. Gopher went swimming, I waded in with her. Carol put her water shoes on but didn’t want to get wet. Tomorrow perhaps.

Tuesday: Drove into Lake Havasu City today. On the way we stopped by the other two state park campgrounds to see what they were all about. Where we are is by far, the nicest.

Did laundry & grocery shopping in the City. The local to Arizona grocery store is Bashas’. Reminds us of an upscale Publix. The City was planned and built by Robert P. McCulloch; the inventor and owner of McCulloch chainsaw. The City is a typical very touristy place. Like Myrtle Beach, Panama City Beach, etc. T-shirt shops, every chain restaurant you can think of, a water theme park, etc. Visited the original London Bridge which Mr. McCulloch relocated here in 1968. Went to the Lion’s Dog Park for a while. A women we met at the Southwest Lazy Daze Campout was raised here. When her father passed away, the family “bought” a bench near the dog park in his honor by having a plaque made for the bench. She asked us to take a look at it. I took a picture of Carol sitting on the bench and e-mailed it to Di. After that we went back to the campground. Won’t be going back to Lake Havasu City; once is enough.

Thursday: Our reservations here ran through today. We had decided to stay through the weekend so I went to the office to see what sites would be available. We moved to Site 11; the most scenic location in the campground. Right on a small bluff overlooking the river.

Went into town on Saturday. Mailed post cards to Izzy & Finn, did laundry & grocery shopping then went to a car wash to get the worst of the dirt off the motorhome.

While we’re enjoying our stay here, this is not a quiet campground during the day on weekends. There is no speed limit on the river. Jet skis and very loud speed boats are going from sunrise to sunset. We’re glad to see night come because it quiets down.

On Monday the temperature varied from 98* to 103* depending on who you asked. Thank goodness for the A/C in the motorhome.

Today, Tuesday, the temperature is back to a more comfortable 85*. Supposed to cool off a little over the next few days. Tomorrow we leave for the Lazy Daze Caravan Club rally at La Paz County Park. Only a few miles from here.

Southwest Lazy Daze Campout

Thursday, April 3^rd.

We were invited to join the Southwest Lazy Daze Club for their campout at Roosevelt Lake, AZ from today through Saturday. Roosevelt Lake is Central Arizona's largest lake, located northeast of Phoenix in the upper Sonoran Desert within the Tonto National Forest. We left Payson about 8:30 stopping by Wal-Mart then filled up with propane. Arrived at Roosevelt Lake about 11am. There were 16 LD’s by the end of the day. In the evening there was a cocktail hour with snacks then a campfire. We both thoroughly enjoyed the company. On Friday there was a pot luck supper, on Saturday an ice cream social in the afternoon then another cocktail hour that evening. Carol & I had the most wonderful time as we always do at these functions. We took a ride on Friday and found a nice lakeside area to park. Gopher had a nice swim. We were invited to join the California Lazy Daze Caravan Club at their big campout in Parker, AZ on the 16^th of this month. We’re looking forward to that. There are supposed to be over a hundred LD’s there.

Winslow to Payson, AZ

Left the campground at Homolovi Ruins SP about 9am heading for Payson, AZ. A clear, cool, not windy day. After seeing nothing but brown desert landscapes starting in West Texas, the mountains and pine & juniper trees growing on the Mongollon Plateau were a welcomed change. All brown gets old after a while. We both agreed we prefer the green of trees. The elevation at times, was just over 7.000'. There were patches of snow here & there.
We stayed at the Houston Mesa Campground in the Tonto National Forest. The campground is just inside the city limits of Payson. An attractive campground, heavily wooded but located right on the highway. OK for our use as an overnight stop, but too much traffic noise. We chose it because it's right on our way to the Lazy Daze Camp-out on the Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Spend the afternoon trying to identify different birds, trees and flowers with our reference books.

Standin' on the Corner

Winslow, AZ.

Drove into Winslow this morning. Went grocery shopping then to the Downtown area.

Visited The Standin on the Corner Park. The name is from the #1 hit,Take It Easy,sung by the Eagles in the early ‘70’s. The first line of the song is

“Well I’m runnin’ down the road tryin’ to loosen my load”

The second stanza continues

“Well I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,

Such a fine site to see,

It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.

Etc.,etc. Look at the mural in the photo and you’ll see an eagle and the girl in the flatbed Ford.

We toured the Old Trails Museum. Very interesting. Items from the old Route 66, the Anasazi, the Santa Fe Railway, cowboy days, etc. After that we spent the morning at the McHood Park & Clear Creek Reservoir. Gopher had a good swim. Stopped by the Flying J to fill up with water and dump the tanks. Back to the Homolovi SP for the night.

Holbrook, Az

Holbrook, AZ & Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, AZ

We left our campsite in the parking lot of the gift shop about 9am. Headed for Holbrook, AZ. The windshield got hit by a rock in Texas and had a dime sized chip. The GPS unit located a place in Holbrook where they repaired such things. Turned out to be a very interesting side trip. The guy who repaired the chip was a local. He worked out of the garage at his house; a double wide modular home. At one time he sold cars at a local car dealership. Whenever a tradesman came into the dealership to work on one of the cars he would ask them how much money they made doing what they did. He soon realized he could make more money by being self employed. Besides repairing stone chips, he was a locksmith and did window tinting as well. Charged $30 for the repair. I would have thought $50 a fair price. He said he was always looking for other trades to add to his list of things to do. Had six children ranging from 5 to 25. His wife said no more kids. :-)

Asked him if there was a bakery in town. He said there used to be a great one but the women who ran it died and took all her secret receipts with her to the grave. No more bakery. I asked if there were any interesting sites to see in town. He said the jail was nice. Once his uncle was in jail on the second floor cell block. He would go down to the jail and throw apples up to the window for his uncle to catch until the jailers noticed and ran him off. We drove around the downtown area. Nothing of great note.

After that we looked for the Cholla Lake County Park; our destination for the day. We found the park but it was closed so we continued to the Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow. Turned out to be a great choice. The attached pictures & signs tell the story.

From the Park brochure “In the high grassland of the 14^th century northern Arizona, an ancient people found a home along the Little Colorado River. These people, the Hisat’sinom (known to archaeologists as the Anasazi), paused in their migrations to till the rich flood plain and sandy slopes before continuing north to join people already living on the mesas…people who are today known as the Hopi.”

The main ruin site was easily accessible by a well paved trail. In addition we were able to walk around some other areas of the park and tour the visitor’s center/gift shop. Cooked salmon, sweet potatoes & zucchini on the grill. We had a very enjoyable day.

Finally the wind died down. A nice breeze, but no more of the 40mph gusts.

Petrified Forest National Park

Petrified Forest

We left the Red Rock Campground in Gallup, NM about 8:30. There were three of us camping there last night. Apparently the campground is not staffed this time of the year. No way to pay the $20/night fee. A night of free camping with electric & water hookups. Can’t beat that! Before leaving I left a meal out for this poor, undernourished dog that hangs out around the campground. Fed her a big meal last night as well. Gopher was barking at the dog but I shut her up and reminded her just how lucky she was.

Did some laundry in town. On the way to the Petrified Forest we crossed the continental divide. Entered the Pacific Time Zone in Arizona. Except for the Navajo Nation, Arizona does not observe daylight savings time. Stopped at the AZ Welcome Center and picked up lots of brochures to help plan the next two weeks of our trip.

Another very, very windy day. A steady 20 to 25mph wind with gusts to 40mph per the weather forecast.

We arrived at the Petrified Forest National Park about 10:00 am. Toured the visitor center. Carol bought a really neat hat; lots of bright colors. See the photos.

I asked a Park Ranger about trails we could use the scooter on. He marker our map for us with some accessible trails. We then took the drive through the Painted Desert part of the park. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy so the colors were not as brilliant as they might have been. Most of the stopping places had parking areas where Carol could see things. We used the scooter to walk the Puerco Pueblo Trail where we could “Walk amidst the remains of a hundred room village, occupied by the ancestral Puebloan people between A.D. 1250 and 1400”. Saw some petroglyphs as well. After that we walked the Crystal Forest Trail that took us through “a landscape of exquisitely colorful petrified logs”. The 0.8 mile long trail was paved but in poor condition, very narrow and steep in places. Carol thought this was the most wonderful scoot. As we drove through the Park, you could see dust storms everywhere. Not a very nice day for a visit. I was talking to a Park Service maintenance man and asked about the winds. He said it’s mostly always windy around here. He lives “off the grid” in a rural area not far from here. Has solar power, a diesel generator & propane. Uses the propane for the refrigerator & heat. He’s about to buy a wind generator. This mornings local paper had an article about electric service on the Navajo Reservation lands. About 15,000 people have no electric power. This number represents about 75% of all Americans who have no power.

Toured the Rainbow Forest Museum & Gift Shop at the south Park entry. They have a small, but very interesting, exhibit about dinosaurs that inhabited this area

Tonight we’re staying in the parking lot of a gift shop on Rt 180. It’s just as you exit the National Park. There is a sign that says “Free RV Parking”. Right now there are four of us. Not much of a view but the price is right. There are no campgrounds in the Park. Tomorrow we head into Holbrook, AZ. A town that in the days of the Old West was “too rough for women and children”. We’ll see what it’s like now