The Return of the 50-Amp Pavement Princess

After almost 7 weeks of uninterrupted boondocking (except for the quick trips to town to dump our tanks), we finally tore ourselves away from our desert paradise and returned to civilization.

But not before we experienced more fun and adventure!

We did manage to hike up to Palm Canyon, although the day we picked was windy and quite chilly. We saw the palms in the sunshine this year!

Along with us on the hike were Deb & Rod, JoAnn & Doug, and former owners of the Broken Arrow Horse Camp and RV Park in Custer, South Dakota, Geri & Larry. JoAnn & Doug came back for 2 weeks to enjoy the peace and quiet of the desert with us. We were all ready for a late lunch after the windy 1-mile round trip from the parking lot to the palms, so a stop at Taco Mio in Quartzsite for tacos was the order of the day.

We first met Geri & Larry when we stayed at Broken Arrow in 2008. We were incredibly impressed with the warm, friendly way they treated all their guests, and actually extended our stay there a couple of times before we got away that year. We returned in 2009 and got to know these great folks better. We were surprised to learn from Pat and Mike Mcfall that they sold the campground recently, but delighted they are now enjoying the freedom of retirement and fulltiming. They came to spend a few days with us out in the desert and try this boondocking thing.

While they were with us, they invited us out with them for a day of 4-wheeling:

Larry let Jim & I ride his 4-wheeler and he rode his dirt bike. Geri had her own 4-wheeler. We rode all over the place, coming across this mine shaft at one point. Larry, Geri and Jim are examining the entrance to the shaft, wondering just how deep that thing is!

We also revisited a place I found a geocache last year, this time Geri found it. Me, Larry and Geri look for the geocache:

And of course, we enjoyed happy hours and meals together several times.

JoAnn, Geri, Deb and I on the “Girl’s side”:

Rod, Larry and Doug on the Boy’s side:

Rod, me, Deb, Geri and Larry enjoying the campfire:

But, with the temperatures warming into the 80’s during the day, we knew it wasn’t going to be long before we needed air conditioning. Besides which, the snakes and other critters are already starting to make an appearance, so it was time to go.

We are once again in the Phoenix metro area, this time at what we call a “mega-plex” RV resort in Mesa with close to 1,800 sites! Even so, I think we have a smidge more room than we did last year. We’ve found the staff and neighbors to be very friendly here. Within a day, neighbors on 3 sides had introduced themselves. Everyone has a smile and greeting. We’re close to all the necessary shopping and services, so now, we’re enjoying the 50-amp pavement life.

Here we are:

We have an appointment to have some repair and maintenance work done on the Castle next week. I’ve been washing and grooming the dogs and will get them to the vet for regular shots while here. Of course, there’s a lot of cleaning to be done too, inside and out.

Since we’re working so much getting things cleaned up and all, we need to go relax by the pool in the afternoon! We are sure enjoying the luxury of having full hook-ups, too.

While we were out in the desert, we decided to try an experiment with the dogs – I was tired of having to maneuver around their crates all the time, whether we had them in the main living area or in the bedroom. So, we figured out some alternatives. We took the bedding out of the crates and now put that on the floor at the foot of the bed when we go to bed. It took a couple of nights for them to understand that once they are put to bed, they need to stay there all night, but they are fine with that now. If we’re going out for awhile during the day, we put their water in the back and close the sliding door so they stay in the bedroom/bath area. That way, they aren’t barking at everyone who walks by the rig. We now have to put their food containers in the shower though – Jasmine figured out one day that she can open the container and help herself!

After we finish with our stuff here in town, we may spend a couple of weeks at either Usery Mountain or McDowell Mountain campgrounds before we leave this area, heading to who knows where!