Monday, January 21, 2019
We left Needles the morning of January 17- destination Casa Grande. AZ. Our route will take us 291 miles transitioning from the Mojave Desert to the Sonora Desert. So this is how our journey went right from the get go. Jil’s “smart” phone leads us directly to a railroad underpass that’s so low I’d have to duck to get under. Our 13’ high rig definitely won’t fit! Another RV’er apparently fell for the same directions from his computer/”smart” phone and is in the process of trying to get turned around in an area shorter than his rig. Our options are (1) back up a block, first having to unhitch the toad from the RV or (2) make use of the dirt lot that conveniently is on our right. We choose (2) albeit proceeding very slowly to avoid the giant holes. We escape from that mess and make it to highway 95.
Highway 95 is the roller coaster highway. It’s pretty curvy going through the rugged hills, then vascillates up and down as the road straightens out but dips into innumerable dry washes, typical of desert two lane highways. Then comes the “nightmare highway”. We turn east on highway 62 towards Parker, AZ. That road has more potholes than any 20 roads we have taken. We fuel up in Parker- $1.90 a gallon cheaper than in Needles!
We pick up AZ 95 and continue to Quartzite. This town on 3000 souls hosts the largest gathering of RV’s in the world, some estimates are over a million, all here to socialize and/or attend the Quartzite Showcase and Swapmeet. The show starts next week but thousands have already gathered making forward progress rather sluggish.
We are successful escaping Quartzite and head east on I-10 towards Phoenix. At Highway 85, the Phoenix Bypass we head south to Gila Bend in order to avoid the heavy Phoenix traffic, then east on I-8 to Casa Grande and our destination the Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort.
Okay, now to our stay at Palm Creek. The resort is huge covering about 1.5 square miles with more than 3000 RV and more permanent manufactured home sites. Most of the folks here are from the colder climes of the U.S. and Canada. It is very resort like as it includes amenities found at finer hotels. It contains multiple swimming pools, a golf course, a library, a ballroom, a huge mail room, 8 tennis courts, 32 pickleball courts, a softball field, many pet areas, and a huge woodworking shop. I’ve probably left a few things out. The only reason to leave the grounds is to go grocery shopping. Needless to say, this place is pretty nice.
We are here for 5 days to visit friends. Dick and Ellen live down the street from us in Reno. The have purchased a home in nearby Robson Ranch in which to spend the winter months. Jim and Connie also have a winter home in nearby Arizona City. They are the folks which we volunteer with at the Bonneville Dam. We met with both couples and really enjoyed our visits.
We continue our journey tomorrow, January 22. We will continue progress towards south Texas with several stops in between. More to come as we continue our journey.
Travel With Jil and Mike 