Monday - moving day

We left the Ponds at White Tank Regional Park this morning and moved directly east across sprawling Phoenix to McDowell Mountain Regional Park.    We'll be here, in various sites, until the end of the month.   Cindy P, Walter and Geneva will join us in a few days.  

our new backyard

Our first site (for three days - #19) has presented a bit of a challenge.   While it is quite private and spacious with beautiful, wide open views, its driveway is almost on two levels.    This presents a problem for a Beluga sized motorhome, a big problem.   My heart sunk when I pulled up in the jeep and saw where Beluga was supposed to park.    This park is full - always, so simply moving to another spot was not an option.  

Luckily Mr. David's Professional Global Positioning Service had a representative in the area and he slowly and carefully showed us how we could position Beluga diagonally across the site, and over the cement tire barriers in such a way as to be level and comfortable.....Thanks Mr. David.

So, going back to the weekend.....Saturday we took an auto hike up to Wickenburg.   We've never seen that part of Arizona and a very busy Saturday at White Tank park made our decision a good one.

On the way out of Surprise, we drove past large, lush fields of red radishes.   They made Dave's mouth water....

It was a pleasant drive on route 60 into the center of old Wickenburg where we found a great Mexican restaurant for lunch.  El Ranchero restaurant was mentioned in Arizona Highways and we found the atmosphere to be bright and cheerful, the food to be delicious.

 To kill two birds with one stone we dropped 3 loads of laundry off at the Wash Tub laundromat while we ate and explored the city.   A great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

After lunch and with a jeep full of clean and folded laundry, we  followed a hand lettered sign - Rodeo today, 1 p.m. - pointing up Constellation Road.

We're not generally rodeo fans.  I do enjoy watching barrel racing, and trick riding but its difficult to watch the rough, "cavalier" handling of stock at these events.    Having said that, we did pull up to the fence to see what was going on.

Since the ring was running Team Roping, we left and followed Constellation Road until the pavement stopped.    We drove a few miles on the well graded road, passing a number of OHVs before turning around and heading back to White Tank.    The jeep roads looked very inviting, we'll be back next time.

Another place we didn't have enough time to explore properly was the Hassayampa River Preserve.  We crossed over the wide, dry river bed as we entered Wickenburg.   We were surprised to learn that for most of its 100 miles, this river flows underground but emerges and flows year round through the Preserve.      The lush stream side habitat is home to over 280 resident and migratory bird species.    Definitely on the list for next time.

Next time we'll also find out the backstory of this intriguing little grave inside the Preserve's gates.  

Sunday afternoon the Pond's came over to watch the Super Bowl.   Some of us were very interested in the game.

Sasha watches the Super Bowl in her own way

One of us went home early to read, and one of us went into the bedroom to watch Downtown Abbey.