beluga

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Monday, February 8, 2016

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.

5 comments:

  1. The rodeo place is where we stayed a couple years ago when we stopped in Wickenburg. Great campground for $5 a night, but no hookups. Looks like the roping goes on for a long time. We'll most likely head to Wickenburg March 7th after we finish at Cave Creek. We'll check out the Escapee Park.

    Another beautiful site. Glad you were able to get level:) Sasha is definitely being herself. How sweet of Lew to look at the camera:)

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  2. I just love the sites at McDowell but that one loop does have its challenges! I'm glad you were able to make it work.

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  3. So fortunate that you have Mr David's services on speed dial! We want to get to Wickenburg and Congress the next time we're over there - will have to add the preserve as well! McDowell is where we were hoping to land when we found White Tank and your views confirm we still want to find our way back there. We now have to figure out what to do on Sundays with football season over :-(((

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  4. McDowell is on our list, possibly for sometime in late April…..looking forward to more of your reviews of the campground. Leveling issues are not fun! But fortunately, Mr. David always seems to show up when you need him. My goodness, he's talented!

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  5. Glad you're all settled in and leveled up. We're camped amongst horses as riders practice mounted cowboy action shooting. There's a huge upcoming event taking place at Ben Avery and folks are preparing.

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