AZ State Fair, Bike, RV Warranty, and.. Headed East..

Wednesday – Friday: October 31- November 2 , 2012 

Wednesday we are at the Phoenix Metro RV Park just inside Phoenix AZ on Highway 17.  It’s another 55+ park with a pool and hot tub spa.  We will be here until Friday when we are hoping the RV warranty work will be done and then we will finally start heading east.

Our site in the Phoenix Metro RV Park.

These 55+ parks are all over the place here in the south west.  I never really knew why people would want to retire anywhere without an ocean or at least a big body of water.  We now know why, it’s the dry heat.  We have been in the desert south west now for 3 weeks and every day the weather is mostly the same.  It’s clear blue skies all day starting off crisp in the morning with temps ranging from 55 overnight to 85 in the day time.  You can be outside all day without really being hot.  We also know that we are here in the part of the year that has some of the best weather.  It gets really hot in the summer and the range is 65 daytime with 45 overnights in the winter.  But still there is no humidity, snow, or major storms.   Also, the area is within 3 hours of LA, Vegas, Phoenix, and Mexico.  We have so far decided that we will winter somewhere here next year to see what that is like.

So, Wednesday Patty’s new folding bike arrives at our friends (Paul and Sue) RV Park.  We made arrangements with them to have dinner at a halfway point (we are 12 miles apart) and get the bike.  We met them at the Texas Roadhouse in Peoria just off of 101 west after we had some minor difficulty with going to different restaurants.  Seems there are several Texas Roadhouses in Peoria.  We had not been in a Texas Roadhouse for many, many years.  The food and company were excellent.  For those who have not been there the rolls are extremely addicting.  We talked and shared over dinner and drinks about our adventures and experiences from our travels.  We have all done a lot of stuff in just a few months!  We ended the evening with getting the bike into our truck and then with hugs, handshakes and “see you down the road”.

Thursday we slept in till 9 am without even trying! I started the day by putting Patty’s folding bike together.  It was real easy, only needed to put air in the tires and to tighten a few items and it was ready in an hour.  Patty and I rode around the park for a while for her to get a feel for the new bike.  She likes the bike as she is lower to the ground and she can sit up on it instead of bent over on the old mountain bike. 

Patty's first ride on her new bike.

Cool art near our site we saw while biking.

Real life stuff.  Still need to do laundry.

After riding the bikes we did laundry and hung at the pool.  Then at 4 pm we went to the Arizona State fair.  If anyone wants to go to a great state fair, go to this one, it’s huge and with great weather.  This fair has more rides that a lot of the amusement parks have.  It has 3 Ferris wheels, a log flume ride, and a bungee jump just to name a few.  The fair has so much food and tons of shopping and the shopping is not just crap stuff either. 

This is the Arizona State fair mascot.

Thought this was just cool.

The ferris wheel we rode.

Fair pic taken from the ferris wheel.

I think this is the tallest drop ride I have seen.

We got new king size memory foam pillows and an engraved wooded sign with our names for the front of the RV when parked.  Patty also got some more warm weather clothes as we both have gotten rid of a lot of clothes in the past couple of weeks.  We rode the largest of the Ferris wheels at 150 feet high.  We both pigged out with mass quantities of south west fair food.  I had a sausage corn dog first.  Then later, we both got a foot long sausage with jalapeno peppers and onions sandwich.  The sausage, peppers, and onions were all cooking on a real wood fire.  Damn did it smell good!  We were stuffed and couldn't eat all of the sandwiches.   It was another great day!

Yummy!

Our new sign.

Now for Friday and to get the warranty work complete so we can head east.  The RV shop opens at 8:30 am so we decided to be there by 8:15 and be there when they open.  We got up at 6:30 and were on the highway 17 going north by 8 am.  It is only 10 miles to Anthem RV so we were there and had dropped the RV before 8:30, yea us!  Anthem had just opened when we walked in and right on the desk was an unopened box from Dometic with the AC part.  We were in business now as all of the parts were there; the ladder, the AC blower motor, and the closet hardware.

The hot air balloon just floated over Highway 17 as we went to the RV shop.

We were hoping that the work would be done by noon and then we could get to Benson AZ 3 hours away.  We went for breakfast, both got haircuts, stocked up on wine, and then filled up the truck with fuel by noon.  Still, no call from Anthem RV about completion.  Patty called Anthem RV and left a message for them to call us with an update.

Couldn't believe this, christmas tree already!  This was in the store where we got wine.

While we waited, we pulled into the shade at an outlet mall and took a nap in the truck for an hour.  It’s now about 1:30 so I get out the computer and Patty on her smart phone and we start to look for closer RV parks for tonight.  We decided on a Passport America Park in Casa Grande AZ about 80 miles away at $21 a night with full hookups.  This will at least get us out of the Phoenix metro area and headed in the right direction.

Then at the outlet mall they were putting up this real tall christmas tree.

Anthem finally calls a little after 2 to say the work is done.  We are there in 10 minutes!  I got a chance to see the warranty bill that was billed back to Forrest River.  Wow!  The bill without parts was just under $1,800.  We got hitched up and were on the road by 2:50.  Unfortunately it was now going to be the start of rush hour going through Phoenix.  Traffic was much like the east coast but didn’t go as far out of town as in the NY metro area.

We arrived at our new RV Park, Sundance 1, around 5 Pm.  The office closes at 3 pm so we had to call the camp host who got us all taken care of and into a nice pull through site.  We set up, had a pork chop dinner on the grille and then went to relax in the spa and pool.  Life is great!

Our site in Casa Grande.

This is where the facilities are.  Looks like the south west.

Tomorrow we are planning to bike around the 657 site park, plan where we go next, and sight see a bit.  We will continue our travel east on Sunday.

Stay tuned!