Full Circle - Almost Home

We drove from Chloride, Arizona which is about 18 miles north west of Kingman to the Escapee's North Ranch RV Park in Congress near Wickenburg yesterday.  No problems - or should I say no problems with the RV, Buddy - different story.  He's just too darn smart.  Knew exactly that it was travel day - he hunkered up inside my drawer, fought Dave when we had to get him out, got the medicine into his mouth which he promptly threw up all over the carpet.  Ugh.  But we were hoping enough got down his throat so we did not attempt to try to put another dose in him.  Just took in the slides, secured everything and off we drove, praying that when we got to the next stop I would not find a horrific mess on the floor as well as on him.  Oh - and the night before we left Chloride - dozens of coyotes were screaming their heads off.  Neighbor RVer said they came right by his site and stayed put.

Bye Chloride

Helter skelter mountains

Wide open nothingness

Dave drove Route 93 south, the future Interstate 11, all the way into Wickenburg then turned up north for 8 miles to North Ranch once we got into Congress.  We did not stop,  just drove on for 183 miles.  We could have driven all the way to Picacho but we wanted a couple of days to clean out the RV and package up stuff so our move into the winter home is quick.  And being members of Escapees, the stay here is very inexpensive.

Saguaros - we are definitely back in Arizona

And Joshua Trees

Lots of Joshua Trees

Got into North Ranch by noon and it was 91 and climbing.  By 5pm the inside temperature was 95 and the outside 94.  I hate this warm weather but we need to get acclimated to the heat.  Buddy - also hates the heat and he sleeps in the shower - I think the coolness of the ceramic is soothing.  And guess what?  No accidents or doo-doos.  Can't figure him out.  And - it was 6 months ago exactly to the day that we were here at North Ranch on our way out this past April.  Wow.

We arrived, North Ranch - Escapees

For the next couple of days it will be in the mid to high 90s, then by Sunday starting to get more manageable and be in the mid 80s.  In Picacho it is the same temps so we are dragging our feet.  This summer's trip was amazing.  All told we put 5,150 miles on the RV; 5,150 miles pulling the car and the car having another 3000 miles or more of us just tooling around.  Saw some awesome things and the weather could not have been better.  Only 2 days of rain and those days did not keep us inside.  No breakdowns on the RV, did have 2 little fixings that had to be done and those will be more modified this winter.

This will be the last post of the summer. If we do something or go somewhere new, will post to the blog and alert that an update is available.  What are our plans for next summer?  We are thinking of heading straight up into Montana and then into Alberta/British Columbia.  Tentative.  Banff and Jasper National Parks are calling our names.  We'll see.

Old Miner's Day in Chloride

What a hoot!  Yesterday we spent ‘up town’ watching the celebrations of “Old Miner’s Days” in Chloride, gunfights, parade, yard sales, food and spirits, was live music although we did not stick around for that, and watching all the locals shootin' the breeze on every street corner.

Driving around town, came across these nibblers

Yard art

Parked by a business

AZ's oldest continuously run post office

I told Dave later in the day that I would love to live in this tiny little town.  At one snippet in time there were over 2000 people living here with over 80 mines going full blast.  Then it became a ghost town and now about 250 people live here full-time.  Some homes are really really nice and some are really really sad.  You can see abandoned mines all over the town if you look hard enough.  There is one right here inside our campground.

20 minutes later, a real banquet going on now!

Some homes are amazing!

This one was built in 1873, garage is bigger than house!

Howard Hughes would be impressed - his invention is now art!

The parade was very cute.  The Grand Marshall was a woman who had the longest running business in town, a second hand store.  Tonight we are going to go to Digger Dave’s - the local restaurant/saloon.  The town boasts the oldest continuously running post office in the state.  And the oldest still-operating mine, although we don’t know where that is - could be over the mountains which butt up against the town.  Lots of coyotes at night.  Lots.

Art work for a fence

We are going to Digger Dave's this evening

A rolling HOG diner

The locals

While standing watching the parade I (of course I did!) started a conversation with the lady standing beside me.  She and her husband just moved to Chloride in June of this year from….......
you guessed it!  Ohio!  She said that she visited this town 8 years ago and said that one day she wanted to live here.  Vo-al-la!!  Winters are mild, a couple of days down below freezing, rarely snows, and summers no hotter than 92.  Pleasant.

The emcee's for the parade

That same station wagon, with a cart behind

The re-enactors for the shootout

That's Bill, our neighbor, in a 1949 Jeep truck (the real McCoy)

My favorite - a miner and his pack horse

I guess when you eat at Digger Dave's, you leave a message.

Lots of ‘HOGs’ came into to watch and participate in the fun, and people driving antique cars.  Since we saw so many cars going to the parade we walked it, only about 1/4 mile.  No grocery store or gas station, you need to do your business in Kingman.  A convenience store that sells the bare minimum, there is 1 church (Baptist) that has been around for 125 years. A VFW hall which looks like it does a good business, a playground but there are only 2 children in this town (they are driven to Kingman every day for school).  But plenty of quietness if that’s what you want.

Wednesday we pack up and move again, this time closer to Picacho.  Haven't decided yet where we will be - this will be our 'clean out and pack up' time that we go through.  Just makes it easier when we get back to just move stuff into the park model and be able to put the RV into storage in one day.

Back in Arizona Via a Zig Zag Drive Out of Utah

Yesterday was a crazy zig-zaggy kind of day traveling.  We left Kanab, Utah at 9am without a problem.  We were able to drug up Buddy about an hour before by grinding his pill down to powder and adding a tidge of water then using a medicine dropper and forcing it down his throat.  We hoped that the drug would work and he not get berserk like he did on the prior trip.

Formations right outside of Kanab

Getting my fix of red rock - will be a long, long time till
we see it again

Zion NP as seen from Hurricane, Utah

Zion National Park

We started our drive headed for the city of Hurricane which was west of Kanab and it sits on Interstate 15 in Utah.  Crossed back over into Utah and picked up I15 south to Las Vegas.  Through St. George then on through the Virgin River Canyon which was very spectacular in rock formations.  Dropped way down and along the river for about 15 miles then came back out of the canyon and hit the speed bump back into Arizona - again.  Traveled along in a wide open nothingness, drove into Nevada.

Dropped down into Hurricane to catch Interstate 15

Into Virgin River Canyon 

Muddy Virgin River flowing beside us through Canyon

And out of canyon near Mesquite

Las Vegas showed in our sights not long after and into the traffic and congestion of Vegas.  Ugh.  Dave was shocked that people allowed him to change lanes when he put on his turn signal, imagine that.  Left Vegas and headed south on Route 93, passed through Boulder and had Lake Mead Recreational Area and Hoover Dam on our left.  Lots of people visiting the dam.

Lots of wide open nothingness

Vegas, baby

Lake Mead - big bathtub ring also

Colorado River just south of Hoover Dam

Down into the Colorado River Canyon, spotted the Colorado in the distance and continued on.  Wide open nothingness.  Barren, dry, hot.  But we plugged along.  Not a peep out of Buddy all that time.  Stopped to gas up about 20 miles from our turnoff, jumped back on the route and got into Chloride by 1:15pm.  We entered back into Pacific time so our 283 miles was done in a little over 4 hours.  Utah to Arizona to Utah to Arizona to Nevada to Arizona.  Moved back and forth between Mountain and Pacific time zones for 5 1/2 hours.  Crazy.  And once we opened up the slides and started putting the RV into ‘rest’ mode, Buddy came out bright eyed and happy.

On onward we trekked

Home for the next week

We are in a small campground in Chloride, Arizona, about 15 miles north west of Kingman.  Chloride  is the oldest living silver mining town in Arizona and has the oldest continuously operating Post Office in Arizona.  Will check out the town and see what there is to see.  Will be here for 1 week, getting acclimated back to the extremely dry, sunny, hot weather before dropping down to Picacho for the winter.