Disappointment

Our friend Tom had told us about an RV Park they had stayed at a couple of years ago. Tom knows that I am looking for an RV Park where we can actually see the desert, not like the one we are in that is larger than the town I grew up in. From what he told us about Sunflower RV Resort, there was an area on one side where you could look out across a wash into the desert.

We decided this afternoon to go out to the community of Surprise to take a look at Sunflower RV Park. You can tell as you drive along the freeway that Spring is showing up in many places. This is Brittle Bush --

We were lining up to turn onto Thompson Ranch Road heading toward the park, when we had to stop and wait for this rather large long train --

Sunflower Park is a part of the CalAm Resorts group, the same one that the park we are staying at, Valle del Oro, belongs to. I think Sunflower may be one of their older parks. There are VERY few RVs in the park, it is mostly filled with Park Models with Arizona Rooms. Many of them look like older models. The few RV slots are scattered throughout the Resort in between Park Models.

We did find the section along the back fence overlooking a wash and the desert. Unfortunately, it is reserved for short-term transient RVs. There is no landscaping in this area.

We were disappointed in what we found at Sunflower. I guess we'll have to keep looking...

Settling In

We spent most of today settling in at Valle del Oro. This is our site for the next few months. Basically we have the space between the two palm trees.


I got somewhat ambitious and washed the interior windows and vacuumed the screens. I cleaned out the bugs and the beginnings of mildew in the tracks. The windows still look dirty as the outsides are  pretty bad. We will wait and see if we can get a mobile repair truck in to seal the leaks around the back air conditioner before we look for a crew that can do the badly needed wash and wax of Auntie Violet (don't want anyone up on the roof with a hose until we get those leaks taken care of!).

I am NOT a happy camper! We got everything unloaded from Toad II and the RV and the rod that holds my gossiping birds is missing. I KNOW I loaded it in the car! Forry thinks he may have taken it out somewhere along the line and forgot to put it back?!!

This is the view looking down the line from us. There are three empty sites that we were told were all reserved. Not sure when they are all supposed to arrive...

This is looking on the other side of the street from us. Those are all Park Models (the left sides) with "Arizona Rooms" attached. A good share of this RV resort is filled with park models that people either rent or buy. Two of the ones directly behind us are currently unoccupied. I understand that many people wait until the first of January to come down after celebrating the holidays up north.

About three-thirty Tom and Juni came over ready to go out for an early dinner. We drove out to Tia Rosa's (our favorite Mexican restaurant). Turns out they are now closed on Sundays, but open on Mondays... 

So after considerable discussion, we went for Plan B -- barbecue. Another favorite place is Waldo's Barbecue. Fortunately they were open. This is another one of those places you probably wouldn't go to unless someone had told you about it. (We had stayed at a nearby RV park a few years ago where the staff recommended it highly.) Juni ordered a Pulled Pork Nacho Plate as an appetizer that was exceptionally good along with some deep-fried dill pickles. Each couple ordered a side of ribs that along with the accompanying two sides, provided more than enough good barbecue for tomorrow as well.

After dinner we went back to Juni and Tom's to meet the new addition to their family. Cassie is a seven-month old Yorkie that Juni bottle-fed from birth after the mother didn't survive. She's a little live wire and has joined her full sister Izzie (from a previous litter) and Tica, the toy poodle. Fun!