Gold Valley, Arizona: At Home In The Wild, Wild, West

Busy day today in the Wild, Wild, West. Not sure why I feel like it's the Wild, Wild, West. At least not in this day and age. Previously, 100 years or more ago? Absolutely, this was the epi-center of the Wild, Wild, West.

We are still camped in the Usery Mountain Regional Park at the base of Usery Mountain. The mountain's nickname is "Scarface" due to an exposed rock wall visible for mile around. Apparently a portion of the earth slipped/dropped exposing a section of rock 100 feet tall and half a mile long. Very distinctive look which you can just make out in the photo above.

Ever wonder how places get their names? I do. Sometimes a place/mountain is named for someone as a honor or after the person who 'found' it. I put that in quotes because it is almost always an insult to the Native Americans who had lived in the area for generations and never realized the place was lost. Or that it needed a name other than what they had called the place/mountain for centuries.

In any case, white settlers did rename this mountain and the story of how this mountain came to be called Usery Mountain is a little strange. Turns out Usery Mountain is named for King Usery. No, he was not a real king, that was just his first name. King Usery was cattleman in the 1870's who was a having a tough time making ends meet just by raising cattle. So he and a buddy named Blevins decided to supplement their income by robbing the Globe-Mesa stagecoach. The take? Two bars of silver.

When the stagecoach driver reported the robbery, was able to identify both the the robbers as Usery & Blevins. Someone else had seen King Usery digging near a swampy area. The silver was soon recovered and Usery & Blevins arrested. Usery was sentenced to seven years in jail. After serving two years he was pardoned by the Governor of Arizona. Who knows why he was pardoned.

Even stranger than a pardon after two years was the fact that the mountain was named Usery Mountain after King Usery. Maybe naming mountains after stage coach robbers was a tradition of the Wild, Wild, West. I don't know. In any case, it makes for an interesting story.

Last night, securely camped at the base of Usery Mountain, we slept with the windows open and were rewarded with caresses of cool air all night long. Cool and warm at the same time. You need to run the air conditioners all day to stay cool as the temperatures reach the mid-nineties. They can call it a dry heat however it's still hot....

In the evenings we turn off the air conditioning to take advantage of the quickly dropping temperatures. The air here is fresh and clean -- really delightful. Last night that fresh air swept through the RV replacing the air that had been conditioned all day. I imagine that's what the air is like in heaven -- cool, gentle and refreshing.

Today we looked at several possible RV Resorts in the Apache Junction area and found one we really like. So if we decide to stay in the Phoenix area this winter, we will probably stay in the Apache Junction section. Apache Junction is the eastern most part of Phoenix (at least for now); about 35 miles from the Phoenix airport. Phoenix just keeps growing and growing.

We also want to look at two other parts of Arizona: Case Grande, Arizona is about an hour south of Phoenix and Yuma, Arizona, which is about three hours southwest. Yuma s very close to the border of Mexico. In fact its only about ten miles from Yuma to the town of Algodones, Mexico.

Algodones specializing in providing goods and services to Americans at extremely low prices. Many retirees cross over the border to buy prescriptions, eyeglasses, and have dental work performed for prices that border on unbelievable. All you need is a passport. Drive over in the morning, do your shopping and you are back in the states later that afternoon.

Some of my prescriptions, even with insurance are expensive and the insurance company only lets me get enough for 30 days at a time. Of course, with all of our travels, every thirty days we are not only in a new location, it's usually a different state as well. That means getting the 'new' pharmacy to call the 'old' pharmacy to have the prescription transferred to the 'new' location. Which of course becomes the 'old' location thirty days later. Takes forever and the pharmacies are continuously making mistakes.

So, being able to buy a years worth of prescriptions at better prices than I pay with insurance sure sounds appealing. And yes, I know the pharmaceutical companies in Mexico are not regulated by the FDA. However, after the meltdown of the financial systems/markets, having US Government oversight is not quite as reassuring as it once was. And many people have had their Mexican supplied pharmaceuticals tested and they passed with flying colors.

In any case, we'll check out Yuma and Case Grande. There are a couple of nice resorts in each location. Then we'll have to decide where we want to spend January through April.

But you know, compared to the snow and ice back east, it's hard to go wrong with any of these choices.....

See Ya!