Casa Grande, AZ: High Season Ends and RVers Hit The Open Road

This is a busy time of year at Palm Creek Golf & RV Resort. The 'high' season is coming to an end; already the park is noticeably more empty as people return to the homes/campgrounds where they spend the summer. Many of the Canadian snowbirds have already 'left the roost' although a surprising number of folks have had to spend a few extra days/weeks in the park since the winter storms are still creating havoc in some parts of North America. 

Those without a specific home base, mostly full time RVers, are hitting the open road to explore more of this great country. 

So as the season comes to a close there are happy hours, good bye parties and end-of-year parties for all of the activities: water volley ball, pickleball, wood shop, lapidary, tennis, lawn bowling, baseball, etc., etc.  Way too many activities and events to list.

We went to the water volleyball end of year party on Sunday; lots of great food including my favorites: cake & homemade hand cranked ice cream. Lots of pictures displayed of the various games/players along with some video footage that played on the big screen. We played a game where you had to identify the player based on a something they said or a habit that person displayed while playing water volleyball. Too much fun and yet a little sad since we know we won't see most of these folks until next year's 'high' season, that is, if we elect to come back to this park next year.

When Mary Lynn first started talking about spending a month at the same campground I thought she was a little crazy. After all, we had just spent 10 months travelling across through 22 states, never staying more than a week. Our MO was pretty simple: explore an area by car & motorcycle for a week and then move 200-300 miles. Repeat. 

It worked pretty well for us and we had a great time so the idea of staying for a month or two seemed destined to be problematic. Not So, Grasshopper! There is so much to do at Palm Creek it's your own fault if you are bored. MLA and have only scratched the surface on the list of activities offered here.

Now I can see the appeal of winter destinations in Arizona, southern Texas and Florida. You get to know a lot of people in a very short period of time. Much more so than in a typical suburban/rural neighborhood where relationships take time to develop since the business of earning a living and raising a family tend to consume huge quantities of time and energy.

Released from the need to accomplish those two time-consuming activities relationships develop quickly. In an RV park/resort, everyone lives in a relatively compact space so they tend to spend a lot of time outdoors and in the process, lots of friendships are made. Living in the pet section accelerates the process of getting to know your neighbors since most pets need to be exercised which in turns requires you to get out and about every day. I've noticed that many times people learn and remember your pets name before they know/remember your name. 

In any case, we too are only two weeks away from 'pulling anchor' and getting under way. We will hit the road on April 15, making our way to Montana before spending the summer exploring Alaska if (and this is a big IF) the volcano Mount Redoubt doesn't completely blow its top and spread ash all over the region where we will plan to travel/explore in Alaska. Mt Redoubt is ~100 miles southwest of Anchorage and west of the Kenai Peninsula. 

Oh well, no sense worrying about something we have no control over; if it happens it happens and we'll drop back to Plan B. Not that we have a Plan B. In fact, for the past year we have not had a Plan B (or a Plan A for that matter) and we've had an awesome time. I'm sure we'll figure it out as we go...  

All we have to do is survive another two weeks of happy hours, BBQ's, good-bye dinners & end of year parties before we 'waddle' out of here on April 15th.

See Ya!