Tuesday, February 28, 2012 (Pleasant Harbor RV Resort, Peoria, AZ)

I was up at 5:45 this morning and after only one cup of coffee, was told to hustle...time to get ready, we’ve got to go.  We were on the road and on our way to Lucky Luciano Custom Paint & Collision shortly after 7:00...this is too much like getting up and going to work...sheesh!

We had brought our books, laptop, and iPad...everything we would need to keep us busy while we waited at Lucky’s for the truck.  But to our surprise, Lucky said he would drive us back to Lake Pleasant...the truck would take the better part of the day.  So we were home by 9:00.  When Lucky dropped us off he asked if we would be okay if the truck wasn’t ready until tomorrow morning...it would be either late this afternoon or tomorrow morning...no problem with us.

We spent the next couple hours of this chilly morning inside...I wrote our journal, downloaded pictures and got our travel blog posted while Steve watched TV and then went outside to offload the bikes.

We bundled up and went for a ride all around the resort...its huge!



This is the Clubhouse that houses a large events room, laundry, a small convenience store, as well as the change rooms and entrance to the pool...

There are 254 fenced sites with full hook-ups...this is a picture of a typical road.  Interesting...these sites are all full with RV'ers that are there for the season but there are no park-models...a true RV Resort...

The pool is not very busy on this cool day...

A nice group campfire area...

We road to the south boat launch area...see our rig way over there?...

Picture taken from the south boat launch with the marina in the background...

The dam on the left...

After lunch, we decided to go for a walk down to the marina and check that area out...



There is a Bar & Grill down there but it is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday during the winter season...

Outside on the deck in front of the bar...

The docks to the privately owned boats are locked so only members can enter but there was a public area, so we checked it all out....

Time to walk back down the long dock...they actually have golf carts that shuttle people back and forth from the parking lot...

We walked up to the Vista Point dry camping area...

There was one trailer camped up there...

Gorgeous views...

And this is the north boat launch...

We figure this place must absolutely be hopping busy come summer time...the whole area is so huge...not only are there the full-service sites, there are the temporary sites (with water and power) and then there is tons of room for dry camping.

By the time we got back to the trailer, it had warmed up quite a bit so Steve sat outside in the sunshine reading his book while I made a batch of cookies.  I joined him a bit later but found that the breeze was still fairly chilly, especially when the sun went behind a cloud...so it wasn’t long before we both headed inside and continued reading.


We didn’t hear from Lucky at all...so I guess the truck isn’t going to be ready until tomorrow...

Monday, February 27, 2012 (Travel to Lake Pleasant, Peoria, AZ)

It was 10:00 a.m. when we pulled out of Catalina State Park...it was a beautiful sunny morning...but quite breezy out.  There was a wind warning that included a blowing dust warning...they weren’t kidding!  Once reaching Interstate 10, we headed northwest towards Phoenix...I took these pictures of the dust storm as we drove along the freeway. 

This is just as we are about to turn onto the Interstate...

Blowing dust across the freeway...

...and we're in the middle of it...

...and more dust...

...and more dust...

We passed this...part of a carnival ride...too funny...

Steve just loves being back in the traffic of the Phoenix highways...

Our destination today is Lake Pleasant Regional Park just northwest of Phoenix...we arrived at the entrance gate shortly after 1:00.  I had made a reservation on-line...what I didn’t know was that there was an additional charge for the boat...$4/day; another $28....sheesh...and it didn’t matter if we weren’t planning on using the boat everyday (which we weren’t).  That was the start to a very frustrating afternoon!

We were given directions to site 154...what we didn’t know when making the reservations on-line that it was basically a double-site with just a row of rocks separating it from site 152, next door.   The two sites had picnic tables at the end of the sites...now, as if that wasn’t bad enough (should we get neighbours in 152), the description on-line of our site said that it was 28 feet wide.  There is absolutely no way it was that wide...we are 14 feet wide with our sliders out and we would have almost over-hung the next site...this just isn’t going to work for us.  After trying unsuccessfully to call the entrance gate, we decided to drive back down and see if there were other sites available.

The elderly volunteer at the gate, gave us a few sites that were available for the week that we wanted to stay...but...to make a long story short...any of the sites available were not wide enough for us to get our sliders out.  The sites are plenty wide enough but they have built casitas over the picnic tables that end up overhanging onto the site pad...there would have been plenty of room had they just moved them over a few feet.  Dale, a camp host there said that the campground was built over 17 years ago...I guess sliders weren’t an issue back then.  We spent well over 2 hours talking and waiting for return calls from the front gate...and then the manager.  We finally managed to get our money refunded minus the $8 reservation fee (or at least she said that she would be refunding it back to our charge card...I’ll have watch for it).

Picture of the windy lake...

By now, it was after 3:30...where do we go now?   Steve is not happy with the clear coat paint on the driver’s side of the truck...it has a “dull orange peel” look so he had contacted Lucky to take it back to have it buffed up.  Consequently, we needed to stay somewhere in this area.   We had tossed around the idea of going back to Usery Mountain Regional Park or McDowell Mountain Regional Park but they are both on the east side of Phoenix...quite a distance away.

The woman at the park office said that there was a private RV park not far away...so I called Pleasant Harbour RV Resort.  They have a site available...so we booked it and after getting directions, I said we’ll be there shortly. 

Fancy entrance...

The site available ended up being in the “temporary” area which is basically the overflow area but it has power and water hook-ups...and a great view of the lake and marina (that is, until someone pulls in beside us).

We got set up...here is Steve battling the wind as he set up the satellite dish...we actually ended up moving the truck over a bit to block the wind...

Not a bad view...

Tomorrow morning we have to be up bright and early to take the truck into Lucky...Steve wants to leave by 7:00 a.m....

Sunday, February 26, 2012 (Catalina State Park, Tucson, AZ)

I didn’t have a very good sleep last night...for some reason I was tossing and turning from about 2 a.m. on...I dozed between 5 and 6 a.m...but was up shortly after...I haven’t had a night like that for a long time.

It was the start to another gorgeous day...we didn’t want to lolly-gag around too long this morning...let’s get the laundry done early, so we have the rest of the day to play.

We were sitting at the kitchen table having our breakfast when I said to Steve....”is that a dog over there or a coyote?”  Sure enough it was not just one coyote but two...Steve quickly grabbed the camera and took these pictures...

We arrived at the coin laundry shortly after 10:00...a little dicey driving the truck back in behind the building to where the laundry was, but we made it fine, parked and after carting our 3 bags of laundry in, we were on our way to a fun filled couple of hours...haha!

After the laundry was all done, we stopped to fuel up the truck and then headed home.  I quickly put the laundry away while Steve got the bikes ready.  We were going to ride the bikes up to the trailhead and then go for a hike...we thought we’d take the bird trail, a short 1 mile loop.   Nothing like going for a hike in the heat of the mid-day...it was after 1:30...pretty darned warm, especially when out of the breeze.

Such a beautiful ride down to the trailhead...it was a very busy Sunday; the parking lot was full and vehicles were parked along the roadway.  We locked the bikes at the bike rack and then were on our way...

Very lush, green area...

Up we go...

Wow, look at the arms on that Saguaro Cactus...

...and back down...

Flowering cactus...

And we're finished our hike...

We enjoyed our walk...nothing too strenuous like the hike we did to Romero Pools last week, but still some good exercise.  On our ride home, we decided to ride through both campgrounds...riding all loops.  It was close to 3:00 when we got home...all together, we had ridden/walked just over 7 miles.

While Steve was loading the bikes back onto the rack, Rob and his wife, Barb stopped by...they are the couple from Penticton.  After chatting with them for a bit, Steve finished loading the bikes while got our chairs out and started to read my book.

We both sat outside for a bit reading our books before going inside to check if either Rob or Chris (our sons) were on Skype...as it turned out Chris was on.  We had a great chat with him and after saying goodbye; we took a drink and headed over for a visit with Rob and Barb.

As the sun went down and the wind picked up, we said our goodbyes and headed home.  There is supposed to be a wind storm coming in...hopefully, we can make it to Lake Pleasant tomorrow without any weather issues.