Wednesday, January 3, 2018 (Travel to Estrella Mountain Regional Park, Goodyear, AZ)

After two weeks at High Chaparral RV Park, it's time to move on. We had a wonderful time here and met some great folks...a lot even asked if we will be back next year. Our answer...we'll definitely be back...sometime!

As we were finishing up our pack up, several folks stopped to say goodbye...and as we pulled out of our site, Karen was out waving and yelling one final goodbye. We made our way over to I-10 and then decided to take I-8, the bypass route around Phoenix. It added about 40 minutes or so to our drive to Estrella, but we wouldn't have to deal with the traffic through Phoenix...well worth it!
We took highway 85 north through Gila Bend...
Entrance to Gila Bend Municipal Airport...
Crop dusters...
Gila River...
We pulled into Estrella Mountain Regional Park around 12:30 and were directed by the fellow manning the gatehouse to carry-on up to the Nature Center where they will "take care of us". Well, there is no way we could pull into the parking lot...however Steve was able to pull over on the side of the road so I could run inside. We wanted to dry camp up near the horse arena (as per Alan and Cec's recommendation), so after paying the $12 camping fee, we were told to just continue along the road..."you can't miss the arena". The primitive camping area is a huge gravel parking lot. We found a spot along the edge, levelled off and unhitched. Other than putting the slides out and clearing the stuff off the bed, we did not do any other setup inside. Mind you, Steve did want to put up the satellite dish so he could PVR some new programs starting tonight.
There are about a half dozen full hook-up sites but I understand are mostly used by the park workers/hosts. If available, they rent for $30/night.

Since we were in the area, I wanted to stock up at Costco before heading to Quartzsite. So we headed right there, had a bite to eat, did our shopping and were back to the trailer shortly after 3:00.

Alan and Cec came by to pick us up and take us to their new home. You may recall we met them on our trip to Alaska in 2013 and have been fast friends ever since. They sold their spot in Yuma last year and bought a place in the Pebble Creek development in Goodyear...and what a fabulous spot it is!

View from their back patio...
We had a wonderful steak dinner...
...And a great time catching up! So good to see you both! Thanks so much for picking us up. Safe travels as you hit the road for some winter travels of your own!



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