Our Location today is North Ranch, Congress, Arizona, U.S.A.
I should have never taken
it for granted that being as tired as I was last night that I would sleep
soundly. Instead I tossed and turned the majority of the night thinking about
things that I couldn’t work on if I wanted to until at least Daylight. When the clock showed that it
was finally 7:00 MST I just got out
of bed and started getting some things ready for breakfast. Opening only a few Window Shades I’d barely turned my Computer on when Kathy joined me
downstairs. When I mentioned the Sleepless
Night she was the one who said, “Pretravel
Night’s Sleep”. I hadn’t even thought about that when I went to bed but
deep down my subconscious knew.
|
Rangers Station at Dead Horse Ranch State Park.
Jerome can be see on the mountain to the left.
Clarksdale can be seen right of center |
We had everything closed up
and were hitched up by 10:00 when a couple walking by inquired about the size
of our trailer. Leo and Barb live in
British Columbia and
are presently on
Vacation from their
own business
Wine Making. They have
been visiting a number of
Local Wine Makers and
were surprised that many did not even grow their own
Grapes. We exchanged contact information and will try to get
together up the road someplace.
|
Jerome beyond the Rangers Station. |
Minutes later after our final
walk around we were headed up to the
Dumping
Station. With the clear sky it was definitely going to be a good traveling
day. Minutes before 11:00 we were leaving
Dead Horse Ranch State Park for the last time
this year.
|
Part of the Ten Mile Climb on I-17. |
Kathy had her list of
directions and the
GPS set up as a
Back-Up. They both agreed that the
quickest way from
Cottonwood to
Congress was by
89A
and we were headed in that direction until I realized that it was the road
through Jerome the one with all the
Narrow
Hairpin Turns up a
Mountainside.
We’d taken only the truck up there on Wednesday and I wasn’t about to bring our
Home up there. Kathy was upset that I used a
Round-About and headed back into
Cottonwood.
|
Lots of Curves back and forth on SR 89 west of Prescott. |
The other night I had used
Map-quest and seen first where
89A went.
After pulling into the
Walmart parking lot I dug out my
Laptop and the
MiFi and showed Kathy the routes. At that point she accepted the
change. Since we were stopped and there was a
Karl’s Jr. in the parking lot we got our lunch before
continuing on.
|
Lots of blind corners on SR 89. |
We took
260 out
of
Cottonwood
to
I-17 where after a
Ten Mile steady climb of
Fifteen
Hundred Feet of
Elevation we
finally exited to
Arizona 160 heading
for
Prescott.
Rolling through the countryside was relaxing until we got to maneuver through
the town of
Prescott
itself. We had no idea that it was as large as it was. It appeared
to be a clean and prospering town and the streets were packed to prove it.
|
Good thing this single lane is One Way on SR 89 |
When you look at
Map-quest and you ask for directions it
always gives you two route choices. It did so the other day and again when I showed
Kathy in the
Walmart
parking lot today. As we were leaving
Prescott on
SR 89
we apparently missed a wee little sign that pointed to another route for
vehicles longer then
Forty Feet. (
That’s the size of our Trailer alone.)
For the next
Forty Miles the
majority of the vehicles we encountered or passed us were
Crotch Rockets that were enjoying the thrills they were getting
with all the curves in the road. When you are coming down a
Mountain Road with a trailer attached
it felt like we were driving a
Motorcycle
doing those curves. Kathy thought that she was going to lose her lunch a
few times because she was feeling
Sea-Sick
from the constant back and forth sway of the road. We thought that the worst
was over just before we went through
Yarnell but then it started all over again on
the other side.
|
Reflections from the setting Sun. |
When we reached
North Ranch an
Escapees RV Club Rainbow Park in
Congress our destination for today we had to
stand by the side of the truck to steady ourselves before walking to the office
to register. Since we’ve been
Members Since
2010 we have used many of these
parks which cost a fraction of others especially when you are a member and many
RV Dealerships give bigger discounts
to
Escapees Members. It didn’t take
long to set up the trailer and as I was closing down the back of the truck
someone across the drive recognized us from
Dead Horse Ranch.
Even though we only drove
116 Miles today we were worn out. We
rechecked the
Map-quest and just
noticed there was a
Third Route from
Cottonwood to
Congress on much more sensible roads for
Large RVs.
Too Bad we didn’t see it before. Since we’ll be staying for a week we took
advantage of ordering a few things from
Amazon that will be delivered directly to our
door. We’ve plans to see things in the area as well as celebrating the
U.S Thanksgiving with our neighbours. T
hanks for following along, feel free to
leave a comment and click on the pictures to enlarge them. Be Safe and Enjoy!
It’s about time.
Krackers
The World's Great Proverbs
If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with
fleas.
Sounds like an exhausting move. I dislike the twisty roads as well. I prefer to leave the Igloo and just take the Dogsled when we do those types of roads. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be certain to avoid those particular roads while towing. Enjoy your stay at the new park.
ReplyDeleteThat curvy road reminds me of when we took that route 129 in north Georgia known as the "Dragons Tail".
ReplyDeleteOh so sorry you got on the wrong road ... luckily you did the round-de-round or you would have been in MUCH worse trouble!! Glad you made it to North Ranch.
ReplyDeleteOMG..so sorry you ended up on that curvy highway! We did it ONCE. It is difficult to reach Iron Springs Road if you are not familiar with Prescott which would have taken you on a more pleasant route. Enjoy NR. We spent several seasons there when we were full-timing.
ReplyDeleteWe boondocked south of Cottonwood last spring and drove the road between Jerome & Prescott in the dually. We saw someone hed thru in a fiver but no way I'd want to haul ours thru there. Saw that you met a couple from Collingwood. We live near there too.
ReplyDelete