Odometer: 78010 mi.
Trip: 137 mi.
We left our wonderful and comfortable spot in New River, for a more Desert experience in Ajo, Arizona.
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| Our Route South to Ajo, AZ |
On our way south, we elected to keep away from the hustle and bustle of the Phoenix metroplex. Being on the north edge of Phoenix, we can easily head west before turning south. Another benefit of this route is that we could check out some of the far flung retirement communities that have popped up in the desert around the metro area. Sun City Festival is one that we have heard of that was more-or-less on our route.
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| The Main Entrance into the Community of Sun City Festival |
Our fascination centered around how these 55+ “Resort Communities” can be built as a stand alone “towns” miles from the nearest big city with sewers, water systems, and the other services they provide. Delbert Eugene Webb started a construction company in 1928 and earned many contracts during WWll building military housing projects in remote locations, giving him experience that would allow them to excel at building and marketing today’s desert retirement communities. Webb certainly didn’t invent the idea, but his company sure honed and perfected its implementation. Our original intention was to drive through in our motorhome/ toad, but that idea was impractical and quickly abandoned!
We did however want to stop for coffee and a sandwich, so when we spotted a Starbucks I thought we could get to- we went for it against my CIO’s (Chief Information Officer) objections.
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| Starbucks- Surprise, AZ |
Turns out that the lot I had seen where I was going to make my turn to get back onto Sun Valley Parkway, was ribboned off. We were committed and so in we went. We had a yummy sandwich and cup of java before considering our next move. Joan walked out the route and reported that the caution tape was all that blocked the route. We looked for the contractor to ask about scooting through, and couldn’t find him or her- just a bunch of workers who knew nothing about the ribbon or its purpose.
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| Our Dash Cam Captured the Scofflaw- (yeah we know the date has not been set) |
We either had to unhook the car and make a 20 point turn with the bus and re-connect the car or take down the ribbon and cruise around the building to the street entrance. We opted to do the easy way, with Joan doing the honors. Just as I was pulling through (avoiding the fresh asphalt patches) a worker decided to run out and yell at us! Ooops- busted! Joan jumped in and we hurried away, laughing all the way!
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| Ajo City limits (sorry about the exposure- dash cam again) |
We managed not to get into any more trouble on the rest of our route south on AZ 85 to our destination for the next couple months.
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| Home is where we park it |
We arrived at the RV park and retrieved the wooden steps we had stashed with some friends who have a park model in this resort. Did our hook-ups, got out the patio rug, hooked up the auxiliary propane tank and generally nested into our space.
Your traveling Friends
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