We got away from Mesa, AZ a little after noon and headed west on US60, which also is I10 through Phoenix. Lots of traffic, but only normal for most any time of the day. It is 5 lanes wide, each way, with a commuter lane on the left side. On and off lanes on the right, making it 7 lanes wide at times. I really do not like to drive under these conditions, but that is the only way to get out of town going west. We stopped at the Flying J for fuel and LP gas. Got the rig in a position where we could not go forward and of course you can not back up the rig more than a few feet, so we had to unhook the van, get fuel and lp and then hook up the van again before we could continue our trip. That is the first time that has happened and it only happened then because I made a move before I really thought it through and thus, more work for Evelyn.
Back on the road, we continued on north on surface streets until we could hook up with US60 again north of Glendale, AZ. We finally arrived at our destination of North Ranch, an Escapees park near Congress, AZ. A really nice drive, after we got out of town and a lot of the traffic. We climbed in altitude all the way. We went from the 900ft, in Mesa to over 2800ft at North Ranch.
A really nice park with over 400 spaces, many with nice Park Model homes and some custom built ones as well as some unimproved lots. As we were eating dinner, it was getting dark and the photo is of the sunset out our dining room window. The sky was beautiful in most every direction you looked as the sun was setting in the west.
Today, they had an RV show, with two motor homes and a 5th wheel from a local dealer. They also served lunch for free, which really caused the park members to turn out. Escapees are always into food, especially if it is free. They served grilled sausages and chips and soda. The RV's were nice, but out of our price range, as it was for most of the lookers, but it is always nice to see what is out there and dream a bit. After lunch we were in the van so we decided to do some exploring. We headed up US89 and soon saw a sign saying no units over 40' allowed. All of a sudden, we were going up the mountain to Congress, only 6 miles, but all uphill. It would be a long slow trip in the motor home as there was a lot of 7 and 8% grades. On top is the small town of Congress. We explored the town a bit, back up the Ghost Town Road. It shortly turned to dirt and we drove up to the Congress Cemetery. Apparently it is the only one for the town, as there were old graves as well as some in the recent years, that we could see. Back another road was the Pioneer Cemetery, but the road was to rough for us, not being a 4X4. Back out to the highway and on down to SR62 which turned to dirt and we saw a sign that said Hillside 21 miles and another town 42 miles. Not me on a dirt road in the mountains for 21 miles. We drove a mile or two on the washboard road and turned around. We will do more exploring tomorrow with the map and camera.