Westward Ho--Spring 2010--Day 15

We have moved on down the road once more. We pulled out of John Wayne RV Park on Monday morning and headed north toward Phoenix. Thankfully the Arizona Department of Transportation has built some magnificent expressways so that you can pretty much bypass the main part of Phoenix if you are not going directly into that town. When driving a very large vehicle, while towing a car behind, that works out very well in cities we are not familiar with. When we first started this RV adventure back in 1997 Joanne and I took turns driving the old used coach we had purchased. It was a chore to drive and wore a person out. With our second coach it was much easier to drive so I did most of the driving but she did spell me some. This was due to our shorter schedules and the need to drive greater distances each travel day. The current coach we have, our 2007 Monaco Cayman, with it's diesel engine, air brakes and all the other things that come with a diesel pusher coach, it is a dream to drive especially since we are now retired and are no longer in a rush to get anywhere. So far Joanne has not had a need to spell me at the wheel. Of course our third family member would love to take over instead of just riding along on the couch.

Our destination for this past Monday was just a little over 100 miles to Tonopah, Arizona. This is a very small town about 40 miles due west of Phoenix on Interstate 10. Although the town is small the Saddle Mountain RV Resort is very large. It appears that many "snowbirds" winter over here to escape the cold winter weather up north. We arrived here about noon Monday and until today had done very little but lounge around the coach. Today we decided it was time to get out and explore so we set off to Tortilla Flats on the far side of Phoenix. The GPS indicated it was 93 miles from Tonopah. This took us through the Tonto National Forest and a beautiful mountain drive, the last ten miles of which consisted of a very winding mountain road with a 25 mile per hour speed limit. The paved road ended just five miles past Tortilla Flats at the Roosevelt Dam.

Tortilla Flats was a stagecoach stop over 100 years ago on the Apache Trail. Travelers and freight wagons stopped over night on the journey to Roosevelt Dam. In 1904 the town had over 125 residents plus the construction workers who were building the dam. The town now has a population of six, including the two couples who actually own the town. The town currently basically consist of a saloon/restaurant, a candy store/ice cream parlor, a gift shop and a very small museum in what was the school house. Across the road is what appears to be a very nice RV park but I would be hard pressed to drive my coach over that winding, narrow mountain road. We did have a late lunch at the saloon/restaurant and it was very good. A unique item is the bar stools. They are made from real saddles and everyone has to try one out when they arrive. After lunch we strolled the boardwalk along the shops and tried the ice cream at the Ice Cream Parlor. We also made sure we got a good framed picture of Joanne. Another feature of the buildings is they have allowed visitors to write their names, home towns, etc, on $1.00 bills and these have been used to paper the walls from floor to ceiling. There is no telling how much money is stapled to the walls of these buildings.

Since the paved road played out just a little ways out of town our trek back from Tortilla Flats was back over the same mountain road that brought us in. We had passed a couple of museums on our way in and had planned to stop at them on the way back. Unfortunately, due to the lateness of the day they were closed by the time we got back to them. We did stop at the Superstition Mountains Museum and took some pictures of the mountains and some of the desert plant life. The had a grove of the Cholla trees. This is an unusual part of the cactus family. They had a sign there advising to be very careful around these plants saying that the slightest touch could be very painful. These plants appear to bloom from the end of their branches and then the blooms turn into a part of the branch itself. Following these stops we did head back to our coach. Since it was well after 4:00pm when we left Tortilla Flats we wound up in horrendous rush hour traffic going through Phoenix. Needless to say Buddy Joe was very happy to see us return although it was close to 7:00pm by the time we got there.