January 22-25, 2025

You never know what you are going to get when you book online, you can view the websites, look at the pictures and read the reviews, but unless you already know the town, you don’t know the area where RV Park is located.  Some people may mention surrounding noise, but I never expected what I got with my first RV park in Phoenix.  I purposefully booked a space for 2 days, 3 nights to do laundry and clean up the rig – plus just enjoy some time in the sunshine before returning to camping and travel.

The first Phoenix RV Park was a disaster.  It was basically an older mobile home park with a space set aside for RV hook-ups.  I pulled in later at night, in the dark and the space signage was very confusing.  My utilities for my assigned space were directly in front of the pad for the next site over.  So, I spent the first night in the wrong site.  Plus, since it was a difficult site to back into, I managed to take out the signpost with the space number – it was right in front of where you back in – sigh.  The next morning, I flagged down the maintenance guy and even he was confused about which space on the gravel pads was mine.  I then moved the rig to the spot next to where I parked and he said no big deal about the smashed space signage.

About the noise, while the park was toted to be on the light rail line and convenient for shopping, it turned out the light rail ran until midnight, leaving me hearing constant dinging of the rail crossing arms going up/down, exposure to the accompanying flashing lights and, as for the convenient shopping?  A combo gas station/mini mart that attracted small suped up vehicles with bass booming all night long, just on the other side of the concrete wall next to me.  And apparently when the trains weren’t in motion, the external road was a place to race – engines revving and tires squealing.   I felt uncomfortable and was trying to think about how to leave while minimizing my expenses.  Adventures have unexpected turns.

The answer was gifted to me the next day.  Reminder – my primary reason for stop-over was to do laundry.  Well, this site forgot to mention on its website that boasted about 2 laundry facilities that they temporarily had 0 laundry facilities.  They had closed one and were renovating the other!  The manager was nice and apologetic and gave me a full refund for all 3 nights.  After an hour and multiple phone calls, I found a nicer place with an awesome laundry room about 15 minutes away.  Nice neighbors, clean and excellent hot tub (spent about an hour in it last night, getting to know fellow RVer’s!) And even my rugs are now clean again.

Today, I was able to get Audy-wee into PetSmart for a much-needed grooming – a bath and a haircut.  We are cutting his hair short for the next phase of the trip.  So here I am sitting in my RV for a few hours waiting while my dog is being pampered.  Then we will restock some supplies and head to our next campsite between Phoenix and Tucson.  The good news is that between yesterday and this morning, I’ve been able to book my next few weeks through New Mexico and into Texas, ending at a state park for my first few days of beach camping on the Gulf Coast.  Trying to book longer stays in places, but the trip through Texas will be a lot of RV Park overnighters through San Antonio. Long distances between towns in some spots.  But I’m looking forward to the next chapter of my travel guide.  Hope you’ll continue to come along.

Namaste from me and Spirit who is taking advantage of mommy and me time by snuggling up and sleeping as close as possible.