Monday Dec 26, 2022 - Lost Dutchman State Park to Wickenburg AZ

 

Another good night's sleep so I got up late. Coffee then Carmen and Pam came down to our site to check out the digs and also the mattress (Pam & Katie are looking to upgrade). Back up to Carmen's site (center of party universe) and Carmen had red chili tamales on the stove that she bought in Bisbee. Pam & Katie were pretty much packed up so we all helped Carmen pack up her “party pack”. She has a big Chevy truck and a toy hauler so she has lots of room for all the camping gadgets. We hooked up her trailer and said our goodbyes. Katie has to work tomorrow and Carmen was planning on some more camping at Picacho Peak State Park if they had sites available. Deb & I headed to Wickenburg to try out an RV Park (something new). We drove back through Phoenix traffic that was not too bad since today is still a holiday for many. We got to Wickenburg around 3:00 and checked in at the RV Park where a very nice lady checked us in. The park lacks ambiance but it is close enough to the historic old town to walk. I think these places are a combo of year round trailers that “snow birds” keep down here, and folks who split the year between north and south (snow birds). She also said this time of year there are a lot of cowboys/girls who come for roping competitions and their families make the annual pilgrimage.

We walked into town and it is definitely loaded with cow people. We visited the Desert Caballeros Western Museum for the last couple hours and what a great museum. Wickenburg started as a gold mining town around 1860 something and after the ore pinched out the model T’s were starting to come through (this was the only road to California at that time) so they started “Dude Ranches” and it was the dude ranch capital for awhile before morphing into a tourist town. Somewhere along the way it became the roping capital of America. Lots of ranch history here.

The museum has the usual mining stuff, Barry Goldwater’s photographs (nice ones) some Russell and Remington sculptures and paintings, old barbed wire of course, and a lot of more modern artists' work. All in all a very nice museum.

We walked across the street to the Bar Seven restaurant which was full of folks with cowboy hats (probably the roping folks). Salad bar and some chowder. We found the Circle K and bought some laundry detergent and went back to the RV park, put our dirty clothes together and used the high-tech app driven laundry machines. You download an app and point it at the machine you want to use and it runs the machine and takes the money ($2 wash, $1.75 dry). No coins. And they give you $5 credit when you download the app. Send you a text when your laundry is done. Wow. Wickenburg is high tech.

Watched some more Jack Ryan (saving the US from bad Russian guys). Then bed.