Passed by McDonalds in Wickenburg, Made it to Lake Pleasant

 

We have camped at three different Maricopa County Parks...McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Cave Creek Regional Park, and Lake Pleasant Regional Park.  I doubt we will try any of the other parks, we LOVE Lake Pleasant.  Oh, we liked the other two, but the water is a nice attraction in an area in which there is so much brown, and that which is green is typically a cactus.

But the first thing we needed to do was to get to Lake Pleasant...a 225 mile drive.  We continue east on I-40.  We got up at 6 am, were on the road by 6:30, and into Arizona by 8 am (we lost an hour due to time zone.)  At Kingman we stop to get gas at the Flying J ($3.46 per gal), the same place where we foiled a scam.  Back in December of 2017, while filling up the gas tank, some guy in a AAA car stops behind us, starts saying something about oil dripping from under our rear end, gets on the ground, followed quickly by me, and tries to squirt oil up on the rear carriage claiming there is a leak.  I quickly tell him to get out from under MY MOTORHOME, and told him that I will have it checked out when we get to Phoenix.  (Read original blog here.  That blog had a comment from someone who did fall for the scam...same story.)  I reported to AAA and a followup email confirmed that they had an investigator looking into it.  So bottom line, I felt uncomfortable getting gas at this Flying J today, but no scammer...although a pickup truck blocked one of the RV gas lanes for the entire time forcing me to get gas over at the normal pumps...the guy just sat there in his pickup truck, never did see him get gas or anything.  I just get a creepy feeling there...

Good-bye California, Hello Arizona

About 20 miles east of Kingman is Highway 93.  Another 100 miles is Wickenburg, where we catch highway 60.   Ten miles later we turn on Arizona Highway 74 and 18 miles later we are pulling into the road leading to Lake Pleasant.  Highway 93 is a mixture of 2 lane and 4 lane.  Some of the road is good, some of it is a bit bumpy.  Indy does not like the bumpy part at all.  We stop, she does her business, and off we go and all is well.  Guess it scares the [BLANK] right out the poor little girl!  Unfortunately you don't always have an exit to pull over at, and I don't want to stop along an Interstate unless there is a mechanical breakdown.

Highway 93 is also home to the Joshua Tree Forest Parkway, an Arizona Scenic Route.  For about 10 miles you literally drive through a forest of trees...Joshua Trees.  There is a picnic stop in which we got the above and below image...the the second image below was taken while driving.

There are three roundabouts as you get close to Wickenburg.

At the third roundabout...you come out of it and you are on Highway 60.

This is the McDonald's made famous by Al of the Bayfield Bunch!  He and his lovely wife Kelly use to have a USA home in Congress, about 15 miles away...and Al liked driving over to Wickenburg to get his morning cup of coffee, and occasionally a treat for Pheebs, his loyal four legged friend. (The Bayfield Bunch) Their primary, and now only, home is in Bayfield, Ontario, Canada.  Al writes a very popular blog filled with travel, and interesting bits of this and that, and lots of wonderful pictures.

We did not have reservations, but we got in for two nights at the Roadrunner Campground at Lake Pleasant...there are lots of spaces available...but they will be full come Friday for another busy weekend.  Best to make reservations, and make them early if you want to spend a weekend. Tomorrow I will share some pictures, again, of Lake Pleasant.