Apache Gold Casino, San Carlos, AZ

The sign on the highway for the casino. Has the best rv parking for miles around.

The front entrance to the casino. The RV park is to the right in this pic. Drive in, find you spot, if your lucky, and pay $12.00 per day for hull hookups at the convience store. Whi is it the best park around? See our Globe post above.


The side entrance to the casino. Its small compared to the Vegas casion's but more than adequate to take your money. So far we are $3.00 in the hole with $1.00 being our money and the other being their money. In the pic below, notice how dry it is here.
Look real close and over the white pick up is the driving range of the golf course, Apache Stronghold. Its a 18 hole, par 72, 73xx yards of lush green in the desert. For $55.00 you get a cart and 18 holes.


Her is our space. As you can tell its not to tight. We do have full hookups for the $12.00 per day rate. Our neighbor has his Datastorm up and open for all to use. There is a tripod DW here too.

The slope is down and to the left rear of the coach. Some spaces are much worse requiring spacers under the tires to get level. We are not quite level but will suffice for the freg and walking. The shower door and cabinet doors want to open vs close. Been in worse commerical parks and better free sites.

US70 to San Carlos, AZ

The BLM parking at Safford, AZ was non existant or just to far to go to, 15-31 miles down dirt or gravel roads. We left there and drove on US70 to the casino in San Carlos for the night. The price with fuh is $12.00. We are on asphalt and as close to the slots as we can get. I am on Dans signal. He has a Diplomat DP across from us and his signal is open. Both of us are up and running. Pics tomorrow.

I want to take a minute to say thanks to Charlyn and Mike for the great dinner last night at there place. Their "TAD" RV was georgous. To be that old and in that good of shape is remarkable. The prior owners must have stopped and kept the Provost in a garage. It looked like new. So a great big THANKS from us to you for a nice time and dinner.

We are way ahead of our proposed schedule. We want to be in Holbrook AZ about the first of May. Most of the area we are going to is still in winter mode and we want to miss all that. After the casion, we should stop in Globe IF we can find a cheap place to stay. Cheap means free also. For March, our budget is over alot. Since our pocket is not bottomless, we must watch our spending carefully. Our magic number is $1700 till the end of September. And the casino is not the way to get some of it.

Mileage: 155 from our last park, 99 miles towed
Gas: $2.79.9 for gas, $100.00 to fill
GPS 33* 21.451, -110* 40.011, Apache Gold RV park, space 13
DW: tomorrow if we stay.

Still in Benson, AZ

Our day trip yesterday. One of the many tree farms here. And have you ever seen this sign before? Its on the Dragoon, AZ road by the tree farm. And the Cochise Stronghold in Pierce, AZ. Its a fee area so be prepared.


I got up this morning and looking east, the dust is in the air. Its not that windy here at the park but it must be east of here. I had the weatherbug set for weather at Sierra Vista and it showed sustaind winds of 35 with a gust of 55. All this was yesterday. We have north winds of calm and a temp this morning of 43 from the Tuscon airport. Benson has no available weatherbug stations.

Our dish lasted the day yesterday and thru the night. Its staked down and has 3 water bottles hanging to for weight. Driving in the park yesterday we saw a Datastorm and three portables. One was fixed to a building.

We will be over at Charlyn and Mikes place this afternoon and evening for dinner. They are the Charlie60 link. I want to see their bus and the new floor Mike put down, its wood.

We are planning on leaving tomorrow morning. Our plans are to go back east to US191 and then go north to Safford, AZ. We will pick up US70 to Globe and then US60 to Sho Low. From there we will go AZ77thru Snowflake to Holbrook, AZ. This is about 292 miles thru the mountains of east AZ. Our planned stops are Safford, Globe and Sho Low. From Holbrook we will go east on I40 to Chambers and take US191 north to Monument Valley of Utah. Then its circle back on US163 and 160 to possibly AZ98 to Page or US89 to Page, AZ. With each stopover, I'll record the mileage here. We will be looking at BLM camping and some casino camping.

Our Space at the SKP Park in Benson, AZ

Ideal parking, no close neighbors. This is too our front and down the street. This is a lease lot park. Each lease holder put a lump sum down and pays a yearly maintenance fee. They build on their lot their choice of buildings as you see. There is a list of future lease holders and as a lot becomes available, the next in line has the option of purchasing the lease and buying the improvements on that lot. Some of these lots can be expensive. Contact the office here for the actual purchase requirements.

Its also looking east into the sun and glare.


This is out our "back" door. We are on a hill and hence the terrace. These residents should have some very nice views of the mountains to the east from the terrace lots. And the rising sun every morning.

Notice how neat and clean it all looks.


This is our next door neighbor's front yard. Very nicely done. We got in about mid afternoon and by the time we checked in, arrived at our space and got setup, it was late in the day.
We could not get the wifi here to work after many tries, up went the dish. Once the dish was setup and tied down, the sun was setting and it was beginning to get cooler.


Snow on the mountain as we drove west to Benson. I have no idea where this is but look for it on your way west on I10.


We stopped for lunch at the little town of Bowie and got a couple of subs there. This little town is in the middle of some tree plantations.
They grow pecan and other nuts. Some of the tree farms are very, very large.



The weather for Benson today is a cool 51 with sunny skies and calm wind. I say calm as later it will become breezy. As in 25-35 mph sustained and gusts forecast to 45. Not a day to be driving. Nor a day to play golf. Not really a day to get out.We may try to go sight seeing and check out the other parks but that's about it. We have a full pantry and clean clothes, no trips for that. Hopefully we can get more pics of the park for you. It really is nice. Similar to the Ranch in Lakewood, NM. See our '06 trip and pics.

Update:

We have been full timers for nearly two years now. I all that time there was this woman named Charlie60 that followed our adventures from day one. They finally went full time last year and became members of the class of '06. I followed them before they started, to buying their coach to actually getting on the road. Well its a small world after all. They are here in Benson, AZ too. In fact she sent a comment that they were coming over today and she and her hubby Mike did.

I was outside when she drove up. I recognized the Jetta and that blond hair immediately. I yelled at Shirley that we have company and she immediately began to get the place ready. We had just had breakfast at 9:15 and Shirley was finishing the dishes. We will meet them tomorrow evening at their place for dinner.

Benson, AZ

We arrived this afternoon after lunch, checked in , got our space, backed in and its a nice one. Pics tomorrow. The wifi sucks rotten eggs though. We tried all available signals and ended up putting our Directway up. Our price is $15.00, plus tax, elec at $0.13 per kwh. This will be the last park we will stay at. The going rate is $12.95 with wifi, cable, pool, hot tub, etc when we exited the I10. This is a coop park.

Its a pretty place, like the Ranch in Lakewood. The waiting list is 44x or eight, 8, year wait. Look here for pics of the park. We are in #36 and its very nice. We will be here three nights awaiting for better weather north of us. Our still planned route is Globe to Sho Low and on north. The forecast is not good this week, nights at 32* for the week. Looka t the good side, Golf in Benson, sightseeing the area too. and cable tv or DTV. And of course, a lovely lady to go with it. Life is good!

Mileage: 185 with 122 towed.
Temp: 70 with pc skies. low to be about 45.
GPS: N31* 56.467, W110* 17.615
DW: 126*. -36*, 43*, signal of 58, crosspol pass at 63
Gas: $2.6x range

And we're off

More adventures and pics to follow.

Tomorrow is Moving Day

We are expected to go to Lordsburg, NM and stay over at the rest stop or travel center. There are two ghost towns there to see. From there we will probably head to Safford, AZ and stay a day or two. This is our planned route north to UT. There is a casino at Globe which will do for a stop if the price is still around the $12.00 range. And there is a golf course for $16.00 there.

Camping is permitted at this state park south of Deming. This is where Shirley got those super pics.


We will be on the internet as we can. Depends on the place we are staying and its security of the dish. There is wifi at the rest stop, hopefully. And maybe wifi at the casino. Otherwise we will post when we can.

And to Salley and Jack, hello if you found our blog! It is our wifi you are allowed to use. We open it for use when we travel and no other wifi is available. Have a safe trip to Texas and on to MN.