120127 Casa Grande, AZ
Trip Start
Jan 11, 2010
1
11
Trip End
Ongoing
Casa Grande, Arizona
Friday, January 27, 2012
Palm Creek Golf & RV Resort is truly an oasis in the desert - it's the only resort (that we've stayed at) to be rated 10/10/10 by Good Sam. It's huge - it has an 18 hole golf course, lakes stocked with BIG orange fish, meticulously landscaped flower beds line every walkway/ brook/ waterfall /sidewalk and surround every tree plus numerous fountains that light up at night. Palm trees line the entrance, surround all buildings and line every street. At night, they're lit up too - beautiful!
Their huge activities center has swimming pools, ballrooms, arts & craft centers, billiards, fitness centers, computer courses, (plus several more) and adjoining woodworking shops, volleyball/ tennis/ lawnbowling/ pickleball courts and softball diamonds. Pickle ball is a very big sport here. Numerous courts are occupied all day long and at night we can still hear the tic-toc, tic-toc sound of a game several blocks away. They boast over 100 activities and 70 scheduled events (concerts, dances, BBQ's, car/ motorcycle/ fashion shows, parties and entertainment features). A couple days after our arrival, we were officially greeted by a Welcoming Committee - they presented us with free tickets to some events, dropped off some flowers and were very informative about the resorts activities, voluteer programs and security concerns (there are none). Every street has a happy hour - it's a great way to meet your neighbors. So far, so good. Derek & Liz, for example, have been coming here from Jersey Island (in the English Channel) for 8 years.
Amongst the numerous huge dairy farms and cotton fields, Nissan built it's North American Technical Center a few miles west of Casa Grande. It's a huge facility with an adjoining 3050 acre proving ground. With its 6 mile long high speed oval track (and 4 smaller obstacle courses) it's where they test/ensure hot weather reliability/durability of their engine cooling systems and air conditioners. Over 500 people work here - they even have their own runway.
Long time residents are quick to recall their experiences of a "Haboob" (an arabic term meaning a violent dust or sandstorm'). The mile high wall of dust is visible for several minutes before it hits and will last for 4-5 hours completly snuffing out all breathable air - most people hide in the activities center where the air is filtered. And no matter how tightly sealed your RV may appear, it will fill up with dust.
One of our bucket list items was to attend the "Largest RV show on Earth," so off we went to Quartzsite (150 miles away). It's more like a big flea market with a hundred old consigned RV's for re-sale - we counted only 3 brand new units. Baaah!!! The most astounding aspect about the whole thing is the amount of "dry campers" in the area; thousands of motorhomes are spotted ....anywhere. On gravel beds, flood plains, bolder infested sites, scattered sagebrush, tumbleweeds or cactus for a hedge, no grass, no hot tub, no pool, no activities, no golfing, no pickleball, no sightseeing, no shopping, no water, no sewer, no power, no shade and with every step you conjour up a patch of swirling dust. But some people have been returning for 6 years - Emil & Judy Lessard are two of them; he builds knifes, she polishes rocks. We can't understand the fascination of absolute isolation.
For what we've seen so far, Casa Grande has lots of pigeons and no lawns, anywhere. Golf courses have grass in the very middle of the narrow fairways only. The sides are completly brown.
