Moving to Mesa

Mesa Spirit RV Park.    Site: V-79.   Highs: 50's-60's.  Lows: Mid 30's-40's  AT&T excellent, T-Mobile excellent 

Sparky is into alliteration these past two posts. We moved to Mesa Spirit RV park on Thursday. We traded wide open spaces with lots of trails for a very tight, narrow, packed in snowbird park. It's so tight that with a big rig and small narrow spaces, it's a lot more challenging to back into a site, because it's an older park designed when rigs were smaller. Also, for Thousand Trails members, there are only certain sites available to us, and due to a finite amount of allocations for TT members which is very small, the company restricts the park, so roomier sites are not available to us. This is an Encore park, a subsidiary park of theThousand Trails company, so we can stay for free except for a very few Encore parks. We can stay for free at most Encore parks for free because we have a small add-on to our membership, called the Trails Collection.

Back to the site difficulties...There is a personal metal mailbox at each site, and a fruit tree/bush at almost every site that you have to watch out for, in addition to maybe a park model (house) right across the street. The land that this park sits on used to be an orchard so that's why fresh fruit trees and bushes are at almost every site. Residents with fruit multiplying faster than they can eat it, will put out boxes or bags of free grapefruit and oranges throughout the park. Wonderful fruit!

When we came in, Sparky and Eldo were quite nervous at having to back in. Eldy knew he could do it, but it was just going to be very stressful as Sparky doesn't always tell Eldy the right way how she wants the rig to back into the site. Sometimes it can take up to a half hour or more with difficult sites to get situated and in parallel with the hookups. BUT--a really great park ranger named Frank, told us as we sat waiting at the office to check in, that he would get us in. He led us to our site in his golf cart, and he says, "Do you trust me? I'm gonna get you in this spot. Do you trust me? I'm so confident I can get you in, that your partner here (pointing to Sparky) could sit behind the wheel, and I could get her to back this thing in, no problem!" Sparky didn't want to question his ability, but she was pretty darn sure, that nope, that was not possible. He guides Eldy and the rig way forward past the site to get ready to back the rig in with a super sharp turn, and he gets a message on his walky talky radio. He says, "Just give me five minutes and I'll be there." FIVE MINUTES???? No way are we going to be backed into our site in that amount of time! (You'd have to be there to see the whole situation.) The actual parking spot for the rig is VERY narrow. The concrete pad for your living space is a decent size.

Well, five minutes later, we were in our spot! We did not have to do any back and forth see-sawing at all. He yelled (Eldy is hard of hearing) very specific directions--"TURN THE WHEEL TO THE RIGHT! HARD!!! NOW BACK THE WHEEL BACK TO THE LEFT---HARD! STRAIGHT BACK...KEEP GOING! YOU GOT IT!!!!" and it was just perfect. Thank you, Frank. He got us in correctly and spaced correctly the very first try, and off he went. Sparky gave him a big high five before he left and told him he was amazing!  Because he was. 

Did Sparky learn any tips to help Eldo park the rig next time for a difficult site? Sorry, nope! She has a LOT of trouble with directions and a rig backing up that goes in a different direction from the truck tires, so she's just going to pray that somebody as good as Frank will be available the next tight site campground or that Eldy will have the patience of Job, which he USUALLY does....haha....

It's a HUGE park, over 1650 sites, so they have LOTS to do for snowbirds.....TONS of activities, three pools, a quilter's room, a woodworking shop, and many many more as you can see on this list.

There are lots of dog parks, too, interspersed among the different corners of the park. They have free coffee and donuts on Tuesdays, and a little shop that serves breakfast or light lunches on some days. The parks schedules live entertainment on a regular basis during the winter months, and there are all kinds of exercise classes to boot. The park is also near the Superstition Mountains, which have trails and hikes that Sparky hopes to explore a bit in the two weeks we are here. Here's a cool fact about the Superstition Mountains and Mesa. If you are here the third week of March, or the third week of September around the equinox, the mountains cast a shadow in the shape of a cougar chasing prey. 

courtesy of the internet

Park at 4th Avenue and Goldfield Rd. The western sky needs to be free of clouds and best time for viewing is the last 30 minutes before sunset. So cool!

Did we get our jacks fixed? Nope, not yet. We are going around and around with the extended warranty company who is making it very difficult to file a claim. We have sent pictures and video to them and they are still refusing to take on the claim despite THREE mobile techs and the third one, who did a terrific job documenting testing all parts of the electric leveling system, who is trying to go to bat for us by trying to go higher up on the company chain to get them to honor the warranty, in which the LANDING JACKS ARE COVERED. Did Sparky get her broken tooth fixed? Not yet. That sucker broke off like a glacier calving. Luckily, no root canal--yet. Sparky is hoping it stays stable and doesn't develop an infection so she can just get a crown and be done with it. It will be a problem getting the final crown as we won't be in Mesa by the time it is ready, so Sparky will have to drive back from Cottonwood to Mesa to have it finished. 

What have we done for our first few days? Checked out the area, and revisited a favorite eating spot, the Organ Stop Pizza Restaurant, a pizza place with the world's LARGEST and finest theater Wurlitzer organ. It's a wonderful place to eat decent pizza and hear an amazing young man play this magnificent instrument. The organ revolves on stage at times, and goes down out of site when the organist is ready to take a break. The construction and equipment needed to run this amazing organ is mind boggling. 

There are four turbines in the blower room, which has a separately constructed floor from the rest of the restaurant to minimize the rumble  generated by massive machinery. Because the turbines generate tremendous friction, there is a 5 ton air conditioning unit that runs whenever the organ is running even if it's below 25 degrees F. outside.

The console, the main part of the organ where the organist sits, is the most advanced and complete theater organ console ever built. If you have ever played piano, some of this might make sense. There are four "manuals"/keyboards--61 keys each. There are 32 keys on the pedalboard for footwork needed. There are FOUR HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO stoptabs, which are what the organist pushes for different sounds--red is for reeds, amber for strings--vioin, viola, cello, etc., and ivory for flutes. There are two drawers that contain 327 switches to control stops, theatrical lighting and effects and other functions. There is even a digital rhythm unit which can be programmed to play traps and percussion instruments in complicated musical arrangements. There is so much variation and complexity woven into the design of this organ, that it is very adaptable to the style of any organist who plays it. WOW!

The pizza is decent, salad bar ok....You order it at the counter, you order your drinks at the counter, (soda or beer) and then grab a seat at the downstairs level or one level up. It's like very large auditorium seating, only with long picnic style tables on the ground floor and more table like seating on the second floor. And then, prepare to be awed by the massive pipe louvers opening and closing as the organist plays, the percussion instruments placed all around the hall, and even additional instruments tied into the organ like a grand piano and a player piano upstairs. The organist also takes requests. The Star Wars theme was Sparky's favorite!  The Organ Stop opens at 4:00 PM and fills up very quickly. We recommend going right at opening time to get a great viewing spot.

And with that, that's it for now...See you later on a trail or maybe in a state park nearby....