Wow, did the past 2.5 months go by fast!
This winter season was our longest time on our lot at SKP Saguaro Co-Op RV Park, and it was abundantly full of awesome.
In 2018, we officially became lifetime leaseholders in the park, but have only managed to get back to Arizona for a couple months every other year.
Here’s a quick video recap we filmed before we headed out:
Some of the highlights of our season include:
Exploring the Area
In past visits, we’ve done far more exploring what is around the area. Here’s some past posts with ideas on what to do in southeast Arizona:
- Exploring Around Benson, AZ: Our 2023 Southeast Arizona / Tucson Adventures
- Exploring Around Benson, Arizona: Tombstone, Bisbee, Kartchner Caverns
This year, we didn’t get out nearly as much. But we did make some new to us trips:
- Phoenix: With the Neil Diamond musical ‘A Beautiful Noise’ on stage, we made a weekend theater trip. First we stopped in Tucson for a Rush Tribute Band, and then saw caught a matinee in Phoenix. Both were awesome. We stayed a night at Usery Mountain Regional Park as well, and had pizza at the amazing Organ Stop Pizza – which features the largest Wurlitzer pipe organ left! Super cheesy elegance!
- Tucson: We made several trips into Tucson, mostly for provisioning and errands. But we also caught a ‘Sex Lives of Puppets’ show with friends, and spent an afternoon biking the Loop trail (after my knee was heeled up enough).
- Tubac: We set off for a day trip with friends to explore this former missionary town turned artistic enclave for their annual Arts Festival. We had an enjoyable time, and continued building our metal art garden.
We repeated some adventures – such as day trip down to Bisbee (always a favorite) and a visit to the Forever Home Donkey Rescue.
Club Activities
At SKP Saguaro, if you get bored – it’s by your own choosing.
There is always something going on that is open to anyone in the park to join in on.
From live bands & dancing every Saturday evening, all sorts of gaming, crafting, fitness, dance classes, community meals, speakers, special entertainment, karaoke, trivia, bingo, yard games and social hours. We participated in a lot of it.
Keeping Active
The park offers a small gym, which was perfect for rehabilitating after my knee injury – I spent a lot of time on the equipment there until I had regained confidence to hit the trails, get on my bike and resume running.
We absolutely love the abundant hiking trails right out the back gates of the park. This year year, Chris made it a project to create an interactive map of all of the trails to give to the community.
Community
This season in particular was all about the abundance of community. Word has gotten out about SKP Saguaro, and more and more folks are checking it out.
We had so many meet-ups with followers, reconnected with friends and made new ones. We really felt our own personal community grow leaps and bounds with many lifetime friendships made.
We enjoyed the constant invitations to meetup for yard games, happy hours and shared meals. We hosted multiple movie and game nights in our Catsita (we had a record 13 people over one evening!). And every Tuesday evening, many from the park headed over to the Arena Bar in Benson for trivia night.
Real Time Update
We successfully got Zephyr back in the storage lot, and left Benson on March 13 with the intentions to return next winter. We’ll see if that actually manifests.
It turns out our friends Amanda and Jesse have a similar direction and timeline, so we set off together in a little caravan for adventures as we all head east. I am writing this from Austin, TX – where our paths have now diverged.
Y-Not should be ready to launch sometime in early April – it’s been a brutally cold and snowy season in northern Maryland where we left her winterized and wrapped.
So we’ll be timing our arrival for when the boatyard feels the time is right. We’ll then spend a few weeks getting her all prepped for the cruising season ahead, find a place to store the van and then resume our Loop northbound. We’re anticipating stops in Philly and NYC along the way.
You both look well and happy.