Salome, AZ - Desert Vista RV Resort - Dec 27, 2011 - Jan 02, 2012

This is our first visit to Desert Vista RV Resort in Salome, AZ. As its name implies, the park is located in the desert  and is surrounded by mountains. Desert Vista is an Encore RV Resort park that also accepts reservations from members of Resort Parks International. Our RPI annual membership fee provides us with access to numerous parks throughout the US at a much discounted rate. Our stay here will cost us a mere $12 a night which includes 50 AMP service, water, sewer and access to the club house, miniature golf,  swimming pool and hot tub.  

On day two of our stay we headed out  to see what the area had to offer. We needed groceries and thought lunch out would be lovely. Bill fired up the GPS and entered our favorite store, Wallmart. The closest one turned out to be 50 miles away. We had no desire to drive that distance today.  A restaurant search listed a Subway 46 miles away and one other alternative, the name of which escapes me,  five miles away making it our only viable choice.  When we reached the restaurant's GPS location, we discovered a building that appeared to have been boarded up for years! Nothing else to do but head back to the campground. As luck would have it, our return route took us through the town of Wenham where we found Wenhams answer to a mini mall:  grocery store, restaurant, Post Office and a laundromat.   On entering the tiny store we discovered shelves sparcely stocked with unappealing and high priced items. The dairy section contained a few jugs of outdated 2% milk and a lone jug of whole milk (which we never drink) with a valid sell by date of Jan 6th. We were totally out of milk and in desperation purchased the whole milk.

By this time we were starving. The  restaurant next door didn't look like it was open; there were no cars parked out front or any other signs of a welcoming environment inside. We decided to live dangerously and try it anyway.  We were pleasantly surprised when on entering, we were greeted by a friendly gal who escorted us to a table near a pelet burning wood stove. The room was  nicely furnished and decorated with large mirrors, wall plaques and local memorabilia.  Dinner plates, sporting the names of various states and decorated with pictures, logos and cute sayings, hung on the wall over our assigned table. The menu listed basic but high priced  luncheon fare; hamburgers, hot dogs, chili and grilled cheese sandwiches etc.   We both ordered a bowl of chili. Since, we were the only customers in the restaurant we expected a minimal wait for our food.  After ten minutes  we  realized that the chili was being thawed out and microwaved on a per order basis. The chili, however, turned out to be well worth the twenty minute wait.  We were presented with a huge bowl of delicious, mildy spiced chili with lots of hamburger and beans.  Bill couldn't even finish his...  me well...On the  way out I noticed there were now five other customers; safe to say all the business they would do over this  lunch period. No wonder prices were so high.

We had planned on spending New Years Eve alone in the coach.   However, things in our life can  change rapidly. The afternoon of New Years Eve we had gone over to the pool for a swim and overheard a woman talking about the pot luck dinner at the clubhouse that evening. Bill asked the magic question....was it to late to sign up? She told us there wasn't a sign up sheet just bring a covered dish and show up at 4:45 PM...We wanted to attend but with a pantry that was pretty well depleated and  no decent grocery store nearby  we had a real dilemma about what to bring?  We decided to recycle the Au Gratin potatoes in our freezer;  left overs from the last pot luck dinner.  Bill nuked the potatoes and cooked up a lone winter squash from the pantry and we headed to the clubhouse at exactly 4:45.  Most of the tables were already occupied but we were able to find two seats.   After adding our contributions to the buffet table we sat down with our tablemates who turned out to be a friendly, chatty bunch. At 5PM dinner was announced and people began lining up with their plates. We waited till most of the people had filled their plates and sat down before we got up to fill our own.   The buffet table contained an interesting assortment of hot and cold foods:  meatloaf, black eyed peas, spare ribs, spaghetti, jello salad, rolls, shrimp, a spicy pasta dish and several unknown dishes.  A separate desert table was laid out with a scrumptious looking Cherry pie, a store bought cake,  holiday cookies, an apple brown Betty and two plates of peanut butter fudge. As usual, we both ate way too much food and  I knew  Bill was longing to get in his lounge chair. Not wanting to be the first to leave we waited until  6:15 when most of the people began gathering up their dirty dishes; we packed up and followed the crowd out of the rec hall.

Our drive through the surrounding towns had made it pretty clear that not much was happening in this neck of the woods and we would be on our own for entertainment. No problem, we are pretty self sufficient. We spent our time in Salome swimming in the pool, soaking in the hot tub, playing miniature golf, reading, knitting, and working on our blog.