We haven't posted anything for the last several days because we have either been too busy or too lazy (but mostly lazy). We have been discussing our future winter trips to Arizona and have pretty much decided that trying to purchase something here isn't worth the money and effort (since we would probably never spend more than four months here). We had another idea, however: we could buy a used trailer with more space than our ultra-lite and leave it stored here. Then when we come down (without our ultra-lite) we could take the larger and heavier RV out of storage and park it in an RV park. With this in mind we spent Friday afternoon touring a large gated RV resort a few miles east of Cottonwood. It has a swimming pool, tennis courts, shuffle board, putt-putt golf, a club house (with a little cafe) and several rental cabins. Plus a large secure storage yard for RVs when not in use (apparently our idea is a fairly common practice). Sounds ideal, right? After walking around for a couple of hours, and discovering that they have very limited phone and wifi service, we came to the conclusion that we simply didn't like it and we significantly prefer the place we are staying - the Rio Verde RV Park. This place is not gated and has no amenities, but we like it for reasons we don't completely understand. Quirky is the best descriptor. Over the last few days on our walks around the park we took some photos to capture some of the quirkiness. Here are a few:

RV park entry.

Park office (the owner is Taiwanese and teaches Tao in her studio next door).

The "totem poles" are an interesting combination of Asian and Arctic traditions.

Next to the park entrance is a Mexican eatery truck. We'll talk about our visit and purchases there later.

RVs in the park range from this old Air Stream with flat tires and a makeshift roof

(occupied by a full timer with a giant bushy beard) to mega motor homes with several slide outs.

RV parking spots vary from riverside to hillside. The hillside ones are very secluded and appear to all be occupied by full timers. They have very nice views across the valley. 

We selected a spot overlooking the river (although we can barely see it because of the dense vegetation).

You can't really see it in the photos but the leaves are budding on many of the trees so it will be very green here soon.

Directly opposite of our view of the river is a view of  the hilltop with a large prehistoric pueblo on top.

Our spot is in a long line of diagonal spots overlooking the river.

The parking looks dense but one of the attributes we really like about this RV park (as compared to the large gated park described above) is that we have a nice "private" space where we can lounge and enjoy. Notice the cinder block stairs. The sites are not very level so we have blocks under the wheels to level the trailer; and we needed to create a stable stair to get us up another 8 or 9 inches. So at a visit to Home Depot we came up with the idea of cinder blocks and at about one dollar each (X 4) we got exactly what we needed.

Following the river bank below us is a nice trail that we walk frequently.

Our trailer from the trail below.

Along the trail are "inspirational" signs that are probably consistent with Taoist teachings.

So we really like it here - quirky as it is - and we will probably continue to come here for the foreseeable winters. After we get tired of dragging our trailer back and forth we may decide to purchase a larger one and simply leave it stored here. Who knows?