Tally Ho Travelers

DESERT CENTER, CALIFORNIA When I say Desert Center, California is in the middle of nowhere, I'm not joking.  Desert Center, founded in 1921 by Stephen "Desert" Ragsdate, was once a bustling roadside stop.  With construction of Interstate 10, which bypassed Desert Center, and the closure of Eagle Mountain Mine, the town began its decline.  It is now largely abandoned.   In its prime, Desert Center offered travelers a cafe, service station, repair garage and even a swimming pool.  Today, many of Desert Center's buildings stand abandoned, with roofs damaged by wind and time and graffiti defacing the structures.   Desert Center today consists of Lake Tamarisk, abandoned buildings covered with graffiti and truckers & campers stopping to rest. Further on down the road, you will find Lake Tamarisk Desert Resort.  We stayed there for four nights.  It's a very well kept resort with sites for RV and permanent mobile homes.  The residents are m...

ERHENBERG, ARIZONA - MAY 7-10, 2025 We stopped in Erhenberg, Arizona for a few nights.  We like to only travel 3-4 hrs maximum a day.  We often stay at a place just overnight, or maybe two (if there is something in the area we want to check out).  River Sands RV Resort was just a stopover.   River Sands is new and still in the process of getting fully established.  Once it's finished, it's going to be a lovely resort. Our site was long and wide.  There were hardly any people staying there, so we had nots of room to roam around.  Their Club House, pool and hot tub were beautiful.   The pool is large with lots of chaise lounge chairs and tables with chairs covered by umbrellas.   The Club House has game tables, TVs, sitting areas, an exercise room with lots of equipment, and bathrooms/showers.  There is a beach and a fishing lake, too.  For your convenience there is also a very large laundry room.  Everything was immaculatel...

TUCSON, ARIZONA - APRIL 29-MAY 6, 2025 After our time in the Phoenix area we headed to another HipCamp location - Saguaro (suh-waa-row)  National Monument West, near Tucson.  Private property located right next to the Saguaro National Park.  It was a  true desert experience.  The sunsets were beautiful, and the howls of the coyotes could be heard every evening.  We were all by ourselves on this property, which included full hookups (water, 50amp electric, and septic).  We had no idea we would enjoy the desert so much.   We were surrounded by so many different types of cacti; Saguaro, Prickly Pear, Barrel, Jumping Charro, and Octillo.  We got to star gaze at night.  For the first time in my life I was able to see the constellation Leo in the sky.  Since I am a Leo, it was a special moment for me.  The birds of the desert sang us their lullaby every evening.  We heard white winged doves, cactus wren, Gila woodpeckers and Gam...

SURPRISE, ARIZONA - AVONDALE, ARIZONA - APRIL 23-29, 2025 After our time in Williams, Arizona we headed to Surprise, Arizona where we had booked a stay through HipCamp to stay on private property for 6 nights.  The advertisement for the space made it look very nice and accommodating.  The listing indicated " Site 1 has beautiful sunset views to the West. We are located out of the city hustle and bustle. The days are quiet. The nights are pitch black with no signs of being close to a big city. All you hear is the coyotes serenading you to sleep." The picture that accompanied the ad. The next morning, we were awakened at 5am by construction vehicles, cement trucks and consistent pounding.  It turns out that a new development was being built directly next to the property and on down the road.  Our hosts gave us no indication that there would be construction going on during our stay.  They certainly had advance notice.  We told them we were going to find anothe...