KOA in Benson, AZ

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Tonight, we are comfortably back in our fifth-wheel in Desert Hot Springs. Our plan to stay for 2 nights in a Kamping Kabin at the KOA in Benson, AZ turned into a 1 night mini-adventure - not a particularly good one.

The Kabin looked pretty much as we expected it to look based on the pictures we had seen on KOA websites:

From KOA in Benson, AZ

From KOA in Benson, AZ

The inside, as you can see from the pics, is pretty sparse - a double bed and bunk beds. The room had a small fridge, one lightbulb on the ceiling with the only switch located by the front door - across the room from the bed. There was also an oil-filled electric radiator type heater which we wondered about as it was about 25C. There was no bathroom, no TV and no running water - it was sort of like tenting in a "wooden tent". The bathrooms and showers were pretty close by so that wasn't too bad. Paulette and I both thought that we could easily tough this place out for 2 nights with no problem at all.

However, that was not to be. About 8:30pm, the smoke detector on the ceiling next to the light bulb started to go off. High pitched noises scare the wits out of Molly and she began shaking like a leaf - Mo was howling. The beeping stopped by itself but then resumed about 15 minutes later. After a half-hour of this, we figured it must be the heat from the light bulb that was causing the problem because we couldn't find any other obvious source.

So, at 9:30pm, with no lights and no tv, we decided to go to bed and get a good night's sleep. That was not to be either! About 15 minutes later, the smoke alarm decided to give one last screech just for good measure and to leave us laying in bed just waiting for the next alarm. It didn't, but that didn't help us sleep any better as the bed was a little like sleeping on a gravel road.

We got up quite early and discoverd quickly what the oil-filled radiator was for - it was freezing in the Kabin. Outside it was only 5C - nice and clear but very cold. It seems this part of the desert is a little bit different from Palm Springs. Anyway, we turned on the radiator to get some heat and after about 15 minutes - guess what? The smoke alarm starts going crazy again - any heat source at all sets it off.

Paulette went off to have a shower and when she got back and plugged her hair dryer in, it too set off the smoke alarm. That was the last straw, we both decided "we're outa here". We packed everything back into the truck, got our money back for the second night and we headed off for Tucson and the Gem Show. We had already made up our minds that we would head back to Palm Springs and our beautiful, luxurious, comfortable, shangri-la of a fifth-wheel as soon as Paulette was finished shopping at the Gem Show! It was a 5 hour drive, but we figured if we left around 2pm, we'd be home about 7pm - not too late at all.

First, we stopped at the Beaudry RV Park in Tucson to meet up with Gary and Sandy Lowery, friends from Duncan, B.C. Sandy and Paulette had planned to go together to the Gem Show so I drove them over to a nearby site and then went back to visit with Gary and wait for a call to pick up the gem-shoppers. Everything worked out as planned and we were back on the road shortly after 2pm headed back to Palm Springs. Paulette had a couple of bags full of beads and free magazines so she was quite happy.

As for the bead show itself, Paulette said it was just as overwhelming as last year even though it was about 30% smaller. It doesn't take long down here to see the effects of the poor U.S. economy - it is evident everywhere. The Beaudry RV Park slashed their nightly rates from $42 a night to just $29 - and the park was still not full. There were not nearly as many vendors at the gem shows nor were there as many visitors. There are stores closed everywhere - especially in the big malls. Hopefully, things will improve over the next year.

Apart from our bad experience with the Kabin, the Benson KOA was a pretty nice RV Park. It had terrific views of the desert:

From KOA in Benson, AZ

The park was extremely well kept and the washrooms and showers were absolutely spotless. If we had brought our fifth-wheel, we would have been quite happy to spend a few nights there - oh well, maybe next year!

The drive across the Arizona desert was quite scenic - vast areas of desert and red-rock mountains. We stopped at a rest stop to find they were very serious about not going off the paths because of the danger of rattlesnakes:

From KOA in Benson, AZ

We didn't see any snakes - but, the warning was enought to keep us, and Mo and Molly, behind the wall and well away from any danger!

It's been a very long day, so we're looking forward to a good night's sleep and a great day tomorrow just hanging around the RV Park and going for a swim in the pool. Gary and Sandy will be arriving tomorrow from Tucson and are booked into the Sands RV park not too far away from our site. They will be staying here for a month before heading home so we're looking forward to a few barbques!