Maricopa, AZ

On Monday, we drove up from Tucson to Maricopa, AZ, an outlying town in the Phoenix metropolitan area. We pulled into a very full parking lot at the Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino and found a spot in the overflow lot.

After getting the trailer and dogs taken care of, we wandered into the casino where we both lost $20 and left in disgust. No perks at all here. No free play, no free drinks, just a faceful of smoke and 40 bucks down the drain. At least we got a free overnight spot.

The next morning, while walking the dogs, we came across two tiny burrowing owls in the little dirt area between the highway and where we were parking. Teddy got super excited so we pulled him away and Harold set up to get some photos.


They were surprisingly unphased by us. I suppose that's necessary when you're living between a casino parking lot and a highway. I had always thought owls sleep during the day and hunt at night.
I have since found out (Thank you Wikipedia!) that Burrowing owls are different. They do hunt after dark but they are also active during the day. I also learned that due to living in open grasslands, these little guys have developed long legs and can sprint as well as fly when hunting.

As soon as we got our photos, we pulled up roots and made our way to the Palm Gardens RV resort in Mesa, AZ where we stayed last year.


Overnight spot: Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino
Price: Free, No limit, No hookups
Includes: a spot to park
Dump: [View sanidumps.com]
Water: [View sanidumps.com]
Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE.
Antenna tv reception: Didn't check.