Silverridge RV Resort
After consulting our Woodalls Campground Directory, we chose this park as the perfect spot for us to stop for 3 days and get some work done. The guide showed that it was an award winning park, with instant phone hookups, cable TV and over 600 sites.
We called the park at 4 pm on this Monday afternoon from Tucson, only to be greeted by a recording asking us to leave a phone number and someone would call us back. Well, as we were on the road, this was not possible. But, a park with over 600 sites would surely not be full on a Monday in January, so off we headed up Interstate 10.
The park is located 15 miles off I-10 and the traffic was terrible as we skirted around Phoenix to get to Mesa. Arriving at 7PM, we pulled up to the guard station at the front of the park and asked where we went to register. The guard informed us that we could not park in a campsite tonight because it was dark. At first we thought he was joking. We could see into the well-lighted park and there were a LOT of empty sites.
But, no.......we could park in the parking lot until morning when someone would "lead" us to a site. The park policy is never to park an RV after dark! We were flabbergasted! He explained to us that Silveridge was an RV park, not a campground..........not sure that I understand the distinction here!
Now, we have not been at this 20 years like some folks, but had never heard of such a thing. Many, many times we have parked at a campsite after dark and Micheal has YET to run over me as he was backing up the motorhome. (Although he may have been tempted at times!) And really, it's not like we had a 45' American Eagle with a tow car......the Eagle II is only 22' long and no tow! To make matters even more ridiculous, there was an open campsite not 30 feet from the guard station that was directly under a huge street light that made it every bit as bright as daytime!
All the parks we have encountered in our 1-1/2 years of fulltiming have instructions posted on late registration or have someone there all night to register incoming guests. We were never expected to park in a parking lot and wait until morning! No wonder those who travel into the evening hours before stopping sometimes prefer Walmart parking lots!
We decided very quickly that our $30+ per night would be much better spent elsewhere. Not about to sit in the parking lot for the next 13 hours until someone could "lead" us to a site - and most likely we would not have been allowed to run the generator so therefore would have no heat to fend off the desert cold tonight -- we left and drove on to Destiny's Phoenix RV Resort and a most pleasant welcome - at 8PM (when it was even darker outside)!
So, folks, if you are headed into Mesa, Arizona and decide that Silveridge RV Resort looks like a great place to stop for a night or so.......be sure to get there BEFORE DARK.......unless you want to spend the night in the parking lot!
A Winding Road * (formerly Cruising America) * 6301 Cotton St., Pensacola, FL 32526 * 850-292-1599 * freedom@awindingroad.net
Mesa, Arizona