Since our Parker, AZ arrival on New Year's Day, we have done a little exploring around the area. Although we have spent quite a few days reviewing the house plans and developing the materials list. We are finished with the materials list finally, after two iterations. That was a very difficult two week exercise. We learned quite a bit during the process, and it feels very good to be finished with that task!
Here come the UTVs (Utility Terrain Vehicles) lining up to pass the judge's pre-race inspection. This is the 2022 Shock Therapy Parker 250 Race. These UTVs will race over a 250 mile course in the local desert terrain.
Steve checks out the Ceremonial Start/Finish Line in town.
Vendor specialists were setup on Main St. These guys were selling fancy rims.
Gari checks out the Fusion car as it rolls up to the inspection area.
There's the Red Bull car.
...and the Monster Energy Drink car
More racers lining up. These UTVs are rad!
More vendor displays in front of the local Ford dealership.
The street carnival was set up too. This guy was manually spinning these little girls and they were squealing with joyful fear!
All the UTVs lined up in the judge's pre-race inspection area.
Well, we didn't journey out into the desert to see the racers race, but decided to go out later and take a ride up to Parker Dam for a little local sight seeing. Below, we are headed north up Rt 95 out of Parker. The mountains became scenic right away out of town.
The shot below is up by the (Bill Williams) Memorial Bridge. BTW Bill was an early explorer in the area and reportedly the best fur trapper of 'em all. We understand there is plentiful fishing in what we call the Parker Reservoir, but the map calls it the Colorado River. We hear there is Bass, Catfish and Trout to name a few species in there.
There's Gari in Romeo at a scenic pull off along the river going back toward Parker.
Looking down toward the river.
There are many little resort communities all along the river between Parker and the dam to the north, 17 miles up the road. A little tight in there for our comfort.
Coming up on Parker Dam. Sign says absolutely No Trucks. We looked and were concerned that we may not fit through the barriers, so we didn't attempt to go across.
Dam to the right, hydroelectric plant to the left.
Resort community on the Cali side of the river. Pretty setting under that tall mountain right on the sandy beach of the Colorado River.
More Cali communities...
We spied the golf course that probably draws a lot of the visitors to the area as well.
We stopped to take a picture of this Americana, and the resident came by as we were photographing and he offered to build us an airmail sign just like that. We like it, but don't want to own it! This was on the Cali side of the river where the free-spirits roam and roost.
Coming back into Parker and under-passing the train trestle.
Now the rest of the story that we know or think about the tow equipment that we discovered in Parker. This classic beauty seemed to be "on display" outside the Parker Towing & Storage facility. She's a Kenworth heavy duty with custom paint.
Her front view.
We peeked in the shop area and asked if we could take a few pictures of the tow trucks. The owner, Mark happened to be the one we spoke with and he gladly invited us in and told us a few stories about his trucks. I liked this old fancy Chevy classic. Beautiful lines and in great condition!
Mark said he had eight heavy tow trucks! We found this to be astounding for such a small rural town. Mark said he paid $600K for one of these rigs! We would think that you would have to keep these things running practically full time to pay the note on one. On a $500k note paid over 12 years the payment is around $4,500 per month. We have never seen one of these trucks in action. They are just parked all pretty right there everyday we ride by on our bicycles.
Below is the pièce de résistance of Mark's fleet of tow trucks as far as we could tell. He had two guys shining her up at every detail. We think Mark just loves these big machines as much as we do and must have the money to buy them! It's not obvious that they are paying for themselves by the amount of time they sit around looking all shiny and pretty. And that's the rest of the story as we know it in Parker, AZ.
We are thinking of traveling out to Nellie's Desert Bar before we depart Parker. We have been hearing about that place for years, but have never been. It is about 10 miles out in the desert, no commercial utilities, except what they have established locally. It is set up in the middle of an old deserted mining town. They only open on the weekend. They play live music and serve food and drinks for a unique primitive desert experience. Depending on which review you believe, the food, music and drinks are either outstanding or horrible! If we make it out there we will have our own full report right here on the Pullin'Chocks blog.
