Prescott Valley

Monday, 24 December

Today was to be a golf day, taking advantage of nice weather before the cold front moves in.  We set an alarm to leave ourselves some extra time to take the very scenic route through Jerome, AZ from Cottonwood to Dewey-Humbolt, AZ.

Google maps defaulted to have us return to I-17 vice the “straighter” route over the mountains.  The squiggles on the route made clear that there were going to be switchbacks, tight turns, and steep grades up and down.  But Sprinty was up for the adventure.

We left the Dead Horse Ranch State Park at 3,300 feet elevation about 6:30am.  The sign in Highway 89A as we got to the west edge of Cottonwood clearly said no vehicles over 50 feet long.  And the road started up, and up.  We climbed to the town of Jerome which is at elevation 5,066.  And the road out of Jerome continued up and up.  We topped the pass at 7,000 feet before the descent started.  Words just can’t fully describe the epic drive, and I could not take pictures while keeping Sprinty in the lane.  We did pull off at one of the few pullouts above Jerome to take a picture:


We arrived Prescott Country Club before 9am, and we had the first tee time of 10am.  This time of year, they don’t make tee times earlier due to frost delays.  About 9am, we got to hit on the range to warm up.  We were paired up with Gary and Phil, two members who were quite good golfers.  Gary was routinely hitting his drives 250+ yards, and a few went 300 yards.  Phil, when he connected well, was hitting about 250 yards, but was less consistent.

Kris opened with a par on the first hole to Darrell’s double bogey.  On the next hole, she went up by another stroke.  Darrell was three strokes behind after 2 holes.  He figured it was going to be one of those days.  At the turn, he was only one stroke back.  He tied it up on the 10th, and we were back and forth for most of the rest of the holes.  When the last ball had fallen, Darrell was two strokes up on the day.  Kris was bombing the ball, with an average driving distance on the day of 170 yards, and several drives over 180 yards.  And hitting the fairway more than any of the rest of us.

We enjoyed Prescott Country Club a lot.  A nice course, in good shape, priced reasonably.  A course that is on our “do again” list.


Our destination for the night was Congress, AZ.  The route was over the mountains, and as we climbed out of Prescott, AZ, the sign said nothing over 40 feet long was allowed.  As twisty and turny as we thought the route was this morning, this was was at least doubly twisty, turny.  Awesome views, and only one turnout on the route to take pictures.  By then, things had gotten hazy, so we skipped the photo.

Tonight we are staying at an Escapees RV Club RV park, Escapees North Ranch just south of Congress, AZ.  It is a rainbow park, meaning you don’t have to be an Escapees member to stay here.  We arrived about 4pm, and commenced to doing chores.  Kris did cleaning inside of Sprinty while Darrell used the windshield repair kit on one of the rock chips we received a few weeks ago.  The kit takes over an hour to apply, needed 50 degrees and sunlight to cure the resin - three factors we have not had since Big Bend National Park.




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