One the RV communities we belong to is the Escapees RV Club. This is a very popular RVing community that provides education and social activities for RVers of all types. The Escapees own and operate several RV parks and some of these parks are co-op parks, which are owned by the members who have purchased a lease for a site. One such park is in Benson, AZ and we spent two weeks there, including Christmas Day.
One thing you can count on when hanging out with a bunch of Escapees is that there will be a happy hour at 4:00 PM every day. The Saguaro Escapee Co-op park in Benson, AZ is no exception. We attended most of the happy hour gatherings. On Thursdays, a group of craft beer lovers share a variety of beers that have been brought in from around the country. We were invited to join in and take tastings of the beers being shared. We both picked up a couple new friends in our Untappd beer tracking social app as a result.
On Saturday, December 21, the Arena Bar in Benson hosted a calf roping rodeo event for local cowboys. We joined a couple of people from the park to watch the event. The event was pairs roping where one rider is required to rope the young cow around the head and then their partner needs to rope both hind legs of the animal. The best times we saw while the event was contested was just over 6 seconds. It wasn’t a professional rodeo with lots of events but it was interesting to watch.
Based on the recommendation of a couple at happy hour one day, we drove just south of Sierra Vista to take a hike in Ramsey Canyon. The hike was very nice with some views of the valley. A large portion of the trail follows a creek and provided some photo opportunities of small water falls. We had a nice hike and finished the day with dinner and a beer or two at the Copper Brothel Brewery in Sonoita, AZ.
One of the funnest events we participated in was the brown bag gift exchange on Monday the 23rd. Each person attending was instructed to bring a gift in a plain brown bag. As people’s names are called, they pick a bag and show everyone what they got. However, instead of picking a bag, a participant can choose to steal a gift from someone that already opened a bag. If that happens, then the person that had an item stolen can pick a new bag or steal themselves. Once a particular gift has been stolen for a second time, then it cannot be stolen again. Our names were drawn relatively late and we were both able to make the second steal on some nice adult beverages. Fireball cinnamon whiskey was very popular and there were many 750ml bottles around but only one 1.75 liter bottle. Amy was able to make the second steal on that bottle and shortly after, Dan made the second steal on a bottle of honey bourbon he had his eye on. All in all, a good haul for the night.
On Christmas Day, we joined the majority of the people in the park for Christmas dinner in the club house. Attendees are assigned to a table ahead of time and the person in charge of the table assigns courses for each couple to bring to the dinner. We provided a pecan pie, which happened to be one of two such pies for our table. Our table was decorated with several wooden nutcrackers from a large collection owned by one of the members of our table. It was nice to share Christmas dinner with so many nice people.
Our last social event of our stay was a concert on Saturday the 28th. A local country western musician was performing in the club house and we sat and listened to a couple hours of country music, some of which we’ve heard of but most was a bit before our time. Overall we had a wonderful and relaxing time in Benson. We will definitely return to this friendly park in the future.
Sounds like it was a good place to spend the holidays. The Benson SKP is on our list of places to stay!
I had not heard of Ramsey Canyon. I’ll add that one to my list! We have driven through Sierra Vista many times, but never stopped.