We drove the short trip from Fort Huachuca, Arizona to the Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Arizona, just east of Phoenix Tempe, and Mesa. Our RV site was located right at the base of the Superstition Mountains and it was a beautiful site; what views on both sides of our trailer. We got reservations at the last moment so we had to stay for the first two days in a "dry-camping" site. It was a great site with a perfect view of the Superstition Mountains from our outside deck. Getting into the site was a little "sketchy." I should have driven past the site and backed in, but I chose to just drive into the site. I actually pulled the trailer off the road and onto some rocks at the side of the road. The trailer handled it very well. We set up the RV and just enjoyed the area for the first day. We did not do too much other than explore the area by computer and enjoy the views.

NOTE: Neither Lisa nor I have been sick during our entire adventure up until our stay at Fort Huachuca. The weather turned cold and the rains made being outside pretty miserable. I became very chilled and ended up with a pretty bad bronchial issue. It stayed with me all the way to Beale AFB in California where I say a doctor who put me on antibiotics and steroids. This beat back the issue over a six-day period. Made it hard to exercise and do more of the things we wanted to do.

Lisa had never been to Phoenix before, so we decided that on the second say there, we would take a drive all around the town. We went to a nice restaurant for breakfast in the town of Mesa. Then we decided to drive to Chandler in the south part of the Phoenix area to go to a massive store that sells motorcycles and off-road vehicles. We have seen several people driving Polaris Slingshots during our travels and we think it would be great to have one to explore certain areas of the country. Check out the photo of the Slingshot in this blog. After leaving the Polaris dealer, we decided to drive to Luke AFB on the west side of the Phoenix metro area. Luke is a fighter base with lots of F-16s and F-35s. It was a Saturday, so there was no flying going on. We explored the base and went to the Base Exchange. Lisa found a nice book store and we bought some Christmas gifts at the BX. We also filled the truck fuel tanks at the base gas station and saved over $100 from what it costs for fuel in California. After leaving Luke AFB, we drove to a Bed, Bath and Beyond to shop. As we arrived at the store, we noticed a small radio control flying field, so we drove there to check it out. The runway was dirt and muddy so there were no flyers, but it was interesting to see a field in a pretty "metropolitan" area. We continued on our way to the RV and when we were in Apache Junction, we saw a sign say, "RC Event This Way." We drove to a very nice RC field where they were having a huge Jet Fly. We took some photos and watched the flyers for about an hour. We then drove back to the RV. The distance from one side of the Phoenix metropolitan area is about 60 miles. It took us all day to make the round-trip.

On the next day, we took a nice hike up to the base of the Superstition Mountains. It is a very beautiful place to hike and the views were great.