Arriving in Mesa and Scottsdale

On March 10 we arrived in the Phoenix area from Prescott Valley. We wanted to camp in Usery Mountain Regional Park east of Mesa. They were full when we arrived so we arranged to spent the night in their overflow lot. We spent the evening in Scottsdale visiting Jan & George, then returned to the overflow lot for the night.

We were at Usery Mountain for two weeks--spending time with Jan & George, getting familiar with the area, enjoying the park, and doing a little square dancing. The campground is great! Good-sized campsites with plenty of room between them. And the scenery is fantastic. We had site 31, which we decided was one of the best. It's at end of the oval road that runs through the campground, so it has views into open terrain rather than toward other RVs. In general, sites on the outside of the outer loop are preferable to others.

According to several people we talked to, spring flowers around Mesa tend to bloom in April. So we were a little early for that. But we heard that March is likely to have good weather. That's what we found. A few days were about 90 degrees, which was a little too warm for us, but overall the weather was very pleasant.

On the 25th Ken flew to Orange County to be initiated into the Mission Viejo lodge of the Elks. Ed Evans picked him up at the airport and drove him to the Johnson’s, where lunch was waiting for the five of us. Later Ed Evans, Wes Johnson, Tom Rowe, and John Shickley took him out to dinner and then did him the honor of attending his initiation. He spent the night at the Johnsons. They and he went to the Evans for breakfast the next morning, then the Johnsons drove him to the airport for his flight back to Arizona.

We parked the rig on the street near Jan’s house for a couple of nights. Lee spent night at Jan’s while Ken was in California. We both stayed there the next night. The next morning we started out for Casa Grande.