Into the valley of the sun

It is around 120 miles from Yuma to Phoenix.  We passed several bargain RV resorts and RV lots for as cheap as 37K.  The problem lies in that the nearest support and resupply for RVers is about 50 miles away.

We chose to stay at Leaf Verde RV park near the town of Buckeye at the exterior fringes of the ever expanding metropolis of Phoenix.  It is far enough away that you don't have to participate in the big city traffic unless you choose to.  Current rates 245/week with sports and pool.

The warmer climates in the winter suites us fine in Arizona with temperatures above 60 most every day.  The problem lies in the dust generated by the desert winds that occasionally happen.  There are more nice warm days than windy days.

We visited Luke Air Force Base where there was no family camp for the RV.  This is a fighter base so the air shows happen daily.  From there we learned of a flag raising ceremony on top of a local desert mountain during Veterans Day weekend.

A local athlete had a habit of taking the stars and stripes to the top of local hills.  The local anti-Americans couldn't let this happen so they did their best to take them down.  The "rebel" got organized and found contractors to donate a flag pole.  He even got the city of Glendale to sponsor and maintain the flag on the top of the hill.

The plan was to form a human chain to pass the flag to the top of the mountain in order to display it permanently for the first time.  There were thousands of participants including several military organizations, the Boy Scouts, and lots of the general public.  There were local musicians hauling their instruments to the top to play the National Anthem, many flyovers of vintage military air craft, and of course speeches by the local politicians.  This didn't make the local news!

On Veterans Day we visited the local NASCAR track that had recently been majorly renovated.  They spent 180 million dollars to upgrade the viewing stands and change the track.  It was great to revisit the racing excitement of NASCAR at a new track for us.

On November 12th we headed out of the Phoenix winds 100 miles south to the relative calm of Tucson  Our new goal is to make it to Lake City, Florida by December 8th for a work assignment.  This will require about 2000 miles of driving and diesel at 8 miles/gallon.  We usually like to cover less than 250 miles/day on travel days with at least 2 rest days in between for exploring.

There is a certain joy of being on the road again.  New adventures abound.  There are so many things to see at the new destination.  There is never enough time to do all of the things you want to do.  Such is the life of the chronic traveler.