We had two great nights boondocking in Lost Dutchman State Park. It is seated right at the base of the Superstition Mountain range. For non-campers, boondocking means you do not have "hook-ups" which are the water, electricity and sewer connections. Our rig holds about 40 gallons of fresh water and is equipped with solar panels to help charge our batteries -- so you can run smaller things like a phone charger, but you can't run the microwave (poor Lucy!) or a coffee maker unless you hook up to a generator.
This was a great chance to test our systems and get used to having more limited options -- like we often may in Mexico.
The park has "generator hours" from 8-10 am and 5-7 pm - so that was helpful for making breakfast and dinner! We ended up finding out (with lots of trial and error) that one of our rooftop solar panels is not functioning. We thought it was the "solar brain" (controller) and replaced that, but our batteries were still not charging. This is a bit of a bummer because solar would be nice to have easy access to -- but it's not an insurmountable problem day to day. We are slotted to have warranty work done at the Airstream Factory in Ohio this summer, so hopefully we can make everything else work until then.
One bonus of coming to Apache Junction, AZ is we were able to visit with Stu's boss from Compass. He retired in 2018 and they have stayed in touch ever since - but it was so fun to spend time with Mike and his wife, Glenda. The men played some guitar and we enjoyed a fun pizza dinner together. They were also gracious in letting us do some laundry at their house. :)
We also had the joy of having some local Kansas Airstream friends who winter in Arizona join us for our boondocking experience. They are full-timers and have so much experience boon docking - so they were a wealth of knowledge with all things solar and we had a great time watching the Chiefs game - projected onto the side of their Airstream. They have a female golden retriever, Flower, who we call Buster's girlfriend. The dogs had a ball and were both worn out by the time the two days were over.
Sunday provided some excitement. At about 6 am, we heard a rescue helicopter overhead. About two hours later, we saw it again with a stretcher hanging below. Four sheriffs blocked the view as they unloaded the stretcher. We never heard anything on the news, so we don't know if it was a training exercise or of someone was actually found in the mountains. Pretty wild. The desert and mountain range out there is intense.
On Monday, the kids did their schoolwork and then Lucy, Jude, and I wandered down to the ranger's station and picked up Jr. Ranger packets. We learned so much about desert plants and wildlife and did a short .25 mile "native plant" trail which had labeled names to each plants. They also had a Saguaro plant that they started labeling and tracking height of a cactus since 1992. It was massive -- and they think it was already 20 years old in 1992!
Lucy completed her packet and got two pieces of "fools gold"/pyrite, a Junior Ranger button and a parks poster.
Buster was happy to put another state sticker on the map.
Jude and Pradit were both able to zoom with their classes today -- that always gives them such a boost! I'm so proud of how hard each of our kids are working with their schoolwork. I know these are memories that will stick with them for the rest of their lives and we are so grateful for the opportunity.
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