This morning we packed up the RV and prepared to leave Ak-Chin airport.  We were out of water, so we drove the 50 feet over to the dump station and filled our tanks.  After everyone showered, we dumped our tanks.  The slides were still out, so I had to go under the slide to pull the dump levers:

We said goodbye to Wayne and Suzie.  I learned quite a bit from Wayne over the five days we were here, so I hate to leave, but daytime highs here are now in the 90s, and we have to be in Las Vegas for Passover in just a few weeks, so we drove north towards higher elevations and cooler temperatures.

Wayne had put me in touch with PPGer Scott, who lives near Sedona and suggested we camp where he launches his PPG.  When we pulled in around sunset, we found that we had quite a bit of company:

We set up the RV while dodging piles of cow manure and fell asleep to the sounds of distant mooing.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

We awoke to a cool but brilliant morning here in Tonto National Forest just North of Apache Junction, Arizona.  It’s hard to believe this can even be called a desert:

We had overnighted on a spur road:

Upon reading the permit this morning, I see that camping off the main road is not allowed, so we moved to a pullout along the main road:

As we got the RV into position, it started to rain and hail.  We walked down to the local wash which was now full of water.  It’s the first time we’ve seen what a wash looks like during a storm:

After breakfast, we drove in to Apache Junction and visited and played dominoes with Grandpa Glenn and Edna for most of the afternoon:

After saying goodbye to Glenn and Edna, we drove to Party City to find some Purim costumes:

We arrived back at the RV just before sunset:

We prepared our shalach manos:

Trish tested out some of her face painting on B:

Trish made a birthday cake for B:

In my opinion, it was about as tasty as it looks, but the kids loved it:

This morning Trish made a special birthday breakfast for B:

We drove down to Tyson Wells vendor area here in Quartzsite.  Unlike our last visit, where we rubbed elbows with half a million other RVers, most of the vendors are gone this late in the season, but a few remain and we did a bit of shopping:

We filled up our propane, mailed some letters, and visited a number of gem and bead shops in town, including Gem World where this fellow lives, an oblique reference to Hi Jolly, who is buried in town:

We were only here in Quartzsite for one night, but it was fun to be back again:

We had a bit of rain last night, so the ground was a bit soft, but thankfully we did manage to get back on the road. As we drove east towards Phoenix, Trish photographed the kids in the back seat being their usual selves:

We arrived in Apache Junction, AZ a bit after sunset.  After stopping my Grandpa Glenn’s house and visited with him and Edna, we picked up some supplies at Walmart and drove a couple miles north to overnight in the Bulldog Wash OHV area of the Tonto National Forest.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.