Tuesday, January 3, 2012 (Travel to McDowell Mountain Regional Park, Fountain Hills, AZ)

It is a travel day today but with only a 20 minute drive and checkout time here at Eagle View 11:00 a.m., we didn’t have to rush this morning.

We were all ready to leave shortly before 11:00 and after going over to say goodbye to our neighbours (behind us), Harvey and Ramona (who are full-timers from South Dakota), we were on our way. Harvey was a rocket engineer with Nasa and worked on the space shuttle and Apollo missions.
When we had driven through the campground back in mid-December, we had marked site #13 as one of the choice sites and when we made the reservations, it had been available for the week.  However, as we pulled up in front of it now, we realized that it had quite a steep driveway before levelling off...yikes!  Hopefully we don’t have any trouble unhitching. Steve expertly backed the rig into the site...with my help, of course...and we got the trailer levelled off side-to-side.  The truck hitch did not want to release but with a little effort (requiring both of us), it finally gave way and let go of the 5th wheel.  Let’s hope we are able to get it re-hitched when it is time to leave.
I put the sliders out but before unpacking the furniture, I decided to give the inside a good vacuuming.  So our set-up time was a little longer than usual...but we’re all clean inside now.  The sites at this campground are so much nicer than at Eagle View...lots of space between the sites and the vegetation is beautiful!  The only complaint we have with this particular site is that the picnic table is so far away...lots of room for tents, I guess...
After a late lunch, Steve unloaded the bikes...we thought we would go for a bike ride around the campground.  Unfortunately, the tires all needed to be pumped up (one of mine was completely flat) so it took awhile before we were finally ready for our bike ride.
We thought that we would ride to the Visitors Centre to see if by chance someone had found the polarized lens filter and lens cap that had fallen off the camera when we had been on our hike mid-December.  No such luck but it was worth a try...I guess we may end up having to go buy a new one.  It costs over $100...sheesh! The on duty camp host stopped by to welcome us and wanted to talk to Steve about the truck as he is an ex trucker. Steve mentioned that we lost our polarized lens filter and cap on a hike and he said that he would tell his boss. Later in the afternoon his boss stopped by to say that he would enquire with everyone at their next staff meeting.
After a ride around both loops of the campground, we were back at our rig.  By this time it was after 4:30, so we sat outside enjoying a cocktail in the late afternoon sunshine.  As the sun went down behind the mountains, it’s amazing how quickly it cools off.  So we headed inside and enjoyed the view from there...just beautiful!

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