Usery Mountain Regional Park and the Mesa Rally

Bill and I along with two other couples, Gary and Pam from Halifax Nova Scotia and Bruce and Sue  from Hemet California, took on the responsibility of organizing the Escapee Chapter 44 Alberta Roamer Rally for March 12-16th here at Usery.  This is such a beautiful setting for a boondocking experience (no services but a large group camping area) as it is situated in the desert of  Saguaro cacti, mesquite, desert sage and brittle bush.  Very colourful area when in flower.  It was a fun rally!

We met three days prior to finalize our shopping menu and then we headed out to Costco for price checking.  We women dragged our men there for a few hours and then hit Walmart for another two hour stint.  I won't go into detail, but we got our prices and the men were beat by 4:30, time for Happy Hour.  The next day we set up our gift bags and made up our charts for signups for various crafts and activities.  Registration was on the Monday, so we wanted everything ready before the gang arrived- 33 rigs and 65 people!

Sue, Bruce with Pheebe, Gary, Bill and Pam taking notes

A Saguaro Sunset

We planned such things as hikes, hosts' dinner, crafts such as T-shirt beading, hat band making, earring designing, RV tech chats, Computer tech talks, baseball, Cowboy poetry, Campfires and campfire singing, Happy Hours, and the Hitch-up breakfast, cooked by the men and prepared for the women!  Love it.  Here is the crew with last minute decisions to make!
We faced the Aerbus toward the desert, so west and the sunsets were magnificent.  A pair of Saguaro towered above the rig in the setting sun.  Arms on a saguaro grow when they are about 90 years old and when conditions are right, they bloom in June-July at the ripe old age of 60 plus years.  A beautiful sight!  A fun rally!