Mountain Biking, Police Helicopters & Awesome Dad

April 16, 2026 — Day 23

White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell, AZ

We got up early for the sunrise, of course, and no we won’t bore you with the details of yet another glorious sunrise in Arizona. Paul really wanted to get a mountain bike ride in but it was too cold this morning. So we lazed around the RV until the temperature came up a bit. Susan stayed behind because this terrain was more than she’s comfortable with.

Of course by the time he got out there it was getting hot! Oh well, he had fun. He saw a Sheriff’s helicopter heading into mountains. “That’s odd.” he thought. (susan here: I was also in the RV watching the helicopter and having the same thought. We’ve spent a fair bit of time in this park and never have we seen a helicopter. Balloons off in the distance? Common. Helicopters? This was a first.)

He did stop by this mini gorge.

This sort of thing is all over Arizona. When it rains the water doesn’t soak into the ground because the ground is so dry, it just runs off, and makes giant erosion projects. This was one of them. While taking a break he watched the helicopter land!

There is what looks like an ambulance there. There was also a police car a little ways away. Presumably they were looking for a lost or injured hiker. The helicopter took off, went back into the mountains, returned again. Paul was far enough away then and he couldn’t tell if it landed.

Back at the RV Paul fixed his daughter’s Nintendo Pokemon Color Red, which was released in 1998. I think hers is newer. The “up” button wasn’t working.

He just disassembled it, cleaned it, and put it back together. It worked. Why yes, of course Paul does carry a set of driver bits which includes miniature tri-bladed screw bit.!

Later on we met up with Anastasia (Jon was on a business trip), had some dinner and played games.