P to Q: Sentinel AZ to Yuma, AZ

We had wanted to stay at a place that was 3 hours and 10 minutes away (maybe we have seen 3:10 to Yuma to many times), but we made it to Yuma in less than that after leaving our camp spot near Sentinel.Our destination in Yuma was the "Gathering of the Gunfighters" at the Yuma Territorial Prison, now a state park. We found this obscure event on our first day in Arizona when Emily was checking out the possibility of camping at the state parks. Our drive through Arizona was primarily focused on getting us to Yuma in time to see the second day of this fascinating sounding event. We saw lots of people dressed in period (1880s) costume competing to see who had the best skit based in the American West at that time. The first skit we saw had no gun play, so when the first cap gun shot was fired it startled Max's coffee right out of the cup an onto the person standing in front of us. Luckily he found it hilarious that Max was frightened and decided to just laugh about the whole situation. Some of the skits were better than others, and it was fun to see so many people in costume. After spending the better part of the day at the prison, we decided to explore and figure out where we were going to camp for the evening. We spotted a street fair and walked around before finding Lute's Casino, which is not a casino, but a burger joint that apparently was very popular with the gunfighters, still in costume and adding a very interesting "Old West" atmosphere.Mittry Lake is a free BLM camping area north of Yuma and we were able to find a perfectly sized spot for us right on the water's edge. Buzz liked to watch the ducks.

Links: Yuma Territorial Prison, Reenactment Guild of America, Mittry Lake Campground