It has been my experience that people appreciate water more when it is harder to find. Two of the largest and most enthusiastic Hobie fleets in the country used to be in Phoenix and Tucson. (I don't know if that is still the case, because we have lost touch.)And there is also a very active open fleet in Arizona.

Are you anywhere near Albuquerque? There used to be quite a few beach-cat sailors there, but I don't know what lakes they sailed on.

When I was a child, it was a 45-minute drive to the yacht club we belonged to -- and we went there to race every weekend from May through September. The drive didn't bother us kids as long as we always stopped at a halfway point on the way home for a frosted root beer and a hamburger.

The treat trick must have worked, because we "kids" are still sailing over 50 years later.