A quiet day in the old Southwest

Lots of palms, but not at church (the resort's park model section)

It was a quiet day in the old Southwest. I started early with a visit to the fitness center and then we enjoyed a spirit-filled Palm Sunday service here at the resort.

Interestingly in a resort where there are hundreds of palm trees there were no palm branches in the service, but in Michigan where there are no palm trees our church had its usual complement of palms.

You can tell by the attendance and the empty seats that some folks have already left to return home. No doubt a few of the resort residents who left Thursday and Friday to head north are now dealing with a massive storm in the middle of the country.

My walk in the desert with resort in the background

There’s no problem with that here as the temperatures are in the mid-70s and expected to be there and in the low 80s all week.

After church I sat outside and finished my latest Patrick O’Brian novel “Far Side of the World,” part of the 21-book Master and Commander series.  I picked up volume 11 – “The Reverse of the Medal” - and started reading it this afternoon.

When the warm sun started putting me to sleep while reading I put on my tennis shoes and headed for a brief walk into the surrounding desert. (Joan was inside the trailer napping)

Across the street from the resort is a desert landscape with plenty of trails and I headed off to see if I could finally see a snake. The local folks tell me that it is unlikely to see snakes until the temperatures rise into the 80s and we have been there on and off for the last week or so.

Beautiful, but painful

I never wandered off far enough to lose sight of the resort flags, but did get far enough away to almost lose the trail back. When you are wearing shorts in a desert full of cactus it is never good to have to bush whack your way back home.

The more time I spend in the desert the more I realize how much pain is ready and waiting for you there. The desert is beautiful, but it holds plenty of hazards as well.

Later I walked around the park and marveled at how many of our fellow campers have already departed. Judging by the number of folks packing things away, we will lose quite a few more this week.

Tomorrow I’m planning on taking a hike – Ventana Canyon – that I missed during our trip to California. This week promises to be a busy one as we are getting prepared for another visit from family next weekend and there are several services this week because it is Holy Week.

You can see all the empty spaces near us

I’m also leading the Bible study at the Men’s Bible study on Thursday after I volunteered last week. This is the final meeting of the group and I spent some additional time this afternoon preparing for the study.

After Joan got up for her nap she whipped up breakfast for dinner – pancakes, eggs and bacon – and we spent the rest of night quietly in the trailer.

Before I go on my hike tomorrow I head to the post office to pick up a package that didn’t get delivered to the resort on Friday. We think it is Joan’s prescriptions – at least we’re hoping that’s what it is – but apparently it arrived with postage due and so the resort wouldn’t take it.

Although we are really enjoying our time here we know our time is drawing to a close. Three weeks from today we will be leaving to head back to our real life in Michigan.