Life is good in the desert

Home away from home

  A wrecked left knee, a little cold weather and the visit of more friends were the highlights of the past couple weeks. When we last wrote we were headed to the Short Notice (that’s the name of the band) Dance in the ballroom Saturday, February 1.

    We had a good time at the dance and then followed that up the next day with the Superbowl in the trailer. Joan set us up with cheese and crackers and we snacked our way through an entertaining Superbowl. As Detroit Lions fans we can only dream of what it would be like to have a team in that game.

    Joan has continued with her volunteer work at the resort health clinic, actually working a couple extra shifts to help out another volunteer who was sick. Both of us continue to attend our weekly Bible studies and I am always busy setting up tables and chairs for various resort events.

My car is parked near that mountain in the distance

    We continue to attend the weekly Meet Me at Maynard’s events and even went on a Monday when it was pouring rain. We figured with the lower crowd numbers we would have a better chance to win a prize. Didn’t work out that way. But we did get pretty wet.

   The space next to us in the park has been a revolving door of visitors so we haven’t had a chance to get to know our nearest neighbors very well because they are here for a day or two and then POOF! They are gone.

   Our Flint friends Mahlon and Colleen came into town the day after our Lapeer friends Karen and Bob left after a month in the Voyager with us. Mahlon and Colleen do not stay at the resort but we had a chance to meet them for dinner and then Mahlon an I did a nice hike on Brown Mountain.

Had to go through this gate on my hike- cows on the other side

    The concerts at the resort continue to be really, really good. The Buddy Holly tribute show on February 5 was good, but the Chicago Experience on February 12 was even better. The activities director here does an excellent job of booking acts that meet the needs of a pretty eclectic group of residents.

    Next week is an Alabama tribute show that will make a lot of folks very happy.

   We are in the planning stages of the Michigan Party on March 2. I go to the coffee and doughnuts meeting in the ballroom each Saturday drumming up support for the party. Joan will do the planning for the food, etc.

Two Jims on a hike

    The lecture series have been good on Thursdays. I missed the one on a local Holocaust survivor because I was hiking with Mahlon, but Joan attended “the boy who wouldn’t die” and said it was extremely interesting. We both attended the lecture on the Empire Ranch. We have visited there several times and I have written about it previously. The lecture was presented by the granddaughter of one of residents of the historic ranch.

    On the weekend of the 8^th we headed up to Apache lands so Joan could play at the casino and I could go hiking in a new place. I found a hike just outside Superior, Arizona on the Arizona Trail. Most sections of the Arizona Trail are popular hiking places and I assured Joan I would not be alone, but as it turned out I didn’t see another living soul during my 7.5 mile trek but arrived back to the trailhead safe and sound.

   I had planned to try a loop hike near the Arizona Trail section, but couldn’t find the trail and didn’t want to get lost. Especially when I could hear target practicing going on nearby and didn’t want to stumble onto someone’s private land by accident.

Apache cafe in San Carlos

    We had breakfast in a Native American café in San Carlos, Arizona on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and then went to the tribal museum. It was interesting learning about the history and trials of the tribe.

   Over the past few years we have visited several Indian Reservations in Arizona and have learned a great deal about the history and trials of the various tribes. Interestingly, some of the tribes were enemies of each other and reading their competing histories show how each tribe viewed their struggles with the other. As you can imagine they have very different views of those conflicts.

Jim and Dave 1,800-feet up

   We took a different route home so I could let Joan see some of the beautiful scenery between Globe, Arizona and Phoenix. It reminded me a little of the scenery around Moab, Utah when we visited there with my sister Pam and brother-in-law Jeff a few years back.

   Also during the last two weeks I took a tour of the Gospel Rescue Mission here in Tucson and have applied to be a volunteer there during our time here now and in the future. As you can imagine, the fair weather here brings a lot of homeless folks and many have desperate needs.

   As a volunteer I can give a couple hours a week serving food or checking folks in off the street into the new facility. I have always felt uneasy just handing out a couple bucks to people on the street worried that the money would be used to their detriment.

    The motto of the Gospel Rescue Mission is “There is something you can do,” and they work hard to get people up on their feet and into productive work.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

One of our many Arizona sunsets

   Joan has continued to make jewelry (I’ll have photos in the next post) and I have kept hiking despite my miserable knee. The knee actually hurts more at night than when I am hiking but I had to cut a really difficult hike short because I knew I had 3.5 miles hiking back to the trailhead. We had climbed up nearly 1,800 feet and I knew going down was going to really stress my knee.  It was one of the better decisions I have made.

Mahlon on Brown Mountain

   I had an MRI on February 7 and will find out the results of that this coming Tuesday, February 18. I’ll let you all know how that works out.

    We attended the Valentine’s Day dance on Saturday, February 15. Oh, did I mention I made $12 helping to set up Market Daze this past week. The elite table crew that sets up that gets a small payment for the work. I have not been on that crew until the past week when one of the guys came up sick. I’ll try not to spend it all in one place.

    I also completed my latest USS Cogswell DD-651 Association newsletter with the help of my father who is a master copy editor.

One month in the books, two to go

A beautiful Arizona sunset Jan. 30

    Time really flies. Here it is February 1 and we have one month in the books for our winter 2020 trip to Arizona. It has been a fun and eventful month and we look forward to more fun and events in February and March.

   All our usual activities continue, Joan’s voluntary service at the health clinic, my frequent trips to the ballroom to set up chairs and tables for various events and concerts here at Voyager. Bible studies, chapel service, Tuesday potlucks and just the general fun continues.

Hay ride

   After coming here for 10 years we don’t do as much sightseeing as we used to but we found a cotton farm tour up near Casa Grande that we hadn’t done and headed up there on January 15. Caywood Farms is located near Eloy, Arizona, about an hour from Tucson.

    The tour included music, a slide show, a hay ride and a cotton-picking experience in a real life cotton field. Trust me after trying to pick cotton this is not a profession or job I would have ever considered for long term work.

   We learned a great deal about cotton that we did not know including how it is graded and how the farmer gets paid for the product.  For years we have passed large bales of cotton in fields along I-10 and now we know that they are about 15,000 pounds each and are processed at a nearby gin.

cotton picker

   It was a great day and a fun experience. We got home in time to catch “Uptown” show in the Voyager Ballroom. Lots of Motown, Stevie Wonder, and other musical stars from our time and just watching the performers dance and sing left me exhausted. A very high energy show.

   On Friday, January 17, we went to the dinner show in the ballroom and Brad Fitch, a wonderful John Denver tribute artist, entertained the crowd for more than an hour after dinner. Another winning show. Dinner was pretty good too.

    The next night we attended the Retro Rockets Dance, again in the Voyager Ballroom. They are the most popular dance group that comes here and the ballroom was packed. The dance floor was crowded but the music was great. We danced the night away.

  Our friend Bob and Karen joined us for church here at the Voyager and then we went for breakfast at the Voyager grill after church. We have really enjoyed having Bob and Karen here with us and look forward to their return next year hopefully for two months instead of one.  More on them in a second.

50 MMM pins

   Joan and I attended the monthly birthday party celebration for the hikers and bikers group at Barry and Darcel’s house in the Cove section of Voyager.

    Monday, January 20 was Martin Luther King Day, but also the day Joan and I received our 50^th pin at Meet Me at Maynard’s.  During our walk we met up with Dave and Deb from the Voyager and went out to dinner with them after the pin ceremony. We ate again at Elliott’s.

    My hiking has been slowed by a left knee problem I am having, but I am currently seeing an orthopedic doctor to figure out just what has gone wrong. I have gone on a number of hikes, but I’m taking it just a little easier than usual. Bob and I did the Phone Line Trail this past week and had a good time. That’s about a 7-mile hike.

    I once took a small group of friends on this hike and because of my misunderstanding the escape trails off of the Phone Line Trail ended up getting my wife and two of our friends kind of upset with me. Since that day, I have been much clearer about where one can bail off the trail if you are tired.

Bob on Phone Line hike

    Bob and I did the entire trail from Tram Stop 9 all the way back to the Sabino Canyon Visitor Center so no issues encountered on this day.

    On Wednesday, January 22 we attended “Tapestry” which was the Wednesday night concert at the Voyager. It was the music of Carole King. So far all the shows have been sold out (including the Spouse Whisperer – a comedian) who we say on Wednesday, January 29. We have seen him before, but at my age I forgot most of his jokes so the show was pretty much new to me.

   Joan attended a lecture on bees and other pollinating bugs in the Catalina Room on Thursday January 23 (I was hiking with Bob).

   On Friday, January 24 we met the former superintendent that Karen, Joan and I once worked for at Lapeer Community Schools at a wonderful restaurant in Tucson. The restaurant is called “Culinary Dropout” and it was full to capacity, but because we had reservations we had no wait.

     We returned to the park with enough time to attend most of the Dance with Delores group in the ballroom and the next night we attended the Reminiscence Dance in the Ballroom. As you can see we do a lot of dancing here.

Carillo-Garwood hike

   On Thursday, January 30 I attended two lectures, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The morning lecture was on “Wild Mustangs of the West” which was a film about the management of wild horses in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. The afternoon lecture was on a the nearby Tumacacori Mission near Tubac. Joan joined me for the afternoon lecture. After that we went shopping and then had a good bye dinner with Karen and Bob at the Voyager Grill. Unfortunately they left early on Jan. 31.

    Friday morning I had a doctor’s appointment at Tucson Orthopedic Center to find out what I have done to my left knee. The pain is keeping me from having a good night’s sleep. X-rays show some arthritis issues, but more likely I have done something to my meniscus which may require some minor surgery or at least a cortisone shot so I can resume my more aggressive hiking without constant pain.

   I’m waiting on an MRI appointment which will give my doctor a better idea of what I have done to my knee. I’ll keep you all posted.  We have another Short Notice Band dance on Saturday night and then the Super Bowl on Sunday. More on what happens then later.