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.