Wiebe's Wanderings: Yes we are still here

Yes we are still in Gold Canyon although you may have been wondering what happened to us as my blogging diligence has seriously deteriorated this year. I have a number of excuses however lets just say that sitting down and editing pictures and word smithing our activities never quite rose to the top of my priority list. I have noticed the same affliction with other blogs that I have followed. After a time their blogs tend to be less frequent and then they go dark. I now have the time, unfortunately, to get back into a blogging routine. I will cover that in more detail in a subsequent blog.

This is the first time we have stayed put in one place and our mindset and our activity level is a bit different. We have more of a daily routine with less of a sense of urgency to get out and see every single attraction. This is both good and bad. Good in the sense that we feel much more relaxed and can involve ourselves in some of the in-park activities. We have tried to schedule one or two days per week for road trips for shopping or visiting tourist sites. Bad because without that sense of urgency to get out there and see everything we may not get out as much as we should and will end up feeling that we have wasted away 4 months of opportunity. Oh well, there is always next year.

So what does our day look like. We are usually up by about 7:00, have breakfast and our morning coffee and take Charlie for her morning walk. Then we hit what ever in-park activities we have planned for the day. Mornings are the best time to be active as the suns' heat can get pretty intense in the afternoon even though the temps are only in the low 70's.

Lori has been a regular in the pool participating in the Aqua-size classes 3-4 times per week. Her and Jan are off to the pool before 9:00 and often don't return till after 11:00 including some relaxing time in the hot-tub. While the bones in Lori's broken arm have long since healed, her strength and range of motion has been seriously compromised. She has found that the movement in the water is a good low impact method of stretching and strengthening. She even purchased a set of foam dumbbells which are light as a feather out of the water but take some serious effort to move them about under water. Lori, unfortunately, seems to have developed an allergy to the pool chemicals and has had a few breakouts of hives. Some Antihistamines and reducing her pool visits to 2 times per week seem to have struck the right balance.

I have been quite regular at visiting the Gym 3 days a week to lift weights and specifically trying to strengthening my wonky knee. It seems to be helping as I have been a regular on the pickle ball courts a couple days a week plus laps in the pool and biking through Gold Canyon a few days a week with relatively minor post activity discomfort. Although I am buying Alieve in the largest containers available. As Lori's arm has improved she has joined me on the weight machines and also on the Elliptical. With all that activity you'd think I'd be losing some weight but the scale seems to be stuck.

We have attended a few pancake breakfasts, spaghetti dinner and lunches on the patio which is always a good way to meet some of the other residents. We also purchased tickets to a series of tribute concerts which are held in the main clubhouse. So far we have seen Abba and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Both were excellent and coming up in March are Roy Orbison and The Eagles.

We took a day and went to the Phoenix RV show at the Convention Centre. We aren't in the market for a new RV, although I wasn't in the market for a new truck either till I took the old one in for an oil change. Lots of big shiny new 5th wheels and motorhomes complete with 2 bathrooms, a separate office space, fireplaces, 60" flat screens and, Lori's favourite, dishwashers. Lots of glitz and glam but behind all that we saw a couple where the interior moldings and wall panels were falling off. Same cheap crap under the spit and polish. The RV industry needs what car industry got some 30 years ago. The Japanese with some quality control. I think we will just keep fixing ours and adding an upgrade or two each year. We were hoping that there would be lots of retailers there with various accessories however that was not the case. We did however pick up a couple of My Pillows which, after using them for a few weeks, believe they are more advertising hype than reality. We did however have a great lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe where the waitress asked me for my ID when I ordered a beer. Her tactic worked as it opened up an interesting conversation and a nice tip upon our departure.

We received our Snowbird survival package from Jeff and family just before New Years.
The Tims' is now consumed. Next year we will have to bring more with us.

Included in the Snowbird package were a number of family portraits.
This is a pic of a pic so a bit fuzzy.
Jack, Carrie, Milo, Jeff and Oscar.

Back in the day the Apache Trail was a stage coach trail following the Salt River through the Superstition Mountains towards Phoenix. It was named the Apache Trail after the Apache Indians who originally used this trail to move through the Superstition Mountains. Lots of absolutely georgeous scenery although on this day we only went as far as Tortilla Flats for lunch.