Staying in one spot for four months, we soon fell into a comfortable daily routine of our own that was enhanced by the various activities the resort offered.
Each month a new schedule arrived in the mailbox listing all the available activities, gatherings, outings, and concerts. What I learned very quickly is that there are too many enticing choices and at times we had to pace ourselves or just say No!
Staying in one place for so many months was also a new and different experience. Because you live within a community and neighborhood where the majority of the folks also come to stay during winter, friendships develop as do obligations and expectations. We sometimes felt that just spending time alone or on our own was rare.
Staying in one place for so many months was also a new and different experience. Because you live within a community and neighborhood where the majority of the folks also come to stay during winter, friendships develop as do obligations and expectations. We sometimes felt that just spending time alone or on our own was rare.
However, it is a choice how much and how often you wish to become involved.
The weather was changeable, sometimes quite rainy and mostly on the cooler side. Several times, hikes were cancelled because of the rain and the resulting mud.
But we enjoyed the sunshine and blue skies. And being from the Northwest, we never mind the cooler temperatures even if my sun worshipping and heat loving friends at the resort grumbled about how cool this winter was. On a few occasions we did wake up to temperatures below 45F inside the coach. There was a sprinkling of snow on the higher peaks though it didn't last long .
Overall, we had a great stay and were happy to devote time to our interests. But I must admit that after three continuous months in one place, each of us began to feel the urge to move on, travel and explore other places. Perhaps we are not yet ready, like many of our friends who call the Arizonian their winter home, to simply return to the same wintering grounds every year for a prolonged period of time.
Not yet, not until we are older, and travel is no longer appealing.
Here are the highlights of the fun we had because there is simply too much to tell in detail. But it is a good overview of how these snowbirds wintered in Arizona. This was senior camp at its very best and we are glad we were a part of it.
- Scheduled Weekly Activities
✴️Hiking Club excursions were on Mondays (easier hike) and Wednesdays (more strenuous).
Michael, forever a boy scout, was in his element, looking forward to each new trail. He was up, backpack packed, and ready to go on hiking days. I went on the Monday hikes, several of which were canceled due to weather and rain, and stayed home on Wednesday to indulge my fabric chi.
Michael posted his hikes on YouTube here: Arizonian Hikes
He saw some spectacular scenery along the trails.
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| Michael the mountain goat |
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| after one of the freezing nights, the hiking group came across these frozen icicles |
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| Butcher Jones trail |
❇️Line dancing on Tuesdays and Thursdays was always an activity I enjoyed. As more folks arrived for the winter stay, the word spread and more ladies (and a guy or two) joined us. It was great exercise and good for the brain to master so many new dances. And we had fun.
✴️Later in the season, a couple of friends and I got together to do yoga practice on Thursdays.
And Bob offered to teach us Tai Chi on Saturdays.
The resort offered several more activities like water aerobics, shuffle board and pickle ball. By 8 in the morning, you could hear the ball bouncing across the nets with accompanying cheers and groans whenever someone scored.
There is an exercise room, a pool hall, a RC model airplane field, a 9-hole golf course, and an RC Car race track.
And a big draw to this particular resort is the ATV access into the desert. Many a morning as I was doing my walk around the park, I watched the ATV-ers gathering at the back gate, suited up and ready for their ride. Around mid afternoon we would hear ATV'ers returning home again, lining up to wash down their vehicles at the park's ATV washing station.
We may be retired seniors but are all active in some way, indulging our interests and passions.
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| off on a desert ride |
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| RC runway |
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| Michael enjoyed the pool and hot tub on a few occasions |
- Our Desert Walks
With the desert in our back yard, the two of us went on our own walks as often as we could. Michael also kept to his running schedule between the weekly hikes, jogging along the trails around Little Mountain.
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| Little Mountain |
Throughout the winter I marveled how the desert became greener and more lush each week. The cholla hung heavy with new growth and the creosote bushes turned from brown to green. Eventually the cacti were surrounded by a carpet of grass. Towards the end of the season grass began covering the trails.
I commented in surprise on each walk that pretty soon the desert would need to be mowed! Desert certainly was a misnomer for this type of terrain this winter season.
I commented in surprise on each walk that pretty soon the desert would need to be mowed! Desert certainly was a misnomer for this type of terrain this winter season.
Even the Arizonian golf course turned green from its more typical brown.
- Sewing Related Activities
Quilts are a large focus for the ladies in the sewing room who sew as many charity quilts for Arizona Blankets for Kids as they can. This year they made and donated 75 quilts. The Arizonian hosted a quilting bee towards that effort and there were many who attended from other parks to participate as well. I enjoyed being part of a real, working quilting bee. I was at the table that was busy tying quilts. We had a system going and once the tying was completed, the quilt sandwich would be handed off to the ladies who would sew on the binding, and we would start on the next quilt.
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| lots of chatting while tying quilt sandwiches |
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| many hands make light work, as we each worked at our stations, completing quilts assembly line fashion |
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| tallying the blankets that we donated plus the ones that were completed at the quilting bee |
Besides the charity quilts, we all also work on our own sewing and quilt projects. On any given day, there will always be quilts in progress on the design walls in both rooms. Although sewing rooms are typical in all resorts, the one advantage at the Arizonian is that we can leave our sewing machines and supplies set up permanently at our assigned spots for the duration of our stay and come in to sew whenever and how often we wish. The room was never crowded and often I would be the only one working. 
There is a wonderful camaraderie between everyone, and often more chatting and exchanging of ideas is accomplished than actual sewing time! Which of course leads to more projects and therefore trips to the local quilt shops for more fabric and supplies.
✴️There were a couple of local Quilt Shows during our stay. The largest one is the Phoenix Quilt and Arts Show with vendors and quilts on display. It's a great opportunity to stock up on supplies at a discount while also learning about new products and lines of fabric.
The Mesa Quilt Show featured award winning quilts, most of them exquisite works of art. There were also some vendors and therefore yet another opportunity to look at new merchandise.
In-house at the Arizonian, we held our own craft and quilt shows. Folks had an opportunity to show and sell their handiwork, and there certainly are a lot of very talented artists.
For the first time ever, I showed one of the quilt tops I had pieced on the Featherweight in the sewing room.
All in all, it was quite a productive and uninterrupted sewing time for me as I got to indulge my interest, learned a lot from my sewing friends, finished a lot of projects and started a few more.
- Entertainment
🎵We attended a couple of Shows which we enjoyed. Barleens dinner and music show continues to be popular especially around Christmas, and although we went to one on a previous stay, it's always a treat to listen to accomplished musicians perform and sing.
🎼The Arizonian hosted Not Fade Away, a Buddy Holly/50s & 60s tribute band playing rock and roll hits with great virtuoso, not to mention great sound volume too.
🎸And one morning we were entertained at breakfast by Pioneer Pepper, the singing cowboy, who was pretty good also.
- Arizonian In-house Activities
The activities director does her best to organize various holiday themed functions for the the guests at the Arizonian. Christmas is always a festive and popular celebration, many dressing up their park models and also their RVs to get into the spirit.
This year we joined in and added elf hats and couple of jingle bells so that Alpine didn't feel left out!
🎅The annual Christmas parade by residents who decorate their ATVs and golf carts is always a big hit. And as they parade up and down the streets, several toss candy to the cheering and supportive onlookers.
Afterwards, we gathered in the social hall for cookies and hot cider or chocolate.
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| pets participate in the parade too |
🎄The annual Christmas dinner in the social hall is always a big draw, with volunteers helping prepare the turkeys and hams, and the rest of us providing a side dish or dessert for the potluck.
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| santa's kitchen helpers |
🏈During the Super Bowl, we gathered with the football fans to watch the game while munching our way through the goodies we shared. I was amused how over time, the guys (and a few gals) remained engrossed in the game while most of the gals congregated at the back of the room and started playing the card game Hand and Foot.
🏎Each March, the RC Car Club sponsors an annual race day and hotdog lunch which is popular. And this year, despite the wind, it was well attended. There were several heats, lots of cheering, some crashes. And finally we watched the final races including one in which several ladies raced their husband's cars.
The RC racers spent two days a week doing practice runs to perfect their skills.
Following the final race, we lined up for lunch. The volunteer ladies have the lunch down to a science and were able to serve over 200 people in no more than 11 minutes!
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| the race car drivers, driving in record time |
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| the gals serving lunch in record time |
On a few occasions, the sky rained stuffed toys when Denny flew his power parachute over the resort. I now have a couple of stuffed toys to add to the collection when grandkids come to visit.
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| a couple of power gliders doing a flyover |
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| bears dropped from on high |
There were many more planned gatherings and dinners which we chose not to attend. There were simply too many activities to do them all. There was certainly no reason to ever feel bored!
Other outings
🚀We took a day trip to Tucson to visit Alpine friends, the O'Neals, then met my brother for a tour of the Titan Missile Range.
It appeared ironical to me that such a weapon that could wipe out the very existence of life on our planet was in fact a peace-keeper.
It certainly was an exorbitantly expensive "deterrent" to develop and maintain as a threat....just in case. The silos were manned and maintained around the clock in shifts with the strictest of protocols in place to avert any mistakes.
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| in the control room (my 6-foot tall brother needed to wear a safety helmet!) |
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| looking down into the silo housing the Titan II rocket |
✴️On an excursion to the nearby town of Florence, we again met up with my brother when he was in Tucson on business. Together we toured the McFarland State Historic Park, once the first county courthouse and jail.
We learned a lot about the history of Florence, the shootout at the saloon between the sheriff and his former deputy (presumably over a woman), and perhaps most surprisingly that there was a poisoner of war camp here for Italian and German soldiers captured in North Africa and Europe during WWII. There were over 600 prisoner of war camps throughout the US, mostly in rural areas, and 24 of them were in Arizona. The Florence camp was the largest, housing over 13,000 prisoners over a period of four years.
Afterwards we wandered around the town, saw the second courthouse, built in 1891, with its clock face painted on and the time set permanently to 11:44 o'clock. The story is that due to the lack of funds, the clockworks were never installed.
Florence's True Value hardware store is unique and worth taking a peek inside. The handles on the front doors are giant hammers, and the store itself is both an exceptionally well stocked hardware goods store as well as a museum of memorabilia from years past. It also carries merchandise you would not normally consider buying in a hardware store like scarves, handbags, and other such items. As a memento, Michael bought himself a wooden hiking stick.
Florence's True Value hardware store is unique and worth taking a peek inside. The handles on the front doors are giant hammers, and the store itself is both an exceptionally well stocked hardware goods store as well as a museum of memorabilia from years past. It also carries merchandise you would not normally consider buying in a hardware store like scarves, handbags, and other such items. As a memento, Michael bought himself a wooden hiking stick. 
❇️The Mesa Market is a popular excursion particularly for the snow birds who come here to browse through the stalls and find bargains.
A few steps into only one of the many aisles, Michael's glazed-over eyes indicated that he had had enough.
However, weeks later we returned once more and this time he was quite happy to browse through the stalls of "boy" knickknacks like plugs and washers, and various other tool related items he wanted to pick up.
✴️One weekend, Michael's brother, Kevin, participated in a mountain bike race held at Usery Mountain Regional Park so we took a drive to see him cross the finish line. Afterwards the three of us had lunch in Fountain Hills and then walked around the park with its iconic fountain that shoots a plume of water 300 feet into the air for 15 minutes every hour. We visited Fountain Hills as a family back in the 80's when this was still a very new town. It certainly has expanded since then, and the park has too with its walkways and statues.
🔺Jeeping adventures in the desert with die-hard jeeping friends took us to an abandoned mine one weekend. We went in our own Jeep, not quite the Rubicon standard of our friends, but nonetheless, a Jeep. It did us proud until we got stuck trying to drive uphill on our way back and had to get help with a friend's tow rope to aid our spinning wheels. And even though I was convinced the Jeep would roll down the steep hill into the canyon below, we did eventually make it up and out. But not before one of the friends got his Rubicon stuck on a rock and presented the group with a challenge on how to get his axle off the rock without puncturing the radiator.
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| gathering of Jeeps before venturing into the unknown |
Between the long all day excursion, the rutted and bumpy terrain (this is not exactly a road way but a lot of bundu bashing in the desert), the jiggling and terror of sliding into the abyss below, I have concluded that this really is not my cup of tea, and more of an endurance test than an enjoyable outing into the wilderness. Perhaps a hike into the wilderness has more appeal.
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| abandoned 79 Mine |
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| Rubicons plus Cherokee Sport |
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| Clay's Rubicon in a bit of a predicament |
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| the Guys problem solving |
💥We enjoyed several gatherings with Alpine friends who also winter in the Mesa area. This included dinner with the Alpine NoWACA group, dinners with the Gaileys who now live in Mesa permanently, and also with the Hobdens.
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| dinner gathering with the Alpine group, who seem to particularly favor the Mesa area in winter |
When SKP friends, the Wrobleskis, arrived for an overnight at the resort, we had a musical dinner experience at Organ Stop Pizza.
We had heard about this popular venue and did not know what to expect but were delighted with the entertainment provided by one very talented organist accompanied by various accompanying musical instruments that he controlled. It turned out to be quite the highlight and the Wrobleskis also enjoyed themselves and even danced to a few old time tunes they recalled from their courting years.
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| RO water dispenser outside Walgreens |
Of course, in between the outings and entertainment, there was still housework, cooking and grocery shopping. And when in Arizona, shopping always includes getting drinking water because the local water has such a high mineral content. Water dispensing machines are the norm, located in many shopping centers. A trip to the grocery store always included loading empty water containers into the car and making sure we had an ample supply of quarters with us.
By the time mid- March arrived, the weather began to warm up enough for the cacti to bloom.
We encountered our first rattler on our desert walkabout. It was a pretty good size, perhaps 4 feet or longer, and thankfully still quite languid in the still cool temperatures. We stood well back and waited for it to cross the trail to the other side, which took at least 10 minutes or longer. Of course, neither one of us remembered to bring our phones to capture the moment on this quick walk before the sun set.
In retrospect, we were quite busy and active. And we thoroughly enjoyed our time in what we consider to be a very picturesque corner of Arizona, flanked by mountains, the stately saguaro dotting the landscape, with more cacti sprinkling the desert terrain. There are numerous trails for Michael to enjoy and relive his youth as a boy scout.
And the predictable golden sunsets are always wonderful to watch.
We were also able to view the Super Moon very well.
We were scheduled to leave April 1st with the intent of continuing back home (I can say that again now that we have a home once more!) through Bend, Oregon, to visit Mom and the rest of the family.
Just a few weeks before departure, COVID-19 appeared and altered all plans.
At first, like everyone else, we were trying to get our heads around this new virus, trying to make sense of it all, figuring out how to navigate our way through the evolving pandemic situation.
This included how to shop for food safely. We decided to shop for groceries immediately to stock up with supplies. It was a shock to see the empty shelves at Fry's. What we heard on TV was real, there was no toilet paper or other paper product on any shelf! Nor could you find wipes, disinfectant, rubber gloves, or masks. Our search for rubbing alcohol or aloe vera gel to make our own disinfectant was equally frustrating. Supermarkets started limiting the number of gallons of milk or cartons of eggs you could purchase at one time, as well as poultry and red meat. The lines outside Costco waiting to enter the store were so long that we simply gave up and left.
This new state of affairs reminded me of the empty shelves and long lines family in Poland endured under communist control, but never had we yet encountered this situation in the US!
We opted to purchase groceries using the market curbside pickup service. Grocery shopping suddenly became a risky experience! Even with curbside pickup, we could not be guaranteed that the items we ordered would be available, which happened on a couple of occasions. 
With new information unfolding daily, It became apparent that this virus was particularly dangerous to the 60 and older age-group, which of course includes us! We therefore chose to follow the recommended guidelines about social distancing and stopped participating in group activities. Resort activities were canceled by the end of the month and the main hall remained closed, as did the pool.
Many folks headed for home early and Canadians were also leaving en masse because the borders were closing. Life at the Arizonian changed abruptly and suddenly became very quiet.
We were watching the Covid case numbers closely in Washington state, the center of the pandemic at the time, undecided whether to stay on a little longer in Arizona thinking it was perhaps still safer to remain here until things in Washington stabilized and before the virus began to spread here too.
The situation seemed to change almost daily and soon states were issuing orders for non-essential travelers to stay away. Then nursing homes and retirement homes issued lockdown orders for residents, forbidding outside visitors. This included both our parents. With so much uncertainty still evolving around the pandemic, we decided to leave on our scheduled date of April 1st and head straight home. We would be more comfortable in the house and more in control of our environment to be able to face whatever lay ahead, and our county still had a really low rate of infection compared to the county where it all began.
Thankfully we were able to secure overnight stays at the RV parks along the way. All reservations were made either on line or by phone and all we needed to do was to pull up to the office to look for our reservation packet and site number tacked to the outside bulletin board, and proceed to our site. This ensured that we did not need to be around other people and since we are self-contained in the coach, and had plenty of groceries to see us through for a couple of weeks, social distancing was not an issue. We soon realized that there were many of us traveling back home as the RV parks were quite well attended.
The trip back took us along Route 93, a road we had not yet traveled, taking us through Kingman (where Alpine had a quick oil change), Vegas, and Eli (where the overnight temperatures dipped to 13F but we avoided the snow predicted for the following night).
Route 93 is often called The Loneliest Road as it traverses 500 miles of Great Basin Desert. However, we didn't find it quite so lonely because surprisingly despite stay-at-home orders, there were many cars and some trucks traveling with us.
The scenery was new and quite appealing in its remoteness.
From Twin Falls, Idaho we continued on Route 84, through Boise to Kennewick, Washington. At this RV Park, there were several signs reminding folks to keep their 6-foot distance.
Along the highways, we were reminded about staying safe from the virus -
The final day, we drove along Route 82 through Yakima to I-90, crossed the Cascades, and arrived back home in Anacortes. The roads were eerily empty, and the empty parking lot at the casino yet another reminder of how this microscopic virus has affected the entire world.
With Alpine safely tucked into its new home, we plan to hunker down here, stay safe, and watch how this pandemic situation unfolds in the coming summer months.
