Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Friday night lesson and dance

On Friday, we went to White Mountain Square Dance Hall for a Country Western dance lesson and to dance to live music. The cost of the dance lesson included attendance at the dance, so it was a good value!

White Mountain Square Dance Hall

Brenda and Carmen providing us with lessons in the Arizona Two Step

At the dance -- there was a nice sized crowd and people were enjoying dancing...

... to the live music by the Wild West Outlaws Country Band.

At band break, they played recorded songs that some folks line danced to.

A sign posted above the kitchen in the dance hall

We enjoyed the lesson and the music from the live band.

Monday, June 8, 2026

Working on the Oasis system -- part 2

I wrote about Carl replacing the burner nozzle on the Oasis diesel burner, and finding that a relay for the electric system appeared to have been burned/melted (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/06/i-posted-few-days-ago-that-carl-tried.html).

We were able to get a replacement relay from Amazon...

Unfortunately, one of its "feet" (pointed to by blue arrow) was cracked when it arrived.

He decided to go ahead and see if it could be installed...

This is the one with some melting activity having happened...

... he was also able to see that there was another relay behind the one we had seen that also may be damaged -- he got a picture of that as its model number was different.

This is the new one in place. Carl used double-stick gorilla tape to secure it in place (since the foot was missing that would enable a screw to hold it in place).

With the replacement relay, one of our electric water heater burners now works! It appears the second one still does not work. We are okay with it working this way for now. However, we sometimes want to use both burners if we want to get hot water faster, and, if the one that is working fails again, the second one can be a back up. He has ordered the second relay from Amazon and will keep it "in inventory" to use if needed in the future.

Sunday, June 7, 2026

Dance lessons

When we went to Rockin' the Rim on Memorial Day weekend (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/06/show-low-rockin-rim.html), we talked to a lady with the White Mountain Rim Rompers Square Dance club about dance lessons. They use the White Mountain Square Dance Hall, and she told us about a number of different dance lessons...

We started by going to the Ballroom/Latin lessons -- where we learned some waltz steps: box step, and beginning of a "silver sequence" -- which is a level of dance in the competitive world -- we are *not* wanting to learn for competition, but rather for social dancing. We then also went on Friday for Country Western -- they were teaching the Arizona Two Step that we had learned at Venture Out in early 2025 -- but these instructors were really good at explaining to the men and also to the women what the correct leads were and how to follow.

They have quite a selection of dance lessons at the Dance Hall!

We are enjoying improving our couple dancing skills.

Saturday, June 6, 2026

A relic sighting

We went out to a Chinese buffet in Show Low, and within the same shopping center...

... we saw a Radio Shack!

It looks like there is an actual store there -- though we didn't go in. Carl took a picture to share it with his brother. 

It seems that Radio Shack (or, I guess it is now RadioShack, no space in the name) may be making a come-back: https://www.radioshack.com/about-radioshack 

Friday, June 5, 2026

Checking out a shoulder problem

I have been dealing with pain behind my right shoulder blade for a while (probably over a year). It is aggravated when I lift heavy stuff with my right arm -- it feels like lifting pulls one bone away from another bone and a nerve gets trapped between causing a lot of pain. The only things that relieve the pain are anti-inflamatories (like Ibuprofen) and putting pressure on the spot beside/behind my shoulder blade. Carl can do it with his knuckle, but to avoid him having to put pressure on it for a long time, I have found that lying on a tennis ball also does the trick -- I put the tennis ball into a knee sock, and can hang it down behind my shoulder and get it positioned appropriately as I lie down.

When I had frozen shoulder a few years ago, I waited until we were going to be somewhere for a few weeks to seek treatment -- since they often want to do physical therapy, it is better to have some time to get results. Since we're going to be in Show Low for about 2 months, I thought this would be a good time to try to get it taken care of. I called and got an appointment...

... I went to Summit Bone and Joint to get a diagnosis.

I found it interesting... when they sent me to an exam room, the lady said, "Our hallways are named after animals, please go to Squirrel room 5."

Sure enough, there was a Bison hallway...

... and an Eagle hallway!

I had gone in indicating I had a shoulder problem... but when the lady was doing X-rays, I realized that I really was not having a *shoulder* problem. When I talked with the doctor, he said that it is pretty common when people are having a neck / upper back problem, that they identify it as a shoulder problem (so I am not the first!). He prescribed physical therapy for about 6 weeks -- hopefully that will get a handle on the problem.

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Working on the Oasis system

I posted a few days ago that Carl tried resetting the Oasis system by pulling the 12V power (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/06/some-work-around-rig.html) -- unfortunately, that didn't fix the electric water heater. We were using the diesel burner for hot water, but it was pretty smelly when it ran. Carl had a replacement burner nozzle and he decided to replace that to see if it may reduce the diesel smell...

Oasis system in the bay

Looking at the burner

Swapping out the burner nozzle

While he was inside the Oasis box, Carl looked at the connections for the electric hot water system. He noticed that wires going into the relay appeared to be melted...

He took a picture of the information about the relay and decided that ordering a new one and replacing it might be a good idea.


So thankful that Amazon has a lot of these parts and that we can get delivery in our campground!

And... the replacement nozzle *has* reduced the diesel smell produced by the burner -- win! 

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Line dancing at Venture In

The park where we are staying for two months, Venture In, has line dancing scheduled for two mornings a week. 

The first week when I went on Tuesday, there was a fellow there who indicated that the classes might begin on Thursday. I decided to stay after the others left and play music and dance by myself - a couple of the other residents joined me. On Thursday, once again the instructor wasn't there, so I offered to teach if anyone wanted to stay and dance, so several stayed -- Carl handled queuing up the music for the dances. 

The second week, the primary instructor was still not coming to teach, but the secondary instructor, Pat, taught... 

...there were a few of us dancing to what Pat taught.

The manner of teaching is more like the higher beginner and improver/intermediate lessons at our park in Mesa -- hard for brand new folks to catch on, but folks who know lots of dances prefer it because there is more time spent dancing (and less spent learning). I can pick up a lot of the dances, but I really don't care to learn a lot more different dances.