VO Hiking Group

On our anniversary (Monday, 2/2), we joined the VO Hiking Group for a planned hike to Mask Arch. We had gone with a VO group a couple of years ago, but at that time, we went with the mid-level hikers and found that they were more intense than we were (we like to stop and enjoy the scenery and take pictures!). This time, we joined the Trekking Tortoises, which is a lower level group -- not the lowest as there is a group of folks who are in "recuperation" mode from injuries or surgeries. We were hoping that we could keep up with the tortoises!

Heading out from the trailhead at the end of Idaho Road in Apache Junction

It was a *gorgeous* day!

Much of the hike was in dry washes -- which were sandy bottom so a little harder walking, but easier than slippery rocks. There were two challenging parts, each time was when we were going down into a wash.

Within the wash, the going was relatively easy.

We stopped for a photo... as you can see behind us, the desert is SO green this year! You might notice a black thing sticking up over my left shoulder -- we had each brought two hiking poles. We had decided we each only needed one so that's the foot of my unused pole sticking up out of my backpack. Later in the hike, when we were climbing down a treacherous part into the wash, everyone needed to use a pole, and we were able to loan our two extra poles to folks who didn't have them.

We stopped at a wildlife water catchment (https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2025/05/26/arizona-manages-3000-watering-holes-thirsty-wildlife/83778262007/)

Leaving the watering hole -- it was enclosed within a fence to keep out range cattle.

By this point we were shedding jackets and using the drinking water that we had brought along to keep hydrated.

We got to a point where part of the group continued up a hill, following an animal track or bushwacking up to the saddle up above them. Evidently, this is where the "mask arch" could be seen, but we elected to stay down in the wash and wait for them to return! (https://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=15808)

A picture of some of the group who decided to wait for the others to return. We got to eat snacks that we had brought and drink some water we had brought with us.

A couple of horses came through the wash while we were sitting there.

The more adventurous group eventually rejoined us...

... and we headed back toward the trailhead via a different route than the one we came in.

We all made it safely back to our cars and then back to Venture Out.

The hike was longer than we had anticipated (both in distance and time) -- we ended up getting back to VO later than I had hoped as I help with a line dance review class for the absolute beginners on Mondays at 12:30pm. I got there by 12:45pm, and the main teacher was there so it wasn't a problem.  Following the line dance review, I had a meeting for a group of us to learn about running a pre-sale for theater tickets on Wednesday morning. It all worked out, but I felt like I was running from one thing to another!

Regarding being able to "keep up" with the tortoises, the pace was definitely more what we could do (there were a few folks slower than us). We did find that it is important to keep near the leader of the group because, while they will stop to let the slower folks catch up, they tend to start going again as soon as the slower folks get there, so the slower folks get either no break or a very short one. So, by the end, I was positioned right behind the leader which worked well for me. There were about 20 people on the hike, so even if we were all hiking at the same speed, we still got pretty spread out when we were going single file. 

RO System for the house

We have a water softener and RO (reverse osmosis) system on Gracie -- it is nice to have when we're traveling to different places around the country and have differing water qualities being supplied by the campgrounds. Arizona is one of the places where the water tends to be very hard. We have been carrying RO water from Gracie to the house in 7 gallon containers, but since the RV lot was going to be rented out (so Gracie wouldn't be hooked up to water), we needed an alternative solution for drinking water in the house.

Carl had ordered a system and it arrived from Amazon. The system was from iSpring (click here to see on Amazon if you're interested) and Carl was very impressed with the quality of the system as well as the instructions.

Some of the components: 

7 stage system

Water faucet at the sink to deliver RO water

Three gallon tank to have RO water on demand without having to wait for the filtering

Carl got it all installed one day while I was out for lunch with friends! What a handy guy to have around the house! (He has lots of other desirable qualities too!)

A visit to Organ Stop Pizza

I've written before about visits to Organ Stop Pizza... in January, the Venture Out Activities Office arranged for a "Venture Out Day" at the restaurant -- so folks from our community were the only ones there. They had to have at least 50 people sign up, and it ended up that about 100 attended, to have a lunch pizza buffet and to be entertained by their Mighty Wurlitzer Organ!

The organist was Brett Valliant - probably our favorite organist there of the ones who are still playing.

Besides the pipes (which are behind glass that can be opened/closed to control the volume), there are also all sorts of other instruments controlled by the console -- mounted on the walls, hanging from the ceilings, and mounted in the balcony areas.

Brett explaining about the console and answering questions

Some of the folks from our park who were also there with us

This is looking up at the ceiling at some of the instruments -- you may be able to see the LED lights lit on the instruments (indicating that the instrument was currently being played), and on two of them, one LED light in a different color or brighter (that was the note that was being played at that moment on that instrument).

One of the songs that Brett played was the theme from Somewhere In Time -- we had never heard it played the at Organ Stop before: https://youtu.be/6gYc-zrclVs 

While we enjoy going to Organ Stop in the evening, we particularly like going at lunch time with a private group as there are more explanations and it feels like a personal performance just for us!

Impromptu porch concert

On Saturday afternoon, one of our neighbors, Hollie, invited us over for an impromptu porch concert. One of her friends had a friend visiting from back home who would be playing some songs on her porch, so she invited us to come over and join in listening (I figured part of the goal was to prevent neighbors complaining about being disturbed by noise -- if the neighbors are invited, they are less likely to complain!).

There was a nice group of neighbors on the porch (Hollie has a corner house so has a very large porch).

Carl took a couple of videos -- "Little Bitty": https://youtu.be/Q8rjkrsLZVs

and Louis Armstrong: https://youtu.be/Tu-xsiQuULQ

Carl and I got up and line danced to a couple of songs, 

... and then a fellow line dancer, Sue, who is also a neighbor, came over and she and I danced to a couple of more songs!

What fun to join with neighbors on a sunny warm Saturday afternoon! (Especially when much of the country was getting slammed with cold wintry weather!)

Crème Brûlée French Toast

Each club in Venture Out participates in fund raising. The Ham Radio club started providing a crème brûlée French toast last year, and continued this season.

Servers on the line

We had a nice turn out -- about 160 tickets were sold, I think.

People were happy to get their plates of crème brûlée French toast!

Fellow volunteers were working in the back -- in the dish pit...

... in the baking and prepping area...

Michael is separating the individual pieces to make it easier to serve.

Monitoring the oven

A tray of French toast -- I think this is pre-baking.

The completed product with two slices of French toast, a sausage patty, blueberries, and whipped cream and a strawberry on top! The folks joining us for breakfast also got orange juice and coffee.

The proceeds from the club fund-raising events goes to the Social Board whose members are responsible for the budget for social activities in the park. The Ham Radio club may ask the board for funds for projects that they need (like a new antenna or radio for the ham shack) -- it may be funded from the proceeds of events that the Ham Radio club participates in, but the requested projects may need more funds than the club has generated this season. The Social Board may decide that the need of the club is worthy of funding the project from funds generated through activities of other clubs in addition to those generated by Ham Radio. The Ham Radio club is a relatively small club (probably 30-35 members) but provides services to the community for no additional charge to the community (e.g. parking direction assistance for special events like tennis or pickle ball tournaments, safety monitoring during 5K fun run/walks, parade assistance within the park) -- since the Ham Radio members have radios that they are legally allowed to use, they can be strategically positioned at various places in the park and able to communicate with others who are located in other places quickly and easily.

The crème brûlée French toast was very yummy! It is prepared the day before and the bread soaks in the pudding and butter/brown sugar mixture overnight before baking in the morning. Delicious!

Friday night dance

We enjoy going to the Friday night dances at our community

At one of the dances recently -- the band was "The Campbell Band" made up of several members of the Campbell family (two sons, their father and uncle) along with other friends who have been "adopted into the family". They are a country-western band so we enjoyed line dancing and Arizona two-stepping!

A couple of our friends at the dance -- Carl took our pictures so I could send it to friends who have not come down this year (Liz and Jerry whom we visited in Iowas last summer). We're missing Liz and Jerry and are hoping that they may come next season!

Since it was a country western band, we wore the cowboy hats that we got when we became honorary Calgarians. They looked neat, but boy were they hot!

What are they doing????

We are renting out our RV lot for the months of February and March, so we need to vacate that space. Our golf cart is still not running, so we needed to push it from the RV lot to our park model lot (about a block), and we also wanted to move our patio heater.

When we had to push our golf cart a couple of months ago, we got a lot of jokes from people as we walked past them ("Aren't you supposed to be riding in that?" or "Taking your cart for a walk?") -- Carl wanted to avoid that, so we decided to move the items after dark. I didn't get pictures of pushing the golf cart...

... but here is Carl "taking our patio heater for a walk!"

We were a little concerned that a concerned fellow resident would report us to security for stealing a golf cart and/or patio heater, but we seem to have gotten away with it!