Exercise at Venture In

Similar to our experience at Venture Out, many of the activities at Venture In are volunteer / resident driven. There are morning exercise options 4 days a week -- Monday and Friday we "Walk off the Pounds" with a video by Leslie Sansone (one of the residents takes on the responsibility of getting the DVD into the machine and getting it started), and Wednesday and Saturday we have "Chair Yoga". 

Chair yoga also is a video that we watch and follow. 

We find that it gives us good stretches, a good complement to the more aerobic "Walking off the Pounds".

We like this particular implementation of yoga as it does not have a lot of religious or meditation aspects to it. Being that it is "chair" yoga, we are either sitting or using the chair for balance most of the time, so it is also safer for seniors.

Carl says that, as we age, our bodies tend to just want to curl up in a fetal position and we have to combat that as much as we can!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have line dancing -- which exercises our minds (trying to remember the steps) as well as our muscles!

There aren't as many activities here at Venture In as we experience during the season at Venture Out, but it is enough to keep us busy without making us feel like we have to rush from one activity to another! 

Sunday pot luck at the park (and Happy Birthday, Carl!)

On Sunday morning, we joined the Venture In Chapel for Sunday morning chapel service. They were then going to have a pot luck in the evening,

Our contribution was Eclair Cake -- Carl does an amazing job of putting the frosting on the top!

The pot luck was sponsored by Venture In Chapel, but everyone in the park was invited. We enjoyed meeting some of our fellow residents and eating delicious food!

And a picture of a cake is a great reminder to say "Happy Birthday, Carl!" -- since today is his birthday!

Saturday night "barn dance"

The folks at the White Mountain Square Dance Hall had arranged for a "Hot Dog Barbecue and Fun Dance" on Saturday night. It was a free event, and Jenn, the president of the White Mountain Rim Rompers Square Dance Club said that it would be like a "barn dance", so we decided to go.

Jenn and her husband, Blake, welcomed us to the event. Blake would be calling the dances -- not square dances, but other round dances, country dances, and folk dances.

The event was hosted by the White Mountain Rim Rompers, who, I guess, own the dance hall, or at least run a lot of the events held there.

Circled up to try a circle dance. It had a lot of calls like a square dance, so we were lucky that there were a number of square dancers in the group who knew the lingo and could help those of us with less knowledge!

"Allemande Left your corner!"

The Virginia Reel (we didn't do it quite the same as I remember learning it in school in Virginia when I was a child, but it had a lot of similarities).

We are finding this group of folks are very nice and welcoming. The dance hall does not sell food or drink (other than that they do sell bottles of water for $1); you are allowed to bring your own drink (non-alcoholic, and no drugs allowed). For the Friday night dances, people bring snacks to share and they are all placed on the counter at the kitchen for all to enjoy. For this Saturday night event, they provided hot dogs with all the fixin's (including chili), beans, watermelon, lemonade, and cake and probably other things that I'm forgetting!

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.

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.

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.

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