Back to "the valley"

On Tuesday, we left Show Low on our way back to "the valley" (Phoenix area, specifically Mesa).

Since we purchased the Honda CR-V, we can't flat tow the car, so we have to drive separately. I was following Carl who was driving Gracie. We passed through some beautiful (and very diverse) scenery -- I'm not very comfortable taking pictures while I'm driving, so this is the only picture I got.

Back home in our RV space in Mesa

Another shot in our space -- there is a lot of palm tree debris around the park, and on our lot.

The park management has hired a tree company to trim the palm trees later this summer, and I guess they will be doing some general cleanup too (but maybe not on our lots, we are responsible for that). They don't really expect us to do any of that during the summer when we're not here, so I think we can just pretend that we're not here! It is 100F+ and although it is a "dry heat", it sure feels hot when you're out in it!

Carl also found, when taking his ham radio antenna with metal stand out of the car (metal and heavy) that things get very hot! We had to get hot pads to successfully get that lifted out of the car! 

New watches!

Both of us had Fitbit Versa 2 watches that we had gotten back in 2020. They had some issues -- Carl's had burned in the watchface so badly that it was hard to see anything else displayed on the screen, and mine had gotten to the point that it wouldn't hold charge for very long and took a long time to recharge. Carl's was almost unusable, so he researched and got a Pixel 4 watch a few months ago. I waited until he had had it for a few months before I ordered one for myself...

Carl's at the top, mine at the bottom - mine looks bigger in the picture, but they are the same size. We are trying to change our watch face each week so we don't end up burning the watch face into the display.

We like having watches that track our heart rate -- when Dwayne was having issues with his heart, he could show the doctor the graphs for his heart rate over the past few days (or weeks) so the doctor could know it was an ongoing problem. We also like the sleep tracking -- though right now we both have "Google Premium Health" so it gives us an analysis every morning which is sometimes more than I want to know!

 

A couple of nights ago, when it asked what woke me, I absently typed, "the cat", so now it always thinks the cat is to blame! It isn't *always* the cat that wakes me up! Sometimes it is just me waking up!

We got Google Health Premium for free for a few months after we got our new watches -- we will be cancelling it before we need to pay for it, which means we'll lose the analysis, but we can still see the graphs and data.

Packing up

After being in Show Low for almost two months, it is time to move on...

Carl had deployed a couple of antennas for his ham radio hobby, so we dismantled them and rolled up the wires.

There were a few more things we had gotten out - chairs, grill, etc. We got those all packed up on Sunday and Monday in preparation for our departure on Tuesday.

We are heading back to our RV lot at Venture Out in Mesa. We will be leaving the RV there while we head out to Europe for about 5 weeks -- most of that time we will be on a cruise in northern Europe. We'll be in the heat for a few days in Mesa, but then should reach cooler weather in England (we hope) and on the cruise ship.

Our last dance lessons in Show Low

We joined some of the new friends we've met at White Mountain Square Dance Hall on Wednesday and Friday for our last opportunity for dance lessons...

On Wednesday, we learned Foxtrot in the Ballroom class (link to video of what we learned: https://youtu.be/teXcIkUKNX4)...

... and on Friday, we continued with our instruction in the Progressive Two Step in the Country-Western class. (link to video of what we learned: https://youtu.be/fe08r1Js9yA)

Note that we don't look like the instructors when we dance -- no fault of theirs! 

We told our instructors and the president of the square dance club that their presence here in Show Low added so much to our enjoyment of being here this summer. We are sad that we are leaving and won't be able to participate any more...

Thai lunch with friends

We are down to our last few days in Show Low, so we arranged to get together for lunch with ham radio friends on Friday.

We had met up with them a few weeks ago with food from the Thai food truck in town. We suggested that we again get food from the food truck ...

... so we picked up lunch at the food truck...

Carl and I both got Pad Thai Chicken, mine with no spice, and Carl's had 2* spice. When we had gotten meals a few weeks ago at this food truck, Carl initially ordered 3* spice (they go up to 5*) but the proprietor talked him down to 2*, and Carl found that was fine for his taste.

Tom and Chere invited us all to come to their home and hosted our lunch in the pavilion within their community. We enjoyed our last get-together in Show Low with Tom and Chere, Nick and Jeanne. We know that we'll be getting together with them again when we all get back to Mesa in the fall. 

Flags in Show Low

For patriotic holidays, Show Low has a number of places around town where there are massive flag displays...

This is at one of the major corners that we go through frequently...

... flags on both sides of the roadway.

We had thought that we might go to the Fourth of July parade, but we ended up wimping out and did not see it. Evidently it is a classic small town parade and folks who went enjoyed it greatly!

Line Dancing at White Mountain Square Dance Hall

I have thoroughly enjoyed beginner line dance classes at White Mountain Square Dance Hall on Monday mornings during our stay this season in Show Low. This is the same dance hall where we've been taking ballroom and country/western dance lessons (on Wednesday and Friday nights respectively).

Ruth, the lady in black at the center front of the room, is the instructor. She is very methodical and precise, which I found to be just ideal for my learning style!

While there is line dance instruction at our park, and I have attended their sessions, the teaching styles were not what I prefer. They would more often show the dance (to remind the students of something they already knew) and anyone who didn't know it just needed to pick it up by watching. That is definitely not my preferred way of learning! Oh well, some of the dances that they taught here at the park were ones I already knew, so I could at least enjoy them.