A detour on Sunday

On Sunday early morning (overnight), Carl woke up with pain in his side. He thought that maybe he had slept wrong, but he was having difficulty getting a full breath. After getting up, he got on his computer and had some coffee, and thought that things were okay, or at least, not as bad as overnight. We got ready and were driving to church when he said that he didn't think he was going to be able to be comfortable sitting in church, and maybe we should go to the emergency room instead. 

We headed to Banner Gateway ER and they took him in pretty quickly...

The ER has different "zones" -- he was initially placed in the Green Zone...

... you notice that he is in nice slacks... we were definitely overdressed for the ER. The Green Zone room was a regular room, with glass sliding doors covered by curtains separating patients from the other parts of the Green Zone activity.

A sign in the room indicated that we would probably be moved to a test results waiting area before discharge, and, indeed, they did move him...

... to the Red Zone. In this area, there were just curtains around each area...

Each area had a lounge-type chair, and some of them had a side chair. Some of the areas were only large enough for the lounge chair, and right next to you was a curtain and on the other side of the curtain was another patient in their lounge chair, sometimes talking on the phone, sometimes coughing... it was pretty uncomfortable.

Most of the other people in the Red zone were there for just a short time; the nurse would come to give them their discharge instructions and they would be on their way. 

We had been in the green zone for about two hours when Carl was moved to the red zone. Then we waited for test results. The "provider" (they aren't called "doctors" because they might be nurse practitioners, or physician assistants, or MDs) came and gave a preliminary result of pneumonia, but he wanted to do a CT with contrast for further results. We waited for 1.5+ hours for the young lady to come to transfer him for the CT scan. 

Carl in the red zone

Ultimately, we were at the ER for about 7 hours, and went home with prescriptions for 2 antibiotics and a pain med. 

A new toy at the Bocce ball courts

When we played Bocce Friday a week ago, we had the opportunity to use a new device that they have for the bocce ball courts -- a laser measure. 

The game of bocce has each team try to get their balls as close as possible to the palina. Determining which ball is closest is used in determining which team throws their ball next, and which team scores. Sometimes it is easy to determine which ball is closest just by looking, but sometimes it is not. We have had tape measures that are mounted on top of a cylinder that fits over the palina -- we pull out the tape measure and check the distance to "ball 1" and then "ball 2" to see which is closer (ball 1 would belong to one team, and ball 2 to the other team). 

In this case, the two balls in question were more than 2' away from the palina, and using the tape measure they appeared to be equi-distance. But recently, the courts had received laser measuring devices, and this was the first time either of the two teams that were playing had the opportunity to try it out... The balls that were being measured had been thrown from our end of the court -- generally the team members at the other end of the court do the evaluation, and generally only two people (one from each team) do the evaluation. In this case, because there was interest in the new device, the bench emptied, even a guy from our end of the court went along with a fellow from the next door lane who had used the laser measuring device previously -- I didn't go, so I got the pictures...

A great confab on the bocce ball court as everyone watched one fellow use the new laser measuring device...

"Blue has the closest ball!" (not our team, but you can see the celebration as it was determined!)

Our matches are really just for fun (and maybe bragging rights), so before having the laser measuring device, we would have just said that it was a tie and gone on to the next "end" without changing the score. In this case, the laser measuring device determined that the balls were within 0.02' of each other (about 1/3"). And... it is always fun to have a new tool to play with!

Tennis rummage sale

Twice during the winter season, the Tennis club at Venture Out sponsors and runs a rummage sale. They take donations from residents on Thursday, and on Friday, they run the sale.

The furniture is displayed on the patio outside the tennis courts. Two tennis courts are set up with all the non-furniture items that are available for sale. There is quite a line up in the minutes before the gates to the courts open as people prepare to find their treasures in the sale!

We don't usually get there before the gates open, but we did last Friday so joined the line pretty much at the end. We found a few things that we could use - some duplicates of items that we have in the rig so we don't have to move things back and forth from our "summer home" (Gracie) to our "winter home" (the park model).

The proceeds from the sale go back to the Social Board and serve to fund projects for any of the clubs in the park. They may go to projects that the tennis club has, but they may also go for another club -- glass arts, woodworking, electronics, bocce ball, horseshoes, etc. Each club identifies its needs and wants to the Social Board and the Board decides how the funding gets spent. It means that shopping helps out Venture Out, so we're actually serving our community by shopping! Yeah, right, that's why we do it!!!

A visit to American Discount Foods

A couple of friends had suggested that a visit to American Discount Foods might be an enjoyable outing for us, so, we were in the neighborhood and decided to check it out...

The store was *huge*. I think they get items when the items are close to their "best buy" date or "expiration" date. It isn't a place where you can do all of your grocery shopping, and I doubt that the products they have are the same from one visit to the next, but it definitely is an "experience"!

Carl just took a few photos...

The bulk frozen food was accessed through the back area storage area where the employees were getting the products on pallets to stock the dry goods.

5 pounds of venison medallions

The checkout area (when we came in to the store, we were way over in another corner of the store and we weren't initially sure where the checkout registers were located)

There were sayings on the walls (here a portion of the pledge of allegiance) and Bible verses on the backs of the tee-shirts that the employees were wearing.

Another picture of a quote from the Declaration of Independence

A product that we saw -- we didn't get this... but we'd never heard of "Spicy Cajun Crawtators"!

It was an experience, and we're glad we went. There is another location that is closer to Venture Out that we'll need to check out at some point...

Visiting friends in Florence

Our friends, Nancy and Steve, let us know that they would be visiting friends Mark and Wendy in Florence and asked if we'd like to come out and join them. We decided we'd drive out for a day rather than taking Gracie out there...

We joined up with Nancy and Steve, EJ and Frank, and Mark and Wendy at Mark and Wendy's house in Florence. Mark and Wendy have a nice size lot and are fixing up the manufactured home that is on the lot, so they can accommodate visitors in RVs.

(Side note: we have visited Florence before, and I guess we may have noticed that there is a prison there. But just recently, we've met a man at church who shared with us that he "spent 8 years in Florence"... now, Florence is not the garden spot of the world, so I just thought that he meant that he was in a backwater town for 8 years... but he went on to tell more of his story and he was in prison there -- so now when I tell people here that we're going to visit friends in Florence, I say, "We're going to visit friends who have a *house* in Florence!") 

While we were visiting, Mark recommended that we might enjoy visiting an area called "The Boulders", so we drove out there...

This area of boulders is so different from the land driving up to it...

It looks like some giant was playing with rocks and has just stepped away.

Our group...

Another picture of our group with a different view behind us

Ocotillo amidst the boulders

View out to more distant mountains

Another view out toward the mountains to the east (? or north?)

Mark and Wendy recommended that we go to another viewpoint into the Boulders... 

This appeared to be private property (there was a gate below the sign that prevented us from entering the property).

A view down the road beyond the gate

We went back to Mark and Wendy's place and got supper together -- we had brought a macaroni salad and dessert (since we couldn't cook in the afternoon); everyone else participated in the cooking and we had a magnificent feast!

On our drive home, the sun was setting...

I didn't get the picture that I wanted (at one point, there was a narrow gap in the hills to the west that the sun was illuminating like a gap between teeth) -- but it still was pretty!

We appreciated the opportunity to get together with friends! It was kind of like a miniature Quartzsite gathering but a lot shorter drive for us!

Concert Series - Hillbilly Deluxe Variety Show

Our resort has a concert series -- 6 shows during the season from January-March -- that features entertainers who come in from outside the park to put on a show. Many of them are tribute bands (John Denver, Tina Turner). Some folks buy season tickets and purchase them year after year to get the same reserved seats in the ballroom theater seating. But there are always tickets available to purchase for single shows, so we bought tickets for the Hillbilly Deluxe Variety Show. It was described as a "high energy show that will bring the giddy up! Songs from Shania Twain, George Strait, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Miranda Lambert, Pat Benatar, Journey, and many more!"

Carl got several videos from their performance, and I think you might enjoy a watch and listen: https://youtu.be/4CSg4QfIMhc 

We were on the very last row of the ballroom so not very close up to the performers, but this way you get a view of the whole stage. 

POlka Lovers Klub of America (Po.L.K. of A.) - Arizona Chapter

We joined the POlka Lovers Klub of America for a Sunday afternoon dance at another resort in Mesa.

The band for the day we went was from Minnesota -- they just come to Mesa during Spring break time as some of the band members are in college.

One of the things we like about going to the Po.L.K.of A. dances is that the dance floor is not very crowded. The dance floor at Las Palmas Grand also is a very nice floor.

Lots of people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa who love to polka.

Their flyer for this season.

We are not polka dancers, but when we've gone before, the band has played two polkas, two waltzes, two Latin songs, and two country songs. The band when we went this time did a lot more polkas, and their waltzes were VERY fast (probably 6/8 time rather than 3/4 time). We generally enjoy waltzing and country/western timed (4-count) music. Each band that plays for the Po.L.K. of A. dances has their own style and favorites -- I would say that the one we happened to pick this time didn't play as much music that we enjoyed dancing to as others might.

We'll still go back again -- we like the dance floor, and the members of the club are very welcoming.