Something new for Carl and Patti

This month, Carl and I would each be starting our 12th year of full time RVing, minus our brief stay in our park model last winter. We plan to continue RVing in our motorhome part-time, but we have officially closed on a house in east Mesa and have started the move-in process.

The house is built for the desert and hot weather, with 12-inch thick walls and a garage for our car, golf cart, and e-bikes. The home is located in a 55+ community about 10 miles east of Venture Out, near the Superstition Mountains. We still have our three properties in Venture Out at this time, though we are anticipating that they will be going up for sale soon.

So, you may be hearing more on our blog about home projects than RVing, but, if fuel prices come down, we hope to continue with our traveling across the US (and Canada) next summer -- so the RVing posts will start up again. 

Some more pictures around Mesa

Random pictures around Mesa...

I saw this bird's nest on top of a cactus in a yard... I honestly think that someone (human) placed the nest there, the birds didn't build it there, as I think it would have been more tied into the top of the cactus by bird-builders than it appears to be. But... it could be a very safe place to raise your bird family if you're concerned about predators from the ground, I guess!

Our church has Wednesday lunchtime gatherings for a meal ($5/person) and a Bible study lesson from one of our pastors (Pastor Kim Bristow). It is primarily for senior adults. This picture was from a few weeks ago -- we were at this gathering at the time that a monsoon rain storm went through. We could hear the rain on the roof of the building, but didn't realize what a gusher of rain was delivered until we left and attempted to drive back home on the flooded streets!

I can't remember where I saw this, but boy, this certainly shares the challenge of getting to merge into traffic at times! If you aren't aware of the ways that the roads change, and the fact that your lane is going to suddenly disappear in the next mile or so, and so you don't start trying to merge over until the signs actually warn you that your lane is going away, sometimes it seems that the other drivers want to punish you for waiting to merge until you became aware that the lane was going away!

I get the feeling that drivers everywhere are a little less considerate than maybe they have been in the past. Maybe that is related to driving a big rig, or driving in places where I really don't know what is going to happen to my lane in the next few miles, or because I'm older and not as willing to try to squeeze my vehicle between two who aren't really being accomodating, but it seems to me that consideration towards others might be on the decline.

Ginger bug

Carl bought a Ginger bug starter at the Farmer's Market in Show Low.

He adds freshly shredded ginger and sugar to feed the "bug".

When he wants to make some carbonated drinks (ginger soda), he takes some of the ginger bug liquid and combines it with fruit juice and puts it into bottles to ferment for a few days on the counter -- the bacteria eats the sugar and creates carbon dioxide. He then puts the bottles into the refrigerator which stops the fermentation.

It can be quite carbonated:

I am not a fan of carbonated beverages, but he seems to like it quite well!

Physical Therapy

I had started physical therapy while in Show Low earlier in the summer, but had not been able to get many sessions completed. Carl had physical therapy prescribed with his back pain. So now, both of us are getting physical therapy, for upper back pain in about the same location. We're seeing the same physical therapist, and she has us doing most of the same exercises.

We were the first ones there after lunchtime, so there were no other people using the equipment when we first started. Carl had his phone with him, so he took pictures of me doing a few of the exercises. 

"Riding" the arm-bike to warm up

Pulling the bands to strengthen shoulder muscles

Doing torture on the wall with the Thera-Band

Stretching my neck/shoulder

Do they look like torture? Most of them aren't bad (though the red band on the wall is a bit difficult and really tires out our shoulders). My phone was stored in a cubby so no pictures of Carl, but he was doing the same exercises.

Sunset pictures

We have been enjoying evening walks around our community... there have been some magnificent sunsets...

Around the corner from our house

Looking across an RV lot that is owned by some of our friends

Zoomed in - doesn't that look like a mountain reflected in a lake?

Palm trees and the sky on fire

The sky reminds me of the Arizona state flag!

Looking up toward community center in the middle of our community

Sunset reflections in the windows of a friend's home across from our RV lot

We appreciate that it cools off after the sun goes down and having the beautiful colors is a great incentive to get out and walk!

A neighbor's pickup truck

One of the evenings that we were out walking around our community, when we came back, we noticed lights on in our nextdoor neighbor's house. I asked Carl if they had been on before and I hadn't noticed, or if maybe they came on later in the evening than we are usually out, but he pointed out that outdoor furniture was out on the porch too. The owners live in Idaho in the summer, but we'd had a bad storm just a day or two before, so we thought they might have contacted someone to check the house for them. Anyway, I called the wife's number, and she confirmed that her husband had flown down that day and was in the house (as I was on the phone with her, her husband knocked on our door to get some ice). He had come down to pick up a classic pickup truck that he had arranged to purchase, he would be getting it the next day, and flying back the day after that. He had decided to "open up" their unit for the summer while he was down.

He picked up the pickup truck and left it in their driveway... 

I couldn't get very far away from it to get good pictures... I think it has been painted to look like it has more battering than it actually has. Carl says that it is devaluing our property to have a derelict vehicle parked at the house next door!

"Your Meal is Made Possible by Farmers!"

We enjoy eating at Culver's...

Not only do we enjoy their food, but the sentiments on their cups and table signs are cute too!