Heading up in elevation

Long before we knew that fuel prices were going to escalate this summer, we had decided to try staying in Arizona for the summer instead of driving long distances as we have each summer. There are two places that we had heard that friends stayed in the summer -- Show Low, or near Prescott, AZ. So, we booked two months at each location, starting at Show Low.

Since we replaced the Jeep with the Honda CR-V, and since it is not towable, we drove separately -- I was driving the CR-V that is in front of Gracie, and at this point, there was another vehicle between us. We had our Family radios so we could communicate as we drove (there wasn't cell service available for the whole drive). We decided that, for the future, it might be better for Gracie to be in the front and the CR-V following as it is easier to see the motorhome from the car, the motorhome is impacted by climbs in elevation and it was hard for me to gauge how fast to take the hills, and the car has the capability of catching up more easily.

We are staying at a park called Venture In (our winter location is Venture Out -- and the realty company at our winter park is called Venture In -- so we may be a little confused at times!). It is an Encore park, part of the overall Thousand Trails system, though we are not staying under our membership.

Our site at Venture In. We are anticipating that more folks will be coming to the park in the next few weeks as the summer season ramps up.

There are lots of things to do at Venture In (not as many as Venture Out, but we're happy to have a little less scheduled on our calendar). Show Low, AZ is at about 6200', and has temperatures that average about 20F lower than the "valley" around Phoenix.

Trying out Shake Shack

Carl's daughter, Pamela, had shared that her favorite burger place is Shake Shack. When we were out and about one day (picking up new prescription glasses for Carl), we saw one and decided to stop and try it out...

Shake Shack

Ordering area

We both got burgers (me a single, Carl a double) and we shared a chocolate shake.

It was pretty yummy! 

Celebrating with friends

Our friends, Don and Linda, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. We were glad to be able to go out for dinner with them at Famous Dave's -- and we bought a whole Baker's Square French Silk Pie from the restaurant to take home and share.

We forgot to get pictures at Famous Dave's (and for our continued celebration at their house),

But we got a picture of a slice of the pie before it was all consumed!

Happy anniversary, Don and Linda!

Venture Out Amateur Radio Club - Summer

The Venture Out Amateur Radio Club continues meeting on Saturdays through the summer, but they meet up at the community center rather than in the Oasis room, which is closer to where our lots are located. (I think that the Oasis Room is not used in the summer at all so the resort can save on air conditioning costs.)

One recent Saturday, the attending club members watched a video on a topic of interest to Ham Radio aficionados...

The group enjoying the video

The Venture Out group also has weekly "nets" at 1pm on Wednesdays -- during the season, these nets are on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1pm. Usually folks join via their radios when they are in the park, but since many people are absent during the summer, they have a way to connect in via EchoLink (https://www.echolink.org/), that allows in-park residents to be on their radios, and out-of-park residents to connect in via the internet or an app on their phones.

It is nice to keep up with our VO Ham friends through the summer and hear what summer adventures they are having! 

Gracie in her spot

We're getting ready to leave Venture Out for our summer adventures.

This is Gracie on our RV lot with the new Honda CR-V in front.

Things to note: 

• The CR-V is not flat towable (or towable at all except on a flat bed trailer -- cannot use a tow dolly either), so we'll have to drive separately as we travel in the RV this summer. Neither of us is looking forward to that!
• We had moved all the patio furniture off the RV lot. Some of it fit into the shed, and the last few pieces were moved to the covered patio of the casa next door.
• You may be able to see a "For Rent" sign on the lot. We have renters for January-March, but if you know of anyone who would like to rent an RV lot in Mesa for October-December or April-May, please let us know! The casa is also available those months. I will mention that October (until the end) is pretty warm, and May can get warm, especially as you get later in the month.
• Note that we'd love for friends and family to come during the times that the casa and/or RV lot are not rented. 
• You also may be able to see things that look like dead branches in the palm trees. I don't know what kind of palm trees we have in our community, but they bloom (? I think) in early May and produce "Arizona snow" -- almost as annoying as cottonwood trees "cottoning". There are fine beige things that are all over everything -- really bad on the top of the pools and hot tubs -- the skimmers can't keep up with them. The things that look like dead branches are those bloom stalks. 

An interesting story on how the RV lot got rented... Our friend, Laura, has an RV lot on the other side of our casa. She has had a For Rent sign up for several months. One day, we were going to be taking her and her daughter to the airport, and Carl went to pick them up -- but there was someone there looking at her RV lot so they waited a few minutes until that was completed. Carl happened to mention to the RV couple that we have the RV lot just two doors down, and if they had friends who would be interested in renting it, to have them contact us. They did have a friend, and the friend did contact, so friends will be staying in the two RV lots on each side of the casa! 

When we were staying on the RV lot, friends Liz and Jerry were on Laura's lot, and we were using the casa for visiting friends and family, we had space for lots of get-togethers for our block on one or the other RV lot or under the patio of the casa if it was rainy. For the rental of the casa, friends of the tenant came to look at the casa for him, and we let them know that, if he wants it to be, he could be in the middle of party-central, but that it would be up to him to decide!

Closing up for summer

As we prepare to leave Venture Out, we have been "summer-izing" our two park models and protecting the items that we will be leaving behind.

The patio for the casa is the place for our patio furniture for the RV lot and the casa to be stored. Our golf cart is also covered and stored on the patio.

I wanted to cover the two patio tables (one from the casa, one from the RV lot), so washed the glass tops before covering them so they won't get additional scratching.

We got things covered and secured. Our neighbors across the street, Don and Linda, are year round residents and are so kind to let us know if something goes askew.

Many RVers winterize their RVs if they are going to be in freezing weather. To summer-ize, we do things like cover upholstered furniture with sheets, pour mineral oil into water traps to keep them from drying out (and allowing smells and bugs to come into the house), putting RV antifreeze into the dishwasher and clothes washer. I put signs on things as they are treated ("closed for the season") so we will know we have already done that one, and instructions on the washers and dishwasher to run an empty load before using them for their intended purpose (just so I make sure anyone who might use it first in the next season will know what to do to un-summer-ize it -- and to remind myself in case I'm the first one to use it!).

Miss Kitty's private Golden Corral buffet

Miss Kitty is getting pickier and pickier on eating... one day she might eat one type of canned food; the next day, she will sniff it and walk away. 

One day recently she had a veritable buffet set out before her... and none were acceptable!

We give in to her whims more than we should because she is constantly losing weight (a little less than an ounce per month). Carl says that if she keeps on losing, gravity won't hold her down anymore and we'll find her floating up at the ceiling!

An awning repair

After we got Gracie back to the RV lot, and had the window awnings out to provide some shade, we noticed that one of the awnings had its awning spline coming out -- this meant that the other end of the awning was not well secured into the roller. It wasn't causing any problem yet, but, leaving it this way could cause the awning to rip. We found the card of the company who installed the awning a few years ago, called and explained the problem, and thankfully, they were able to come the same day to fix it...

They had to remove the pressure of the spring on the awning, then they could re-insert the spline...

... and finally re-attach the spring.

It was a quick job, and, although more expensive than we had hoped it would be, at least it is fixed.

A visit from Scott

We had quite a number of family visits at the end of the season...

Son Scott had a customer visit in Tempe, so came to stay at the casa and we got to visit with him for two evenings.

It is nice having family visiting!

Sunset and palm trees

So pretty to see the sunset behind the palm trees in our community...

... we started having 100F+ days in May so our walks would happen at sunset rather than earlier in the day. As a result, we got to see more of the colorful sunsets!

Just in case you need it...

We were looking for something in the grocery store and found...

... bacon grease... I didn't know that you could purchase it at the grocery store. If I recall correctly, Mom used to have a metal container on the stove top into which the bacon grease went and from which we could dip out some when needed for seasoning greens or other things.

 

Miss Kitty back in *her* bus!

We got most things moved back to the RV before we brought Miss Kitty back. We weren't sure how she would deal with being back in the rig, but she was totally fine with it...

She found one of her favorite places in the sun, on the front passenger seat, though she was a little annoyed that there were other things on the seat keeping her from using the whole seat for herself!

Relaxing on her heating pad -- although we had it in the park model for her, she hasn't been using it a lot recently, but she got right back on it in the rig...

... but she was really stretched out as if she was hot, so I'm not sure why she was on the heating pad! She was also keeping an eye on her food dish -- she wasn't excited about what I had provided, but was in hopes that I might provide something better.

She is such an easy-going cat -- doesn't seem to mind which housing we have her in... though she *has* enjoyed having so many different chairs to sleep on in the park model!

Also under the heading of "It's always something!"

We decided that we should move back into the motorhome for at least a week before we planned to leave Mesa -- our experience has been that we always forget a number of things that we would like to have with us. It will be easier to get those items while we are still at Venture Out rather than having to drive back, purchase new, or do without.

As we were moving in, we noticed a puddle of water forming under the wet bay area of the rig. At first we thought it might be from the air conditioners being turned on and running pretty constantly, but then we thought that, it's so dry here, would there be that much condensation? Carl opened up the bay and found that, no, it wasn't condensation from the air conditioner, it was a broken fitting on the water softener system.

It had gotten really hot (high 90s - low 100s), so he decided to wait to work on it in the morning, "before it gets too hot".

The fitting from the hose had broken off in the inlet to the water softening system.

After a couple of trips to the hardware store, Carl had the fitting end that he needed and was able to get it installed on the hose.

A little later, he could reconnect to the water softening system.

It was also time to re-charge the water softener, so he was able to take care of that too. He also changed out the filters on the RO system.

I am so grateful that Carl knows how to take care of all of these systems on the rig (and in our house)!

Under the heading of "It's always something!"

Gracie (the motorhome) has been in a storage lot for the season. She was not plugged in, but the solar panels were able to keep the batteries charged. But, the temperature inside the rig was not being controlled (no electrical hookup) so probably she got pretty warm inside at times.

We had left our two water jugs (7 gallon each) that we had filled for going to Quartzsite in January stored in the shower while Gracie was in storage. 

When Carl attempted to take some water out of one of the containers, the faucet broke off -- the picture doesn't show the broken off piece -- we took the picture to remind ourselves to see if we could find a replacement cap and faucet. The plastic piece just gave out -- the jug is probably 

Carl found that the newer containers have red caps, and he was able to find replacement caps at Sportsman Warehouse....

It looks pretty snazzy with the red caps, right?

We generally carry at least one of the water containers with us -- we keep potable water in it just in case we end up boondocking or without water unexpectedly (sometimes, in campgrounds, the water gets shut off without warning -- usually when a fellow camper accidentally runs over a water spigot). Technically, the water in our fresh tank is potable, but we prefer using RO water (processed by our on-board RO system) for drinking or cooking. Our plans for this summer have us staying in campgrounds with full hookups all summer, but, we never know when we might want to have an additional supply of potable water available.

No baby birds?

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a new and unwelcome tenant moving in on the patio of the casa (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/04/a-new-and-unwelcome-tenant.html).

While Kim and her girls were staying at the casa, 

...we noticed that there was no longer a parent bird on the nest.

Carl got up on a ladder and found that there were still 3 eggs in the nest.

We are debating whether we should remove the nest, or, if we leave it there, will that dissuade other birds from building there? However, if we leave it there, might it cause staining on the awning? Decisions, decisions...

Meanwhile, we've moved back to the motorhome in preparation for our summer travels, so are staying right next door to the casa. While going back and forth in the front yard of the casa, I suddenly noticed something different on the grass... 

A little baby bird?

Oh, my, yes, a baby bird. We didn't think that it was a dove, but there were no parent birds around (I figured I would get dive-bombed if the parent was around as close as I got to it). I did a google lens lookup and Google identified it as a fledgling house finch. It also said that fledglings are meant to be on the ground and that they are usually still being cared for by their parents, even if they appear abandoned.

We decided to leave it be. We drove over to our park model (house) to pick up some additional items to move to the motorhome, and when we returned, the fledgling was gone. Whether it found somewhere safe or was eaten by a predator, we figured it was okay with us! 

Goodbye for now...

After just a few short days of visiting, it was time for Kim and the girls to head back home...

A couple of last pictures before heading to the airport...

What a nice visit!

Scorpion hunting with the grands

Since Auntie Pamela had told about going scorpion hunting, the granddaughters were keen to try it. Carl and Kim and the girls went to the dog park with the black light...

Looking to see if anything was glowing...

There's one!

This one is interesting because you can see the scorpion on the tree, but then you can see that McKenna is taking a picture and has it zoomed in on her phone, so it looks huge!

Does this count as a science lesson?

Beating the heat with the grands

At the beginning of the week that Kim was here, it was cool and comfortable, but the heat started ratcheting up during the week. 

Since the pool is not open for younger people until after 11am, we decided to enjoy card playing inside in the morning. Carl thought that the girls were looking like they were serious card sharks, so he added some props in the middle of the table to make it look like we were participating in some really serious gaming! If you look closely, in addition to the cash on the table, a couple of credit cards and an AARP card have been pushed in for the bet!

The game we were playing is called "Sevens" -- and there is no betting involved... all of the girls quickly identified strategies that could improve their chances and possibly thwart other players.

Rules for Sevens as we learned it

Once the pool hours for kids opened up, Carl and Kim and the girls headed to the pool...

... they had quite a nice time and pretty much had the pool to themselves.

While there are two pools in our community, only one is available for children (under 18) to use, and the hours that they are allowed to use it are limited.

Mother's Day Video

At our church service here in Mesa, they showed a video "Becoming Your Mom Support Group" -- I thought our blog readers might enjoy it too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87NKcROF9Bc

Happy Mothers Day! 

Bocce with Kim and the girls

Carl had a dentist appointment, so Kim and the girls and I decided to try playing bocce. The girls had played before, but not on formal courts -- they were very good at it!

Kim and Lianna won by a wide margin!

 

Daughter Kim visit

Daughter Kim and granddaughters came to visit -- they were scheduled to come for spring break, but flights did not cooperate (and that turned out being the week that Carl found out he had pneumonia and ended up in the hospital, so maybe it was for the best). They had said that they may be able to come after their school was out for the summer, and were able to get flights, so they came the first week of May.

We headed to Usery Mountain Regional Park to go hiking. It was a beautiful cool morning. 

The girls studying information provided on the signboard.

Climbing up on a rock

Near the summit of Vista Trail

We saw these soybean-like pods on the Palo Verde trees...

... it turns out (according to Google) that they are edible and, when green, similar to edamame (aka green soybeans) and a good source of protein.

Granddaughter checking whether the barrel cactus is thorny!

We had had a cold front move through so had a couple of really gorgeous days while they were visiting.

Golf rules for seniors

We saw this posted in the bulletin board area at the post office:

I thought that a couple of friends/readers of this blog who are golfers or married to golfers might get a chuckle out of it!