Saturday, May 30, 2015

5/30/15 We Check Out Other Resorts

(Show Low, AZ)

RESORT:  noun:  a place to which people frequently or generally go for relaxation or pleasure, especially one providing rest and recreation facilities for vacationers.

Today we traveled about 35 miles to a town called Heber to check out a resort as a possible place to park the RV for next summer.  We figure its got to be away from the junipers and thirty five miles away so perhaps the wind won’t blow so much.

So we find the place and pull into the resort with great anticipation and expectations. 

DISAPPOINTMENT:  noun;  the act of disappointing or the state of being disappointed.

Oh Em Gee!  Just shoot us now!  We pulled into this resort and our jaws dropped. 

DUMP:  noun:  Informal  a place, house, or town that is dilapidated, dirty, or disreputable.

Oh Em Gee!  I’m serious, just shoot us now!

I mean their website showed happy people and evergreens,,,,  Oh wait, that was the only picture come to think of it.  But, but, their write up sounded so FUN!  Oh wait, a copy writer in Timbuktu could have written that.   BUT WAIT,,,,it was on the INTERNET, therefore it must be true, right?

Well, we continued the drive through the resort and the deeper we got into this run down campground the more dismal it got.

We drove right on through and couldn’t get out fast enough. 

We won’t be in Heber next summer.

Friday, May 29, 2015

5/29/15 Another Workday For Us

(Show Low, AZ)

Another workday.  We’re not complaining, it gives us something to do.

After the last line dancing class today we went in to set up the tables and chairs for a board meeting and when that was over we set up for Monday Morning Coffee since there wasn’t any activities planned for the Grand Lodge this weekend.

Line dancing.  Line dancing takes place three times a week for three hours.  The first class is for advanced dancers, the second for intermediate and the last for beginners.  So that’s nine hours of line dancing per week and one teacher!  I went to one class and made it halfway through a beginners class.  The music was some I had never heard before, I’m calling 1940’s music but I'm not positive about that because I had never heard any of the songs before.  The dances were not line dancing like I’ve ever seen before either.  Its not for me and that's ok, its what they do here and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  I was really disappointed to because I was looking forward to dancing this summer.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

5/28/15 Beautiful Rainbow!

(Show Low, AZ)

We’ve noticed a lot of rainbows here in Show Low.  Here are some shots of what we’ve seen.

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Pretty aren’t they?  And we see these quite often.  I consider it one of the perks of being here.

Monday, May 25, 2015

5/25/15 Memorial Day 2015

(Show Low, AZ)

Memorial Day is a big to do here in Juniper Ridge, as it should be.

The plan was to have a big picnic in the Back Forty garden/picnic area.  Unfortunately, it didn’t seem the weather was going to cooperate so to be on the safe side the BBQ was moved to the Grand Lodge.

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To start the day we had the Monday Morning Coffee and right after was the Memorial Day Parade.

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Lots and lots of burgers and hot dogs were cooked.

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….there were lots of fixin’s.

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AND FOOD????  Oh my, so much food was brought!

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These were early pictures, by the time everyone brought their food in we had to add another table and there was no space between bowls and plates.
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Of course a lot of people had to be fed!

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Take notice of attire in the picture above Long pants and sleeves.  What are we doing here????

Friday, May 22, 2015

5/22/15 The Season’s First Dance

(Show Low, AZ)

At noon today, the new couple, Dana and Judy and the two of us set up the tables and chairs for the first dance of the season tonight.  I hadn’t really paid attention to the schedule and was surprised to find out the dance was from six o’clock to eight o’clock.  Six to eight???  I soon found out why.

This is an older park.  I don’t mean the park itself, I mean the people.  I am without a doubt, one of the youngest person in the park at sixty-one.  I was told by our Activities Director, Sandy, that most of the people would be gone by seven.  She wasn’t kidding either.  Seven o’clock came and the place pretty much cleared out.  Oh, what have we gotten ourselves into????

I kinda have to blame the duo who was singing,  It was like everything was in slow speed.  Several people came up to us and said that they were slow and it wasn’t just us thinking so.

Eight o’clock the dance was over and since it was so early the four of us stayed on to  set up for the Monday Morning Coffee.

We’re off for the weekend.  We are now free to sit inside out of the wind.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

5/21/15 Open the Park Day

(Show Low, AZ)

Today was a park wide clean up day.  Everyone pulled weeds on their own lots and some worked on the common flower beds situated all over the park.

For their efforts the park provided hot dogs, a drink and a bag of chips.

I thought the park looked great just as it was but then I never looked closely at the residents flower beds.

The ad I placed for new workampers paid off quickly.  A couple from Missouri who is one month into their fulltiming life answered the ad and they happened to be only 2 and 1/2 hours away in Gallup, New Mexico.  We had several others answer the ad also but when this couple left a message for the Activity Director after hours and didn’t get a phone the first thing the next morning they jumped in car and drove here.  Needless to say they got the job!  So they’ll be here tomorrow.

We have learned that the closing of the pool has come under our duties and this does not make me and Bob very happy at all.  The pool closes at 8pm every night and it takes about 40 minutes to close it.  The pool has to be covered every night and  its huge!  Even the hot tub is a good sized one.

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At 8pm, if there isn’t anything going on we’re settled in our chairs for the night watching prime time TV.  In addition to the pool having to be closed every night the pool has to be uncovered every weekend morning by 7:30 and on holidays that the regular maintenance staff is on.

Oh what have we gotten ourselves into?

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

5/17-5/20/15 We Just Want the Wind to STOP!

(Show Low, AZ)

We’re thinkin’ we made a mistake coming here.  We can’t go outside and even sit for awhile because the wind is blowing so hard.  What have we gotten ourselves into?  It wouldn’t be so bad if we were on one of the other streets but we’re in an open area and there is nothing to buffer us.

I’ve gone to the card room a couple of times in the afternoon just to get out of the house.  I’ve learned how to play Ponytail Canasta.  I’m not real comfortable playing to tell you the truth.  These are some die hard players here and if you make a mistake, well, your know that saying, if looks could kill.  They do take into consideration that I’m just learning but I’m sure not to make the same mistake twice I hope to tell ya!

Bob is getting antsy.  He is so not used to just sitting around.

It still gets down in the high 30’s and low 40’s at nighttime.  I don’t ever recall having the  heat on this far into May.

Oh, what have we gotten ourselves into?

Saturday, May 16, 2015

5/16/15 Finishing the Tour of Juniper Ridge

(Show Low, AZ)

Here’s the last of the tour of where we are spending our summer.  These are the outdoor games.

In addition to the huge swimming pool and hot tub we have tennis courts, which unfortunately were being worked on the day I was taking pictures.  Besides, you all know what tennis courts look like and there isn’t anything extraordinary about these.

There is also a pickle ball court.

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Bocce ball courts.  I’m determined to learn how to play this, this summer.

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Shuffleboard courts get a lot of use here I hear.  They are so incredibly smooth that you can actually see a sheen on the courts in the picture.

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The Horseshoe Pits, just not a very good picture.  That’s the golf pro shop in the background and the golf course to the left.

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We had to work again today.  Today we set up tables and chairs for 120 in the Grand Lodge.  Every Monday morning there is Monday Morning Coffee.  This is where the residents learn of anything that is going to happen for the coming week.  Usually a local business or two will sponsor this by buying the donuts.  Before and after this morning meeting the “ticket sellers” sell tickets for upcoming events.  During the meeting happenings outside the park in the surrounding area are announced.  I think this is a very nice feature of the meeting.  As residents who lead different activities arrive they will be given a chance to tell the crowd when the starting dates will be and any other information given that they may have about their activity.

To give you an idea of how much volunteers are needed and used and appreciated here, last year there was an appreciation dinner for 178 volunteers!

Every week we’ll be setting up for our Monday Morning Coffee and every week for the next few we’ll be adding another row of tables and chairs.

Today I found out that the third couple we are expecting on the 19th have decided not to come after all.  This is going to cause a big problem.  Four people can’t keep up with all that goes on here and only work 10 hours a week.  I volunteered to run ads online to find another couple who wants to be in this area and is still looking for a summer gig.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Friday, May 15, 2015

5/15/15 A Closer Look at Juniper Ridge

(Show Low, AZ)
There is the Grand Lodge where dances, dinners, shows, bingo, line dancing, church and Monday morning coffee takes place among other things.

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The Grand Lodge seats 372 comfortably on padded folding chairs.  There is a large stage with velvet curtains and professional lighting.  If tables are needed there are 65 rectangular tables and round tables big enough to seat 8 comfortably.

Off to one side of Grand Lodge is a very nice sitting area.  The stone you see in the left hand side of the picture below is the hearth to a very large fireplace.

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On the other side of the Grand Lodge is fully equipped stainless steel kitchen with restaurant type ovens,  freezers, dishwasher and a pantry to die for.
 
Another building is the Activities Building where we work out of.  There are 3 offices in this building, a copy center where the newsletters, flyers  and tickets get printed, a conference room, a small lunch room and a common area behind the desk.

The conference room…

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This building also a nice a sitting area with fireplace.

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The next building would be the Game Building.

This is the pool room.  It has 6 pool tables and 2 billiards tables.

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This is one of card or game rooms.  Bunco, Mahjong and cards games are played in here.

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On the the side of the building is another card room.  Some serious Ponytail Canasta is played everyday in this room and Pegs and Jokers also.

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Its especially nice for the Texas Hold ‘Em players to have the tables.

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This is the Juniper Ridge Library.

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The next building is home to the Laundromat for one thing.  I hear this room will get real busy but since very few are here right now doing laundry is a breeze.  Twenty machines to wash and dry with.  $1.25 to wash and $1.00 to dry.

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There is also a beauty parlor in this building but I don’t have a picture of that.

There is also a Computer Lab.

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There are two gyms also in the this building.  The cardio side…..

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…..and then there is the weight side.  There is machines in the this room that you can’t see in this picture.

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There are men’s and women’s bathrooms that are large and outfitted with showers, lockers and a couple of other things that I’m just loving!

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There is a sauna for our use.

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….and a steam room.

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The next building is the craft building.  There’s a pottery room, a lapidary room,  a, silversmith room, an art room and a room where decorations are made for different occasions around the park.  I haven’t been in any of the rooms as yet because the residents who run the crafts aren’t here yet so everything is locked up tight.

I did get this “totem pole” picture of pottery things the residents made.

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The last building is the golf pro shop.  Juniper Ridge has its own executive golf course.

That’s it for the buildings, next post, more outside stuff.

Thursday, May 14, 2015

5/14/2015 We Start Work!

(Show Low, AZ)

We weren’t supposed to start work until tomorrow but the high temp is only going to be 53 degrees and its going to be…..wait For it…..WINDY!

So, today we started.  Our job today was to put out the lounge chairs around the pool…..

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…..and to put the tables and chairs that were stacked up out in the patio.

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It took the four of us an hour.

That’s it for the day!

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

5/11-5/13/15 A Look at the Grounds

(Show Low, AZ)

I’d like to start this post with, “The wind had stopped!”, but I can’t.  It is relentless.  We’re being told several more weeks.  We’re not happy campers.  We cannot for the life of us figure out what the attraction is in this area.

I’m going to use this time to show you around a little bit.

I posted this picture once before but I’ll start with it again.  Here is an overview of the main complex.

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This is the first building you come to when you come onto the property.  This is the admin building.  This is where the board members and administrative people spend their time.  This is also the building that guests register in and visitors get passes.

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The main reception room.

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To get into the park one must either put in a code or be admitted by the gate keeper.  The gatekeepers are volunteers from the park but they don’t start until June 1st.

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The first thing we noticed when we arrived was that it was green.

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…..and that was welcomed.

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There are ponds here and there around the park.  They have fountains in the middle but they are not running this day.

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I love this tree with its bench underneath next to yet another pond.

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This is one of the buildings around the complex.

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This is the Back 40.  It’s a garden area with a walking path and garden swings and lots of flowers.

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Next time we’ll go in the buildings and get a more in depth look at more of the grounds.