Apricity West 4

January 19, 2024 - Friday

Line dancing in the morning. Then just practiced on our instruments. Low key day. 

 

January 20, 2024 - Saturday

Went over to Family Dollar parking lot for a delicious Sadie’s Hot Dawg and picked up more Horseradish Cheddar Cheese from Mike. He let me know that the 2 t-shirts I ordered were ready for pick up. I walked down to Joanne’s to deliver hers and we chatted for a while, then she walked me back home. 

There are so many citrus trees on people’s property here. They are kind enough to leave boxes of them on the side of the road for free. I snatched up a few - they are beautiful and delicious. 

January 21, 2024 - Sunday

Got up early and went into Wickenburg to grocery shop before the rain started. Just hanging out after that working on my next book! Rich mentioned that Dee just walked by and I said, “She is good - walking on this rainy chilly day.” Then he said she's probably going to Beginner Line Dancing! I jumped up and said, “I am supposed to be there as a Back Row Assistant Teacher (BRAT)!” So I grabbed my dance shoes and scurried up to the Club House arriving just in time to change shoes and dance! It sure felt good to move, even though I was settled in for a do-nothing day. 

 

January 22, 2024 - Monday

We took Shadow to Lazy Daze RV in Surprise to have the tow package installed. Since they need it for several days, cousin John picked us up and we went to their house for coffee and a Paczki (poinch-key). It is a Polish donut filled with custard that grocery stores tend to sell right before Lent. Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras) is the day before Ash Wednesday and a time to overindulge in foods that are forbidden during Lent. Then he and Eileen drove us back to North Ranch before it started raining again. They were amazed by all of the construction going on in Wickenburg as the state is diligently creating 7 roundabouts to slow traffic down while eliminating traffic lights. Interstate 93 has a Facebook group called “Bloody Alley” where they post the never ending accidents that occur - often head on collisions caused by people passing when they shouldn’t! A deadly exercise...

 

Lu and Dee stopped by for a cocktail and we had a great visit. 

January 23, 2024 - Tuesday

I went to the ukulele group (HUG) even though I won’t be here for another gig. I have a plethora of great songs in my Songbook app. I have shared a few of them with sister Terri to learn for jamming when we get there. She is practicing her piano chords and will be ready for us. 😉. We are also researching ukulele groups in Tucson. I sent an email to their website asking where and when they gathered since we will go to the one closest to Crazy Horse RV Park. Waiting to hear back…  

 

January 24, 2024 - Wednesday 

Line dancing in the morning. Dot and Harvey had a mini-jam at their house today with Joanne and Denny, Rich and I.

 

We played for a couple of hours and then moseyed into the dining room to indulge. We brought shrimp cocktail, Joanne made a delicious lemon meringue pie from the neighborhood lemons, Dot had all kinds of nibblies on a charcuterie board, fried bean and cheese dip, chips, nuts, dried mango - you name it, she had it. Yum! Many stories told around the table. 

Look who’s hiding way up high - Rascal!

January 25, 2024 - Thursday 

Today was my last chair yoga class here at North Ranch. And it is my last jam session here too. BooHoo! Ramon didn’t show which disappointed many. Heather, next door, was there which pleased many. She hooked up to her truck today to leave for her Grand Canyon job tomorrow at 7am. Wishing her safe travels. That will be us next week. 

 

🎶Packing up is hard toooooo do! 🎶

 

Apricity West 4

January 12, 2024 - Friday 

Had fun line dancing. I invited our single lady friends and Roger & Lu to join us at The Wild West Saloon (formerly The Depot) on Sunday for my birthday, so Rich and I went to have some wings/cocktails and make a reservation for 8 folks. The wings are THE BEST that I have ever had - I got parmesan garlic and Rich, the sweet chili. They are messy as all get out, but very meaty and delicious. 

 

I finally got out my BeDazzler that I bought a month ago and got busy. I blinged up two pair of jeans pockets and two dance line t-shirts. The whole time I worked on them, I thought of Melissa M. and Pat C. as they are seasoned BeDazzlers from way back. I am practicing for when we design my denim vest. 

January 13, 2024 - Saturday

Just up the street 4 miles is a General Dollar Store and it so happens that there is a hot dog cart in the parking lot on Saturdays. The vendor is Mike, who we got our line dance t-shirts from last year. He still has the equipment in his workshop and takes orders from his Sadie's Hot Dawg cart. He also made t-shirts for the ukulele group last year, so I ordered more for the newbies, me included.

Mike is also a drummer - he has played at our jam before and will come again. After all of that discussion, we had a hot dog (Costco brand) and bought a block of his horseradish cheese. It was delicious.

 

Finally made it through the cold snap here! The sun was ablaze with no wind - a perfect day for a walk, but we sat out for a while and before you knew it, three of our neighbors (Heather, Lu, and Cindy) stopped to chew the fat which we enjoyed thoroughly. 

Rich grilled steaks for us to celebrate my birthday at home. Such a good guy💕

January 14, 2024 - Sunday

Cindy teaches a Beginner line dance class on Sunday at 2-3pm for wannabes to learn the basic steps/dances. Lu and I have been helping her out. Dee and Glenette have started learning so it’s a fun time.  

 

Heather, our next door neighbor, stopped over to chat. Her hat says Death Wish Coffee Company which is supposed to be the strongest coffee in this country. She started drinking it when she was a trucker to keep herself alert. Rich ordered some to check it out, even though he recently switched from coffee to Asian tea. 😳 We’ll see what happens next... 

After that, we had a wonderful birthday celebration at the Wild West Saloon with a great group of people. I had bragged so much about the wings - they were out of them. So pizza was the primary order.

January 15, 2024 - Monday Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Did the usual line dance class today - Dick and Jackie had their daughter and 14-year-old granddaughter here visiting, so they came to dance.The granddaughter takes dance classes so she was hopping all over the place. So cute. Makes me miss mine more...

 

Got a haircut at Hacienda Hair Salon in Wickenburg and Rich came in to wait for me. Lo and behold, in comes Lois from North Ranch and they start chatting about the good old days when Rich managed the park. The customer ahead of me was sitting there processing and she spoke up to say she too is in a North Ranch home. Then Marilyn from North Ranch came in, who is a long time North Rancher - small world for sure.  

 

When we got home, it was nice enough to sit outside and Regina stopped over to sit and chat.  

Cindy, at the end of her bike ride, stopped and Liz, who was out walking Captain, stopped by. Then Heather (and Bella) and Liz (and Captain) went off to the dog park. 

Watched my granddaughter Leanna’s game on streaming TV. It makes me so happy that they broadcast the home games. They won and she had a good game!

January 16, 2024 - Tuesday

Since Rich has been practicing his new ukulele, I convinced him to come to the HUG ukulele group practice today. I was amazed at how well he did just knowing a little more than a handful of chords. Couldn’t wait to go practice with Dot and Harvey this afternoon and show him off! It turns out, his instrument of choice was the harmonica which he played really well. Dot was teaching him how to bend notes. See the video in the body of this email. 

 

January 17, 2024 - Wednesday

Line dancing and lunch at the Elks today. It's getting real - we are leaving this wonderful park for Tucson in 2 weeks. Thankfully, we are looking forward to a great time there with sister Terri and Jim.

 

January 18, 2024 - Thursday

 Did yoga today followed by laundry. The afternoon jam was really good today. Guess who played the harmonica even though Dot (his partner in crime) wasn’t there? Ramon started practicing a half hour early and kept yelling out to Rich the key he was in so he could play along. They played 4 songs together before the jam started, so he yelled out again every turn he had. It was a proud moment to see him joining in. He has blossomed so much in just one week.

 

A few neighbors stopped by after the jam for a cocktail. Couldn’t get Cindy in the picture.

I have been working on an afghan for a while now - this is the status now. 

We had to accessorize Shadow’s stick shift…

 

Apricity West 4

January 5, 2024 - Friday

Dance class is full and growing. Picture of a few of us who wore our sparkle t-shirts...

Many snowbirds are coming into the park this time of year with their toys in tow. LOUD ATV’s, and some motorcycles, invade us. Back in Wickenburg, the cowboys and cowgirls are streaming in with their horse trailers. In other words, traffic and things are getting very busy here. We’ll be moseying on to Tucson on February1st, just 3 hours down the road. We surely will miss all of the people and events here - no other park that we have been to has as many activities. 

 

January 6, 2024 - Saturday

Remember the day we went to John and Eileen’s on the wrong day? Well, today was the right day! We visited for a few hours and then started preparing the meal - pork tenderloin, mashed sweet (but white) potatoes, sautéed green beans, salad and rolls. The perfect ending was a Brookie - stacked brownie and chocolate chip cookie dough from Trader Joes. 

 

Air Balloons graced the sky as we headed home.

January 7, 2024 - Sunday

I rose very early today so we went into Safeway to drop a little $$ - home before 8am, played a little uke, crocheted a little bit, made a little rizi verzi (rice and savoy cabbage soup) - all before noon. 

 

Good thing we went early - the very large snow flakes floated to the ground to melt upon our return. 

This is a shot from our friends property 15 miles out in the desert.

Weaver Mountains capped in white.

January 8, 2024 - Monday

Today was the big gig at the Wickenburg Senior Center. It went very well except for needed cleaning up of intros and outs. Listen to the video in the body of the email. They served a delicious lunch too - Italian chicken, cauliflower, baked beans, salad bar, fruit cup, and a piece of cake! 

At about 7:30pm, the TV shut off and lights went out and came back on, but dimmer lights. The green lights were on at the hook up outside. This is a major concern when you have turned off your propane and are using electric for heat, cooking, fridge, water pump, etc. Rich was in a deep sleep, but I woke him up anyway, thinking it might be a circuit breaker. He got up in the freezing cold (50 inside, 30 outside) and looked over everything inside twice and couldn’t find a cause of this phenomena. So we snuggled up and went to sleep confident that there was no threat of fire, but worrying about what was wrong with our tiny home.

 

January 9, 2024 - Tuesday

At about 4am, we lost all power. I started checking Facebook and realized that we had gone through a brownout which then became a blackout affecting Congress and neighboring towns north of us. This was good news to us, since it wasn’t our rig that had a problem. We had left the freezer and fridge doors shut tight. Now the water, which we left dripping during the night, stopped running. We worried that it had frozen. The power came back on at about 11:30am and, thankfully, the water ran too. There is a pump which fills the community tank so with the power out, it couldn’t supply water to anyone in the park. Phew!

 

Our neighbor, Heather, came out with Bella and I told her I really wanted to check in with her without knocking on her door, but didn’t have any contact info on her. Later in the day, she invited us to follow her Facebook page, “Ramblin’ Rennae.” She is sharing her solo journey on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in an attempt to become “Influencer” status which can monetize her posts. Who knew that this quiet, reserved young lady was posting her travels on several medias? Just search Ramblin’ Rennae on Facebook for your viewing pleasure.

 

Went for a music practice at Dot and Harvey’s - the harmonicas came out for a few songs and so did Rascal, their Siamese cat, who doesn’t appreciate them at all. Harvey and I worked on a few new songs to change things up a little. Time will tell how successful we are...

 

January 10, 2024 - Wednesday

After my line dancing, we went into the Elks for another delicious lunch. We invited Cindy and Dee for margaritas at 4pm and visited for a couple of hours. 

 

January 11, 2024 - Thursday

This was my first time to yoga in a while. I joined the HUG  (Hassayampa Ukulele Group) group which usually only meets on Tuesday mornings, but threw in a few extra rehearsals on Thursday mornings to prepare for the gig. Yoga is Tuesday and Thursday, so I missed a few weeks.  

 

Well - today’s jam was outstanding in that we had a new talent show up - Ramon on keyboard. He is a gifted musician and singer - the place was rocking with his riffs and the regulars were challenged to keep up. Denny on Dobro stepped up. Listen to the video clip in the body of this email. Rich even played a little harmonica. Harvey did a terrific rendition of Midnight Special too - the place was rocking. 

I forgot to mention that Rich got a standard ukulele last week. Well, since then he saw a unique Enya carbon graphite that is seamless - no glued sections at all! He ordered one and it arrived today. It’s a beauty and he had better get more disciplined about practicing than he is with his guitar, uBass, and harmonicas! Just saying’.

Another beautiful end of day 💕

Apricity West 4

December 29, 2023 - Friday

Cindy had made us Cinnamon Sweet Rolls in her compact Cuisinart toaster-oven/grill/air fryer which I checked out at her RV. I took a picture to show Rich and we decided to order one. We don’t use propane for anything so an electric fry pan, microwave and the charcoal grill have been the tools used to cook. 

 

Tonight was the Light Parade which was postponed from last week due to rain. It was a mild night and started right at 6 when first shades of night appear. John and Geri have been coordinating this event for 7 years now. They lead the way around North Ranch, including every street, for a good hour and then go to the Activity Center for hot cocoa, etc. I love the names of the streets here at North Ranch. 

 

North to South:

Burnt Sage Road

Fort Apache Drive

Sun Rider Way

Running Horse Road

Meandering Lane 

Wandering Way

Vagabond Trail 

 

East to West:

Obsidian Drive

Escapee Way

Trading Post Trail

Shalako Lane

Iron Eagle Drive

Wind Spirit Lane

Granite Ridge Road

Outlaw Drive

Westward View Road

 

It is next to impossible to get a good blur-free picture at night, but these are the lucky ones out of 20 vehicles that I will share. 

December 30, 2023 - Saturday

Happy 12th birthday to my grandson, Zachary❣️

This week we opted to have dinner at the Elks tonight (Prime Rib) instead of last night’s steak night. It was the Elk’s New Year’s Eve celebration, so I put on the sparkling top that I bought at Dee’s Yard Sale last month and my cowgirl boots with a tassel. I didn’t wear them last year because my bad hip made it impossible to get them on and off. It felt good to wear them.

December 31, 2023 - Sunday  (123123)

We walked in the early afternoon, followed by a Bloody Mary for me and a Bloody Maria (tequila) for Lu, then laundry and worked on the jigsaw puzzle. One of the cool things about RV parks is they usually have a swap table where folks leave off items they don’t need anymore and pick up items they need/want. I struck it rich today! There were 4 small crock pots in perfect condition sitting there. We have two large bowls, but nothing for small portions. Now we do. 

January 1, 2024 - Monday HAPPY NEW YEAR

Went for my first hike in the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) behind North Ranch. There is a gate in a back parking lot which opens up desert trails that have been forged over the years by residents here. 

There were 22 of us that gathered for a hike to Inspiration Point - .3 miles to the Four Corners, then .9 miles to the point. Couldn’t get everyone in the selfie! 

It was a fairly level walk with dirt roads which varied in the surface texture from hard and solid, to loose beach sand, to small rock deposits. It is evident that ATV’s also make use of these paths, much to the disdain of the hikers, who sometimes set up barriers of twigs soon to be pushed aside.  

We invited Cindy and Dee over so we could experiment with the new oven and crock pots. Rich marinated the shrimp in ginger, garlic, teriyaki sauce, and oil. He wrapped the salmon in foil and sliced lemons to top it off, while doing sticky rice in the rice cooker. It is like a jigsaw puzzle to plan for which outlets to use and when.Ha! I actually participated in the preparation by making Asian green beans in the air  fryer and individual grapenut pudding crocks for dessert. 

January 2, 2024 - Tuesday

Practiced with the Hassayampa Ukulele Group this morning. I really enjoy playing with them to get the strumming down, but not sure yet about a gig next Monday. When I left the building, I was looking for Gracie (VW) when Rich had to yell out to me. That was embarrassing. My brain hasn’t made the full transition yet.

 

Had lunch at the Elks and my first bowl of Pozole - a Mexican soup made with meat, hominy, and corn in this case. It was spicy and delicious.

 

January 3, 2024 - Wednesday

Finally got to dance again after four days off. I would love to teach a beginners group back home so I can keep dancing after I leave here. I will have to practice my instructor skills on sister Terri in Tucson since she is now retired! 🤪

Rich ordered a set of chopsticks for us and the packaging is just gorgeous. My friend, Drew, taught me how to use them back in the day when we did lunch at Chinese restaurants while traveling from store to store for our jobs.  

Morals of Chopsticks as Gifts: from product details

To couples: Live a wonderful life and have a lovely baby.

To friends: Share happiness and woe.

To spouse: Love forever and never be separated.

To children: Grow up healthily and happily.

To the elderly: Wish happy forever and in longevity.

To lover: Be together and sweet as honey.

 

January 4, 2024 - Thursday

Went to Roxie’s studio again for our final practice before the gig for the Sr. Center. I decided today that I will join the performance - it’s a great group. I never heard of a banjolele before, but that is an instrument being played in two of our songs. It sounds like a hybrid of banjo and ukulele which is played the same as the uke. Interesting...

Roxie (right) and Cindy (left) provided the nourishments of liquor and banana bread after practice. 

I tried the Screwball which tastes like peanut butter with my banana bread - it was yummy. 

There are numerous instruments in this studio and I noticed a pile of tambourines, including foot tambourines. It turns out that Dottie, my friend who passed away last summer, donated them to Roxie. 💔

After a brief rest, I played in the jam session back at the ranch. My voice was getting tired so it was hard to sing lower range songs - always looking for a higher harmony to get out of the basement.

 

With only 3 more weeks here, we are starting to wind down and are now approaching doing things for the last time here…. BooHoo! 🥹