Shuffleboard, Solar Panels, and a Small Miracle

Hello, it’s been awhile since my last adventure update. I think we had just left the Imperial Dam BLM area north of Yuma and headed here to The Voyager Resort in Tucson.

We have made a change to our lifestyle while here. After being at Imperial Dam we decided that’s where we want to spend most of our time starting in September. One of our friends and neighbors there has a great setup. They have two campers on their spot. They use one for guests and the other for themselves.

We have been very content to just live in our Class B van, but if we are going to be spending 5+ months in the middle of the desert we need a bigger space that has larger tanks for more fresh water and sewage. There is an area five miles from the BLM area that has a small post office and a fenced area where you can store RVs and trailers during the hot summer months.

So we purchased a used camper with a real queen-size bed. The van bed is an RV double, very small. It also has reclining chairs, a dinette, a bigger fridge and freezer. The van has a dorm room fridge. It has a gas stove and oven, and the van has none. We use a hot plate and toaster/air fryer oven in the van. The bathroom has a walk-in shower. The van has a toilet and shower combo.

We brought it to our site here in Tucson. The first two weeks, we had guests who stayed in the “guest house,” and we stayed in the van. It worked out great.

Phil and Cheryl Spahr were here for three days. Cheryl made me a beautiful Irish quilt. It fits perfectly on our guest house bed. Doug and Kim Cameron were here for a week. We went sightseeing, and they took us to a wonderful steakhouse for my 70th birthday. It was so fun having my friends here to celebrate with.

Now that our guests are gone, we have moved into the “guest house.” It’s great to have some space and a real TV. We have been using an iPad to stream things for two years. Tim has spent a couple of weeks installing three large solar panels and connecting them to the existing wiring, so when we are in the desert with no electricity for months, we have solar power.

We both have gotten back into swimming a mile every morning, playing shuffleboard as much as possible, and bocce ball sometimes, which is not my favorite. Tuesdays and Thursdays there is team play at shuffleboard. Tuesday nights are for bingo, just me because Tim doesn’t like it. Wednesday nights we have season concert series tickets where bands come and play in the ballroom.

There are some fantastic musicians that the activities director has found. One guy does Johnny Cash better than Johnny Cash. Bluegrass, Whitney Houston, Glen Campbell, the list goes on. So far they have all been excellent, except for when we gave our tickets to our guests Kim and Doug Cameron. Unfortunately that particular tribute band was bad. They only stayed for the first hour.

Every Thursday at 4 we have neighborhood cocktail hour and sit in the shade and enjoy our friends. We have a few folks that like to play games, so we spend some afternoons playing cards.

We went to Tempe for lunch with Erin and Brian, who were there for a short weekend music festival.

Erin and Sharon

We went to our first rodeo. What fun. We will do that again next year.

We have met and had dinner with our Tucson cousins, Mike and Gail Urbanski, on four occasions, once at their home and three times at very popular authentic Mexican restaurants. Oh my, they were all awesome.

We are hosting a Rooney cousin reunion here March 13 to 16. I started out thinking what a great place this would be to have Tim’s siblings come for a long siblings weekend. Then I thought we would include the cousins and Aunt Peg who live in Arizona. Then I thought let’s invite all the first cousins. Dang, there are 45 of us going to be together this weekend. I am amazed and thankful so many are taking time to come. It will be an awesome event. Pictures to follow next time.

One day I forgot to take my rings off when I was doing my laps. I have lost so much weight they don’t fit tight and I was afraid I would lose them. I was thinking I handed them to someone to put in my backpack but honestly could not remember. I assumed if I didn’t, I must have gotten out of the pool and done it myself, because no one remembered doing it for me.

Anyway there is a hole in the bottom of the backpack where a water pouch hose goes through. Long story short, my wedding ring and another diamond ring got lost. I figured they fell out through the hole. I was a total wreck and literally sick over the loss.

I searched everywhere, even places in the RV and van I had not been in. I sulked for three days, then posted the loss on the resort Facebook page and at the lost and found. I went to the lost and found every day for two weeks to see if they had been turned in.

No luck, so I thought I better make an insurance claim. My agent was out of town so he said he would get the information from me when he returned the next week.

The next day I got a text during team shuffleboard from the office saying they found a ring. They weren’t sure if it was mine though. I haven’t moved that fast in a long time but dashed to the office and to my great relief and excitement my wedding ring was turned in.

Honestly after two weeks I never thought that would happen. I am so thankful to the people that found it. They said they found it at the sauna. I never use the sauna and couldn’t think how it got there, but I was so relieved.

It has been exactly two weeks today since it was found, and today my other ring was found. Guess who found it? Tim.

He was looking in his backpack for a new razor and had to empty everything out, and there in the bottom of his pack was the other ring. I had given it to someone after all and he sets his pack at the sauna area while he swims. Neither of us remember that I gave them to him, but hallelujah. So thankful. I am going to get them both resized.

On a very sad note, my dear, dear friend and partner in many over-the-top adventures and misadventures, Leoda, passed away Saturday. Janet Leoda Holden Baumgardner.

I flew to Augusta on Wednesday and she had just been put on a ventilator. At one point when she seemed to be waking up a bit, her daughter Jessica came running out to tell me to get to her room.

When I entered, she looked at me and her eyes went wide and her eyebrows were moving. She saw me. She knew I was there. I am so thankful for that.

Sometimes when I was telling stories of our escapades her brows would furrow and I think she was hearing me. I am going to believe she was reliving the fun with me.

She, Jill, and Debbie are like real sisters to me. She will be missed by so many. I’m pretty sure she is dancing with her son Josh and Big Mama in Heaven.

RIP.