Plays-Letterboxing-3 day Koman walk; Nov 2011

Legally Blonde at Broadway Palm Theater

To start the month Molly and VikkiJo, the office manager went to see Legally Blonde at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater on Molly's birthday.  They had a ball.  We have season tickets in the front row and VikkiJo had never been to the theater before.  I gave up my ticket to go to a season inaugural dinner for the World Span Tour guides, agents, and vendors.  I was considering becoming a tour quide for some of their trips, but they want someone almost full time and that's too much like a job!  It was great to see all the trips planned already for this season and pick up their brochures.

Blue Man Group

Then two days later, we got tickets to see The Blue Man Group who were coming to town and performing at the Gammage Theater at ASU.  We didn't get great tickets since it was a last minute thing, but most of it was pretty good.  We had seen them perform years ago in Las Vegas and thought it was about time to see them again.  They had much more electronic gimmickry in this show that took away from their normal humor and comical expressions.  You had to read some of the electronic material on three different screens and it was difficult reading that much, from so far away to be enjoyed.

Arizona Wing Museum, Falcon Field

Early this month I planted several more Letterboxes.  I called one series the "Lower Salt River Series" that I put in each of the recreation areas below Saguaro Lake.  The stamps I carved were all of camping related icons such as a tent, picnic table, camp fire, rafting, and RV/trailer camping.  The other letterbox was placed at the Arizona Wing Commemorative Air Force Museum over at Falcon Field next door.  I carved a stamp depicting the B-17 bomber that regularly flys out of the airport.  Needless to say, it took me awhile to carve, box, distribute, and document clues for the location of the Letterboxes.  I hope people enjoy them.

Mogollon Rim Letterboxing in Snow

Molly signed up for a quilting class just before the Payson Quilt Show with her friend and instructor from Salem, Karla Alexander.  Karla is also the instructor Molly went to Italy with last year.  Karla was really glad to see Molly in her class and let her work on whatever she wanted.  The class was on Karla's curve design templates and Molly learned a lot.  While she was in class, I had plotted out 9 Letterboxes to try to find from 20 miles east of Payson to Strawberry, 20 miles northwest of Payson.  I found all but one on top of Mogollon Rim in six inches of snow.  I'll try that one again in the spring!  The next day we both went to the quilt show and mostly just browsed, just getting a few items Molly needed.

Then it was off to San Diego to cheer Carrie and Mark in their 3-day, 60 mile Susan B. Koman walk for breast cancer.  But first we stopped in Yuma to visit Jim and Linda Newton, who I used to work with at ODFW.  They invited mutual friends over for a great ham dinner.  Of course we had to explain all about Letterboxing and even went out and found a few in their neighborhood.


Save Second Base Team

We left early the next day to get to San Diego and find a few more Letterboxes before Carrie and Mark hit the finish line.  The weather this year was much better than last year with only a small sprinkle on the second day.  Mark's family had great support for the "Save Second Base" team with lunch and dinner planned each day.  After the last leg, they opted out of the closing ceremonies, went back to their campground for a short bite and all then retired for the evening.  It was a long grueling walk and the last evening was starting to get a bit chilly with rain forecast, so the party ended early.  We headed home early the next day to get back to Apache Wells for our neighborhood's block party.  What a way to end a 5 day get-away.



Thanksgiving Dinner with friends

Letterboxing Lower Salt River

Friends Pat and Susan, and Nancy and Herman came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  Pat and Susan Caniff were on their way through to Texas to visit family in their RV and planned a 5-day stop here to see family, Letterbox, and have a great dinner.  Nancy and Herman Ford came up from Green Valley for 4 days.  We brought our RV over from storage so they could stay in it right next to us.  We had a great time Letterboxing finding all of my plants at the Air Museum, Lower Salt River, Saguaro Lake, and out in Apache Junction.  The Thanksgiving dinner was great with everybody contributing some dishes and we ate on those leftovers for several days.  It was a real nice visit, except for a concern for Herman.  He had developed some unusual feelings in his chest and throat, so we took him to the emergency room, but was tested out ok.  He will be checking in with his doctor in Green Valley for further tests.  It gave us all a scare.

Molly and I finished off the month of November with another Wine and Cheese party here at the park in the afternoon, and then a dinner buffet and play at the Broadway Palm Theater that evening.  We saw a musical rendition of A Christmas Carol.  As usual we shared our front row table with some real nice people.

Back to Mesa; October 2011



JoAnn busy quilting

Molly headed back to Oregon for a week long Quilting Retreat up in the Cascades with sister JoAnn.  While she was there, I was here in Mesa cleaning and getting things in shape in temperatures in the high 90's.  They were getting rained on.  But they were having a good time and she has already signed up for next year.

My job list included 19 items that I had to get done while she was gone including washing the Park Model, cleaning the car-port and back patio as well as many other items that I completed.

Letterbox hike to Weaver's Needle

Also while she was gone, I couldn't help but go out and get a few Letterboxes.  She didn't want to do any of the longer hikes so that's the ones I got.  My first one was a 4.5 mile hike in the Superstition Mountains up to a viewpoint for Weaver's Needle.  It was quite a hike, especially in the heat.

I completed some of the rubber stamp carvings for some Letterboxes we wanted to plant up at Saguaro Lake.  I planted four while Molly was gone that we called the Saguaro Lake Series.  They included the Marina, del Norte, Butcher Jones, and Saguaro Lake Trails.  Actually the same day I published the clues at , someone hurried up there and found two of the easy drive-bys.

Once Molly got back we both did some Letterboxing to some of the easier ones around here.  There aren't nearly as many here in Arizona as there are in the Northwest, and many of them haven't been found for some time.  The Weaver's Needle box hadn't been found for a year and a half.  We also planted another box named "Red Mountain".

While browsing through the paper one morning, Molly was surprised that Jimmy Buffett was coming to town that week.  We hadn't seen Jimmy since we retired, so we got on-line and bought tickets.  The concert of course was great, but there were sure a lot of crazy people there.  He sang most of his old standards, with only one or two that we hadn't heard.  And of course he sang Jolly Mon Sings just for us!!! (we named our sailboat after the dolphin in that song named "Albion", and our trail name for Letterboxing is "Jolly Mon").  It was a fun night, but a late one for us.

Raggedy Ann & Andy?

Apache Wells Pumpkin

The park is busy already providing parties for us residents.  Late this month we had a wine and cheeze tasting party with live entertainment.  It was good to see a lot of friends that have already returned and we got to compare summer notes.  Then, of course, we had our Halloween Party.  Molly had asked Jeanette for her Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes.  They were fine.....except Jeanette and Terry are not quite as fully bodies as we are!  So we went to Goodwill and Sunshine Acres for a few items to make the costumes complete.  We had a fun time.  And I couldn't go to the party without "something" so I spend a good part of the day carving an appropriate pumpkin for Apache Wells.

We had signed up for a maintenance club last year for free routine electrical, plumbing, and air conditioning inspection.  It was about to expire, so we called and had the air conditioning people come out to check the system.  They found out it was a 30 year old system, but most everything was checking out ok, until they got inside.  A wire to the motor was nearly bare, and to replace it would require a special order for an entire motor, $$$.  Then the filter/condensor (looks like a radator) was completely clogged and needed cleaning, $$$.  When they removed it, they found it was sitting in water (it wasn't draining) and was all rusted....another special order, $$$.  They also recommended that the ducts be cleaned if we were going to get a new filter, $$$.  So by this time, the supervisor showed up.  We started talking about a new unit rather than putting a lot of money into a 30 year old unit.  SO.....now we have a new air conditioning unit, duct cleaning included, that will last another 30 years, $$$$.  That's longer than the Park Model will last and certainly longer than WE WILL LAST!  We now have a programable thermostat, but the unit is about three times bigger than the old one, and therefore, lost some patio space out back.