A day in the Life of... part 1

I’ve become lazy.  It’s not just retirement. It’s these games you can play on the i-phone. I have an addictive nature, and I find myself playing solitaire and word games at every opportunity – first thing after I wake up, between chores (the few that I have), even while I’m watching TV.

Yes, life has definitely slowed down in the last few months.  And those mobile app games are the least of it.  We have done with touring and sight-seeing, for this year at least.

On leaving Santa Fe, and towing our fifth wheel trailer, the Jet, to Elephant Butte Lake, in the south of New Mexico, we began living the snowbird lifestyle.

The RV resort we stayed in for six weeks, the longest we have spent in any RV park,  http://www.elephantbuttelakervresort.com/ , about a mile from the lake, the largest in New Mexico,

had all the amenities we had heard of existed in these sites catering for the long term RVer.  Snowbirds, as they are called, travel south for the winter, and spend several months in pleasantly warm RV resorts that offer a plethora of activities to keep them entertained.

However, we had not anticipated, for the very low monthly rate we paid, that we would be able to enjoy, free of charge, the pool, hot tub, exercise room, and twice weekly aquarobics, yoga, and Tai Chi classes.  There was no pressure to participate, but we also took advantage of the regular social hours in the clubhouse, where beer, wii bowling, Jokers and Pegs tournaments, and banter helped bring new friends together.  

And friends were made, like Bill and Joyce Olsen, full-time RVers like us, who travel with their dog and cat.  

Lunch with the local chapter of the Red Hat Ladies Society  meant an afternoon of hat creating, so Joyce and I could attend, and that led to a further lunch with ladies from the local book club.  

Over the six weeks spent here, many agreeable evenings were spent sharing meals and playing card games with the new friends we made, in between sitting in the afternoon sun, going to Walmart to buy groceries, making the occasional day trip, and taking part in twice weekly karaokes in the nearby town, .  And of course, I managed to fit in plenty of word games on the i-phone.

The newly built event center allowed for more general social meetings, like pot lucks (bring a dish to share), a Hallowe’en dinner, which meant several trips to the local thrift store to source the materials for our costumes.  Strangely enough, some of the locals had a hard time identifying the "Ghandi Family", but we had plenty of fun!

There was also a dinner to commemorate Veterans Day, a casino evening to raise funds for the local community, and the proprietors even arranged for me to talk about my mother’s experiences in WW2 to other RVers and the general public.

It gave us a taste of the facilities provided by the renowned snowbird resorts that litter Arizona, and that we shall, no doubt, visit next winter, and hopefully meet up with Bill and Joyce again.

But not this winter… No, this winter we are headed back to Colorado, to visit Richard’s cousin Mark, and his wife Jill in freezing cold Coaldale.  (You know, the place we stayed during part of June, and July.)  

We are leaving the Jet behind in storage, basking beside the Rio Grande River, in mild November temperature highs of 60 F (ie Scotland summer temperatures) though it can drop to around freezing at night. Friends showed us how to "winterize" the Jet (ie all water drained out of every hose and pipe, and replaced with anti-freeze), just in case.  We aim to be back mid January to head onward to Texas, to re-register (MOT and Tax) Benny and the Jet with the Texas automobile authorities.

Now, I should state that our seven week stay at Mark and Jill’s is not just a visit.  It’s more of a working holiday.  If you read the two blogs I wrote in June, you will know it was a bit of a working holiday the last time we were there.  But this time it is officially work.  Mark and Jill are off to Australia for a month's business trip (and fitting in some catching up with relatives), and Richard and I are going to take over the basic running of their felting business.

That means learning their order processing and invoicing systems, so we can pick, pack, and mail customer orders from an assortment of pre-felt, merino roving, and silk fabrics.

Given that it has been a full year since Richard and I last put in a proper day’s paid labor, that shouldn’t be a problem should it?  After all, I will still be able to play Wordsmith, and won’t I?

To be continued…