Monte Vista RV Park - Mesa, AZ (November 19, 2025 to April 14, 2026)
After spending a year on the half on the road and never spending more than a week or two (often a few days) at a single location, we checked into to our new home for the winter. We were at this active 55+ community for 5 months. We stayed here the previous year for 3 days and loved it. Now we are already starting to feeling like residents. The amount of activities is overwhelming that we can participate in. We both enjoyed it so much that we already signed up to stay at this park next year. The weather was amazing all winter with the low in the mid 60's and many 80-90 degree days.
Jim joined a tennis team and is getting back into the swing of it. Good group of guys from all over the US and Canada. It was great playing competitive tennis again after 18 months off.
He also played on a softball team. He did a lot of base running for guys with slower speed. Fun to play again, but will try competitive Pickle Ball next year instead.
Dana was very active in the pickleball community, playing Mahjong, pottery studio (which she loved ), fused glass classes, painting and water aerobics. We both participated in yoga/stretching classes most mornings. Dana even substitute taught the stretch class for a week when the instructor was on vacation. We were also both doing a lot of running to train for the Mesa Marathon (Dana's first). There were card games and board games that we occasionally participated in during the evening. The community also hosts quite a few cover band concerts throughout our stay. We went to see covers for Garth Brooks, Fleetwood Mac, Johnny Cash/Elvis and an entertaining Dueling Piano father/son team doing a lot of Elton John and Billy Joel.
Dana met some wonderful young women that were our kids ages while running in Tempe, AZ. We became friends and got together a few times a month. They've become the quasi "adopted" daughters we never had. Sabi & Saliha are both immigrants from Afghanistan studying at Arizona State University. While their dad passed away, the mother cannot leave their home country to visit them, and it is too dangerous for them to go home. We enjoyed running and racing with Sabi, sharing Christmas dinner together in our community, having homemade tasty Afghan food at their apartment, and going out to dinner. Dana met Emily running and her mom and dad live back in Arkansas and she's only been in Arizona 7 month. All 3 are terrific young women and we look forward to hanging out with them next winter.
We had a special 60th Birthday surprise weekend for Dana in December. Our son Declan flew in from Sacramento without Dana knowing. He had a late arrival so Dana was already sleeping. She discovered him sleeping on the pull out sofa bed the next morning and was overwhelmed (unfortunately our son Shamus couldn't make it). Jim planned a weekend at the Grand Canyon. We stayed at a nice hotel near the South Rim and had some good birthday restaurant meals. The highlight was taking a helicopter ride over the canyon to see it from the birds eye view. It was a great weekend she will never forget. We finished the weekend back in Phoenix when Dana and Jim raced a half marathon and Declan a 5k race.
We had many visitors during our winter in the Phoenix area. Dana's Aunt and Uncle from Michigan (Chuck and Laura) visited for 5 days. Multiple good meals together and a fun hike in a state park. Always great seeing them as they are some of our favorite people. We also got time with Jim's nephew Brendan and his wife Charlotte. Jim's longtime friend Bill and his wife Jennifer were here and we caught up with them several times. Along with Bill his other two high school friends Pete and John came down for a weekend for a professional golf tournament they attended in Scottsdale - very fun. Our friends Kate and Doyle from California retired and bought a home only 4 miles from our resort. We got together multiple times, including weekly Sunday Art Club where Dana and Kate painted up a storm. We also met multiple new friends at the resort and will be visiting one couple in Seattle and doing an RV trip with them this summer and another new friend we will catch up with in British Columbia.
Jim and Dana trained all winter long for the Mesa Marathon scheduled on Valentines Day (Feb 14). Training was going well and we both felt strong and prepped for a good race. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. While Dana was ready for the 26.2 mile run, she only made in 26.2 feet from the truck that morning. She missed a curb in the dark as we walked to the busses and broke her ankle before getting to the starting line. She insisted Jim run the race without her and against better judgement he did. The whole bus ride up to the starting line was filled with guilt that he should have taken her to the hospital. Luckily she broke her left ankle and was able to drive home on her own. Jim was having a good first half in the race but pulled a hamstring and had to pull out of the race at mile 14. What a rough day.
The week before the race, Jim flew out to California to celebrate his mom's 90th birthday with his brothers and sisters. She was thrilled.
We also went to many events in the greater Phoenix area during our stay including a Thanksgiving turkey trot run, art and flower shows in Tempe, Sagauro Lake for a picnic, and a well known Rodeo in Queen Creek. Pot lucks at the huge community center at the resort for both Thanksgiving (200 attendees) and Christmas (100 attendees) were great. Finally when we were ready to leave on April 1st, we ran into a problem with the RV that delayed our departure by 2 weeks. We had to replace both axles, luckily it was all covered under warranty.
We're off to many new locations and a few repeats throughout the western states and into Canada. More to come.
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