Box Canyon

There was a 4-mile hike planned today among folks in the RV park, about 15 of us. It was a nice hike, very pretty scenery, but I ran my watch and our moving time out and back was an hour and 15 minutes, so I don't think it was 4 miles; probably more like 3, but it was a good recovery walk, since I'd been pushing harder than usual the last couple days. It was fairly easy hiking; level canyon bottom, no hills, but a few rocks to climb over or around, and some soft sand and gravel to trudge through (we were following a dry creek wash.) Steve did not go; he gets a free round of golf once a week for being a "course marshall," and today was his day to be marshall.

I have not messed with the color in this photograph.

Back home the strength training got crowded out as I took Journey for a desert walk, then went grocery shopping, then came home and fixed supper, then made a snack to take to a get-together in the park activity hall, and we went to that. It was the "Welcome Back Fiesta," implying that most of the people here come every year and know each other, which in fact is the case. Many of them have been friends for years. I feel like we're the new kids on the block.

The "exercise room" boasted in the campground description here is not that great. There's weight machine designed for bench press, lat pull-downs, and those things where you lift weight with your lower legs, either sitting or lying on your belly; but you have to put on and take off attachments to do the various activities, and it's kind of flimsy, and one of the butterfly arms is broken off. The park probably got it as a donation or something. There are free weights, the kind with removable discs that you screw onto bars to create the weight you want; a set of very light one-piece dumbbells (I've contributed my pair of 10# weights); a rowing machine; 2 stationary recumbent bikes (one with a non-operating display screen); a fairly decent treadmill; a broken weight scale. There's a pool but it's more a splash pool than a swimming pool. I guess it's OK for the ladies' aquacize sessions but there is no way one could do distance or stroke work in it. I've used small pools but this one just won't work. So I'm in the market for a gym with a pool (or a gym and a pool) where I can get a membership for the winter. Quite possibly the park owners are not into exercise and don't even know the equipment is limited or in disrepair. I think it's the first year with new owners. Maybe I'll bring it up.

However, there are TWO hot tubs, and a dry sauna. I've been craving a hot tub, and the sauna is a bonus. Those perks are going to be very, very nice.