Stan and Connie Spielbusch's Web Site

StanAndConnie.com

September 2003

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Winter 2003

From December 2003 to April 2004, we stayed in Mesa, Arizona. This was our 3rd year here, and we're still planning on coming back again next year. It feels like a 2nd home by now, and we know more of the neighbors here than we ever did when we lived in a fixed house.

I'm still very busy with work (reservation software for RV parks), so all I did this winter was work every day to get a major new project finished. My only "outings" were to take pictures for Connie in her activities in the resort.

Even though we haven't done anything outside the resort this winter, Connie has kept herself very busy, singing in the Songbirds (a ladies' chorus), and taking part in other activities here. You can never get bored here, unless you really want to just do nothing. The resort brings in entertainment to perform, there are different kinds of weekly dances, like a cabaret dance every Friday night, and many special interest groups.

This year the theme of the annual parade was Mardi Gras. It was a beautiful day for a parade, about 74 degrees. The various groups and clubs in the resort design their own entries, creating floats with golf carts, bikes, or whatever they like. They are very creative.

Here you see the front of the activity center, where people are waiting for the parade to start.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Behind the building, the parade participants are lined up waiting their turn to start.

After their respective national anthems are sung, Uncle Sam and a Canadian mounty march out to represent the primary nationalities of the winter residents here.

Every parade must have a band and some dancing girls!

And of course you have to have some horse-drawn buggies...or sleighs!

Some residents decided to create their own individual entry, or invited their grand-children to join in.

Others joined efforts to create very elaborate floats out of their carts -- this is just one of the 3 pieces making up the dragon float!

Some groups enjoy putting a lot of effort into their costumes, as with this entry of Egyptian high priestess Nefertiti and her court.

The Songbirds entered the parade as the Singing Saints, with St. Peter, St. Nicholas, St. Patrick, and St. Valentine, plus one very talented songbird playing her trumpet as Gabriel. They sang "The Saints Go Marching In" as they marched in the parade. Connie enjoys participating in the parade and has a lot of fun.

Thank you for visiting our travel site. Please visit our other sites too:

Campground Master -- A tracking program for your campground or inn. Easy to use and learn, but modern and powerful. One of the most inexpensive systems, great for small campgrounds. Designed by campground owners and full-time RVers.

MysteryPhotos -- Every week a new photo is shown, which may be a close-up of something, or a section of a common object or sight. Guess what it is and you might win a prize. Lots of fun for the whole family! Free screensaver and wallpaper too.

Awesome Screen Savers -- Cool photographic screen savers of the highest quality, for Windows PC's. Download FREE Lite versions of them all. Some are created with photos from our travels, some are awesome photos from NASA. (Contact me to have a screen saver made with your own photos!)

Cottonwood Software -- My shareware business site, currently featuring File-Ex: a Windows file dialog enhancement tool. Great for people who work with a lot of files.

Free -n- Cool -- Tons of Freebies, Giveaways, and Cool Sites -- all in one! You'll find a large selection of free samples you can get mailed to you, free games, screen savers, internet services, etc., plus hundreds of contests of all types, and a unique "intensely cool sites" list.