Safford to Tuscon, Arizona – 3 April 2024

We were sad to move on from RoperLake but all was forgotten when we entered the gates to Thousand Trails resort – Voyager. Complete with 3 pools, 2 hot tubs, numerous tennis and pickleball courts and many different hobby rooms and ballrooms, this resort caters primarily to mobile homes for 55+ permanent and semi-permanent residents, but also has good sized areas for RVs.

Derek was keen to visit the nearby Titan 11 Missile base (I had no desire to go 35ft into the bowels of the earth) so he left to do a tour, and I stayed at the RV and after taking Jax for some ball games in the dog park, settled down to work. Later when Derek returned we had a Teams call with our colleagues in K9000 Australia and then enjoyed a nice hot tub.

The following day we took a drive to Greasewood Park which is a neighbourhood park with trails in the desert just near Tumamoc Hill. There were tons of Saguaro cacti and several cacti were in full bloom. It was quite windy and my hat kept on blowing off but otherwise it was nice and warm and very pleasant to work on the trails. Later that day we enjoyed the hot tub again before stocking up on groceries in preparation for our next stop in another State Park.

We were shocked and deeply saddened when we were contacted by friends from South Africa, to say that Mike Rennie had passed from cancer. Derek and Mike had been close friends for many years when Derek and I first started dating and when we finally tied the knot, Mike was right beside us as our best man. Mike was always a lot of fun to be around with his great sense of humour. He did many interesting things in his life and was always trying something new or off on some adventure. I still have vivid memories of a ski trip Derek and I did with him and Karen in Germany, where in spite of never having skied before, the fearless Mike took off down a steep mountain at full speed. Mike and Karen visited us in Canada in our early years of emigration and we were able to enjoy some travels and good laughs together.

Mike’s passing weighed heavily on us, it was really hard to imagine him gone and we both had a sense of sadness that we had not seen him for a while. In particular Derek who had been very close with Mike and also been Mike’s best man for his wedding. We were unable to get hold of Karen but tried to pass messages through those that were in touch with her. The two of them were so close we can just imagine the devastating impact of losing him will have on her and Mike’s family.