It was in the 1980s that Roger got a motor home and discovered the West. He visited a friend who’d settled in Apache Junction and said, “I liked the wide open spaces. I liked how you could look up and see the whole sky.” Plus, Roger’s wife at the time said she was ready to move from Massachusetts and had two requirements: It doesn’t snow, and low humidity. AJ? Check and check.

So Roger shelled out 18 grand for an acre and a quarter, built a house and took a job running a body shop in Mesa. But when he turned 65 he not only retired, he sold his tools and announced, “That part of my life is over.” Sounds a little like his dad, but without the heart attack. It reflects Roger’s view of life: “Always move forward.”

Speaking of moving forward, it was around that time that he was looking for somewhere new to live and he spotted The Resort. Feeling it was time to take up some new activities, he saw horseshoe pits out front and figured that was something he could readily pick up. And so he stopped in to check it out and he’s been at The Resort ever since.

While those horseshoe pits were sacrificed for the softball diamond, he’s found plenty of other activities. His latest hobby is tennis. He says, “I was walking by the courts one day and I met a fellow who wanted to know if I played tennis. I said, ‘Not for 30 years.’ He asked if I wanted to play. I told him I didn’t have a racquet and he said, ‘I’ll go get you one.’” That’s The Resort.

We’ve been missing Jerry and Sharon Maryniuk, but we heard from them recently and they’ll be joining us soon. Jerry tells us, “We are back in Canada for part of the winter. (I’m involved with my Junior hockey team again.) We will be returning to AZ at the end of March. I’m looking forward to hiking in the desert in April, we have not been there in mid-April and hear it is awesome.”

Jerry was the subject of one our earliest People of the Park profiles. If you missed it, you can read it online. It’s a unique story of a policeman who became a police sketch artist, then, after retiring and moving to The Resort, became the man we dubbed The Official Artist of RV Park Life. He sent us one of his latest cartoons.

We also got a photo of Jerry presenting a $25K check from his club’s fundraising. The young man pictured, Clint Torfason, had extensive injuries suffered while playing hockey, resulting in over $30K in medical bills. Jerry says of that experience, “It helped restore my faith in humanity as many wonderful people came together to make this happen. I, like many others who helped, did not know the Torfasons before this event and can now call them friends.” In the photo you see Clint Torfason, Kristin Oddleifson (Ice Dawgs Treasurer) and Jerry (Event coordinator).