by Gail West

Ask any of the thousands of seasonal guests and residents at Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort in Casa Grande, AZ, who Sue Hepler is and they would know her well from the beautiful blog  Palm Creek Update, that she writes detailing daily life and activities at the resort.  She created and has maintained that blog for over 10 years.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Sue started her career as a Business Education Instructor at Brillion High School in her hometown in Wisconsin.  She later taught evening classes at several technical colleges in Ohio. She worked 13 years as Office Manager for a start-up operation that soon turned into a large manufacturing facility.  Career, computer,  and software skills continued to develop along the way.

She met her husband, Don, when he and his family moved across the street from her family. Don held a number of interesting positions during his working years—from being a pilot, a published author, a truck driver and a 25 year career in foundry management.

While living in Ohio and before they bought their first RV, Don went to the Oshkosh Air Show where they were showing the AirCam, an experimental aircraft built for National Geographic designed to fly low and slow over the jungle while carrying a photographer.  It looked like a canoe with a wing on top with twin engines.  It had to be safe and capable of taking off within 200 feet.  When Don saw it, he bought it on the spot.  When Sue retired, they flew all the way around Lake Michigan at 100 feet or so and just off-shore.  “The only float in the parade,” Sue said, explaining that they had waved at every person on the beach or in the water.

In 2004 they decided to be full-timers and see the country so they bought an RV, sold their house and auctioned off everything they owned.  After five years of travel, they were looking for a place to nest.  That was when they visited Palm Creek RV and Golf Resort in Casa Grande AZ.  They promptly fell in love with the gorgeous place (see Sue’s blog) and bought a park model home where they now live.  When asked if they ever travel during the hot, hot summers, they reply, “We live in Disneyland.  Why would we want to leave?”

Sue met Jim and Chris at Palm Creek when the Gulds were first involved with setting up the park internet.  When the Gulds became the Geeks on Tour, Sue became a member and took classes on their website.  Sue says, “I lived on the website, learning everything  I could from Chris who is such a wonderful teacher. That’s how I learned to write a blog and so many other things.”

Whenever the Geeks travel out west, Sue tries to book them at the resort for a few days so they can  give their training sessions to the residents, as they did just last month.

Sue is the Past-President of the Palm Creek Computer Club and teaches computer skills to the residents.  And if the residents have a computer problem, they know Don can fix it.  They have become the Chris and Jim of Palm Creek.   Sue says that The Geeks were their inspiration.