Gonna Be Going a New Direction Soon...

...north for the summer, instead of south for the winter. Yes, I'm relocating to Arizona from Minnesota, contingent on selling my townhouse in Lakeville. I've paid earnest money for a house in an "Active Adult" community in Sahuarita, AZ, a small city just south of Tucson. It won't be finished until November-December '08, so that gives me quite awhile to sell the house.

The background of my decision started with my son-in-law accepting a position in Tacoma, WA, so Shar and Jeff are moving there this summer and they're taking my grandkids along with them! I considered relocating with them, but for a number of reasons decided against it after some serious soul searching. However, there was no longer a reason to stay in Lakeville and I was worried about living in a two-level townhouse as my back deteriorated, especially without the family there to help me when it became necessary. So the townhouse would be going up for sale regardless of any other decision I made. What I should do next was the unknown and the source of a lot of stress and sleepless nights. Some of the options I considered were renting in WA for 6 months or a year to see how I liked it, buying down south in AZ or TX and spending the summers driving around, or ???

I decided to still make my trek south this winter, starting in AZ before going east to TX. One of my stops was to visit friends in Sahuarita. I immediately fell in love with the over-55 community my friends lived in. The houses are very small but well designed and attractive, and the small back yards are totally enclosed within a five-foot tall solid stone fence. It keeps the dogs in and the critters out! There is a community center with meeting rooms, exercise rooms with a 70-channel TV on each machine, a library/media room, etc., etc. Outside are a large outside pool and whirlpool, putting green, bocce ball courts, etc., etc. Lots of planned activities and trips. All the people I met were very friendly and enthusiastic about their community. The whole area is a new, planned community with over 100 miles of trails and new shopping areas. One of the big selling points was the presense of two dog parks in the community...one for large dogs and the other for small!

So now I'm in TX waiting for the weather and roads up north to clear up enough to let me safely drive back to MN and start the cleaning/packing/ tossing process.