Thread: Car friendly retirement area (warm)

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Originally Posted by techinspector1

Don, I'm pleased that you liked NC, but I was born and raised there and I can tell you, there are several reasons I am "FROM" NC, a long ways FROM.
Constant high humidity. Take a shower and dress. Walk outside and 20 minutes later, you look like you've been wet down with a hose from all the perspiration.
Cannot plan anything outside more than a day or two ahead. Rain.
Freezing rain in the winter. Oh, what a joy that is!
Mosquitos, mosquitos and more mosquitos. Sweat bees, sweat bees and more sweat bees. You have to be a one-handed gardener, because the other hand has to be used as a fan in front of your face to keep the bugs away.
"The South's gonna rise again" attitude of some of the "good ole boys". Ahhhhhh, JeeZ, give me a break. Tired of hearing it.
Blacks with attitude. Yep, many of them have come past the "equal" line and are on the "we're better than you" side of the line. They can get up in your face in a hurry. Had my fill of that crap too.

You can have all of NC that you want. If I never go back there, it'll be too soon.

thats a big +1 all of it, hit the nail on the head.... BTW i am from Colorado, which is nice too.

You could move to So Cal but you'd better have a great retirement package.
Expensive as hell! I can't even afford to be here!
But- we have car stuff every week, 12 months a year. Very little rain & no snow (an occasional dusting doesn't count).

Originally Posted by eticket

Now if I could retire somewhere else I would look at the Lake Haveseu area, or Phoenix, as they are in AZ, and within 5 hours of most of the central/southern car shows in CA. You could hit everything from the grand national roadster show, to the Monterey historics, Bakersfield nostalgic drags, and even the Fresno autorama. You are retired, soooo make a 4 day weekend at going to some of these shows. Being in AZ you won't have to deal with CAs taxes, or laws, and still be close enough to enjoy their car events.

Mike

Just remember...it's not warm here in Phoenix, it's crazy hot.

Prescott AZ, been here 10 years, very car friendly area, lot's to do, close to everything--- Vegas 3 hrs, Palm springs 3 1/2 hrs
Phoenix 1 1/2 hrs
L.A. 5 hrs
San Diego 6 hrs
Has a true 4 seasons.
!st place I've lived that I don't need A/C
Of course I live 5 miles up the hill(6500ft) from downtown (5200ft)

You currently live in Fla., so this might not be a big factor for you, but my experience in much of the eastern south is that humidity in summer months is brutal. I love the south/east in fall, winter and spring, but I could not handle the summer humidity.
The only south/western state I have traveled to is Arizona where I have family and I agree that, in winter it is beautiful. During the summer, however, the temperatures in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area (even though dry) are much to hot for my comfort. I found that traveling to the higher elevations made life much more pleasant for me. I actually loved the area around Sonoma which is not as high as Prescott so it doesn't get the snow, but is much more temperate than the Scottsdale area. I'm sure there are other locations in Arizona and New Mexico that could, at varying elevations, provide you with the micro-climate you could find agreeable.
As a Canadian resident, I realize that my personal preferences might be quite different than yours since I am accustomed to a different climate than you. My advise to you is to take some time to travel to each of the mentioned locations during the different seasons before you make concrete plans.

Rod, lots of great places to move to as everybody here has already mentioned. I just returned from a few months in So. Arizona and boy its a hard place to beat for sure. It was my first extended trip there and I'm already planning for our trip there next year. Ya just can't beat the weather or the critters HOTRODPAINT mentioned,,,,, and aside from the 7.2 earth quake we had April 4th in Yuma, it was great.
Larry M

Yes DJV8GA Phoenix is hot, I have lived outside of Phoenix, dad was stationed at Luke, and I graduated from Agua Fria Union HS (that ought to show my age ) even used to cruise Central in a Black with black interior Javelin with no AC but hey I was a teenager then. That is why I was mentioning the Lake havesu area (a little farther north, and a bit cooler), I have also heard of someplace in that area that is developing a car friendly area with a drag strip, and road course on the same piece of developed property.

Mike

Originally Posted by Evolvo

lamin8r,
Want to trade for a house in Seattle. The wife fell in love with NZ when we went on holiday there, me too! I think I've said this before, Seattle is about the same latitude North as Invercargil is South. Probably a little cooler than where you are, but we could make it work. (I could!!)
Alan

I wish...Its probably easier for you to emigrate to NZ,than for us to get into the US..Some years back,I got to know a guy in the Auckland region,who was married to an American woman,so,they spent several years down here,and several years in Northern California,they are still shifting,back and forth,to the best of my knowledge... In saying that,I would still like to think that we can get up there again,on a holiday,at the very least,but would have to sit down and really look hard,at whether or not we could shift up there..But if you folks want to come down here,feel free,,[live,or holiday,would be good to meet ya]Yeah,I gotta be honest,if there was a way to get up there to live,so long as my wife was agreeable,I would look at the possibilities..
Ohh,yeah,sorry for the little hijack of the thread..
Robin.

I have also lived in lake Havasu Az, did it for two years. Now this was about 15 years ago, and it was still developing. London bridge was already there. amazing. For me I enjoyed it because of the lake. at the time, and it may have changed , and no dought in my mind was fun! A tourist town for sure.The weather was beautiful, hot for sure, but a diffrent kind of hot.

One thing you can take a look at is this website : www.cruisinarizona.com you will notice that from June thru October almost nothing happens in Phoenix just the local evening cruises which are pretty light in attendance that time of year,they are predicting we hit 100 today and 110 a week from now.Todays traffic news showed the holiday exodus to the high country where folks go to cool off.

For what it is worth - - - - they are putting in an F1 track in Austin !
http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/25/b...texas-in-2012/

Just to show the folks in Austin that us Arizona folks have our hearts in the right place we have plenty of undocumented workers available to construct your new track and would be more than glad to send them your way!