Week 2 Lessons for a Snowbird

I've figured out the layout of our RV resort and can now get myself successfully to my activities: the indoor pool, line dancing lessons, two-step lessons, handbells, three discussion groups, and classes for Mac users.  And to the restaurant which serves good breakfasts and lunches. I use the mailboxes by the resort post office to orient myself before heading to our place - with 1,576 RV sites, and park models that look remarkably similar, it's easy to get lost.

Here are my current observations:

1. Living here is convenient. We can walk to everything we need within the park. Stores and shopping malls and the usual offerings of a city are within easy driving distance. The airport is ten minutes away. We don't have a yard to maintain.

2. All the activities are geared to the 55+ demographic. This is different from activities geared to the Medicare and Social Security group. There's plenty to do here to stimulate my mind and my body. I'll be 65 this year, and for the past couple of years at home I've been exercising at the local community center with my husband Art, who will be 70 this year. In those classes I'm always the youngest person. In other areas of my life, like mediation at the dispute resolution center, I'm on the upper end of the age spread. Here I am right in the middle, and I like it.

3. Everyone is friendly here, but so far I haven't had more than a cursory conversation with anyone besides Art, our landlords, and our friends Ann and Larry who showed us around the place last year. I'm finding myself wanting to make a few friends for lively conversation (other than politics, probably). We find easy, interesting conversation with the people we stay with while traveling (I've talked about the Evergreen Club and the Affordable Travel Club in other posts), but so far that hasn't happened here. I probably ought to give it a little more time before drawing any conclusions. Maybe it isn't warm enough, so everyone is staying inside.

4. If I were going to be staying longer than the two months, I'd want to find opportunities to volunteer, to be of service to the community - either within the park or in the city. I love having lots of things to do to keep myself entertained, but I need to be useful. I have found a food bank opportunity for my husband Art, who likes doing that, but nothing for myself yet.

5. I love, love, love the sun. The weather has been unusually cold for the last few days (glad I brought fleece), but it's been sunny every single day. 

6. Our rental is in the no-pet section of the park so I have seen no animals here. Today we're walking over to the pet section to pick up a book for a class. I'm looking forward to seeing some dogs. The cats will probably be sitting in their windows looking out. We took great care in making arrangements for our cat Larisa to be cared for at home - Lisa and Justen are living in our house to do that - and I'm embarrassed to admit I don't think about Larisa very much here. Probably just as well - I know she'd rather be at home with different people than in a strange place with us. Cats are like that, I think.

7. In a week and a half here, I have seen only two nonwhite people - a lovely Hispanic couple we met at the dance last Saturday. I asked my friend Ann why she thinks that is. She said, "Maybe this is what old white people want to do in the winter." I laughed, but I wonder. Is it because most of the snowbirds here are from the northern states and Canada? Is it economic? You either have to have an RV or be able to afford high-season rentals as retirees. I'm thinking about this, and I may explore it further. I'm accustomed to a diverse racial population where I live.

8. It's comfortable to look around and see a lot of people who look like Art and me - in couples, middle class, without kids or grandkids present, in reasonable health, active. It's not a posh place. I don't feel like I have to buy new clothes. The golf course is tucked away out of sight - we haven't even seen it yet.

9. I got promoted yesterday from the "newbie" handbells group to one of the two performing groups. I won't be here for the performance in March, but the director's husband will fill in for me. I am excited to be doing music again after 25 years.

10. A 55+ person who decides to take a water exercise class three days a week, line dancing and two-step lessons, and goes to dances two days in a row in Arizona - after arriving with very little Washington State exercise in the last three weeks - is very likely to strain a leg muscle. Yep, that would be me.