Well, I decided to do some digging. I'm not a fan of discrimination, and this looked to be an interesting case. Didn't take too long to find out the real story. A few years back a group of Florida residents thought they were paying far too much in municipal taxes. As seniors, they don't have kids to put through school, and they've spend their lives paying school tax - one of the biggest local taxes. Municipal taxes are paid directly by RV parks. This inevitably filters down to the residents, but it's not a direct tax on an individual, so it's a tough sell.
So, they started hammering the politicians for a solution to the problem. Long story short, Florida passes a law that RV parks can be exempt from some taxes IF the residents are over the age of 55. Arizona, Texas, and a few other states quickly adopted the law, and 55+ parks started springing up everywhere.
There is a catch though. To avoid discrimination (and to abide by the "Fair Housing Act"), the parks are allowed up to 20% of its residents to be under 55. Winner!!!
Called up the RV park they were staying in, and booked a spot for a week. They were extra happy to offer a spot once I told them I have no kids and no pets with me. Even got a small discount for being "referred" by my aunt & uncle.
The place was HUGE - over 1100 spaces (including the "Park Model" stationary homes) and counting. They had a pool, multiple rec rooms, theatre, banquet halls, etc, etc. Interested residents could never be bored here, as every day was filled with events, classes, or get-togethers. I didn't get too into those things, since I was here to visit the relatives, and also get some biking in.
Within 5 minutes of setting up the RV, the aunt & uncle came knocking. I didn't even have a chance to let them know I was there. Stalkers!!! ;) Turns out they just happen to drop by the registration desk a few minutes after I had been there. Had a quick chat and was invited over to watch the Leafs game later. I had lots to do in the meantime.
Not 10 minutes later, a guy walks by and notices my bike. Introduces himself and we start talking about bikes. Says he has a brochure for off-road areas in Arizona that I had to see. His RV was close by, so he was back in a few minutes. We sat and chatted about bikes for a while, and I find out he's from Michigan, in a town about 30 minutes from my hometown of Sarnia. We chatted for about 20 minutes. Nice guy. And that was the norm at this place. Everyone I met was great, very friendly.
The Leafs lost that night, but had a great catch-up with my aunt & uncle. We'd get together a few more times during my stay in Tucson. Loved every bit of it.
I mentioned the activities at the RV park earlier and that I really didn't get into them. But I did drop
into the weekly yoga class. It was interesting. No instructor, they just used video tapes. It was OK,
but geared towards beginners. Had a chat with a couple from Alberta there. She was interested in more classes. I suggested she take up the ball and start one. Certainly there would be enough people
interested, as the current class had about 25 people.
During the week I got some work done on the truck (got that transfer case seal fixed), did a couple of road rides, motorcycle rides, and of course some mountain biking.
The road biking around the city was nice. Lots of bike lanes and courteous drivers. Didn't have any issues. One of of the rides was up Sentinel Peak (aka "A" Mountain, named for a big A placed near it's peak to represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson). It's a steep climb, but not long one.
Great views of the city from atop Sentinel
The mountain bike rides were.....well....not inspiring. Most of it seemed like just wandering around in the desert. Here's the best pictures I have from those rides. Note that most of them are of cacti. That was the about the biggest positive I could salvage.
Some interesting biking lines. I rode the rock face on the right.
Yes, you have to carefully thread between the cacti
Barrel cactus
Ocotillo
Teddybear Cholla
Saguaro
One other story. An item my "bucket list" is to eat a five pound burrito. I'd been working my way up to one as I travelled. I decided to get closer to my goal one day in Tucson by trying to eat two regular burritos - they weighted about 1.5 pounds each.
Before
After
It wasn't overly difficult, but not sure I could do three, and I needed to do almost 3.5 of them to reach five pounds. Gotta do more training.
The last full day in Tucson was spend looking at....well, I'll save that for another post. Too many pictures for this one.
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