We have been waiting since May for this day. The permits and arrangements are in place and at last the builder is preparing the lot for the foundation. I posted about the groundbreaking on the other site, but I wanted to publish this photo that Damsel took of our contractor finishing the trench for the garage foundation. Click on the image to enlarge.
We decided to take the scenic route down to Buckeye, Arizona from Wickenburg to shop at Wal-Mart and Lowes. We’re looking for furnishings for the new house - ranges, ovens, refrigerators, laundry appliances etc. plus we needed to pick up a few supplies for our stay here in Arizona this week.
On the way down Vulture Mine Road, we passed through a very scenic area with saguaro cactus, ocotillo, cholla, creosote and palo verde dominated by rugged and imposing Vulture Peak. I believe there is a hiking trail leading to this interesting volcanic mountain peak.
Image - Vulture Peak - click image to enlarge.
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Our new town features a very Western motif in the downtown area. The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is at the corner of Wickenburg Way and Tegner which is the intersection of U.S. Hwys 60 and 93, right in the heart of the old downtown area. The bronze sculpture in the center is called “Thanks For The Rain” and features a cowboy reverently kneeling next to his horse. Click on the image to enlarge Damsel’s photo.
By the way, if you’re interested in nerdy 3D images, we put an anaglyph image of the sculpture on the family site. You will need red/cyan or red/blue 3D glasses to view it.
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We took a day trip out to Maricopa County’s Lake Pleasant Park. It’s only 35 miles from our new home in Wickenburg, AZ. Click on the image to enlarge.
Although our move to the Grand Canyon State is not imminent, we have been thinking about the logistics to facilitate our relocation. One relocation requirement is that we register our vehicles with the Arizona Department of Transportation.
Out of curiosity, I went on-line to the AZDOT website to check on the availability of the special plate that I currently have on my SUV here in the Golden State. I entered “CAPNBOB” and voila - it seems to be available. Now, all I have to do is choose which of the many plate formats that AZDOT offers. It boils down to these three: Arizona Highways ($25 annual fee plus personalization), Regular (no annual fee plus personalization) and military support/freedom ($25 annual fee plus personalization).
Personalized plates in Arizona are considerably less expensive in Arizona than in California. I guess that goes without saying since everything here is taxed, inflated and overcharged. The special plate fees for the Arizona Highways includes a $17 donation to their outstanding magazine. The military/freedom fee includes a $17 donation to a special fund to benefit veterans in Arizona.
According to AZDOT, the personalization rules are as follows:
Where indicated, plates may be personalized with a letter/number combination of your choice. Requires Special Plate Application. The fee for personalization is $25 initial application fee/ $25 annual renewal, in addition to regular registration fees and any other special plate fee. The maximum number of characters allowed (letters and/or numbers) varies with plate type. All choices must be approved. Available by special order only.
I like all three of my choices. I still have plenty of time to decide, so I’ll defer the final decision until we actually get into our new home.
For several months, we have been talking about ways to relocate to Arizona as soon as possible. Up to this point, it has been all talk. Over the weekend we decided to take some action by heading to Arizona (very soon) to shop for a home there.
I went on line to see currently available homes in the area where we are most likely to settle. I am pleasantly surprised to see how affordable homes are over there. I worked out the numbers and I do believe we can be in a position to shop, make an offer and get into a home this year - maybe this summer.
Our California house is quite large - four bedrooms, three baths, large family room, two stories - space we used to need when we were raising a family. Now, in retirement, it’s just overkill. We figure to get into a single story, two or three bedroom with a two car garage and space to store the RV.
The one in the picture above came from one of the real estate websites. It’s an example of the class of home and Santa Fe styling we both like a lot.
Damsel and I have been talking about a possible winter vacation. We enjoyed the last one we took when we visited the Grand Canyon and other interesting places in Arizona and California. We had the cold weather, but we didn’t seem to mind it. We kept warm and cozy and dressed for the weather.
We would like to go again, but don’t know exactly when and where. Just thinking about all the possibilities has given me terrible wanderlust. So many places would be suitable, but we can’t go everywhere.
Decisions, decisions.
Hopefully, we can see some scenery like in this photo Damsel took last winter while we were on the road from Flagstaff to Grand Canyon. The Canyon had four straight days of snow and drifts up to several feet high. There were icicles on the eaves of all the buildings and wherever they could form on the red rocks and in the trees. It was like living in a Christmas card.
It must have been that Global Warming that makes it cold some places. 
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Can you guess which panel below was imaged by a $500+ Canon Digital Rebel Xsi and which was imaged with a $2.99 Kodak disposable camera?
Near the end of September, the company I worked for threw a retirement luncheon for me. The lady who organized the event brought a bunch of throw-away cameras to be handed out to folks who attended so they could take some candid photos of the party. I grabbed one of them that the boss used to get some shots, so I could get them printed out.
There were about 13 shots left in the camera, so I took it to the Botanic Garden to finish the roll off. I snapped a shot of the Koi pond roughly at the same time that Damsel was shooting it. You can see the result.
The drugstore film possessor offered a Photo CD for a couple of bucks extra, so I went for it since all of our recent media is digital. I got the pix today and they were a disaster. Both the prints and on the CD. It looked like they scanned in the prints after using the grainiest possible print media.
Bottom line: you get what you pay for.
On a whim, we drove to Point Vicente on the south side of the Palos Verdes peninsula in the southwestern corner of Los Angeles County. We wanted to see the coastline and Catalina Island after the brisk winds we had in the area last night. Alas, when we got there, the wind had only kicked up the sea mist and the visibility was not as good as we had hoped. But, there’s always something to see along the coastline.
The sea was a little choppy, with a few whitecaps topping the waves offshore. The air was clear enough that we could see the island in the distance, but not as razor sharp as on some previous post-windstorm days. We watched the surf and the birds in this peaceful, relaxing environment. It’s good to be retired and able to enjoy indulging our whims.
I snapped a bunch of photos of pelicans, seagulls, the Point Vicente Lighthouse and the Interpretive Center. In one fortunate image, I managed to get a California Brown Pelican and the Point Vicente Lighthouse in the same frame with Catalina Island just visible in the background.
Click on the image to see full-sized.
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Sheesh - my last day at the office is tomorrow and I’m already homesick for a place where we’ve never lived. Now that retirement is imminent, I can’t wait to get to the new place. This wave of yearning was brought on when I looked at a photo of a sunset in a place we stayed last April in west-central Arizona. Click image to enlarge. Photo credit: Damsel.
Only a couple more days, and I will be enjoying retirement. Well, maybe not at first, since there are myriad chores and planning ahead until we can relocate to a place where:
I’m sure there are many more items I can add to this list.
We have talked about relocating to Arizona, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico - the options are open. Some areas within those states meet our requirements and others do not. There is much to research.
It is desirable to make the move sooner than later, but there is the matter of getting a fairly large Southern California home full of aged furnishings (and our junk, of course) with some items in mild disrepair, in shape to put on the market. It’s a daunting project, but we can work on it more-or-less full time.
Fortunately, we are in an equity position in our home and most likely will be able to pay off the mortgage plus purchase outright or make a considerable down payment on a home in the new location. It will depend on how extravagant we want to be in choosing a new home. Keep in mind that we are not planning to take many furnishings and no appliances with us. It will be a zero-time baseline on most items like that, so we have to take that into consideration in choosing a home.
Now - I have to figure out how to do all this California work while being a resident of another state. Not an easy prospect . . .
UPDATE: Scott Adams’ timing for this strip was perfect:
