Snowbird Stories: I Come By the Title Genetically

my father, an aunt, and an uncle were all snowbirds

Hiking the Ma-ak-oti Trail in sub-zero windchill overlooking the frozen Missouri River in Cross Ranch State Park in Center, North Dakota on February 5, 2021.

I was born and raised a flat lander from North Dakota, but I loved the mountains and moved to Montana to ski in my late teens. Once I got tired of being a secretary, I went to a recruiter and enlisted in the Marine Corps (that’s another story). I was stationed in California where I lived for more than 20 years.

After my father retired, he and his wife bought a small trailer in a Mesa 55+ community where they enjoyed a comfortable Arizona winter instead of the bone-chilling, often sub-zero temps of the wind-blown North Dakota prairie. They enjoyed the social hours and activities the community provided, but it didn’t appeal to me as a mid-career Californian.

Fast forward a couple of decades and a move back to snow country, my tune changed. I had a good job as an Army civil servant and had planned to work until I turned 70 to maximize my social security. Once the pandemic began, reality hit.

Who knows how much time we have on this earthly plane? I started making plans to retire on July 31st, 2021.

I knew I wanted to travel, so I put down a small deposit on a new fiberglass 16-foot Scamp travel trailer in January 2021. Since there was an 18-month wait to take delivery, I had to figure out how I would spend my first snowbird season.

I had friends and family who wintered in Tucson, Arizona so I stepped out of my isolated pandemic comfort zone and I booked a flight for a long weekend in February, thinking it might be right for me in retirement. At the very least, it would be an opportunity to enjoy the warmth of the Arizona sun.

Two weeks later, I was hiking in the mountains at Sabino Canyon Recreation Area in the Coronado National Forest in Tucson.

Tucson was everything I remembered and more. With a higher elevation, hiking and bike trails surrounded by mountains, the RV resort with their tennis and pickleball courts, and activities of every kind (woodworking, jewelry, stained glass, and ceramic workshops to name a few), what was not to love. In my short, long weekend trip, I bought a park model in a 55+ resort community and made plans to winter there after retiring in six months.

Park Model I purchased while visiting Tucson.

Turned out the Tucson trip was the foundation of my future…but there were a few hurdles before I could hit the road in August 2021.

Portions of this story were originally published on my blog.