Whew. Back in 29 Palms Ca today. Our trip through Arizona left us happy and confused. It's kind of like houses - there are lots of styles I like, but chosing just one to live in is tough. We had gone into Tucson in the dark of night and entered via a pretty rough looking area - not a good introduction to the town. After spending a few fast days in the area I'm pleased to report that our impressions improved greatly. Nice mix of old stuff with the new, like this weathered neon sign on a good looking set of apartments:
We looked at 6 or so places in the north part of the town, up near the hills - I need to figure out what places are worth and am baffled by valuation around our own home town, much less in a different state. Saw some places in the $350k area that appealed:
At that kind of money we would have to really love it - that's about $125k more than i figure the house we totally redid for ourselves is worth - including the heated and finished and plumbed separate garage/studio. Of course we don't have a view...
We do like Saltillo tiles - the first house the gal and I did together got Saltillos in the kitchen and one of the bathrooms. The real ones are soft and lumpy and prone to scratching but they sure feel good underfoot.
Thing is, the Wickenburg hut had appeal as well:
We are big fans of real things - so many of the newer houses down here look real, but you could kick a hole through the outside walls and walk right in - that stucco finish is thin and the substrate is nothing sturdy. The Wickenburg rock house is two stories, built against a high river bank wall and looks across the riverbed. Not real sure I want to take on doing another house. Another thought is to buy land and build new - when we worked on our house it was amazing how much easier it was to build a new garage/studio as opposed to rebuilding the existing house. Trick was to incorporate enough old materials to make it feel like it had some history.
We left Tucson and went down through the Green Valley area - which really is! Pecan orchards and new home devlopments - CityData stats for the area are pretty amazing, from memory, something like 5% of the households had kids under the age of 18, racial makeup is about 95% white. Could be that the weather and scenery and lack of jobs mean mostly old white guys are the likeliest residents. Nice place, but seemed insulated - Tubac, a little art community, was fun though:
It's still summer and the dead season down there, so the place was pretty devoid of people - nice time to visit - this shop had a sign on the door saying if no one was home to just put money for purchases through the mail slot, remembering the 6.6% sales tax. Bet it worked out pretty well for them - my gal kept finding just one more little thing, which meant i kept dropping dollars through the slot and rounding up - couldn't see pouring a handfull of change through the door!
We then went back up to Tucson, looked at a couple more places, and headed for Yuma to spend the night. As Bluestreak said, great weather and lots of retired folks - motorhome and trailerpark city! Didn't look at any places there - it would be more convenient for 29 Palms trips, but the Parker area would be even better though more expensive. Saw these healthy and handsome dinkeys in the Yuma Proving Grounds on our way up north:
They were in outstanding condition - dodging bombs and eating cactus pads must agree with them. They and 4 coyotes were the only wildlife we saw on the trip other than birds and the odd lizard. Saw some primitive desert intaglio near Blythe south of Parker - they don't know how old they are - maybe 400-2000 years is the guess. Out on flat little mesas the surface ends up almost paved with little rocks that are sun blackened (my guess is that years of dust keeps blowing away exposing the rocks, which prevent further dirt from disappearing). Someone, sometime, moved the black rocks to create pictures of people, animals, and serpents maybe a hundred feet long - they were re-discovered in 1931 by a pilot flying overhead. Placards suggest that the figures may indicate the creator and blabla Indian spiritualism - but i figure its just early taggers at work.
Found that only about 12.5% of Arizona is in private hands - the Indians hold a bunch of land, the Feds own a bunch, and when Az became a state the feds ceded 10 million acres to the state. I understand that the state stills owns about 9.5 million acres and sells off land to fund projects, primarily education related. Interesting state - but do we want to live here full time? The jury is still out - so far people are pretty much great where ever we've gone, so it's mostly just the weather and country we want to live in.