After Bill and I got married in 2008, we went RVing for eight years. It seemed like a never-ending honeymoon until we began to feel we had completed North America. So during the last three of those eight years, we parked our RV at the Viewpoint RV & Golf Resort in Phoenix during the winter time. The rest of the year, we stored it to travel abroad. Doing this enabled us to establish our healthcare needs in the #5 state in healthcare in the country. Admittedly, we were also getting old and tired.
We began to make many great friendships, more stable ones than those we found during our RVing days when we had to leave people just as we had gotten close to them. And we warmed into the lifestyle, literally and figuratively. Winter is when many snowbirds converge in Arizona (from the northern states and Canada), looking for activities in warm weather. That is the cornerstone of what is called the resort lifestyle. We bought into it and moved into Viewpoint as a permanent travel base.
To best describe this kind of living, let me list the facilities available at Viewpoint. It has two golf courses with a country club that has a golf-pro shop, a restaurant/bar/grille, and two party rooms. There is a Main Clubhouse with two swimming pools, three hot tubs, hobby and craft rooms, and two ballrooms. The third clubhouse called NorthPoint has a swimming pool and two hot tubs, a sauna, a fitness center, a dance studio, a laundry room, a card room, and four meeting rooms. The newest gathering area is the Fitness and Leisure Center (walking distance from our unit) that contains a Fitness Center, a pool and hot tub and two party areas. There is also a Ball field, ten tennis courts, and five pickleball courts.
During the height of the season, there are about fifty clubs in operation. While Bill plays golf or tennis or takes walks with the Hiking Club, I busy myself with the Technology Group, the Photography Club, and the Authors’ Forum and also participate in Karaoke Night, Scrabble Afternoon, Poker Night, and the Block Happy Hour. During the off-season, Viewpoint’s full-time residents created the Summer Socials Committee which is currently hosting an activity every 6:30 pm on Fridays and every 4 pm on Saturdays. If you feel lonely in Viewpoint, it would be your own fault. In fact, a calendar of appointments is an utmost necessity.
This lifestyle fits very well into our travel plans. Whereas we traveled full-time before, now we carve out certain periods of the year when we relax and relate at the Resort. Our travels are around summer when we visit our children and grandchildren in colder areas (Calgary, San Francisco, Melbourne, Anchorage, Boise, and Denver) and/or use our month of timeshare points in Europe or elsewhere. Now that we have another three months of all-inclusive timeshare in Mexico, we will spend our winters in a “second home” in Mazatlan (or alternatively Cancun or Cozumel) as snowbirds from Phoenix. Spring and fall we will spend in Viewpoint when fewer activities mean even more relaxation time.
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