Yuma II

"When are you leaving?"
"How long 'til you go?"
"You leaving soon?"
Common questions asked at Yuma, Arizona at the end of snowbird season. Today we visited the Swap Meet, and already many stalls sat vacant, the closings spreading like a virus through the aisles. Great timing for deals, however. Merchants are prepared to haggle to unload their stuff before loading up their stuff. Screen printed t- shirts, four for ten dollars. Sweat shirts fifteen dollars. Windshield squeegies that sell for twenty-five dollars on infomercials are going for five bucks. We get some bargains and head back to the compound.
Country Roads is an adult commmunity comprised of Park Model and RV units, 1,200 or so. It contains all the amenities for an active adult lifestyle- pools, spas, pickle ball, tennis, pool tables and entertainment center. But wait- there's more! Bocce ball, shuffleboard, lapidary, wood working, parties and events. No wonder the snowbirds flock here every winter. Now, mid-April, RVs pull out and more occupants become nonoccupants. Soon it will be a ghost town.
The place is idyllic. Clean streets, yards neat as a pin and tidy units side by side. But the abscense of children makes it feel sterile. Perhaps because our new neighborhood teems with kids- the essence of life.
Yet the retirees seem to have mastered social. Parties abound, and today we were guests at a house warming. There must have been fifty people- um...'warming'. This became a traditional potluck, a plethora of tasty dishes too tempting to pass by. Hopefully everyone gets out and exercises tomorrow to work off too much good food.