We are still looking for a home base. The criteria is close to California but not IN California. I would like a decent sized town, with a WalMart, a movie theatre and some restaurants, or we could be within 20 miles of such a location. Arizona seems to be a bit better than Nevada just due to more population areas that meet the criteria.

We left our extended hiatus in Visalia and head to our first stop in Arizona, Lake Havasu City for a week. This area meets the criteria but with all the retired and recreational people there, the home prices are a bit more than we are looking for.

The next week was just north of Wickenburg, near Congress. Prices were a bit better here but Wickenberg is a bit too small for my tastes. We could drive to Surprise for anything we could want but I think we would get tired of that drive over and over.

We had heard good things about the Cottonwood area and went there for a whole month. The RV park had a pretty good monthly rate and there were a lot of areas to check out there. To the south is the whole Prescott/Prescott Valley area, a very grown up area with accordingly priced homes. To the north is Sedona, very nice but VERY expensive. You can also get to Flagstaff and Payson in a decent amount of time. The Cottonwood area is a real possibility, pretty much the right size and lots of area to find housing. The prices are not too bad.

We are looking for a home that is not necessarily in a subdivision, has room for the trailer on the lot and is not too big. We are not against a mobile/manufactured home. We can also just get some land and put something on it over time. All these options are in the Cottonwood area.

Here are some photos from our month in the area:

Since we were there for a length of time we went to see some local sites:

Since we were staying in the center of Arizona, there was one more thing to see. The Geographic ‘center’ of Arizona. We have done this type of thing previously with the Geographic center of California and the Geographic center of the contiguous US. This was just a memorial to the center being that nearest town close to the center. The center had no roads to it, alas:

We finished our month in Cottonwood and heading to another locale to checkout, Kingman AZ. We have been through Kingman many times but never really considered it as a ‘home’. This was our chance to give Kingman a chance. It turns out that this size of Kingman is very good and only about 90 miles to Vegas. The altitude tends to make the area run cooler at times even with snow sometimes. It is in the running but it would have to be the right place.

We are currently back in Fort Mohave (we were here in November) which is just south of Bullhead City, and Laughlin NV. We are here for more than our normal week due to a scheduling issue. We received our first Covid vaccine in Cottonwood, primarily so we can see our grandson sometime when we get back to California. The scheduling issue was due to having to get the second shot in 4 weeks. Since we have already left our initial dose location we had to find a different location for the second dose.

The logistics on this has been very interesting. The first dose was at Walgreens, but when I tried to change the second dose for a different location, I could not do so until the day BEFORE the scheduled second dosage day. In the interim I setup second doses that were given by a women’s health group at the local community college. When they verified our appointment, they stated a need of proof of residence in this county (Mohave). However, the state of Arizona says that residence does not matter. More issues to deal with. It is now the day before so I try Walgreens, but I cannot change the location of the 2nd dose. I tried Safeway, they don’t have an online way to schedule the second dose. I try Smith’s grocery (Kroger) and we were able to schedule both second doses. Whew!

After Fort Mohave, we are heading to Vegas for a week, then to visit my sister in Bishop and back to California for some medical appointments. We are also now very close to putting our house on the market to sell, so that will be yet another adventure for us!