Snowbirds - East or West?
We've spent nine years wintering in Florida. Seems that almost all the snowbirds here are from East of Mississippi. Westerners seem to stay West of Mississippi. How many if you crisscross? Northe...
Forum Discussion
Living in Southeastern Quebec:
We considered snowbirding in the Southwest (extreme southwest corner of Arizona), and did a trial run to Northeastern Florida this February (not with the camper, but renting a condo); the following dictates our snowbirding location (in order of importance):
*a location without icing, sleet, or snowfall (however, occasional frost on the ground doesn't bother us)
*tied for 1st place: is being able to easily shoot back/forth between home and snowbirding locale (at least 3 times during November to April: 2x 11-hour days is very easy to Florida and back/forth several times; however, 2x 6.5 days to Phoenix several times during winter is completely and utterly out of the question-- and we don't and will never fly in winter locked into a commercial aircraft packed nto a sardine can with 250 potentially flu/rhino-virus infected people hacking away);
*less important is fuel prices (with our rig, south Quebec to Phoenix = $1500 return; southern Quebec to Orlando = $820 return).
So, to conclude: the distance/logistics to Southern Arizona is just WAY too time-consuming in/for our situation, unless we move to Canada's West Coast (an intermediate is the RGV, however this is a non starter with too many ice storms, freezes and "Polar Vortex" events, with the Rio Grand Valley in direct capture-target of central continental polar air movements-- events that will only get worse and more frequent in the near and middle future IMO). Everyone's situation and snowbirding criteria is different, so YMMV.
We considered snowbirding in the Southwest (extreme southwest corner of Arizona), and did a trial run to Northeastern Florida this February (not with the camper, but renting a condo); the following dictates our snowbirding location (in order of importance):
*a location without icing, sleet, or snowfall (however, occasional frost on the ground doesn't bother us)
*tied for 1st place: is being able to easily shoot back/forth between home and snowbirding locale (at least 3 times during November to April: 2x 11-hour days is very easy to Florida and back/forth several times; however, 2x 6.5 days to Phoenix several times during winter is completely and utterly out of the question-- and we don't and will never fly in winter locked into a commercial aircraft packed nto a sardine can with 250 potentially flu/rhino-virus infected people hacking away);
*less important is fuel prices (with our rig, south Quebec to Phoenix = $1500 return; southern Quebec to Orlando = $820 return).
So, to conclude: the distance/logistics to Southern Arizona is just WAY too time-consuming in/for our situation, unless we move to Canada's West Coast (an intermediate is the RGV, however this is a non starter with too many ice storms, freezes and "Polar Vortex" events, with the Rio Grand Valley in direct capture-target of central continental polar air movements-- events that will only get worse and more frequent in the near and middle future IMO). Everyone's situation and snowbirding criteria is different, so YMMV.
