After we sold our home in Vermont and started traveling full-time, we had the entire country to consider as a future residence. We browsed and briefly lived in something like 46 states before we made our choice. So it’s understandable that one of questions we get asked most frequently is “Why did you pick Tucson?”
Really, the criteria was rather mundane: we liked the desert climate (good for SAD and good for allergies), the cost of living is reasonable, we could buy a “lock and leave” house that wouldn’t need winterizing or constant air conditioning while we were gone, there’s year-round outdoor activity for adults and children, and Tucson has everything we need. Having spent most of my life in rural country, I appreciate the convenience of living in a city even though it’s not as quiet as what I’m used to.
We don’t pretend that our criteria makes sense for anyone else, so after answering this question I am always quick to point out that it’s really up to everyone to figure out what’s important to them. I probably don’t need to do that, since most of the folks asking the question are themselves frequent travelers and they tend to be very independent. Of all the people who have asked the question, none of them have settled here. They’ve all found their own favorite places.
But we like southern Arizona a lot, especially for the diversity of things to do in the area. Take Saturday, for example. We decided that our mission would be to browse the Asian food markets in town. Tucson doesn’t have nearly the Asian population of the California cities, but enough that we can easily find the exotic ingredients that Eleanor likes to use occasionally in her cooking. We googled up a few likely spots and read the online reviews (mostly useless, as usual), and eventually came up with a list of three targets. Right there, that’s a win — because in many other cities we’d just be plain out of luck. I like the fact that I can find almost anything here.
Having just put some money into the Mercedes 300D for front end work last week, I wanted to give it a run. So we loaded up into the “Stuttgart Taxi” and cruised to our first stop, the Lee Lee Supermart in northwest Tucson. This place tries to cover most of the major countries of far east Asia, so you’ll find Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian, etc., all through the store.
I’m always intrigued with the strange and interesting new foods and ingredients in Asian markets. It’s a temptation to start buying a little of everything, just to try it out. But since we had three markets on our program for the day (two Asian and one “other”), we tried to be moderate in our choices. I could easily see us filling the roomy trunk of the Stuttgart Taxi with a pile of groceries worth more than the car itself.
Another fun part of this type of shopping is finding truly odd or confusing packaging. There are things both lost and gained in translation from Asian languages, and sometimes the results can be laughable. This keeps both adults and kids entertained. Our first find was “Vermont Curry,” as seen here. Now, I’m from Vermont, and I can tell you that “Vermont” and “curry” go together about as well as “Kansas Lobster.” These days Vermont actually has a few ethnic restaurants, thanks to an increasingly diverse population, but as a child I remember that pizza was about as exotic as it got. If there were such a thing as Vermont Curry, it would probably have maple syrup in it.
Another minor oddity was the House Of Steamed Potato brand kimchi crackers. Apparently this is a major brand in China, with several flavors. I’m sure the name makes sense in Chinese, and I’m sympathetic to the problem of translation. I wouldn’t want to try to translate “Ritz crackers” or “Count Chocula” to Chinese.
But our favorite was found at our second stop, the Grantstone Supermarket: Mang Gong cakes. Nothing odd here, until you look closely at the bottom of the package. It reads, “The False Packing.” It’s hard for an American to make any sense out of that. Given the volume of illegal Asian product knock-offs, is this simply a pre-emptive attempt to admit that these are not real Mang Gong cakes? Perhaps in truth the package contains Nike sneakers.
Sometimes you can figure these things out by playing with synonyms of the words. For example, could “false” be an attempt to say “low-cal”? Or perhaps “imitation,” “see-through,” “empty,” or “absent”? Likewise, “packing” could mean “packaging,” or “wrapper”? Maybe this is an attempt to advertise the see-through outer wrap, or to suggest that this has a decorative wrapper for gift-giving. We need a good Chinese translator to help figure this one out.
It’s amazing that we managed to kill most of a day browsing Asian markets, but we did. We are, as I’ve said before, easily amused. I suppose the prospect of eating whatever Eleanor whipped up with the ingredients was helpful in keeping our patience in check too. By 3 p.m. we were wrapping up and heading home with the trunk only 1/4 full of groceries (fortunately for the budget).
There was just one more stop to make, at the Arizona Petroleum depot off 22nd Street, for biodiesel. I have been wanting to run some biodiesel in the Taxi, since it has an “old tech” engine and can eat almost any type of oil. A little biodiesel helps clean out the fuel lines since it has higher solvency properties than dino diesel. This pump dispenses B5, B20 and B99 (5%, 20%, and 99% biodiesel respectively) for $3.25 per gallon, which is about in line with local diesel prices at conventional fuel stations in Tucson right now.
I bought five gallons of B99 to mix with the 15 gallons of dino diesel in the tank. It made the exhaust smell like a restaurant with a fryolator, which is actually quite pleasant. Most cars I have smelt running B99 exclusively have exhaust reminiscent of french fries, and instead of annoying people, it usually makes them hungry. I’d like to run this in the GL320 as well, but its super-high-tech engine and exhaust system are restricted to B5 at the most.
That’s not an atypical day for us, on a winter weekend in Tucson. That’s why we like it here. If we want to go to a festival, a farmer’s market, go for a hike or bike ride, attend a gallery opening, take sunset pictures, do some gardening, work on the car, roam the gardens, take a class, whatever — there’s always something. You really can’t go wrong in Tucson this time of year, with lots of things happening and fantastic weather almost every day.
That’s our criteria for a place to live, perhaps because it closely mirrors the kind of life we had when we were traveling. For me at least, once I had tasted the diversity and excitement of constant travel, I couldn’t fathom settling back into a town that didn’t have something going on all the time. No wonder it took years for us to find a place to buy a house. Future full-timers beware: life on the road may be your dream, but keep in mind that you will face a tough job finding the ideal place to live afterward.
Bill D. says
Yes, there’s always something… especially Tucson’s world famous Sonoran-style hot dogs!
http://airstreamlife.com/historysafariexpress/2010/07/14/top-dog-in-tucson/
Enjoyed your tour of Asian markets…
Happy Holidays!
Marie Luhr says
Hi Rich- Would you ask Emma for me if the “stuttgart taxi” is a step up from the “tikki taxi” that she runs between the house and the lake? (probably less FUN for her, huh?)
Jim says
Well spoken, Rich — we’re spoiled for a one-home residency after experiencing home all over North America. Where can’t we live? It seems mostly a question of seasonal desirability rather than absolutes. Tucson sounds perfect except for summertime. Vermont sounds perfect, maybe for year-round. And North Carolina is always on our mind.
Meanwhile we’re sticking with our home on wheels another year or three. We’ll see.
Jim