The same sun,

PHOENIX — Sky Harbor airport is modern, bustling, and
with four terminals, bigger than Toronto airport. Yet for
all the flights into this crossroads there are no scheduled

non-stops from Vancouver.

But there is another way to
come, by Fiesta West-AirBC
non-stop charter.

You'll see the Fiesta West pas-
sengers disembark cvery Saturday
afternoon, gather their bags and
golf clubs, and head out into the
desert. To Scottsdale?

Well now, the swish crowd does
go to Scottsdale, a weil-known
resort that is a conglomeration cf
ritzy resorts.

Bur there’s anorher crowd,
which goes to Mesa. Where?

Mesa is a sprawling community
20 minutes by car southeast of
Phoenix. We say car because the
public transportation is limited.
and you need either a vehicle or a
camel.

Yes, it gets hot down here, and
as the folks in Mesa say, “‘it’s the
same sun as Scottsdale, but in
Mesa you won’t get burnec.”’

The Mesa crowd say they're not
only smarter, they’re friendlier.

4& A stack of
groceries that
would cost $60
at home is less

than half that at
Smitty's 9F

Whereas most tourists in Scott-
sdale stay in resorts and hotels,
Mesa is wall-to-wall trailer parks,
and trailer folks are not stand-
offish.

At the Venture Out seniors-only
resort in Mesa, which has 1,500
pads, most of them anchoring fix-
ed ‘‘park models,’ I] met a retired
professor from Edmonton. He
said he had checked out other
spots in the sunbelt and this was
the best.

To buy a park model of about
400 to 480 sa. ft. is about $55,000
U.S., and to rent is around $600 a
month.

After that the living is cheap. A
stack of groceries that would cost
$60 at home is less than half that
at Smitty’s.

Venture Out has-a_ recreation
centre where his wife does crafts
including ceramics. He plays ten-
nis all day.

But best of all he likes it
because the people are friendly.

“I only have to turn up at the
tennis courts and | meet people,’’
he says. ‘‘And in many cases we
end the day having drinks with
them, maybe having them over for
dinner.’”

As everyone is staying in the
same complex it’s easy to stroll
over to see friends in the evening.

Compare this with ther desti-
nations where people often stay in
condominiums. I recall the woman
who regretted selling her home
and moving into a condo; she
found it lonely because people are
less inclined to drop by when you
live on the 23rd, or even the third,
floor.

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of the Venture
most of

About 40%
GCuters are Canadians,
them snowbirds.

One couple from Keiowna,
Allan and Pat McLeod, had driv-
en here in their RV via Toronto,
the Maritimes and Florida. That
put 10,000 miles on the clock, and
now they were staying put uniil
spring.

They said they had tried Palm
Springs and other places but
preferred Venture Out.

“What I realiy like,’? he said,
“is that people are coming and
going all the time, off to get a
paper, or to the tennis courts.
You've always got somebody to
talk to.”

McLeod is a golfer, playing
with a Venture Out group that
gets special rates at local courses,
some charging $10 or less.

These tracks are not Troon
North, but Mesa does have some
very good golf courses, such as
Superstition Springs, Pete Dye’s
Red Mountain Ranch and Gold
Canyon Ranch.

The VO crowd eats out a lot,
and Mesa’a restaurants are as
good as any I tried in the Phoenix
atea, including some that were

Don t t let back fatique

but ‘you won't get burned’

high-priced and overrated. Seniors
also know where the bargains are,
such as The Other Place, where
dinner before 6:30 p.m. is just $6.

Seniors also travel a lot to Mex-
ico, where costs are even lower
and drugs are readily available,
that is prescription and experi-
menial ones. They don’t miss
much, this crowd.

In Mesa there are piles of at-
tractions, including a collection of
vintage warplanes, music dinner
theatres, western shows and a
goldfield town in the desert.

Right in Mesa itself the Brinton
Desert Botanical Gardens has an
absorbing collection of cactus
plants, and the tourism-minded
visitors bureau can tell you about
everything else with one call to
800-283-MESA.

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