When it comes to Canadians fleeing the winter, Ernie Bass has one piece of advice.
“Just walk away,” said the retired farmer of when he leaves northern Alberta and drives to Mesa, Arizona, for the winter.
“Shut the water off and turn the thermostat down. There’s not much else,” said Bass from his motor home at the Arizona RV Park, his home for five months of the year.
For more than 10 years Bass and his wife, Irene, have turned their back on the snow and cold in northern Alberta and spent the winter golfing, dancing and playing shuffleboard.
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Key to a successful vacation is having someone look after their northern home in Fairview, he said.
“The biggest issue is having someone check on your home. It’s not that easy to find people who want to do that.”
Bass said they’re fortunate to have neighbours who check on their home regularly to make sure everything is working well and to satisfy home insurance regulations.
Some insurance companies require a home to be monitored at least once every 48 hours.
One of the biggest improvements for Canadian snowbirds who winter in the United States is improved communications. With new out-of-country cell phone packages, Bass stays connected to friends and family.
When the couple first started travelling, cell phone costs were too expensive to use other than for emergencies.
The lot where their motor home is parked is also serviced with telephone, television and internet for additional connections. While the couple isn’t connected to Facebook or other social networking sites, Bass said they do stay connected to family.
“We do a lot of e-mailing.”
Bill payment doesn’t pose a problem. Bass said they either pay bills before they leave, have them paid directly from the bank or credit card or call back to Canada for bill balances and mail the payment from Arizona.
For Arizona bills, they have an American bank account. Through Irene’s career as a schoolteacher, the couple has out-of-country health insurance.
Finding a good house sitter is also key to Annabelle Black’s five-month stay in Mexico. Not only does the house sitter look after her Aurora, Ont., home, but also she goes through Black’s mail, throwing out the junk and filing the rest after e-mailing Black with any news.
“I want my house sitter to read my personal mail. If a friend writes to tell me her husband dies, I want to react before next spring,” said Black from her winter apartment in San Miguel de Allende, the historic Mexican city.
“Coming home to five months of mail isn’t much fun.”
Most of her bills are paid through preauthorized automatic bank withdrawals. Black said she could have her mail forwarded, but Mexican mail service is sporadic at best. A letter from her sister in Shaunavon, Sask., written Dec. 18 arrived at her Mexican apartment Jan. 14.
Black’s main communication for friends and family is e-mail. Black doesn’t have her own computer, but uses computers at internet cafes to send and receive.
“My children all e-mail me. I don’t phone.”
The internet is also how Black finds accommodation in the Mexican city. Using friends, connections and sleuthing, she usually finds an apartment through the internet before flying to Mexico.
Black said before she leaves Canada, she tells herself she won’t leave again. The stress of booking flights, finding house sitters and packing the right clothes for five months in the mountain city is too difficult. Once she’s in Mexico she relaxes and forgets the travel hassles.
“When I get here I’m just so glad to be here,” said Black, who spends her time going to concerts, films, lectures, visiting with friends and volunteering through a church.
Every Wednesday, she and a group of volunteers roll plastic grocery bags into balls to use as mattress stuffing. It takes 1,000 plastic bags to make a foot-thick mattress covered with ticking for Mexico’s underprivileged. At the latest work day, 22 volunteers made three mattresses.
“This is a very stimulating place.”
Jim Boyd of Fairview, Alta., used to spend winters skiing the slopes, but the retired farmer now prefers the Arizona sun and its heat.
“Once you get here, it’s quite easy for a person.”
Boyd doesn’t have too many things to do before heading south. Family members stay in the farm home or stop in to keep an eye on it.
Health insurance costs Boyd about $1,800 for his five-month stay in the U.S. Boyd takes a bank draft from Canada to pay bills at his Yuma, Arizona, home.
“Just take some money with you.”
Boyd doesn’t use e-mail, preferring the telephone to communicate with his family in Canada. For a flat $40 a month he has free calling anywhere in North America.
“I like to talk to people. I guess e-mail would be nice if I had it.”
