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Active Adult Living Del Webb Communities

5 Reason to Take a Day Trip

Active Adult Communities offer all kinds of travel opportunities for their residents and the Day Trip is one of the most popular activities.

One of the 80 clubs we have at our Active Adult Community is the Day Trippers Club, which has 701 members. The club description reads

“Day Trippers take a different trip each month. We are limited to excursions that can be completed within one day. We go to places within a 150 mile radius from the Village”.

Day Tour

The club dues are only $5 per year but there is a fee for each day trip you sign up for.  They usually charter a nice tour bus that seats like 50 people and two experienced club volunteers escorting the group and the professional driver on the trip.

I took the top photo of the inside of the bus when I was recently taking the day trip to Cherokee Casino in NC. The fee was $30 and I was traveler number 50 on a full bus. We boarded the bus in our parking lot at 8:30AM and headed out for our day trip to Cherokee NC which is about 122 miles North of our community. We passed through scenic North Georgia taking a restroom and coffee stop about half way to stretch our legs. I sat with a gentleman whose wife didn’t want to come on this trip either and we had the best time talking with each other. We ended up spending the day with each other, gaming together and having lunch. We left Cherokee about 3pm and stopped at Jaemor Farms on the way back. At Jaemor I bought a fresh peach tart and bags of tomatoes and peaches. We were back in our parking lot before 6:30pm. It was an enjoyable day.

Days trips I have taken here and other places are to the Tellus Science Museum, Atlanta City and History tour, visit to historic Oakland Cemetary, North Georgia winery tour. Others tours include the popular tour coming up in December to hear the Atlanta Sympothy at the Fox Thretre and lunch at a nice restaurant.  Mary Ann is going with a friend to see Cirque Du Soleil Lizia at Atlantic Station. All days trips I have been on have an opportunity for a nice lunch, which you will pay for yourself.
socializing

5 Reasons To Take A Day Trip

  1. Exciting thing to do for the day.
  2. Meet new people you travel with.
  3. Relatively inexpensive.
  4. Short, not too tiring.
  5. Get to come home to sleep in your own bed

Days trips are another reason to consider living in an 55+ Active Adult Community.

 

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Del Webb Communities

Can 55 Retirement Communities Make You Happy?

John wanted to have a happy and full-filling retirement.

John considered what would be needed to have a happy retirement.

Thinking of things that would be beneficial to a happy retirement and that was under his control,  would help John find a happy retirement.

John remembered hearing Financial Security would help, at least according to all the financial advisors. He had been working for nearly 40 years and invested in his company’s 401K from the start and owned some stocks, bonds and a little real estate. Being financially secure alone would not make a happy retirement for John but would help.  Thankfully, he had that covered.

  1. John knows having a happy retirement could only be truly enjoyed if he had good health, living free of chronic disease. He knew healthy people are generally happy people. He also knows that to be healthy, one needs to be active.

John had a friend who was happy living at an Active Adult Living 55+ Community and was very active with walking and use of the gym at the clubhouse. His friend  had really gotten into a game called pickleball and played for one and a half hours two or three times a week, or whenever he wanted as a game was usually going 6 or 7 days a week.

John’s friend also said there was a hospital and plenty of medical office buildings nearby where his Active Adult Community was.

John considered these as some of the things that could lead to happy retirement.

  1. Having just retired, John was missing the social activity with friends from work. The people in the subdivision where he has lived for 20 years are still working and young couples are moving in. John pondered how to make new friends at his age. He was not meeting that many new people.

John’s friends living in the 55+ Community are always talking about the new friends they have made. With all the activities they are sharing with people, this introduces them to people they like and which share their interests. They go to lunch or dinner with them, even sometimes travel with them.  But mostly just share activities like going to trivia, playing bocce,  putt golf  or playing cards.

John considers that this may be the way he can make new friends and be more active.

  1. John has a 4 bedroom, three level home with the bedroom upstairs. Last year, John’s wife had a medical procedure and it was difficult even bringing her into the house with the steps, then she had to sleep on a day bed in the living room for a week,  with only a half bath on the main level. This is a problem which needs to be addressed.  His home is no longer ideal for their needs.

Home repairs were also getting expensive with aging and not very efficient appliances. Tree limbs always seeming to be falling down from the now mature trees.  Not to speak of the high property taxes he was now paying on his suburban home in an area that was becoming more urbanized and expensive.  Traffic was a nightmare and the road warriors were always in a hurry and would run you over.

John had visited his friend at his 55 Community on the outskirts of the metro area.  It was close enough to restaurants and shopping but the traffic had not gotten bad yet.  There were community theaters, putt golf, and movie theaters and really anything you would want nearby.

The residents really have a good social lifestyle and seemed to enjoy the people, even more than they did the amenities.

His friend just turned 70 years old and now gets a senior exemption and will not have to pay school tax, which saves a lot of money.

The homes are ranch style and come in different model sizes ranging from 1450 square feet to over 3,000 square feet. Some have basements and some have lofts. John’s friend has a Cumberland Hall model with 2,777 square feet including a nice sun room.

John considered how having a one level ranch house with no steps, more energy efficient newer appliances and HVAC, and livable floor plans with a universal design would accommodate his needs.

Lower property taxes and landscaping included in his HOA fee would save some money.

    1. Since John is no longer working,  he figures it would be nice waking up with a purpose and passion again. With so many things to do at an Active Adult Community, there would always be something to look forward to and people to do it with.
  1. John knows he and his wife are entering his 70’s and with the life expectancy of the average American only 78, well he is concerned about a death of a spouse and what would happen to the survivor.  He hears good things about the social support from neighbors living in an Active Adult Community and the “we are in this together” feeling.

John wants a happy retirement and realizes that moving to an 55 plus Community will make their retirement living easier and happier.

John’s plan is to get an hour of physical exercise a day, make new friends and enjoy being social while being active in learning and traveling as much as he can. He believes living in an Active Adult Community will help him and his wife do that.

Next blog post, we explore how John approaches finding a home in 55 Communities.

Robert Fowler