If the two best days of your life are the day you buy your boat and the day you sell it, there must be room for one more best day. That’s the day you find the ideal RV rig for the life you’re living right now.
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Tetakawi, the San Carlos landmark. |
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Our overall plan was to be extended travelers with an RV perhaps to get us to our boat. Another aspect of the dream was to find a U.S. home within a half-day’s drive of the Gulf of Mexico coast. That happened when we discovered houses for sale that included RV parking in Rio Rico, Arizona.
About Rio Rico
Rio Rico's major attraction is a resort lifestyle, affordable housing, and its proximity to Mexico. The 56,000 acres of Rio Rico in Santa Cruz County lie 70 miles south of Tucson and 12 miles north of Nogales on Interstate 19 only an hour from Tucson International Airport.
Rio Rico was designed as a resort community. It is located near I-19, nestled between the artist's town of Tubac and Nogales. The area features homes from modest to luxurious and miles of undiscovered desert landscape. It stretches along one of the most picturesque and historically fascinating areas of Arizona. It is one of the newest and fastest growing communities in Santa Cruz County.
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Sunrise brushes Tumacacoris. Photo by Jack McGarvey |
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Once part of a vast land grant from the King of Spain, Rio Rico strikes a balance between golf-focused resort and rural residential community. Coyotes still howl under crystalline skies. Cattle roam free. Its par 72 Robert Trent Jones Sr. golf course is listed as one of the finest in the state.
There are sub-divisions that feature a master-planned community with model homes, a resort, a health club and country club, all nestled in the hills surrounding the Santa Cruz River. One can walk to natural trails and explore pristine land.
With more than 300 days of sunshine, Rio Rico offers an ideal climate and almost perfectly sunny days every day of the year. At the end of the day, a brilliant canopy of stars covers the sky.
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Rio Rico in Spring. Photo by Bob Schultz |
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Rio Rico has a wealth of recreational activities—rock hounding (and searching for gold), exploring ghost towns and old mining camps, birding, hiking, off-roading, golf and horseback riding—and a school system in which local families take pride. When we searched for a place to call home in retirement, we knew access to travel would be key. We wanted open spaces like Montana and a climate warmer and sunnier than California. We also wanted easy access to the fun of Mexico travel along with the communications advantages of having a home base in the U.S. Rio Rico in Southern Arizona offered all of that. Plus, zoning allows Rio Rico residents to store an RV on their home site.
Adrift with no RV Rig
Unexpectedly, someone made a sincere offer on our sailboat. That other best day had arrived. We sold. The happiness was followed by a nervous moment. We remembered we had no rig. We adventure together. Travel has been our passion since we married.
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The ruins at El Tajin circa 1992 |
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Soon after we joined forces, the Schultz family undertook a monumental RV adventure. With our youngest two daughters, we drove and camped from our home in Montana through Mexico and Central America to the Panama Canal. Since then, with and without accompanying children, we have explored the states of the U.S. and Mexico. We have traveled via RV and as suitcase travelers. Our travels cover the spectrum from well-visited destinations, remote outposts and native villages.
We have been full-timers but are currently extended travel RVers. Bob has owned and camped in all types of RVs including a camper van, truck camper, travel trailer, a class A motorhome. For a time, we gave up land life to live aboard our 41 ft. sailboat and explore California and Mexico’s coast. But once we were land people again, we needed to choose a rig.