Life on the links

Posted by Sparky on March 17, 2013

For the first time in my life I am living on a golf course. We are renting a site here at Rancho California RV Resort that is close to the #3 tee. A little *too* close, perhaps. Looking at the site plan, we thought we would be safe from errant shots, but we didn’t take into account the possibility that I would be playing. I almost hit Patience the first time I teed off from #3. Fortunately, I missed. Instead I got a direct hit on my neighbor’s RV.

They weren’t home. I don’t know if there is a dent, but if you see them… mum’s the word.

The #3 tee from our patio

As is fitting for our location, we bought a golf cart. This isn’t just for me to use while golfing (though it works great for that purpose) – it is also our main form of transportation within the park. If we need to run to the store or fill a propane tank, we take the cart (or, to be snooty about it, the “golf car”). We bought it used for about $1,600 and hope to sell it for about $1,300 when we leave. That will keep the cost down to about $100 per month, well below the ridiculous $300 per month that it would have cost to rent one.

Our “golf car”

The golf course is… interesting. It is 14 (yes, 14, not 18) holes, all par 3’s. The longest hole is 210 yards. But what it lacks in distance it makes up for in difficulty. There is water and lots of it: 11 of the 14 holes have water. I lost 6 balls on my first round and 4 on the second. Undulating greens and deep traps compound the difficulty. I won’t tell you my scores, but I will tell you that no pro would have been happy with them, even on a long, impossibly difficult, 18-hole championship course.

The plan for the resort is to eventually have a full 18 holes, but the economy over the past few years has delayed that. There are over 600 sites in the park and it seems that more than half are for sale or for rent. Apparently a few years ago you couldn’t buy in for less than $70,000, but there are many sites selling for less than that now. There is even one priced at $29,000.

Not that we are thinking of buying. It is a great place with lots to offer, but it is in California. We aren’t likely to retire here. Or even travel here frequently.

What do we like about it? Start with the site we are renting. Compared to our previous site, in San Jose, it is positively luxurious. It has an outdoor kitchen, with a grill, a sink and a refrigerator, and a patio furniture set. It has beautiful landscaping, including some palm trees. It abuts the third hole, with fountains in the pond. The pond is a haven for waterfowl and the hole is a constant source of amusement as we watch duffers even less skilled than I navigate the hazards of the hole. There is enough pavement to accommodate not only Patience and the truck but also the rental car and the golf cart.

The park has 5 pools and 5 laundry rooms. Two clubhouses (one with the largest paperback swap library that we have seen anywhere). Tennis courts. A dog park (where our pups have made some friends). A market and a cafe with a patio. Lots of open space for dog walks and birds everywhere, including hummingbirds, hawks, various ducks, egrets and cranes and the omnipresent coots (a.k.a. mudhens, according to some residents). I have seen a roadrunner and a coyote and I am told that a bobcat was sighted nearby recently. Rattlesnakes in the surrounding desert. It is a good place to learn about and appreciate wildlife.

The weather. Yes, we have had some cold nights and, because it is a desert climate, it gets cold after dark even on warm days. But on balance the weather has been very pleasant and is wildly better than Massachusetts winter weather. If it was a basketball game, Aguanga would be the Globetrotters and Massachusetts would be the Generals.

What don’t we like? Well, as a working man I have to say the the commute is too long. It doesn’t have as many activities as we found at Paradise in Phoenix. And, because it is California, the water tastes like it has been filtered through a greasy rag. And airfares to the east coast are too high.

But the negatives are few and the positives are many. We really like the place. We will be sorry to leave. But we will be gone by June 1, heading back east.