Still have 5 years left on active duty, but already thinking about where we might want to wind up in retirement as the next couple years will go by quickly and I need to be positioning myself for our eventual home/land purchase now. Anyone on here live in or spent any considerable time in the Flagstaff area? The area seems really appealing to me just for the natural side of things – I went to school in Colorado and love the mountains and high desert, but my in-laws are all in Las Vegas and staying within driving distance of them is important so my kids can actually know their grandparents. We don’t want to raise our kids in Las Vegas, however, so Flagstaff seems to be the spot on the map most like a place we would want to be as well as couple hour driving distance to Vegas. We’d like to get some land, 20 acres or more, to build a home as we want it and keep some animals, and possible it could be off-grid as well. I don’t know what I want to do post-military, job-wise, but I’ve done some basic googling, and it seems the two primary industries there are the university and DNR/state and local government. No tracks in the immediate area, the closest for racing appear to be Las Vegas (4 hrs) and Chuckwalla (5 hrs) with UMC 8 hours up the road. I’m all ears, good and bad.
I live in scottsdale, we have ⅔ tracks so no need to do 4 hrs to Vegas. Lots of people from Phoenix hang out in Flagstaff to be the heat here in the summer, but winter there is 20’s snowing and cold. Congrats on upcoming retirement, and thank you for serving!
I haven't spent a lot of time up in Flag, but I've been there a handful of times. The college area has a very Boulder vibe, outside of that area it's a blue collar town. Like you said, not much in the town for work. I think I know who you are; if I'm right, you likely know the AFROTC det commander in Flag. He's a previous SQ/CC in Rescue.
I am a Rescue guy, and I know the ROTC CC there, I was stationed with him a couple years back. Have you and I crossed paths?
I'm Dutch. Josh and Evan were telling me you used to race at Arroyo, which you mentioned in another post. 2+2=4 If you don't have DC's contact info, I can pass it to you. I know he found all the houses he liked were expensive, but I'm pretty sure he was looking in town north of the college area.
Gotcha, yeah I see you’re at DM and I see you just added me on FB. Josh and Evan are great Americans! I miss Arroyo, great people and great racing. I see DC on the global so I should be able to get ahold of him easy enough, I’m friends with him on FB as well. I’m in the “academic” stage of the Flagstaff idea right now, but he will be someone I reach out to if the idea gets more real down the road.
You may also know my man Sodie. He's a PJ at Nellis for now, but is moving to NC in July to join the 24th SOW.
Have you considered St George, UT, and areas along I-15, through there? Or, points east of there, like Page, AZ, and points along Hwy89? It’s all beautiful through those areas and closer to activities and LV.
I've been to Page 3 times, it's one of my favorite cities in America. If it worked out I'd retire there.
Some of the younger guys I have heard names but don't know them personally. I recognize the name from seeing the list of who got picked up for 24 SOW a couple months ago, but I don't know him personally. How do you know him? To everyone else's replies, I haven't been to Page, nor have I spent any significant time in northern AZ/southern UT. The problem/situation, though, is I will need to worry about starting another career, I'll be retiring from active duty as early as just short of age 42, so the smaller towns and really remote spots, all things being equal, will make that aspect harder than the bigger towns. I googled Page just now, and it does look like a great spot, but it's a pretty small town. Prescott is a good location too as far as outdoor stuff and driving distance to LV, that will be worth looking into as well. I am planning on taking some time next summer after getting back to the states to road trip around and spend a day or two in some of these towns to do some first-hand research. I have some experience with southern AZ, having lived in Tucson for 3 years recently, but that's on the far end for driving distance to Las Vegas, it's a good 7-8 hour drive. Utah is not necessarily off the table completely, and no offense intended for any LDS members on here, but my wife grew up in Las Vegas as a non-LDS, and there are a LOT of LDS families in Las Vegas. She said being a non-LDS in a middle school/high school where to be LDS was the "cool kids" was a bummer, and she doesn't really want to raise our kids in Utah, where presumably that problem would be even worse. It's not like the LDS kids were nasty or picked on her, she was just excluded from the in-crowd. She found other in-crowds, because high schools have plenty of cliques, but to be the ONLY non-LDS kids in a middle school in St. George would be probably not an ideal situation for our kids. So bottom line is just that UT is not where we are looking first.
Btw, I know about Wild Horse Pass and AMP, is there a third track? And is there racing at any of the tracks I don't know about? I know it was track days only at Wild Horse and AMP for at least the time I was in AZ, 2015-2018.
No racing. WHP isn't hosting bikes anymore, so really just AMP and Inde. Theoretically, there's two tracks in the works (Casa Grande and Tucson) but neither have broken ground yet. If either of those gets built, I suspect that DRRO will try to go back to racing.
If you're thinking about acreage/off the grid in Flag, make sure any property you look at already has a productive well. You can spend a bundle making dry holes in the ground. Other than NAU and govt, Flag economy is mostly retail/service and that tends to be summer/seasonal (Grand Canyon). WL Gore has a facility there making medical products, but getting in can be tough and from what I heard, there are two classes of employees: management and another kulak with a broom. Despite high altitude, weather isn't too bad. When it snows, the next day is clear, sunny and 50, so the snow is gone from the roads and most open areas by the afternoon.
Close friends. He’s one of the best humans I know. Small world. If you cross paths drop my name. Jason Braun.
Definitely still in the early idea stage of this. We are planning a road trip next summer for the specific purpose of checking out some of these spots first-hand. Talking to my wife about it last night she still feels fairly strongly against UT, but a lot could change in the next 5+ years. I’m sure there are people that would disagree with me on my approach to retirement at this point, but I am more inclined to wind up somewhere I want to be and then try to find a job that will work for me and that I enjoy enough than the other way around. It could be the best job in the world but I still wouldn’t want to be back in the Midwest where I grew up. So I’m thinking narrow it down to 2 or 3 spots in the next few years and then just focus all job search energy on those areas. I will only be 42 at military retirement age, so until I check out an area like Prescott that seems to be basically a retirement community with a median age of 56 and not much of a job market might not work out, but if the spot is good in every other way then it could still be on the short list of places to focus down the road. Flagstaff seems to be similar in that respect. Schools are going to be a big factor as well. On paper Park City seems like an ideal spot for all the things I’d be looking for except for the incredible real estate prices. So I guess the secret is out on Park City. Edited to avoid ruffling feathers.