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A friend is looking for her retirement place (currently living in Utah for work). She is a real desert rat, not sociable, loves the desert heat and dislikes cold periods. She is liberal in general, smokes and drinks, and lives very modestly. She'd like an artsy place that suits the above (liberal being optional, as I said, she's lived in Utah…) and dislikes planned communities "unless they were planned by old hippies." Money is short. She's looking at T or C- what do people think? (She seems oblivious to the usual older-age concerns about medical access or car dependence). Thanks.
I've not spent a huge amount of time in TorC but I think it fits the bill. There is a good collection of freaks and old hippies about living low budget. It's artsy enough I guess. Pretty hard to find a real artsy place that is also cheap.
I like the place.
Cold is relative. Definitely warm in winter compared to Utah, but there are warmer places in the country like the AZ or CA lowlands.
Rruff's perspective seems accurate although my travels through T or C are generally limited to stopping at the MacD's on the hill for a pit stop on my way from Albuquerque to Las Cruces. The towns in that area with more typical hippies are Silver City, NM and Bisbee, AZ but both are mining towns and are higher elevation and cooler than T or C. High 80's or close to 90 for the average high in the summer although I'm sure there are heat spells where it gets well into the 90's. Actually Bisbee's lows in the winter are a little warmer than T or C. Both Silver City and Bisbee are prettier towns than T or C but have more expensive housing although the median cost of a house is less than $200K. Your friend might want to check them out.
True about Bisbee and the surrounding area being warmer in winter than TorC. Definitely worth checking out. The old Bisbee downtown area is pretty pricey, but right outside that in Warren it's still quite cheap.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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I go to T or C for the Hot Springs, they are affordable and rejuvenating. It's a neat town, though for those who aren't well adjusted to small town life might feel limitations as outside of Wal-Mart and some restaurants there aren't a lot of services and Las Cruces would be about an hour south to pick up the slack.
I kinda like Carlsbad. There is water you can look at in the Pecos...especially now with recent rains, it's full up. Housing is kind of short. It's a working town so people aren't out much on week days and restaurants close early. My impression is that Carlsbad is conservative and polite. Not much in the artsy department. Beautiful desert country with caves, Guadalupe Mtns, and Otero Mesa nearby.
Have spent some time here, here are my impressions... T or C is both typical and unique. There are the usual retail and restaurant chain places, and then there are the springs. The spring places here are ran much differently than the ones at Faywood HS or 10,000 in SF. All of the places are obviously very old and most, with the exception of Riverside, are not really very inviting. No all day soaks here in T or C, you will be charged by the hour to sit in the tubs, plus towel rental fees at a couple places. The novelty of the springs would wear off real quick if you lived here.
The downtown area is interesting, has lots of typical little arts and craft places, as well as thrift stores, and more. Lots of older people park RVs around town, or live in trailers to be close to the fishing, when there is water in the river or Elephant Butte lake. I feel that T or C would be a pleasant and reasonably low cost place to retire, as long as you are content with a slower pace of life in a small town and can handle the lifestyle.
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