Floridians- learn me: moving to Florida.

I bought a car in Avon Park once.  It's close to Sebring and a super quiet town.  I took the car to the Avon Park DMV to do the title and there were 4 tellers working there and 4 patrons in front of them.  I was done in less than 5 minutes AT THE DMV... oh, and they had a chair in front of the counter so you could sit down while doing the paperwork.  I fell in love with Avon Park that day.  :)

I'll add that I parked my truck and trailer across the street from the DMV next to a beautiful park around a lake, then proceeded to cross the street with no traffic to worry about.  If I was retired and liked racing at Sebring I would live there, but keep in mind I'm a guy that really treasures quiet.  

pheller said:

My issue with Florida has always been the following:

No elevation change aside from what amount to piles of dirt created after holes were dug. 

Public land and cities seem far removed. As a mountain biker who likes to get away from people, I want to be able to ride out my back door and "get away" for a bit. Tallahassee, Lake City, Gainesville are the only cities with significant public land (National/State Forest) that borders city limits, and while Ocala National Forest is the largest swath of public land after the Everglades, it's still 30 minutes outside of Ocala. If I'm going to live 1.5 hours from the Ocean, I might as well just live in Asheville, Knoxville or Chattanooga where summers aren't quite as oppressive.

Like mentioned earlier, as you get more rural in Florida you also get far more redneck/southern, and those people aren't as friendly to cyclists. Not to mention trail development is an afterthought. 

Plus, now that I've got a kiddo, schools are a concern as well.

The public land is a serious issue for me. Florida is quickly turning into a shopping mall and with that all the great thing FL has to offer are quickly going away. Hopefully a bunch of Californians move here first and fix everything.

NermalSnert said:

Whoa! This was all fun when talking about Fla. As a Tn land owner, I think we may need to set up a vetting process before this gets out of hand :)

I am with you here But Track Mouse, NOT MICKEY MOUSE Gets a Pass

 OK, to answer a few questions. The wife and I are looking for a simple house not very big, we have no kids and are not planning on having any as of right now, my wife’s business revolves around vacation rentals so we would need to be near them but not next to them or on the beach. Just basically need to be within a reasonable driving distance of them. We were looking into Texas as well, my wife really enjoyed Austin Texas when we were down there for the F1 race. The folks in Texas are damn sure more friendly Than the people of the Pacific Northwest. The majority of the reason we picked Florida is that it is consistently warm and that means consistent vacation spots year round, which is good for business, and my wife and I love going to the beach. We don’t really give a crap about parks and national refuge nature stuff, we don’t even really go hiking anymore. And if we were into that stuff, we would just stay here in Central Oregon.  The older we get the more we are enjoying living a little more rural. And not so much near the city. The goal of moving here is to simply get a lower mortgage so that we don’t have to earn as much money and spent so much time working

GTXVette said:

NermalSnert said:

Whoa! This was all fun when talking about Fla. As a Tn land owner, I think we may need to set up a vetting process before this gets out of hand :)

I am with you here But Track Mouse, NOT MICKEY MOUSE Gets a Pass

I can't be too mad at the mouse.  I like his theme parks, and he pays my bills  

Hey when your wife is a Disneyholic it just makes sense to live near it! I kid you not we go to Disneyland or Disney World once a year. And one time we went to Disneyland twice in one year.

Yeah, we need to go again soonish.  They've updated the redhead on pirates. One distinct advantage of swmbo working for wdw...when Google asks if I visited magic kingdom for less than 10$....I probably did. Depends on turkey leg. 

I am still a Florida Boy At Heart, I can Go down there anytime ,  Heck I was 5 before I had to wear shoes 'cept for Church, OK not quite But I did think everyone went to the Beach Every day.  I love Florida and will Defend it But Man I like these Mountains.

In reply to Mndsm :

Man, I chawed in one of those turkey legs. Felt like I needed a dentist afterwards. That thing was sinewy!

In reply to Trackmouse :

But it tasted like a most delicious smoked ham.