How do you like Florida?

Can't believe my first post on the GRM message board is not really car related. My wife has just asked me to move to Gainesville, FL to study at the university there. Since I know that a lot of people come from Florida in the GRM community, I have to ask: How do you Florida? Mostly from a car guy perspective? I know this is very broad, but I would just like general comments. I know its not too hard to get a Locost registered there (a big plus for me). The auto-x season must be good? Used cars seem expensive from what I saw fast on CL (compared to here anyways). Anything you can think of: weather (hot and humid I guess), real estate, school for the kids (three young ones), etc... I plan to go to the challenge to spectate, but you don`t really get a feel for a place from a few days.

By the way, I come from the great rusty snowbelt that is Canada, to put things in perspective.

Thanks to all.

Welcome FanFoy,

Why is your text of mixed fonts? Just curious.

The Challenge is worth the trip, I can't speak for Gainnesville or living in Florida. Check out the local SCCA site in the area.

Bring sun screen?

914Driver wrote: Welcome FanFoy, Why is your text of mixed fonts? Just curious.

Apparently, that funny apostrophe just below the escape button will do it.

Example: This is now in a funny font.

I will never understand this boards formatting.

If I had to live in Florida, Gainesville would be one of the very few areas I would pick.

I once oversaw a research farm in Sanford and hated being down there. Hot as hell, the traffic is a bitch, the midges are incredible, and I was the only person eating in restaurants under 60. I was 25 at the time.

Sorry about the funny font. It was to make it easier for everyone to identify my as a newb

Are SCCA people the only ones to organize Solo events in Florida? Any local clubs?

You'll find a more accurate picture of what its like living in Gainsville if you instead asked what it's like living in Alabama.

Florida : Great beaches, beautiful weather, diving, fishing, surfing, food, etc etc

Gainsville: 165% humidity and UF fans.....about sums it up.

Good luck with that!

Quoting my earlier summary of life in FL

Welcome to Florida. Enjoy your stay, but know that we are all doomed. Large slimy snails - that we cannot touch without getting parasites - are going to eat our homes until they resemble swiss cheese. We'll try to retreat into the bushes, but will be unable to cope with the stinging caterpillars and nile monitors. A few brave souls will attempt to take refuge in the ocean, but will be forced back onto land by sharks, stinging jellyfish, and other poisonous creatures. None of that will matter, anyway, though, because the strawberry farmers will cause a mega-sinkhole that will engulf the entire state. (Oddly, the Burmese pythons will be welcomed, because they'll try to prevent the disaster by eating the strawberry farmers. Sadly, this will happen too late to matter.) The only areas that will survive are tacky places like the amusement park districts and I-drive, which are already entirely artificial. Palmetto bugs will take over the state, and will elect one of their own as governor. He'll do a better job than Rick Scott, though not as well as Jeb Bush.

....and I like it here.

Joey- thanks for the laugh!

I was there.

It was humid as berkeley. It was hot. There were lots of flying insects (though none bit me, so that was nice). The traffic sucked.

That pretty much sums up my 3 hours in Florida.

I'm going back in ten days.

I recall the Space Coast as being pretty cool..but I've heard not so much these days.

Ah, Florida. About as diametrically opposed to Canada as you can possibly get.

Went to a place called Richloam for a motorcycle enduro ~1995, in early May. At 9:15 in the morning it was 95 degrees and 90% humidity. Did another a couple years later outside Tallahassee (Apalachicola State Forest) in September, hot as blue blazes and dry, dust hung in the air for ages. Gainesville, $2006 Challenge in October, still too hot for this fat old man. Mmm... I plan to retire to the mountains of Georgia/SC/NC.

All I know about Florida besides the Destin area I'd that it is criminally helarious.

Been there twice

Hated it both times.

N Sperlo wrote: All I know about Florida besides the Destin area I'd that it is criminally helarious.

Destin is as artificial and tacky as Orlando's I-drive, but without the draw of nearby large amusement parks. If anybody is going to Destin, I always recommend that they visit Florida Caverns State Park. To me, at least, there are more interesting things to do there than hang out in a tourist trap.

I guess I'm the first Gainesville GRMer to chime in. I'm a Gainesville native, left when my family moved away while in high school and moved back about 10 years ago. Married, two relatively young kids. I think it's a great place. Yes, very humid, but I'd much prefer that over frigid temperatures several months of the year.

Feel free to PM me with any specific questions!

John in Kansas, Going to the beach, or picking up a certain 2002?

Keven wrote: You'll find a more accurate picture of what its like living in Gainsville if you instead asked what it's like living in Alabama. Florida : Great beaches, beautiful weather, diving, fishing, surfing, food, etc etc Gainsville: 165% humidity and UF fans.....about sums it up. Good luck with that!

and not sea breeze .... therefore no relief from the heat ...

I love living in FL, you just have to avoid the tourist areas and see the "real" Florida. If you like nature and hate being cold you'll love it here.

As far as cars- we have a good selection of tracks, lots of autocross, very minimal restrictions on registrable vehicles, no inspection or emissions, and lots of road.

I have lived in Florida since 1977, coming from the frozen northlands of Ohio. I live in Ft. Lauderdale, a VERY different area than G Ville. West coast, as in Sarasota to Gainesville, is much more Mid West US. East coast, Miami to Orlando, is more like East Coast US. (New Yorkers, etc). North part is more Alabama. There will always be something to do. Camping? Ocala National Park. Car stuff? All over the place. Daytona, Sebring, Moroso are all here, as well as mud races, drags, and fun things like Big Daddy's museum in Ocala. Make a trip out of it and head for the Keys, incredible, but bring an open mind if you go all the way to Key West. It can get a bit bizarre there. Busch Gardens is my favorite amusement park, in Tampa, cannot stand Rat World. (Disney). Good roads if Quebec is anything like Ohio, but terminally flat and straight. A bit more hilly up gainesville way. You will find that totally rust free cars are not at all rare. Just don't buy a snowbirds car. Yes, very hot for 4-5 months a year, but fantastic the rest of the time. You will acclimate to it after a while. We do have 2" long roaches (not exaggerating), Poisonous snakes such as the pretty little coral snake. (Most dangerous venom) mosquitoes that make up for their small size with sheer numbers, termites that eat concrete, monitor and tegu lizards with very bad attitudes, 17' long pythons and ,of course, you will see alligators. We even named a road after them. Alligator Alley, I-75 from Ft. Lauderdale to Naples. No where in the state is more than an hour from salt water. What you Canucks brag about when fishing is what we use for bait. (OK, not counting muskies). I would rather live in the Space Coast area than where we are now, crime is a bit intense here. Finding a job will be a challenge, but they are around. If you need more info, PM me. Good tour guide if you get down my way.

elevation at the Gainesville airport = 152'

wbjones- You serious? I would swear nothing around there was that high. Down here, only thing over 100' is a couple of trash piles. No joke.

The heat could be worse from what I've experienced there. The sun gets surprisingly intense but it's not nearly as humid as the tropics, and it's not that hot all year. The roads there will make you want to own a sportbike or a supercar to make the long straight roads interesting but I've heard people don't speed there for a reason.

Florida is many different places. Gainesville is certainly less tropical than the typical stereotype of swaying palm trees and sandy beaches. Yes, there are palm trees in northern Florida, but they share the landscape with pine forests. North Florida is awesome because you may get attacked by an alligator OR a bear. The pythons haven't made it that far yet.

It will freeze for a few days in the winter, and there may even be ice in the trees. It may even snow, but it won't last much longer than it takes to throw a picture on Facebook.

Gainesville is a nice town, but it's a small town at heart. Traffic there is awful at rush hour if you're on any major road. It's got everything you'd need to live, though, and if you want more Orlando and Jacksonville are both less that two hours away.

Best of all, Florida is CHEAP, and gives you a lot of bang for the buck. And there's already plenty of Canadians, so there'll be folks that speak the language.

jg

Another thing a lot of people don't realize is how BIG Florida is. It is an 8 hour drive from Jacksonville to Miami. Oh, our racing season is January to December.

cwh wrote: Another thing a lot of people don't realize is how BIG Florida is. It is an 8 hour drive from Jacksonville to Miami.

Yep. And just as far from Jax to Pensacola. It's the kind of state that defines "you can't get there from here."

jg