[rwcw]

I've been just lurking for a while but I think it's important for prospective Florida residents to understand that it is terribly hot during June, July, August and September. The Gulf of Mexico water temperature gets up over 90 degrees this time of the year off of St Petersburg. We lived there for six and a half years and two more years in Jacksonville. There are insects called Palmetto bugs that are as big as your thumb that you will sooner or later run into, probably in your house, because they come in as eggs on the items that were stored in the back room of the grocery store or in a warehouse somewhere. There are love bugs that will defile the front of your car. There are poisonous snakes and alligators in Florida. You will most likely encounter them sooner or later in the Villages if you go near the water or into the woods. Cotton mouth moccasins, Pygmy and diamond back rattlesnakes and coral snakes. Sink holes are common in Florida. Of course you'll have your hurricane stories to tell if you live here long enough. My experience has been that the medical facilities and personnel have a tough time keeping up with the population growth which leads to some less than great practitioners. We had a Cuban doctor and a couple of interns when we lived in St Pete and had a very unsatisfactory situation occur with an oncologist in Jacksonville. My mother and father in law lived in Bellview in a trailer (right across from what was then Orange Blossom Hills) and we swore at the time we'd never live in that part of Florida again.

My folks came down before me over in Deltona when it was a new Mackle Brothers development and later moved to Sun City near Tampa when Mackle moved on and the golf club privatized and decided that the residents could no longer use their own carts on the course but had to use theirs for a fee. My sister raised her kids in Winter Park and now lives over on the east coast in Sebastian.

Even understanding exactly what I'll be getting my wife and myself into, we're heading on down from our PA home for a preview visit in October with the intention of getting serious about moving to the Villages. My wife's brother and his wife live there now and have for five or six years. I'm looking forward to golf, golf, golf and oh yes, did I mention golf when we get there. I'm 70 now so it's abut time I decide what I'm going to do when I grow up.