[Dirigo]

First of all, let me say that TOTV is a well run, friendly, informative, entertaining, lively forum and I have been addicted to it ever since I discovered it. I have spent many hours learning about life in Florida’s Friendliest Retirement Hometown.

By way of introduction, my wife, the lovely Diane, and I first discovered The Villages in 2000 by chance. We were on our way from Davenport, FL, where we were staying with friends while on vacation, to Ocala National Forest for the day.

We passed under the cart bridge on Rte 27 and saw “The Villages” sign and thought “What are 'The Villages'?” Curious, we stopped in at Spanish Springs on the way home and were immediately taken with TV. We came back and spent the next day of our vacation at The Villages driving around, taking the trolley tour, talking to a sales rep., looking at model homes, and walking around Spanish Springs (for LSL was only a twinkle in the developer’s eye at that time).

We started getting the videos and have quite a collection of them now. We watch them on cold, snowy winter days and dream of what life could be like living in TV.

We visited relatives, who were living in that other famous retirement community south of Sarasota, for three days in 2002. We were struck by the differences between “that place” and TV. After a coupe of days I called TV to ask if there was any room at the inn because we wanted to bail. We were turned away from TV and spent our third day at “that place”, then tore off for a day trip to TV to walk around, have lunch, hit a few golf balls, and wave to the smiling residents passing by in their golf carts. We have not been back to TV since. I expect there have been many changes at TV. I hope it is as nice as we remember.

We both have well paying jobs here in Maine and are not quite ready to give them up in this economy, so we continue to eliminate debt and pile up cash in anticipation of our eventual retirement and our move to join the fortunate few who live in TV.

To that end we are arriving late on February 24th for a six day Lifestyle Preview. I have been reading TOTV with great interest and amusement for the last three weeks trying to get a feel for the lifestyle, the pros and cons of living in TV, and the attitudes of the residents.

A special thanks to Muncle for his warning of September 17, 2008 “DO NOT attempt to feed carrots or other delicacies to the Lifestyle visitors." We won’t expect any carrots and such from the residents, but we would like to meet some of you and get your candid insight to living in TV.

The lovely Diane does not play golf, but she kindly encourages me to play, so I’m looking for someone to play golf with during our Lifestyle Preview. I’m a 22 handicap who can play like a 10 on one shot and like a 30 on the next, so it should be an amusing round.

By the way, Dirigo is pronounced DEAR-ago, and it is the State motto of Maine. It is Latin and means “I direct” or “I lead”. My use of that moniker is tribute to my home state, not an indication of my demeanor.