[ChicagoNative]

We had been snowbirding in St. Petersburg since 2000. We liked St. Pete a lot, but after several years of near-miss hurricanes, in Fall of 2017 we started looking for alternatives to Florida Gulf Coast living. Had lunch with a cousin in Chicago earlier that summer who was snowbirding here and told us about the Villages. We booked a lifestyle visit and immediately started researching the area. We had driven up here a few times from St. Pete before our lifestyle preview and really liked the whole concept. We were convinced and set to buy, but decided on a whim to check out a couple communities outside of the bubble, and absolutely fell in love with, and felt at home when we drove through the gates of our current subdivision. After only one visit in mid October of2017, we came back the next week and put a deposit down on a new home being built.

Our lifestyle preview happened the week before Thanksgiving and we used that week here to line up contractors for work we wanted done in our new home. A combination of hurricane fatigue and family who lived in the Villages is what attracted us to the area, and it’s kind of ironic that the hurricane that had St. Pete in its crosshairs took a slight turn at the last minute and came up through here. We also ended up buying right next to the bubble. (Our community shares a border with TV on two sides). After the Floyd riots in 2020, we sold our properties in Chicago and are now full-time Floridians. There are those who make a point of saying that we aren’t true Villagers, that we are “stealing” amenities we don’t pay for by driving on the golf cart paths, using the Squares, yada yada, but it rolls off my back. We love it here. Our next move will be to the cemetery.