South Florida

We are trying to decide where we want to live “when we grow up”. Florida is nice for the weather and no income taxes. But we’ve found that southern Florida is a definite “no”. While it’s warm (it’s been in the 60’s-80’s while the East is in their blizzard), that means that bugs don’t die in the winter. So, while you want to wear shorts and T-shirts, you have to wear long sleeves and long pants and spray yourself with Deet to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes and No-See-Um’s. John had several bites swell up so much that we considered going to the emergency room.

Everybody comes down here in the winter (and the summer!) so it’s crowded. It’s now the 3^rd most populous state in the U.S. Along with the high toll fees, highway travel is busy. Many of the drivers are just crazy and weave back and forth between the lanes (we’ve seen a lot of accidents). With all these people, towns are connected with little to no country spaces between them.

And, because there are so many snow birds, the RV parks, county parks, and state parks are full. You need to make reservations sometimes months in advance, which means we don’t have the freedom we normally have. Plus campsites are small so parks can fit in more people. To top it off, prices are high.

We stopped in Lake Worth for a few days. The county park had too many people in a small area. The internet was really bad (slow and intermittent). While there were paths, they weren’t nature trails but instead were jogging trails. They had a laundry, but people kept breaking the machines to get the quarters. While most parks had friendly people ready to chat, in this one everyone kept to themselves. Not a fun park.

All that said, we’ve found that the Everglades National Park is wonderful!