10 years Later

 The last blog post, 10 years ago ends in the unknown.  So much water under the bridge since then.  The quickest update is.  We decided on the southern town of Fernandina Beach, FL.  this is a town on Amelia Island.  Settling here was a result of a fairly exhaustive search of Florida, some of which was chronicled in the previous blog posts.  We now live here seasonally, through the winter, and return to Vermont for the beautiful summer.  We have in that time bought a boat and lived on that for 5 years and for the last 5 years lived in a house we purchased on the island. 

1 year later

  The question has been asked of me time and time again, " well where did you decide to settle for the winters?" Sorry,,,, I have not been able to answer that. Seems like I should, but honestly I just don't feel I have been able to mentally conclude the search. As a result I have been in limbo. Of coarse I have a partner in the decision, my wife, while she has allowed me to do a lot of the leg work and research on things,  her opinion is going to factor into this decision... huge. Out of the places I visited last time (for various reasons) I concluded that Natchez, MS and Dunedin FL. were the only towns remaining on my list. The wife seems to be fairly against Dunedin. She points out that we spent quite a number of years wintering on the southwest coast of Florida  and that I did nothing but bitch and complain relentlessly about the traffic and horrible concrete wasteland. She claims I will have a stroke shortly after moving there and also that we have been there, done that and why would we look for new things and adventures in places of the past. Ok valid points. So that leaves just Natchez on the list. Now I have given my wife the Google maps street tour of the town which by the way if you have never used this feature it is something you should check out...We hooked up the computer to the 42inch TV, put it on full screen mode and you can literally walk down almost any street in town just like you were there. Stop at any point look 360 degrees around.  Check out that house for rent or sale. It is really unbelievable. Anyway the town is really pretty with such cool houses. We love that part. It is also about the right size for us not to big not to to small. It is a good walking town if your close to the center. It is also very cheap compared to where we are from. The negatives that I see are...it is actually not all that warm in the winter, this is relative, but considerably cooler then any part of Florida,,,,.it seems fairly stagnant in terms of culture. This is not a jumping place. It is not anything near what you would call hip or happening, There seems to be a dirth of what I call forward movement. In fact I believe the town is losing population. There is not a lot of work in the area from what I can tell. It has some really poor areas. It is segregated and seems like there is a drug crime culture in areas of town. Also, this is Mississippi we are talking about so being a bible thumping conservatives is pretty much a given, however on the plus side I have been reading the local paper online, it allows people to comment on stories and they really do, good sign. Also there is a lot of people who comment with good views so there is a progressive element down there. It seems that although it is certainly a red town it may in fact be a lot less red then a lot of the other areas in the deep south....Natchez is defiantly a possibility but I want to poke around a bit more.
   I will be leaving on March 31st with my wife this time for a week We are flying into Orlando and out of New Orleans. Some of the places we will be visiting. Deland FL, St Augustine FL, Fernandina Beach FL, Madison FL, Ocean Springs MS, Laurel MS, Natchez MS, Natchitoches LA, Covington LA and the surrounding towns.
   I intend to do some posting to the blog as we go......It will be nice to have some company this time, although I doubt I will get much time dancing with transvestites or attending whiskey soaked jam band events.  I'll keep you posted

Home at Last

The trip is over clocked in at just over 2500miles...The snow is still here when I arrive home but things have definitely melted. Some areas of the garden are clear. Last years garlic planted in the fall is poking up ready to spring forward. Driving up my road they are still sugaring, steam rolling out of the sugarhouse as they boil down the syrup.
In closing I would like to just make a couple observations about the south I traveled through. We all have preconceived notions of places that may or may not be true. The South from a Northerners view is often though of as a racist place. Filled with bigots. Now I have no idea how many black people actually live in any of those states I passed through. I was always under the impression that there was a high population of blacks in the south. The odd thing is I seemed to rarely see any black people in the places I went. Yes I would see them at a gas station or working at a fast food store. Sometimes I would see them sitting out on their porch or hanging out laundry as I drove through the countryside. However they were almost never in any place I was eating or drinking or staying. None. I would not even really see them in the towns I went to other then perhaps sweeping the street or something like that. On several occasions, at restaurants I would get a glance into the kitchen and it would be staffed with 100% blacks. The restaurant customers were 100% white… In the packed dining room the only blacks were emptying the trash. Something is really wrong with that picture. On a number of occasions without any provocation from me I had people saying really derogatory things about the black population. Something that in the North would be pretty unusual in the circumstance I was in. Now I don’t and have never lived in the south. I’m not going to render a judgment on white or black society. I guess my main thought is this. If you’re a black person, living in the south, do yourself a favor and get the fuck out of there.
Point number two. Northerners think the south is filled with toothless dimwitted rednecks. This perception has been largely ingrained by the people you see on Jerry Springer and movies like Deliverance. From what I saw that stereotype is largely a myth. What you are talking about are just fairly poor undereducated rural people. They are everywhere, including Vermont, Maine, Wyoming and Alabama. It is not an exclusive southern thing. I had people in Vermont tell me I should carry a gun on my trip and that I would be hated as a yank down south. I never saw any of that. People were all friendly and no different from anywhere else I have traveled in The USA. Rednecks are just country people. Country people are the same everywhere you go. Some are great, some are assholes just like city people. If your in their town just be polite. Don’t talk about stuff you don’t know about. Stay away from topics like religion and politics. Just common sense, go with the flow and thank the guy next to you when he buys you a beer. That’s all I got. Thanks for reading.
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Tallahasee FL, Gulf Shores AL, Fair Hope AL, New Orleans LA

The last day of the trip. I have to admit I am starting to feel a bit road weary. These last several drives have been fairly long. I say goodbye to my friend and head out towards New Orleans. I have two stops along the way Gulf Shores and Fair Hope Alabama. Not having much luck in the rest of Alabama I am hoping these towns along the coast will not be the same. Gulf Shores ends up being a strict beach town. It remains part of the “redneck Rivera” Mountains of billboards and tacky crap greet you. This is a place of water-parks and huge condos set right on the beach. Like Panama city a spring break Mecca. I have no issue with this, I rather enjoy this type of area if I am looking for a beach vacation, but I am really on a quest for some place to live and work in a somewhat normal community. This just doesn’t seem to fit the bill. Prices advertised for beach property here do appear to be a lot cheaper then Florida. I find it hard to believe that any of these huge concrete towers will make it through a major hurricane. They sit right on the beach. I drive along the shore road and spy an older wooden restaurant and beach bar wedged between towers of concrete. I stop for lunch. It is so windy stepping out of the car is like having someone run a sandblaster over your face. I seek refuge in “Bahama Bobs” I join the bar crowd and have a Corona. I order a Mahi, Mahi sandwich. Now often at these types of places the crew working there will begin to hate people just by the fact there are so many of them making their life hell. In Bahama Bob’s case they seemed to be all great and very friendly. Customers at the bar were also having a good time. I stayed longer then I should have but enjoyed my time there. Two thumbs up. I moved on to Fair Hope about 20 miles away. This town represents the polar opposite of the rest of Alabama. It is prosperous and seems to have a lot to offer. Nice downtown, fancy homes on the shore but regular homes too. It has a sprawl area ….well we all need a Wal-Mart and a Publics…but it is just outside of town and is designed very well. It is all landscaped and screened with trees so it almost looks good. The town has a lot to offer and the beaches are close. Alabama pulls one out of the hat. From here I headed to New Orleans for my plane the next morning. I came into the city a different way then I left and was really pretty surprised to see the city is still in really bad shape. Street after street of abandon homes and large buildings falling into decay. They will not recover from that flood for many years to come. To bad a great city. I checked into the Raddison and then hit some BBQ bar for my last fix of southern food. Louisiana smoked sausage is the best.

Mt. Dora FL, Micanopy FL, Tallahassee FL

I could not wait to get out of the bug-ridden hotel so I got in to town early. Mt. Dora is a pretty town sitting in the middle of ugly central Florida. It is isolated and self contained enough so you could live there and not really know that just 3 miles away the world was much different. The Town is upscale and sits on a little hill overlooking Lake Dora. Lake Dora is really not much to write home about. It is surrounded by scrubby low lands not particularly attractive. The water is sort of a putrid green, Not something your going to swim in. They do some bird watching and stuff but I saw little evidence of major lake activity. As I said there are some nice looking inns here and restaurants. The town is well kept and pretty. They have a bunch antique shops I browsed through. Hardly a real antique in any of these stores. Lots of other stuff mixed in. I don’t really have anything against the town but frankly it just felt old to me. By that I mean old people old. Everyone seemed to be in their mid 70’s the town seemed to lack vibrancy. I am sure I would be happy here pushing my walker down the street in another 25 years, but for the moment I think I’ll take a pass. I left and headed northwest. Just below Gainesville is a small town called Micanopy. There was a sign on the highway claiming the largest antique center in the area so I stopped to check it out. There are a number of barns near the highway several exits apart that house a really good selection of antiques. These are dealer shops and there was hardly any repros or craft crap in them. Worth a stop if your into collecting something. I turned and went to downtown Micanopy. They have a very nice historic little downtown set under huge oak trees. It consists of a café, a gift shop and about 10 antique shops, all of which were pretty decent. This area obviously draws a lot of dealers from up North. The community itself is quite small. Houses sit under the shade of oaks on small, often dirt roads. It is kind of a nice stop but there is nothing here in the downtown area. People who live here go elsewhere for normal daily needs. I will mention that they do also have a strip bar. I believe “we bare it all” is their slogan. Now I am not going to say I stopped there, as that would upset people I love. My guess is you should bring lots of money, as your wallet will be emptied quickly by naked nubile woman. My last stop for the night was Tallahassee. I have a friend who lives there so I stopped for the night to see him. I have been to Tallahassee several times in the past. While I really don’t have that on my list of places to go I have to say it seems to be a pretty livable small city. My friend lives in a very nice little neighborhood, again with these big oaks. The town is also surprisingly hilly which adds a nice touch. I would say if you were looking at cities in Florida to Jacksonville, Orlando, Gainesville etc. Tallahassee is well worth a look. I would pick it over all others.

Dunedin FL to Mt. Dora FL

Today was a beach day. I had to be out of the Motel by 10:00am, which was an early, wake up for me. I spent the morning checking out the town more thoroughly. I picked up some real estate info and just generally tried to get a feel for the place. Around noon the sun came out and I decided it was a good time to check out the beaches. There are two beaches both exactly five miles from town. The one to the south is full of people, condos and beach bars the one to the north is a state park that has nothing but a snack bar on it. Yes the snack bar does sell beer. I decided I did not have to leave town till the evening so I had all day at the beach. I definitely liked the more active one. I would not want to live out there but you have your choice of all kinds of beach bars and restaurants. The one I stumbled into had a really talented guy playing solo acoustic music. I enjoyed it immensely. It seemed in that moment rumrunners were in order. Later on I drifted up to the state park beach which was great in it’s own way. Nothing bad to say about either, what is your preference? Sometime after I had lobsterized my bright white new england skin, probably around 5 PM I set off for Mt Dora in central Florida. I decided to go see it because it has consistently been on the list of “100 best small towns in America” I am not sure who gets to be the judge of that, but thought it was worth a look. I arrived as the sun was sinking and so was I from my beach burn and rum punches. I made a brief stop in town and determined I would not be able to afford a room at the Inn on the lake. I asked a cop where the cheap rooms were and they sent my just out of town to this place called E.COM …I suppose it is a play on economy but a bit of a stretch. It looks like a total dump. I went in and there were couple people in there that didn’t speak English but they motioned I should stay. I waited for a few minutes and they brought their son out who spoke English. He wanted $42 for the night and that was just in my price range. The room was decorated from a yard sale. Everything was old and shabby. I turned down the sheets and was really wondering if these had been changed recently. That night I kept feeling itchy like bugs were crawling on me. Now I am not jumping to conclusions here. Maybe it was just my sunburn or perhaps I needed to check into a detox center but I could not stop thinking it was bugs. So if you’re down that way I recommend scratching E.COM off your itinerary.

Thomasville GA to Dunedin FL

When I opened my eyes I was very thankful to see I was not in a Georgia jail cell. I can just hear the phone call to the wife now..Ah honey, can you fly down to Georgia and bail me out of prison?….this would immediately be followed by a click and a dial tone. Oh well their goes my one phone call. No thanks officer I am not really into working on a chain gang. Oh that’s not an option?…. Maybe I should stay in this town. You know what they say, once you have ruined your reputation your finally free to do whatever you want. On second thought I think I’ll just put on some dark sunglasses, a hat and slip out of town.
Florida as I am sure you all know is flat and for the most part ugly. My destination is Dunedin just north of Tampa. As I get near I pull off the interstate to travel about 10-15 miles to the coast. This entire portion of land is covered in concrete and contains a never-ending rotation of corporate retail crap. Whatever stores are in your town’s sprawl area they are here too. When they run out of them it just starts repeating again. Interspersed are planned communities of some type. All are behind concrete walls with names like Pelican Bay or Still Waters. They can be condos, mobile homes, townhouses or individual homes. People living in this big sea of concrete are immediately assaulted by bumper to bumper traffic the minute they edge out of their protected gates. It is extremely sad and disheartening to me that this is what has been allowed to happen to pretty much the entire state along the coast. Certainly true of all South Florida. I want to relate a story that I think is very telling. Many years ago we used to spend the winters in Florida in our moterhome. We had our young teenage kids with us. We were parked initially in one of these shopping plazas. It was evening and my son fell asleep. We were on our way across the state to the east coast. The next day he woke up and asked why we had not left. I said we did you slept through it. He looked out the window again and tried to make the argument by sighting the stores around us. OK, you get the point. It is all the same. Relentless and void of any interest or imagination. You can not really blame the very first areas for allowing this to happen. You know, sounds good to start with. The thing that is really troubling is once everyone saw how horrible this was they didn’t stop it. They just allowed the sprawl to slowly engulf the entire state. How in the world are you ever going to fix it now? And why do people still want to live in their walled world amidst it? I honestly don’t get it but that is just my opinion seems I am in a small minority.
Dunedin is not an oasis and there are plenty of places in Florida that are much nicer. Unfortunately the nicer the area the more money it takes to be there. I kinda like Sanibel Island, or Captiva, Jupiter Island, Boca Grande. Take Ft Lauderdale as an example. If you were really rich you could live in the area with the big beautiful homes with a boat and your dock. It would be great. I’d have some movie star or ball player as a neighbor. However with my income I would end up living under an overpass next to Joe’s pawn shop. I do have to be realistic. Dunedin is not on the beach it is on the bay. It does have a little original historic downtown area that is attractive and holds 5 or so restaurants, a great little dive bar called skips bar and grill, a dance hall etc. The surrounding town is very affordable. You can buy a little 2-bedroom place for $60,000 to $100,000 no problem. From what I can tell you can get a 6 month lease on one for about $950.00 an efficiency is probably half that. One of the other things that drew my attention is it has a paved bike trail running right through the center of town. You can live in Dunedin and never have to get in a car, which is a prerequisite to living anywhere in Florida for me. I just can not deal with the traffic bad for my mental health. There are also 2 great beaches only 5 miles away. Now these things are probably available in a many Florida locations. This is just one possibility.
I arrived parked the car and wandered into Skips for a beer. Very cool place if you are into dives. Skip must be a genius he is down at the end of the bar drinking beer with all his buddies swapping war stories while his highly efficient bartender handles the whole place and it is busy. How does she do it? Well the place only sells beer and wine. 4 drafts the rest of the choices are on ice in coolers. They only take cash. They have one meal a crockpot thing over rice. Simply genius, I am sure that Skip is a millionaire.
I strike up a conversation with the bartender. After pumping her for info on where the cheap hotels, housing and beach scene is I head out for a walk about. I like it overall. Has possibilities if I don’t have to drive anywhere. I find the hotel she told me about, one of those old motor court things. The owner is very friendly the place is nice and clean although it still comes in as the most expensive place I have stayed on the trip $89 the room has a kitchen in it. Be nice for an extended stay. I really need a power nap as I did not get back to my room last night till after 2am…zzzzzzzzz…around 7pm I go back to Skips for another and then go out to find some place for dinner. Eventually settling on some seafood place. I eat at the bar. The local girl who is bartending is a sweet heart talks about the area and keeps me company. I am still kinda beat from my long day so I head out early and call it a night.