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
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