I moved to central Florida, from Chicago, this past January. I realize I have only been here for 8 months, so I can't really say if I will be ok with the living here years from now, but so far, I really like it!
I do not like being cold. Snow is pretty when it first falls and coats everything in a white blanket. Then I am done with it. Driving on ice is not pleasurable. Layers of clothing so I don't freeze my parts is not pleasurable. Sweat is more welcome than shivering.
Being able to grow things year round is fantastic! But I love to garden, so this place is perfect for me. Sure, during the 5 months of summer, I garden in the morning and in the evening, but I don't mind that.
When we are hot, we go in the pool and admire the flowers and plants growing around the pool enclosure. Without a pool, then perhaps I would not like living here as much, as I would just go from air conditioning to air conditioning. But with the pool, we are outdoors and enjoying the weather.
Our home is on the Lake Wales, aka Mid-Florida Ridge. It takes about 12 minutes to drive down our hill into town. Where we live, it is not flat and not swampy. But, living here in the hills is the only area where we were going to move to when the time came to move to Florida. I never wanted to live in the flat areas; I like the rolling hills. Also, we tend to have a nice breeze come through every afternoon. The air is not stagnant here in the hills. It is hot, and it is humid, but it has yet to get to the extreme of hot and as humid as the Chicago area ever did.
For my family, we used to come down to Florida in the summer and visit the theme parks. That was when the children were out of school so that was when we were able to take a vacation. We survived. Now that I live here, I never have to stand in line for hours on end at a theme park in the middle of summer, melting! Living in Florida is so much easier than vacationing in Florida in the summer!
The bugs are crazy. The spiders will kill you. But the lizards will eat all of those, and we have lots of lizards and good pest control, so as long as the bugs stay outdoors, I will coexist with them. I would prefer though that the spiders stop building webs in the areas where I walk. If anything does me in, it will be my spider phobia.
We purposely bought a home on dry land, no lake. We have acreage. With no water near us, we do not worry about water moccasins or alligators. Just the killer spiders
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The traffic here is nothing compared to Chicago. People do drive slow though. I live far enough away from theme parks that I don't deal with tourist traffic. People that live here just drive slow. In Chicago, if you don't go at least 80 in a 65 mph area, you will be mowed down by a semi. Here, if you do go over 65 in a 70 speed limit area, you must not be a local! I am not yet a local.
It was easier to adjust to the heat than to change my Chicago driving habits.
Living here in Florida isn't for everyone. My husband brought down his favorite shovel and ice scraper from IL, "just in case we move north again" (I guess one doesn't ever get rid of a favorite shovel?). But we moved down here with an idea of what we liked (hills, no swamp, quiet area, friendly people), and we found it. If we did not find what we were looking for, we would be facing another winter in Chicago, but instead, I am looking forward to wearing just jeans and t-shirt in January!