We've decided: We're moving to Florida!

When we moved to Orlando 35 years ago from the frozen north, all our friends wailed "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAND ALL THAT HEAT AND HUMIDITY???"

Well, I've never had to shovel two feet of heat and humidity off my driveway; I've never had to scrape an inch of heat and humidity off my windshield; I've never had to drive 5 mph because the roads were covered with heat and humidity; my roof has never collapsed from three feet of heat and humidity; I've never slipped on the heat and humidity on the sidewalk and broken my tailbone; and my water pipes have never burst from the heat and humidity.

That usually shuts them up real fast....

Love this! I'm going to use it!!
 
Some things you'll find out about driving in the Orlando area.

1. There is a magnetic force field in the area that makes all auto turn signals inoperative.
2. MERGE means GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY. They will just force you off the road if you don't let them in.
3. There must be one heck of a prize for getting to the red light the fastest, everyone is trying to get the prize.
4. Almost no one (including some police officers strangely enough) can tell you what the blue lights on the traffic signals mean.

Just a side not, road construction takes twice as long as other states. The Orlando area has to be the underground pipe capital of the US.

I've never noticed blue lights on the traffic signals. I assume they have something to do with emergency vehicles?

The rest all reminds me of driving in New England. When we first moved to the Midwest a few years ago, I nearly rear-ended cars at the first 20 yellow lights I encountered because I'd never known anybody to stop at them before!
 
Is the blue light on the traffic signal a blinking light? If so they are intended to let drivers know if the light is I believe red in the event that glare from the sun makes it hard to tell if the light is on.
 
I've never noticed blue lights on the traffic signals. I assume they have something to do with emergency vehicles?

The rest all reminds me of driving in New England. When we first moved to the Midwest a few years ago, I nearly rear-ended cars at the first 20 yellow lights I encountered because I'd never known anybody to stop at them before!

The light comes on when the signal is red so that cops can tell from the back side of the traffic signal if a driver went through the red light.
 


This is what I tell people all the time when I say I want to live in Florida. They say oh no the heat would kill me, but really I like it and as you said you stay inside in summer and outside in the winter. We stay inside in the winter here and outside in the summer. One thing is our summers are very short and some days lately it's as hot and humid as down there.

When I lived up north, I never really wanted to go outside in the winter because it looked so dismal. In FL, it looks absolutely beautiful in the summer so you want to go outside and ride your bike or go for a walk. Unfortunately, just walking my dogs around the block requires a shower when I am done. I find it far more frustrating to be inside when it looks so beautiful outside but it is just too bloody hot to do anything.
 
Congratulations:thumbsup2sounds like you've thought it through and having a job that follows you is very cool. I have a work friend who moved to Celebration around 2001 and hasn't regretted it one moment. His two sons went to the local school until high school and then transferred into private schools. His job was portable too, and in my mind that truly makes all the difference. Celebration is no longer owned by Disney, but they love their home and have no desire to move. I get such a kick out of his ability to scoot on over to any of the parks or resorts for something. He emails me with "I was hungry for a hot dog at Casey's and had one for lunch" or "we're going over to DHS to see the (Osbourne) Lights tonight"pixiedust:THAT is cool:cool1:
 
Weather, culture, religion, and politics are some of my reasons. I won't really elaborate, since that would likely get me into trouble. But I feel like 99% of the people I've met down here, however lovely they are, fall into one very narrow 'type' that I have nothing in common with.

OK, now I'm curious. Since I'm probably in that 99% of the people down here, I'd absolutely LOVE to hear what that very narrow "type" is..... You do know, don't you, that a good percentage of people in Central Florida have moved here from somewhere else? Well, duh, obviously you do, since you yourself moved here from somewhere else. It's kind of hard to believe that people who have moved here from all over the country (and the world) mostly fall into one "type". Or is Central Florida some sort of cosmic black hole that sucks in that one particular "type"? Really, inquiring minds want to know....
 


Also, in Winter Garden my parents can hear the loudest booms of the MK fireworks, so you will definitely hear them in Windermere.

When I first moved to Windermere, DD and I would run to the front porch each night to watch Wishes. That lasted about a week. Most nights, I don't even notice the sound of the fireworks. The dog, who is very sensitive to noises, doesn't even flinch. The only time I notice them is if they are at an odd time of night...late due to a special event.

You can get used to just about anything. I live about two miles behind MK.
 
FERALPEG:

Is that little ice cream shop just north of the roundabout on the east side of the street still there? Haven't been through Widermere for quite awhile (go out 528 to I4 now) but used to stop there on my way to work in the summers several years ago. Good ice cream.

Allen's is still there and very popular!
 
Your family sounds so much like ours--I'd love to keep in touch!

Dh works from home too, so we have the opportunity to move anywhere we want. Guess where we are going once our house sells? ;)

We are in the Portland area and are SO tired of the constant grey and depressing weather. Even in July last year, there were too many days where the sky didn't clear until 2pm and I had the kids in jackets. Yuck. Tired of that!

Do you have a house that you need to sell first? We are almost ready to get ours on the market.

We are selling and donating a lot of what we own. Do you have a plan for moving your stuff? We are thinking of doing something like Pods. Driving a U-Haul with gas prices over $4 a gallon doesn't make sense to us :)
 
Do you have a house that you need to sell first? We are almost ready to get ours on the market.

Nope, we are renters right now. Buying a house will need to wait a while for us because we got caught in the 2008 housing market collapse. I don't like renting, but the freedom of being able to move wherever we want is a bonus.

We are selling and donating a lot of what we own. Do you have a plan for moving your stuff? We are thinking of doing something like Pods. Driving a U-Haul with gas prices over $4 a gallon doesn't make sense to us :)

We are going to do Pods most likely too, or something similar. With Pods you can pack at your own pace, plan a scheduled pickup and drop-off, and generally just feel better about such a long move in my opinion. Others I have talked to who have moved to a different state have done the same thing and said it worked well for them.

We're having my car shipped and then driving our minivan as a family across the country for a week. It will be fun!
 
The light comes on when the signal is red so that cops can tell from the back side of the traffic signal if a driver went through the red light.

Fascinating. Up here there have red light cameras at so many intersections (and they have mobile units, so you never know where they'll be monitoring) that any vestiges of trying to beat a yellow light that I once had have been firmly crushed into obedience.
 
Fascinating. Up here there have red light cameras at so many intersections (and they have mobile units, so you never know where they'll be monitoring) that any vestiges of trying to beat a yellow light that I once had have been firmly crushed into obedience.

Lots of those in Orlando as well. I got one once. Sent a picture along with it. There I was plain as day. :rotfl:
 
Lots of those in Orlando as well. I got one once. Sent a picture along with it. There I was plain as day. :rotfl:

Yes, anybody who says they don't change behavior has never studied me! I went from an unrepentant speeder, yellow-light racer and habitual rolling-stopper to a very safe and by the books driver with the introduction of these in our metropolitan area. But I'll be darned if I'm going to pay $200 to roll a red light, especially when I obviously should not have been doing it in the first place!
 
Anyone who lives in FL ever get tired or bored of Disney? That is one of my fears when we move, is that it will become too "normal" for us.
 
Anyone who lives in FL ever get tired or bored of Disney? That is one of my fears when we move, is that it will become too "normal" for us.

I've lived here nine years. I still love my time in the parks, but I don't go anywhere near as often as I did when we first moved to Windermere.

The nice part is that you don't feel pressure to go or to do a great deal when you go. I go when I'm in the mood. While there, I do just what I want. If I get tired or the lines are too long, I leave. I can always go back at any time.

Often, when I do visit a park, I simply people watch or stroll around. I only ride rides with very short wait times. I am more into the atmosphere than the rides now days.
 
Anyone who lives in FL ever get tired or bored of Disney? That is one of my fears when we move, is that it will become too "normal" for us.

I haven't tired of going, I go often for lunch and rarely stay more than 2 hrs at at a time.
 
When we moved to Orlando 35 years ago from the frozen north, all our friends wailed "HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAND ALL THAT HEAT AND HUMIDITY???"

Well, I've never had to shovel two feet of heat and humidity off my driveway; I've never had to scrape an inch of heat and humidity off my windshield; I've never had to drive 5 mph because the roads were covered with heat and humidity; my roof has never collapsed from three feet of heat and humidity; I've never slipped on the heat and humidity on the sidewalk and broken my tailbone; and my water pipes have never burst from the heat and humidity.

That usually shuts them up real fast....

As a Minnesotan that wants to relocate and is hearing this... I love it.
 
I haven't tired of going, I go often for lunch and rarely stay more than 2 hrs at at a time.

I can't even imagine....just the thought of being able to do that makes me a little dizzy! That's awesome.
 
I have enjoyed reading this thread (only found it today). We live in Missouri, which my DH and I lovingly call "Misery". We have dreamed of moving to Florida for years. He has a job that has many locations and have kept in touch with the location in Jacksonville, FL, just waiting for a job opening that would be acceptable. We always thought we would move around the time that DS17 graduated from HS. He will be a senior this coming year. Well, a month ago a job was posted and DH applied. He got a call last Wednesday and is going down next week for an in-person interview. I am beyond excited!! :banana: If he gets the job it will be hard to begin with. I will stay here until DS graduates, so we will have to live apart for almost a year. They are wanting to have the position filled by August, and I would need to be here until mid May 2014. But the company will pay for us to move and will help with selling our house. We hope that DS's and I would be able to go down a few times during the year. We also would be going into this move with the attitude that if we don't like it he would always have a job to come back to. Of course, I hope we love it. My parents are getting older so they are my only concern at this point. I think they will visit regularly as they are semi-retired. I think at some point I could convince them to move down or at least be snow birds. My parents are extremely close to both my boys so I think they would want to be nearer to us. My DS17 hasn't decided where he will be going to college yet but has always hoped to go to U of F in Gainesville. So that would be nice for us to be closer to him as well.

I'm just so excited for anyone following their dreams and taking the big step of moving from your comfort zone and taking on a new adventure. I CAN NOT wait to start ours!! Congrats to you and good luck to us!!
 

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