Date:         Tue, 7 May 2002 09:56:16 -0700
Reply-To:     Bill N <freeholder@STARBAND.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Bill N <freeholder@STARBAND.NET>
Subject:      Re: The truth about Florida--Love Bugs
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I lived in Florida for a year.  I spent the first 6 months on the northern tip on Pine Island
in an old house (widow's walk and all) right on the ocean, and the next 6 months in Cape Coral.
There were a lot of insects, so I got a field guide and studied them.  Ditto for the reptiles.
Very interesting place.  I went fishing and crabbing a lot.  Picked all the oranges I could eat
from the 5 acres of old trees I owned.  Did you know that the blossom end (away from the stem)
is sweeter?  We would cut them in half and throw the stem end away.

Spent a lot of time in the everglades.  We once counted 134 alligators in a 30 mile drive.  We
added an awful lot of birds to our life list.

Yes, there are a lot of snowbirds and upper east coast people there, but they didn't go to the
same places we liked.  Slog out into the everglades a ways and you won't see many motorhomes.
The weather?  Hot in the summer, but actually not much worse than Northern Illinois, where I
grew up.  Washington DC is about identical in the summer.

Yes, you can step on a jellyfish or ray -- if you aren't careful.  Where I live now, there are
black widows under every other rock (literally), and giant centipedes (up to 8 inches) that
have a very painful bite.  There are also scorpions, gila monsters, coral snakes, and 15
species of rattlesnake.  None have ever got me yet.  You learn to look under stuff before you
pick it up.

I went back a couple of years ago.  We put a new AVP engine in our '81 Westy and wanted to take
it out for a test drive (we put about 800 miles on it first).  We took two weeks and went to
Key West.  I still liked Florida.  There are still a lot of wild areas and beaches with nobody
else on them.  Look around.  Rolling across 7 mile bridge with everything you need right in
your VW is a great feeling.  It doesn't get much better.  We camped on Big Pine Key (in the
"primitive area" of the campground -- water, but no electric or sewer, so no motorhomes.  Key
deer were in our camp most of the time.  Some great places to hike.  All in all, don't believe
all the negative stuff too much.  Sure, Florida has some lousy places, but so does everywhere
else.  Not bad overall.

Bill