And don't forget about the summer 4:15 PM rains that last for exactly 15
minutes. You could set you watch with them.

I was stationed in Orlando for my first year or so of the Navy. I haven't
been back since 1991. May have to go this summer...

We stayed away from the tourist areas and had a good, economical time.

One small joy was a $5 pizza eaten while sitting at the curb outside the
pizzeria with a couple good friends on Friday nights before returning to
the base and more study time (Nuke Propulsion school).

At 09:56 AM 5/7/02 -0700, you wrote:
>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

Chris M. <Busbodger - "TEAM SLOWPOKE">
Cookeville, Tennessee

ICQ# 5944649
scm9985@tntech.edu

'78 VW Westfalia (67 HP -> that is...67 Hamster Power)
'65 Beetle - Type IV powered
'99 CR-V AWD station wagon
'81 CB900 Custom moto-chickle
2.5 Corvair engines for my Trans-vair Conversion