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Back before Connie and I bought property in Florida and moved down here, we used to come down here quite often on vacations. On one trip we were driving through Tallahassee on the way back home, and we saw a stand alongside the road selling pecans. So we turned around and pulled in there to take a couple bags back home with us. The guy running the stand (Tony) helped load the bags into the back of the Bronco, and noticed the Maryland license plate. He thought for a minute, then finally blurted out, "I see you are from up north, Maryland. Can you tell me something?" I said "Sure." And he says "Just why the Hell would anyone live up there anyway?" I thought for a moment, then replied " I guess because I was born and raised up there, and just don't know any better." That seemed to be the answer he was looking for. And truth be known, I thought it was a damned good question.
Wasn't too much longer when we decided that we now "knew better", and planned on moving to Florida. Neither one of us likes cold weather at all, and with the political and regulatory climate in Maryland getting worse every year, well, why not?
And the rest is history. Not that Florida is perfect, by no means, but it is definitely better, for us anyway, than being in Maryland. I can go outside right now and see flowers blooming and butterflies flying around, as well as green anoles and fence lizards taking advantage of a relatively warm sunny spot. But to each their own, I guess. Everyone has their own reasons for living where they want to. Wild horses couldn't drag me back to Maryland to live again. Or to be honest, anywhere else where frozen water was a common thing during the Winter months.
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