It is tough for me to deal with the cold temperatures. I guess, after years of working outside in the winter months fighting fires and then digging out fires through the slow progression from firefighter to fire marshal, I have a deep desire to go south when the mercury drops below 35 degrees.
Snow is great, but just around Christmas. We tend to keep those cold temperatures and chances of snowfalls well into March here in Roanoke. Thats just too long.
I love Florida. Paula, my wife, and I bought a little place down in Hernando County Florida back in Dec. 2007. I have to tell you, I just love getting down there and fishing in the gulf, smelling the fresh sea breezes. We take our black lab, Max too. He seems to really like it. Jordan & Mason love it also.
We are not directly on the gulf, but are just a short drive over to Pine Island or Hernando Beach. Hernando County is located just north of Tampa Florida and it represents a slower paced "Old Florida" feel and way of life. The coastline is not commercialized at all and in fact is mostly a nature preserve. This part of the gulf in known as the "Nature Coast". There are free roaming manatees in the waterways and other wildlife, to include gators and even wild boars. There are crystal clear rivers that are made from huge underground fresh water springs and under-water caves that are over 100 feet deep.
The County Seat is Brooksville and offers nothing special, except there are some beautiful older homes and stuff. Going into Brooksville is odd because it is like stepping back in time. There are still stores like Western Auto and there is a little hot dog place called "Coney Island Hot Dogs". It is like stepping into a scene from "Happy Days"(the show). Great footlong hotdogs and they have an Elvis impersonator perform there live every first Wed. of each month.(I can't make this stuff up). And get this, Brooksville has rolling hills! in Florida? Its almost like driving through downtown Lynchburg, VA.
Hernando still has the County Fair every year, a Rodeo sponsored by Shriners. It has palm trees and is fairly warm, especially when you compare it to Roanoke. It does get cold at night through those winter months though. In fact Brooksville used to be the tangerine capitol of the world, but you can't find a tangerine tree hardly anywhere now. The weather turned colder at some point and the trees would not produce anymore, so much for global warming theories.
But they still drop a huge tangerine down a pole in downtown Brooksville at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve!
You ought to come down sometime. There are quite a large group of folks from Virginia that I call neighbors , while in Hernando County. It seems that when people come to visit, they can't help but buy themselves a place too! I did.
gotta go for now.
Gary D. Huffman
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