I have travelled most of my career.
All over the world, and to a few places you would not want to go to.
Some of the armpits of our planet.
Hawaii was my pick for best weather, however, the cost to live there is crazy.
There is no place anywhere on the earth that is perfect.
It's beautiful down here..................from mid-September thru mid-June.
Some of June thru about the beginning of September it is hot and very humid.
Over 90 every day, dipping into the 100's here and there, and humidity in the 80-95% range pretty much every day.
Live up north and deal with the cold, snow, salt, and slop in the winter.
Live down here and deal with the heat in the summer.
Live halfway between them and deal with ice and other issues.
No place perfect.
You want the best?
Have 2 places, one north and one south - become a snowbird.
We wrestled with this for a few years before we moved down here.
We knew we were moving down here and had been planning it since the late 80's early 90's.
But the original plan was to keep the place on Lake Erie and use that for summers.
Donna eventually decided that she didn't want to do this as she didn't want the stress related with owning 2 places.
Specifically, two places that you cannot be at together........at the same time.
She did not want to be down here worrying about the place up there.
And vice versa.
She also didn't want me having to maintain two places - I didn't care about this, but I did understand the stress part.
Being down here and worrying about the place up north on Lake Erie during blizzards and windstorms.
Or being up there worrying about this place down here during hurricanes.
I know..........homeowners' insurance.
Well, I'm here to tell you that dealing with insurance companies is not all gumdrops and roses.
We are still waiting on the contractors to get started to repair the carport and roof over the lanai.
It took the insurance company almost 14 months to finally pay us enough for the damage we sustained from Ian.
Of course, we had to get to a PA and a lawyer to fight them in court in order to get it, and then also pay 25% of our payout to the PA and the lawyer.
There is no place that is perfect.
However, as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home".
Wherever that may be.
We now have the trailer.
We will use that during summer months to escape the heat here and there.
I'm in the process of some very serious upgrades to it so we can go virtually anywhere.
When I'm finished with it I'll post things over in the camping section.
In mid June we will head north for 2 months in NY's southern tier and then a trip to Bar Harbor in September.
Not sure how the stress from being away from this place down here will affect Donna, but we will give it a go and see what happens.