I Love Central Florida

I will start this blog by saying I am not Florida-born. Since we are both Texas natives, relocating to Florida was a major decision for my husband and me. It’s not like we even came here as young adults. I was 45 years old when we moved here. It was almost a forced move because my position at the company I had been with for many years moved to Orlando, so I had to come or get let go. At the time, my husband had a choice because his job would allow him to transfer. At first, we did not want to make such a drastic move from Dallas to Orlando. However, one morning, we woke up, and we both had the same idea to make a test visit. Since we had never lived anywhere else except Texas, we were very apprehensive.

The more I read and heard about Orlando, the more I liked it. After all, the weather was a little better. Our decision to make the move came after our annual ice storm. The roads are covered with ice during this season, and there is no getting around. In snow, you can maneuver and get to different places, but when the roads are caked with ice, there is nowhere to go. It seemed that in North Texas, we always got ice.

First, on our agenda was to find a home. After several trips to Orlando, we chose a home in Winter Springs. We found a house there and started our transition. We came the week of Christmas, so it was cold when we left Dallas. We were dressed in sweatpants and boots to arrive in Orlando in the upper 70s. Of course, we complained until our new neighbor brought to our attention how we were dressed. We needed to shop because our summer clothes were packed, and our moving truck had not arrived. We found a store on the infamous SR 436 highway in Altamonte Springs, where we re-dressed ourselves to accommodate the weather. That made it much easier to accept the warm days. Our neighbor had a swimming pool, so we went swimming on Christmas Eve. After these first few days, I decided I liked everything about Central Florida except for the extreme traffic. At that time, there was no way to get anywhere except I-4, which was a nightmare. Coming from a large city linked together only by freeways and highways was a shocker. They have since built many tollways and widened many heavily traveled roads to make driving around Orlando less challenging.

So, now that I have told you about how we got here, I’ll tell you why we like it. First of all, the weather. There are a few colder days, but I have yet to see it freeze over, and even the cold weather, or what Floridians call cold, never lasts over a few days. After being here for 30 years now, I have become accustomed to wearing a heavy coat when it’s 49 degrees. That’s a cold day for us. That’s Central Florida cold. Many of our family members have migrated here, and even though we are not so outgoing anymore, there is a never-ending sea of fun stuff to do. When asked if I miss the changing seasons, my answer emphatically is, “Yes,” but I wouldn’t return to Texas to see the trees turn colors. I just heard the weather forecast for Dallas, and they are expecting freezing rain and frigid temperatures in the next few days. We are expecting rain, but it isn’t freezing – high temperatures here for the next few days are in the low 70s.  I’ll take that any day.