Well…it’s official. We’re headed back to Florida. I said we would never move back to Florida in one of my posts…but it appears I spoke incorrectly (perhaps I should go into politics). As the old expression goes….”never say never”.

We did a couple months of research on the Charleston/Savannah areas and found them both to be lacking. Too crowded, too expensive and really lousy real estate markets. Taken individually, not too bad….but when added together…they were deal-breakers.

So, we did what we always do….made our lists of the things that are important to us in an area….got out the mighty AAA road atlas and started looking. While taking Tuck for a walk one day around the lake in Fountain Hills (they have the world’s tallest fountain), I met a cool lady, also walking her doggie, who had recently moved from the Saint Augustine area and we got to talking about the area. Since we wanted to explore an area entirely new to us, it sounded promising. Another month of research followed and we liked what we saw…..great beaches, fun towns, dog-friendly, affordable real estate, close to a large town, close to an international airport, great climate and last but not least,…close to major medical facilities (Mayo has a large hospital in Jacksonville). The rest, as they say, is history.

We got into action and located a climate-controlled storage unit, a short -term rental to use while we check out the area, made a call to the now familiar Penske folks and lined up a truck and a car carrier, called local and long-distance movers, started packing up the house and began plotting our route. While it might sound like the easiest part of the process, planning the route is tough. Any stops have to be dog friendly, have adequate parking for me to pull in without turning around (the truck and the car carrier are as long as a semi-truck), have to be no longer than 500 miles at a stretch and have to be comfortable and clean….vital at the end of a long day. Claudia is a Jedi master at route planning.

I’ll update the posts and of course add some pictures along the way. That’s it for now….back to work packing up artwork. Damn….we’re getting good at this.

Cheers!

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck