The last post? Well...maybe for a while.

Well…it’s been fun, but everything comes to an end. Even the Mueller Investigation.

We’ve arrived in Florida and hope to stay for at least a year to see if the Amelia Island area will work for us. It’s a bit hilarious even writing that, as our track record of late finding places to live hasn’t been great. Understatement of 2019.

So, since there’s really nothing new to write about Florida that hasn’t already been written a million times before, I’m not going to try. If we plan any new trips (perhaps to Charleston, Savannah, the Outer Banks or back to Key West for example), I’ll actually have something new to photograph and write about. Stay tuned.

So, in the meantime….to all who followed us on our journeys through California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Mexico, Texas, New Mexico and back to Florida….thanks for coming along for the ride.

Cheers,

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck

The disappearing rental market....and we are stuck in the middle of it.

Time to vent for a bit.

An interesting phenomenon has occurred in just the past couple of years….the number of people nationwide who are renting their homes has dropped off a cliff. It used to be possible to pick a community where you might want to relocate, log onto Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia or Hotpads…put in parameters (unfurnished, pets accepted, recently remodeled, etc.) and find a really good, or at least decent, selection of rental properties from which to choose. No longer. Game over….at least as far as sun belt/retirement communities are concerned.

Two years ago in Grass Valley, CA….we had literally three homes to check out. In the nicer areas of Scottsdale/Fountain Hills, we maybe had six. And no….I’m not exaggerating. In each case, we grabbed the only property that met our check list and felt extremely lucky to have cleared the very restrictive application process (another story for another time). Now that we are back in Florida….it’s Deja Vu all over again (what a great quote from Yogi Berra). In New Smyrna Beach, there are four homes to choose from…and only one is in what we would consider above average condition in an above average neighborhood…and it’s $4,500/month. Nope, that won’t happen.

We are now working practically 24/7 to find a long term rental in Fernandina Beach. There is a grand total of three homes to choose from. THREE! When we call the property managers (and if you are really lucky they might actually answer or return your call), you find out that within hours of a listing going online, the home has already been rented and as a backup….they have up to 20 other offers “just in case”. Translation….they are currently sifting through all the offers looking for the perfect renters….those with no kids, no dogs, no schedule, no “stuff’ to store, one car, etc. This is the reality of it…and you have absolutely nothing to say about it, unless you can prove some form of racial discrimination. Good luck with that.

is VRBO to blame? Is Airbnb to blame? Are renters who trash homes to blame? Perhaps new tax laws that reduce the write offs typically associated with owning rental properties are to blame? Who knows….it’s perhaps all of the above. I suspect even changing demographics….many of the homeowners who used to rent their properties are now too old and have had to sell them….is also a factor. One thing is for sure…if you’re looking at a community where you might want to live and you want to rent a home before you buy (as in our case)….you’re in for a very frustrating search. I would offer a hearty “Good luck”…but you’re going to need a lot more than luck.

As I write this, Claudia and I are waiting to hear back from a property manager in Fernandina Beach. I don’t hold out much hope. After all…we have a dog (and I wouldn’t trade him for a thousand properties). And so, once again, we are looking farther up the coast at the Charleston/Mt Pleasant area, simply because it is a vibrant, growing area with many new apartments and condominium developments being built to house the young families moving to the area to join Boeing, BMW, Bosch, Mercedes, Verizon, etc. Many of these new communities offer reasonable rents, great contemporary styles, flexible floor plans, built-in gyms, multiple pools, community rooms, covered parking, are dog-friendly and close to lots of amenities….spoiler alert….the very things that most normal people want in a home/area. Genius! Growing communities can afford to build these, but older communities that don’t have the influx of new employers and new workers simply cannot and are being left behind (Melbourne, for example).

That’s it for now. Stay tuned….and wish us luck. We need it.

Cheers,

Wayne, Claudia and Tuck

Move over Luke Skywalker and George Lucas.....Elon Musk is here!

If you’re like me, you’ve watched space coast launches on television since the Apollo program and always wanted to see one up close. We got to do that today, but from 50 miles away. Hey…that beats television anytime.

We loaded up the truck this afternoon and drove about 20 miles down the beach to a local seaside park to watch the launch of the SpaceX rocket…the Falcon Heavy. This was a pretty historic launch, considering it is the world’s largest rocket currently in production….and considering Elon Musk and his team were attempting to land the two rocket booster engines and the main engine back on earth under their own power. Oh and did I mention they had to land on a pad about 100’ in diameter….one of which is a floating barge. And…they did it.

Watching the huge rocket take off (it was about 50 miles down the coast from us) was a thrill. You could not only see it plainly, but hear the sonic booms as well. I tried taking some pictures with my little 200mm lens, but it was a massive failure. I need a 1000mm lens….time to go shopping on Ebay.

About two minutes into the launch, the mission control people announced that the boosters had separated and BOOM…as if by magic…here they came back down looking like giant sparklers. Star Wars is a movie…this was the real thing.

We’re not sure when the next launch is scheduled….but we’re headed to Cape Canaveral to watch it. It’s a roll of the dice when you watch these launches. This one was postponed four times…so if you didn’t live nearby, you had to stay in a motel for four days waiting. Regardless…it’s one of those bucket list things. Time to scratch one off the list.

Cheers!

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck the wonder dog

Fernandina Beach....where has this town been all our lives?

We spent all day yesterday exploring Fernandina Beach (aka Amelia Island) and looking at local real estate. We were pleased with both…not something you’ll often hear from me if you’ve read this blog over the past couple years.

To say we’re surprised and pleased by what we found is an understatement. I think if we had known about this area when we left Punta Gorda, we might have come straight here. Yep….really.

The town itself is super quaint….block after block of restored Victorian buildings and homes. Since this area is located farther North up the Florida coast, the streets are lined with Spanish Oak trees not palm trees. The city has done a great job with the historical districts, the signage downtown, local parks, beach access, traffic control (there isn’t much compared to the West Coast), zoning, plantings, etc. It reminds me of a small Charleston in many respects, which is a good thing.

You know us…we love to find quaint, old taverns and restaurants. And we did. On our last visit, we were advised to have a drink at “Pajama Daves”. Dave is a real character…and I believe he must be a reincarnated pirate. Full beard, head scarf…you get the drift. Man…what a beer list. I’ve seen a lot of beer lists, but I have to say that Dave’s list of ale’s, Ipa’s, sours, ciders, porters, sessions, stouts, lagers, etc. was perhaps one of the tops I’ve ever seen. It was six pages long…that’s a lot of beer! No food here, but free popcorn for all. Eat salty popcorn and drink more….genius.

We had dinner at Cafe Karibo….a great place with a huge oak tree shrouded deck beside and behind the restaurant. And best of all…dog friendly. We noticed immediately that Fernandina Beach is a very dog-friendly place….many water bowls sit outside the shops and restaurants on the sidewalk. The last town we visited that was this dog friendly was Carmel, CA. It’s hard to quantify, but people who love pets are usually really friendly and the residents of Fernandina Beach certainly fit that description.

The real estate scene here is very good, with an excellent mix of old and new homes both on and off the island. We checked out a few homes on the island yesterday and the good news is that all of them are located near the beach. This is a small town…nothing on the island is very far. Walking and biking is encouraged. Stay tuned for an update. We hope to find something soon.

Before we left town for the day, we headed for the beach. Beautiful. In several places you can drive right onto the beach, unload your stuff and spend the day. The beaches are beautiful and stretch for miles. The area where Tuck swam yesterday was located just down the beach from the Ritz Carlton complex….host of the just completed Concours d’ Elegance auto show, one of the most famous in the world. The event raises millions for local charities. Maybe next year they’ll ask me to show our Isetta? I won’t hold my breath.

Cheers and thanks for reading!

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck

Exploring the coast....a few hits...many misses...and we find the oldest bar in Florida with the mayor behind the bar!

Greetings all,

We spent all weekend and yesterday checking out Melbourne, Palm Bay, Cocoa Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Flagler Beach, Ormond Beach and Fernandina Beach (aka Amelia Island). As many of you know, Florida is a LONG state. We drove about 600 miles in the last two days alone.

An overall comment about the East coast of Florida vs the West coast….the East coast is much older and not nearly as nice, at least not up in this area. Miami and Ft. Lauderdale are obviously the exceptions. Many of the towns look almost untouched since the 50’s and 60’s. So different from the other coast and it really caught us by surprise. We’ve since found out from some locals that when the space program shut down in 2011, the area really got hurt. Boy….that’s an understatement. Almost every aerospace-related facility we passed was empty. After touring the area, it’s really obvious why the Sarasota/St. Pete/Tampa areas are getting so popular. The people who used to go to the East coast of Florida from the Carolinas (and North), are by and large now heading for the West coast.

The Melbourne area in particular was a big disappointment, as It had been recommended to us by more than a few people. We found it run down, dirty and….well….old. We drove around for probably 30-45 minutes trying to see if we had missed something. Nope, we didn’t. It was instantly obvious that there was no new money moving into the town or the county for that matter. We moved on to Ormond Beach….ditto. Lots of old condos and homes from the 60’s. Cocoa Beach….deja vu all over again….except for the ultimate in tourist stops….Ron Jon Surf Shop. This guy has bumper stickers on cars all over the world and we’ve spotted many in our Western travels.

Next on the list was Flagler Beach….a small seaside town North of Daytona. Poor Flagler Beach. Apparently the last big East coast storm (the name escapes me) not only washed away their entire beach, but also A1A….the main road that runs through town. The entire town is now a giant detour, around the area where road crews are rebuilding A1A and putting giant boulders on the beach side of the road to prevent further erosion (good luck with that). The town is in really bad shape, with many businesses closed down. We were there on a sunny Sunday afternoon and found the town almost empty.

New Smyrna Beach….where we are currently renting a villa on the river…was next. NSB, as the locals call it, is an area that nearly made our cut. It’s a town with a cute historic area and lots of condos and homes overlooking the Indian River…but very few actual neighborhoods to choose from once you get away from the river. Many of the existing neighborhoods are older and the houses are going to require a ton of work…translation…a lot of money to fix up. Been there and done that…and don’t want to do it again. Don’t get me wrong….we love fixing up homes, but after we finished our fourth or fifth one, it was time to move on.

The area around NSB, is ripe for development, but it’s just “not quite there” yet. There are some new car dealers outside of town and some major new apartments being built, but for access to the brand name stores, you have to drive about 10 miles to Port Orange. It’s hard to put into words, but easy to see and recognize. It’s obvious that the big developers have gone North to the Daytona area (Jimmy Buffet has a new planned unit development there for example). Almost everything outside of the historic town area is older and hasn’t been updated in a long time, save a few new chain stores. Claudia judges a lot of the towns we explore by the quality of the school buildings. A town with money has new schools, or at least newer schools. On one of the roads into town, we spotted an elementary school. So sad….some of the portable classroom buildings looked to be 50 years old. We thought they were abandoned, but they weren’t. So we’ll still consider it, but meanwhile we’re going to keep looking.

Yesterday, we headed North to Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island. Finally….success! What a shocker. The historic downtown area is a whopping 50 blocks square. Beautiful old buildings from the late 1800’s, and early 1900’s are literally everywhere. The town was home to wealthy shipping captains and merchants in the late 1800’s and the town, to its’ credit, left them all. Quaint restaurants and shops are literally everywhere. I hate to use the term “Disney Town”, but that’s pretty much what it is. Much of the downtown looks like a movie set. Street after street after street of beautiful Victorian homes. This was more like it! We headed to the beach and found another success. It’s miles long and has public beach access areas everywhere. Many areas even allow you to drive onto and park on the beach. Nice. And even better….the beaches are dog friendly.

We then checked out the neighborhoods both on the island and off the island and found a lot of developments….many built within the last ten years and many brand new. At long last, we think we may have found a town that checks off a lot of the criteria on our list of “must have’s”. The only down side is that the real estate market there is very tight….very few properties are for sale and even fewer for rent. So now, we wait and see what turns up. I suspect we’ll be making the 145 mile drive a lot in the next couple weeks.

Last, but not least….the oldest bar in Florida…The Palace Saloon. We found this place totally by accident, while walking Tuck down the street. A total stranger stopped us ( I guess we looked lost) and asked if we’d been inside the bar. Nope we said, just got here. He informed us that it was the oldest continuously run bar in Florida (started in 1903 by Louis Hirth and the bar was designed and installed by Adolph Busch - yep the founder of Anheuser Busch). Not too shabby. Really a cool place with an absolutely beautiful walnut and mahogany bar from 1903. The stranger also informed us that the resident bartender was also the town mayor. You have to smile at that…who better to spread the good cheer of the town than the mayor tending bar? We’ll be back, as Tuck wasn’t allowed inside.

That’s about it for now. Today is a rest day…no driving. Research will be done online….we now have two computers sitting on the dining room table in our villa.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck

A brief exploration of St Augustine....Whoa....too many sunburned tourists for us!

We drove up to St Augustine today, just to get a quick glimpse of the town, the beaches and the surrounding neighborhoods. The way we approach a new area is to drive around and get a feel for it. Drive the main streets, go through some of the neighborhoods, check out the shops, etc. After doing this for so many years, we’ve gotten pretty good at making fast judgement calls. A town either has the vibe we’re looking for…or it doesn’t. There really isn’t much of a middle ground.

The old historic town is beautiful, no doubt about that and we’ll absolutely go back in the off season” (probably in the Fall). Make no mistake….we have visited the city before and we knew full well it’s reputation as a top tourist destination, but the sheer number of tourists squeezed into a relatively small area made the decision for us within a couple hours….this would not be a town we would consider. As with many of the top tourist destinations we have visited in the past, we found once again that the infrastructure was simply overwhelmed and could not handle the people or the cars. Check one off the list.

Tomorrow we head South to check out Melbourne….a city many have recommended. Stay tuned.

Cheers!

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck

Exploring New Smyrna Beach....finally able to relax....and the new SpaceX rocket launch.

After three months of packing, boxing, sorting, labeling, cleaning, making multiple trips to Goodwill with donations, setting up movers, looking at rental properties…..we are done. And oh boy, does it feel good! The rain moved out yesterday afternoon and the weather is perfect right now. Sunny and about 70. Light breeze. It feels great to be out of the desert. We gave it a year. The desert is one of those areas that is very polarizing….you either like it or you hate it. No middle ground. For us….it just didn’t work, particularly when the temps rose above 100, which it did 126 times last Summer. And did I mention 20 of those days it was over 110? You think you know heat? Go to Arizona in the Summer with an elevation of 2,500 ft and never any clouds to lessen the powerful rays of the sun.

We finished unloading the truck around noon yesterday and promptly headed into New Smyrna to find a local restaurant for some real food (remember, we’ve been living on fast food and pimento cheese for 5 days) and have a beer. We ended up at the Yellow Dog, a great little spot on historic Canal Street. Dogs, or course, were welcome there and Tuck settled in under our table searching for discarded fries. Life was good once again.

I’ll post some pictures later of the historic downtown area and the beautiful beaches here. We’re less than 5 minutes from the Atlantic. We scouted out an area late yesterday where we can watch the Sunday afternoon launch of the new SpaceX Falcon rocket. This is one of the most powerful rockets ever launched. Thanks to Elon Musk and his team, the space program is back on track after being pretty much shut down after NASA ended the space shuttle program (more on that later).

That’s about it for now. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck

Florida at last!! 2200 miles of sheer terror (just kidding).

Greetings all. We rolled into New Smyrna Beach about 4:00 this afternoon. Was it a long and hard journey? Oh yeah. Anytime you drive across country, even in a luxury charter bus, it’s a long and eventful trip.

I won’t bore you with all the details, as there are just too many, but I think it would make a pretty good mini-series….along the lines of the Weather Channel show “So you think you’d survive?”. One night in particular stands out. We arrived in Lake Charles, Louisiana well into the evening. I spent some weekends there when I was at Ft. Polk (a couple hours away), after getting drafted out of grad school. I remember it as being a nice seaside town back then. Of course compared to being in basic training in the Army with drill sergeants yelling at you 24/7….an old train car on the tracks looked good. Boy, has time ever changed poor old Lake Charles. What a dump.

We were tired and hungry and wanted to just park the truck, drink some wine and crash. Nope…wasn’t going to happen. It was time for one of those “moving stories” I’ve written about over the years. In the pouring rain (naturally), we pulled up to the La Quinta parking lot and it looked small. Too small for the big rig I was driving. Claudia went into the motel lobby and asked the manager about turnaround areas for the truck. She showed her an area to use and I foolishly entered the parking lot. You know the feeling….the uh-oh I shouldn’t have done that feeling. Once you enter a parking lot in a 60’ rig, there is no turning back….you can only go straight, or hope for a miracle trying to back out. No sooner than I pulled into the lot than I realized that a pickup truck could turn around, but a large rig could not. Hmmm…I guess the manager didn’t understand the geometry of a 60’ rig vs a pickup truck. Oh, where did math skills go? Long story short, it took me an hour in the pouring rain, with Claudia outside in the pouring rain directing me and praying, to somehow turn the truck enough to make the 180 degree turn at the end and not hit any cars along the way. Mad? We were steaming. We parked at the entrance to the parking lot, basically blocking most of the entrance, but we were in and we weren’t leaving.

Then comes the next chapter. We didn’t get the ground floor we requested (Tuck literally loses it in elevators). We got a third floor room. Oh the joys of a crying lab (bless his big heart) going up an elevator. We used the stairs. A quick call to the Pizza Hut nearby and dinner was served. We drank a bottle of wine and made a vow to never set foot in Louisiana again. I made the same vow in 1971 and I broke it. Serves me right for breaking a nearly 50-year old promise.

Tomorrow we unpack the big truck at the storage facility. Unloading goes fast….trying to find the stuff you need a week or two later is much harder. At any rate, our stuff goes into air conditioned storage for an extended period of time while we explore the coast. I’ll post some pictures later this week. For now…we’re off to bed.

Cheers!

Wayne, Claudia & Tuck

Heading East...living on turkey sandwiches and pimento cheese...and Tuck the wonder dog

Well kids….if you ever want to talk yourself out of buying something for yourself or your home….just pack up what your already own. If that doesn’t do it, give me a call and we’ll have a long chat.

If you’ve moved lately…and had to pack up your home as a deadline approaches, then you already know what I’m talking about. The stress levels go up, as your energy levels rapidly go down. Not a great combination. We had been packing up the house for about a month and feeling pretty good about our progress. Almost smug in fact…”we’ve got this”. And then with one day to go before the movers show up, you look around and realize that the old adage of “90% done, 90% to go” is actually very true. It’s amazing how long it takes to do the final, “the house is finally empty” packing. In our case, it took another day and a half. We rolled out of town at noon yesterday running way behind schedule. Status quo. Geez…you’d think after doing this three times in the past two years (amazing), we’d be getting better at this! I guess we’re slow learners.

Last night we arrived in El Paso bone-tired, but happy that….once again….we were on the road for another adventure. There’s a certain freedom in that…by that I mean setting a goal and completing it. Our goals for the last couple years have been to see the Western US, have fun and find a great place to live. We’ve accomplished two of those and we’re working on the third. We’ve found that setting goals is easy….making them happen is a lot harder.

Nike’s slogan is “Just do It”. Sounds reasonable. Well, when you’re out on the road doing 450-550 miles a day driving a big diesel rig….it’s not so easy. There are three things that we constantly battle on the road: Finding a gas station where i can pull in and pull out without having to turn around, finding rest areas where we can get out and stretch and let Tuck out to pee and finding decent food. Many years ago, we figured out that taking picnic food was the way to go. We no longer stop anywhere to eat, other than the breakfasts provided at the motels where we stay. We take sliced turkey for protein and vats of Claudia’s great pimento cheese and egg salad for carbs to keep us going. Pretzels and lots of crackers round out the stash. We have gone for days on nothing more. When you’re in the middle of nowhere in Texas (where we are now), having fresh food and a bottle of wine is heaven.

Right now, we’re in Junction, Texas. Two long days behind us and three more to go. We’re averaging about 450 miles a day, which actually isn’t bad considering I can’t drive over 65 MPH with the Penske truck. We stop about every two hours to let Tuck out and stretch our legs. Tuck is amazing….the sweetest dog ever. Early in the morning, he wags his tail and jumps up the ramp into the truck and his backseat bed. He never makes a peep…just patiently rides back there all curled up and goes to sleep. And he does this day after day after day. What a dog. Everywhere we go, strangers come up to us and ask to pat him. He’s just got that quality about him. We love him a lot and it shows.

Well, that’s about it for now. I’m headed up to the breakfast room at the Best Western where we’re staying for a quick bite before we head out for the day. Our destination tonight is Lake Charles, Louisiana. I spent many weekends there when I was in the Army (Ft. Polk). I remember it as being a fun, laid-back town….but of course anywhere was better than an Army base during the Vietnam days!

Thanks for reading!

Wayne, Claudia and Tuck

Final packing....living out of boxes, Gorilla Tape, leaving Trumpland and the countdown begins!

Well the train is pretty close to pulling out of the station. We leave Arizona on the 28th…and we’re mentally ready to go. Physically….not so much. Moving and packing is hard, no two ways about it. Particularly with a still-healing back full of metal rods and screws. We’re sad to be leaving some great friends we’ve met, but we know with Tuck along, we’ll meet many new ones in Florida. He’s the magic ice breaker.

What we’re not sorry about is leaving an area we now begrudgingly call “Trumpland”. Old, rich, white men. Who knows, in the area of Florida where we’re headed, maybe we’ll even meet some people who actually watch something other than Fox News. Miracles do happen.

Anyway, I digress. We’ve packed up pretty much everything that isn’t essential…which is to say we’re now using paper plates, plastic cups and trying to empty out the freezer (Yikes….how long have we had that salmon in there?). Lots of trip to the local Goodwill store (I even gave up my last remaining business suit…good riddance!). Boxes are stacked up everywhere. Shrink wrap and bubble wrap rolls in every room….and my new favorite packing tape….Gorilla Tape. If you haven’t packed anything lately, you might not realize how poor the quality of packing tape has become. It’s basically really wide Scotch tape. Nice for wrapping really large Christmas presents, but pretty much useless for anything else. But Gorilla tape, on the other hand, is a rock star. This stuff is hard to tear and sticks like super glue to anything it touches. It comes in black and camo (I guess the military asked for that…and I’m pretty sure they use it).

We made a final hike the other day up to Overlook Trail (located in Fountain Hills) just to take one last good look at the Verde Mountains and the town. The desert is amazingly green right now after a really wet (for Arizona) Winter. The cactus fields are amazing….but dangerous. As Claudia was walking on the trail, she felt something poke the bottom of her foot. A cactus needle had punctured all the way through her tennis shoe sole. That’s 1/2” of rubber folks….which makes we wonder how in the world the mountain bikers around here finish a ride. They must carry a lot of spare tubes.

That’s it for now. Time to wander through the maze of boxes and take Tuck for his morning walk.

Cheers!