Well, we moved

From Ft. Lauderdale, east coast, to Bradenton, west coast. 220 miles and a WORLD of difference. Broke many of my personal rules: no mobile homes. Rented sight unseen. Rented a U-Haul 26' truck. Turned out quite well. Only 18K on it. Filled to overflowing, had stuff in the two cars that went along. Actually got much better mileage than expected- a bit over 6mpg. 4 hour drive, left at 11:00am Sunday, arrived at 3:00 in the PM. Jane's son and a friend did the loading and unloading nicely. The house is exactly as pictured, with new stainless appliances, big kitchen, new bathrooms, plenty of storage, screened porch. And 500.00 / mo. less. This entire area is basically a retirement area, all +55, so quiet. 5 miles from the Gulf, multiple tracks nearby. Good fishing piers. So, all told, it turned out far better than I had feared. It could have been a disaster, but SWMBO was right on this one. Chuck happy. Even got some orders in the middle of all this. Any GRMers around here?

My best friend from grad school has lived in Bradenton ever since he got out. They love it. But he grew up in Palatka and loved that too.

I had mentioned before that it was a rolling car show there in Lauderdale. Not so much here. Only things vaguely exotic are brodozers and dresser Harleys.

I'm about an hour and a half from there....I think there are others around thr tampa area that are much closer.

Yeah, Tampa is 54 miles north of here. We have family there.

Just spent some time in Tampa. I could see living in that area. Well, outside Tampa and nearer to the Gulf, anyway.

I'm in St Pete and I moved from Jupiter in 2010, guaranteed you just saved yourself a lot of money. The dragstrip is on rt64 and don't forget about Andersen raceway in Palmetto for go karts!

The baroness and I visited there for a day on vacation. Possibly the best public skatepark we've ever been to.

Found a good brewery there too: Motorworks. Good variety of beers, but the taphouse doesn't have a kitchen.

I have family north of Tampa. I keep trying and failing to get SWMBO to agree to move into my late grandfather's place. Free house and no winter isn't enough motivation for her. But she can't tolerate anything over 80 without AC blasting.