The decision has been made.
Our home beginning mid 2025 will be Florida and we will be residing in Latitude
Margaritaville Water Sound (LMWS). The decision made included settling on a
block of land in the community and paying down for the building of a new
construction home. Hopefully, it will be completed mid 2025, so that for now,
our plans for the coming twelve months are firmly set.
Why LMWS? Why Florida? If
you have been following the posts for this year, particularly the most recent
posts going back to May, you might recall our decision to move to sea level.
Our choice of Florida, as far as it is from Colorado, was influenced by the
beach-focused lifestyle and the selection of a location in the Florida
panhandle, smack in the middle of Florida’s most hurricane prone coastline, is
something we took into consideration but came to the conclusion that the upside
greatly offset any negativity or reservation we may have had about moving this
far east (and south) in the US.
The LMWS community is a
gated community where security is pretty tight. Our cars have access decals stuck
to their windows, the better to access all the amenities. Unlike the majority
of residents, as yet we do not have a golf cart but it will arrive. One day.
Probably used. Possibly upgraded with chrome wheels, a loud stereo and a paint
job no one could miss. Then again, maybe not – can you get around as easily on
a Slingshot? There are so many being driven around here that it’s hard to miss
them.
The most obvious gathering
place for the golf carts is early weekend evening when concerts are provided.
The choice of music may be all gulf, country, key-west influenced, but age
appropriate for the community. Just before we arrived, there was a concert
featuring Mac McAnally
together with members of the Coral Reefers – Jimmy Buffett’s backup band. Jimmy
has passed away, but from the numerous tee shirts and parrot paraphernalia,
it’s not like this community will ever forget the son of a son of a sailor
any time soon.
It is never too late to
carve out a favorite place for dinner. It’s not a nightly occurrence, mind you,
but when we do head across to the Latitude Bar and Grill, we head upstairs to
the open-air veranda where we sit almost at the same table every time where we
can look across at the Intracoastal Waterway. To think, in an upcoming phase,
the facility will welcome a marina and boaters paradise.
Yet again, we are reminded
to not paddleboard in the waterway, kayaks at a minimum, if you must. One word;
alligators. As yet we haven’t seen any of these reptiles but, so we are told,
we will likely encounter one at some point.
That is, unless the sharks have eaten them. Around these parts they talk of the big three - alligators, sharks and bears. Yes, black bears are present in the woods and we have come across numerous warning signs informing us that they are here. Somewhere.
In
the weeks before we left our Florida rental villa for our Colorado condo, the
temperatures began to drop and the sun began to set a little to the north of
the river and the twilight hour as we sipped a cocktail proved magical. The
presence of Florida’s famous bugs was minimal, not intruding onto the verandah.
Nice; pleasantly breezy with just a hint of humidity.
Living in the Florida
panhandle is all about the beach lifestyle. We happen to be a few miles from
the beach but in our time there, we made it to the beach almost every other
day. For anyone homesick for the coastal regions of Australia, it’s a far cry from
what we may remember. Yet, it’s hard to ignore the upside of being alongside
such a monstrous body of water that runs around 80+F degrees during the summer
months. There’s a reason why this area is called the Emerald Coast as the
waters are a brilliant green tinged with just a hint of aqua. To me, it’s more
Mediterranean than Phillip Bay or Botany Bay and yet, its mere presence is
enough to remind us that these are tropical waters where rum and pirates ruled
the seas.
When we aren’t eating dinner
in Margaritaville’s Latitude Bar and Chill, we are enjoying a leisurely lunch
at Runaway Island. This is a rambling ocean front eatery that serves passable
seafood and where the margaritas are chilled just right. The long stretch of
sand seems always crowded even if the patrol flags always urge caution.
As yet we haven’t seen any
green flags flying but we have seen double red flags straining the ropes that
keep them earthbound. We were still witnessing some pretty violent afternoon
thunderstorms but towards the end of this last trip, they became less frequent.
We consider ourselves lucky to have returned to Colorado when we did as the
backend of the latest hurricane dumped enormous volume of water along the coast
where numerous flood watches were announced.
Whether it was a premonition
on our part or not, you may recall the main floor deck of our Windsor home had
a Margaritaville surfboard, complete with a shark bite removing a piece of the
board, hanging on the wall behind our grill. Since arriving in LMWS, we have
noticed many homes adorned with the same decoration.
Even the model homes we
toured had this board hanging somewhere on the deck. We are not sure where to
find ours in our storage facility but you can count on us looking for it and
bringing it with us to LMWS at some point.
The memorabilia like this
you find on almost every home in the community. Some reference to a Jimmy
Buffett song or tale. All things considered he was a story teller gifted with
an ability to craft a song from the simplest of experiences.
Who would have thought of
writing a song, “What if the Hokey Pokey is All it Really is About”
after seeing this on a car’s bumper sticker. Or catching a glimpse of a line written
on a bathroom stall that led to him writing “I had the Last Mango in Paris.”
Pure genius by my book.
Our plan is to split time between Florida and Colorado. Having arrived back at the condo, it seems that our home is now a long way away. But the pull of family and the opportunity to spend time with grandkids proved to hard to ignore.
If circumstances were
different, we would still be enjoying life in our former Windsor, Colorado,
home. However, it’s not healthy dwelling too long on the past. Forget Windsor,
what about our plans to grow old in our Niwot, Colorado, home that we loved so
dearly. Well, we did the growing old part… Again, the past is in the past and
it’s behind us and we threw away our rear view mirror a long time ago.
Margo has relished her time
with daughter Anna and her husband Erich and their children. It’s been a time
to reconnect for Margo and she has enjoyed every moment spent with the family.
The twins are developing well; as you would expect with pre-teenager boys, Evan
and Aiden, they can be a handful. As for granddaughter Ella, she is maturing
fast and continues to be absorbed with books and with all things robotic and mechanical.
She is a solid STEM candidate if ever I have seen one.
Ella mastered robotics with
her group’s attack vehicles constructed for a highly competitive game. And from
simple instructions, she built a working seven-star Ferris wheel. Such a Ferris
wheel was doomed from the outset when built in Melbourne, Australia, having passed it earlier this year and seeing it being steadily eaten by rust. But no such misfortune for Ella as she spun the wheel.
Margo
is already excited about our Colorado family, all 5 of them, coming to Florida
to spend Thanksgiving with us. So am I, and both of us will be doing some very
serious research of places to have fun with kids in the lead up to their
arrival for the holidays.
As for the last topic of
this post it would be remiss of me not to mention in passing the recent
exploits of Brian and Jan Kenny’s own grandson, Colton Herta. In case you
missed reading about it, he finished the last race of the series in first place,
which was held on an oval track in Nashville, Tennessee.
He was able to put enough
distance between himself and his competitors to finish the season in second
place outright. There was no way to finish the series on top as the leader had accumulated
too many points to be under threat from Colton and yet, in the end it was a lot
closer than many of us thought possible.
Perhaps
the biggest outcome of the weekend just past was how Colton won on an oval
circuit for the very first time and in his acceptance speech, this was an accomplishment
he was only too happy to promote. In the short time he has been a pro Indy Car
driver, he has won on road courses, street courses and now ovals.
This
augurs well for 2025 where, eliminating just a handful of mistakes, might carry
him into a series win for the first time. Well done, Colton.
Congratulations to the Kenny’s and Herta’s families.
I have never let my career define me. Likewise, I have never let my enthusiasm for sporting events define me either. In the same vein, I have never been locked into one location. While I enjoy family times together, they, too, don’t define me. Family, career, residences, sports not only don’t define me just as I am not defined by the results they produce. It’s a hard call as yes, what defines me is what I practice. In that regard I have become quite content to be a simple storyteller.
In time I may lose out to AI and products like ChatGPT but until the creative side of AI undergoes a material acceleration in awareness, I think I am safe for another decade or so. While I am never tempted to say that this or that is the end, I realize that what I do may be on the wrong side of history and of scientific accomplishments. I realize that it may all go up in smoke. Then again, watching young Colton generate as much smoke as he did after crossing the finish line, all that is smoke today may fall away bringing into view an even brighter future. And now, in a few short weeks, we return behind the wheel of our own car to begin the long drive home.
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