We miss our Colorado friends! And I am sorely overdue to give all y’all an update.
August 2023 – heading out
We began our adventure by packing up our house into two big moving/storage containers. Once the shipper picked them up for their journey to Florida, we began ours. We loaded up the cars (and our cat, Hester!) and hit the road. I drove my Honda and Julie drove her Subaru. Since there are only two of us, we had to leave the Mustang in the Denver house. And, my old ’68 Mustang also.
We took it pretty easy, driving around 6-7 hours each day. We stayed in cat-friendly hotels. Hester was in the trunk of the Honda, but, we’d put the back seat down to make more room for stuff, and there was a little tunnel she could come through to sit near Amelia and I. I was happy to have Amelia and Hester keep me company the entire trip.
We took I-70 across to Mount Vernon, IL. We stopped there overnight and visited with some family. Then turned south.
The last day, we did about a 10 hour drive, so we could get to our new home.
My big observation on the trip was that the roads in Colorado and Illinois were terrible, and Kansas, and all the southern states, the roads were great.
Nokomis
We had rented a townhouse, newly built, in a community called Nokomis. It’s an unincorporated area of Sarasota county, about 10 miles south of Sarasota proper. Of course, Florida has lots of water, and whenever builders put up houses, there are usually manmade ponds and lakes nearby for drainage.
One of the first things I did was purchase some proper Florida Man attire:
and then went to the beach!
on the way back, we discovered a local ice cream shop named Sweet Melissa’s (from the song!)
We got Amelia started in school at the highly-rated Laurel-Nokomis school, which serves K-8 where she started 5th grade, and quickly became a favorite of kids and teachers alike.
On Aug 10 I flew back to Denver to get our house there deep cleaned, sell off some remaining items like furniture we didn’t want to take with us (including my ’68 Mustang, sadly). I did some more work to the ’68 and got it sold off to a family with a high school girl who is taking an auto program at Cherry Creek high and intends to restore it. So, it’s in good hands. The buyer paid to put new tires on it, and I drove it down to drop it off. (With some adventure, the car kept dying, eventually had to get it towed):
After 2 weeks of cleaning and managing contractors, on August 24 the house was ready to market, so I hopped in the 2018 Mustang and hit the road again, for my second Denver -> Florida drive in a month!
I took the same route – about 2,100 miles – this time stopping in Mount Vernon only long enough for a visitation for my aunt Mary Kay, who sadly passed away after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. I got this trip done in a little over 3 days – I was tired, and ready to be home with my girls and my cat! But, I had enough time to visit this new American institution:
I got back just before my birthday, and just in time for our first hurricane experience! We had to quickly buy some supplies, and seal up the townhouse with metal storm shutters:
The Denver house went under contract in under two weeks, and we closed and got paid by the end of September. Then we hunkered down, focused on school, and started house hunting.
The process was difficult, because during the COVID years, two things happened: first, 40,000 people moved to Sarasota county (a 10% population surge!), and second, interest rates were at historic lows, so people could ‘afford’ the sky-high house prices sellers were asking. House prices doubled in many neighborhoods from 2020-2022 here.
We figured we were in for a long process there, so I started concentrating on working. I started doing programming work for an old customer of mine from the Forethought days, Richard Williams. Julie got her realtor license, which came in handy when we did finally buy a house.
This area is a classic car haven. There are so many Mustangs and Corvettes around here it’s amazing. And, there are classic car dealerships all over. Here is a cool car I tripped over on a trip to Tampa to check out some server hosting companies:
There are also car museums everywhere, regular Cars and Coffee meets, etc.
Amelia was sad to leave her Denver friends behind, but proved herself resilient and adaptable, and made new friends right away starting on the school bus – a new experience she came to love. And, she immediately started making waves at school:
One great thing about Florida, is that the temperature rarely gets below 70, so unlike the many frozen Halloweens I experienced in Denver, here in Sarasota it’s shorts and T-shirt weather year round.
There is wildlife EVERYWHERE down here.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/A1AsLj7XtqxQSvbV6
And, someone is getting more self-assured:
I bought a bike and started riding for the first time in 12-13 years (I had a nice bike in Denver, which was stolen of course).
It has taken some exploring, but we are uncovering great southern restaurants here. Especially bbq.
Christmas in Nokomis, poolside Santa:
For Christmas, aunt Peggy bought Amelia some clay bead sets. And then Amelia made dozens of bracelets
She is thriving. And maybe getting just a little bit of ‘tude.
2nd quarter school academic award:
in January, we went to see the Manatees a bit north of here in the river. They like to hang out near the power station because the water is warmer there
Bicycle trip to the Dunkin’ on Jan 26. Sunny and warm. This was easy to get used to.
Cars cars cars
All this time we’re looking for houses. Still too expensive, though we’re starting to see some downward price movement.
There is this area called St Armands Circle, which was set up in the days when John Ringling (of the circus fame) was the world’s richest man. He was a big fan of continental European area and brought a lot to Sarasota.
Tryin on Mom’s dress
in March I went to St Petersburg, about an hour north of here, to see one of my favorite bands Extreme for the first time
Living Colour, another favorite band, opened! What a show.
Someone discovered our pond. He wasn’t paying rent.
Finally, in March, we signed a contract on a new home! It’s 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath. About a 6000 foot lot, and it’s setup so there is a bunch of usable yard in the back. This is a new build community, and we’re right near the edge of the forest here. There’s a park with a shooting range across the street, and a bunch of 10 acre homesites on the east side of this development. Great area to ride my bike, and, we’re still only 3 miles from the beach. It’s quiet here, and I love it.
This is the view out of my office window:
Amelia’s 5th grade graduation: She had all A’s/B’s the whole rest of the year.
In May I went to Hoston and exhibited at a trade show for a business I’m trying to get going, Elephant Talk
At the start of July, I drove Julie and Amelia to the Miami airport where they embarked on a 5 week trip to China to visit Julie’s family. This is Amelia’s third trip, though it’s been 7 years since they went last, and Amelia doesn’t remember the first two.
We found two Amish restaurants in Sarasota, where there is a big Amish community that goes way back 100 years. This is what I had for dinner last nite:
And we love going to the Busch Gardens amusement park. It’s open year-round, and we bought annual passes.
Anyway, that’s the quick and dirty catch-up! I will post more here and share as we go. Love you all!