Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Never say Never

We have only three days remaining of our month at RiverBend RV Resort. We have enjoyed a lovely winter respite here, near Fort Myers, FL. The resort is small enough that I am beginning to recognize people and remember some of their names! I play pickleball and Mr. Dreamy has played with RC cars at the race track. I sew with friends at "The Nature Center" (no one knows why it is called that) where I rented a storage space and can conveniently stash all of my sewing gear. Mr Dreamy and I have even become hooked on Bocce. We ride our bikes all over the place. The resort has pizza night, and burger night, and an incredible seafood lunch every other week. They have music events, and movies, and BUNCO and BINGO. What's not to like?
Early on, we Dreamers would comment about some of the pretty lots (all are privately owned. Many have beautiful landscaping). We would talk about about how nice it would be to own a lot.... but not for us. It would be too impractical to live in Colorado and drive so far for winter stays. The lots are expensive. The HOA fees add up. There are taxes to pay, costs while you stay (all of those pizza dinners add up!!) and it just wouldn't work. Would it???

Well, certainly not. 

Not if we only came here one or two months of the year. It would be far cheaper to rent.

Well, certainly not. 

Not only would we pay taxes in Colorado, but we'd have to pay taxes here.

Well, certainly not.

We surely could find something like this closer to home.

Well, certainly not.

We'd be too far from our kids.

But....

We like it here!

But....

What if THIS became our "home"?

  • There is no State income tax in Florida. 
  • The difference in the personal property tax on our motorhome alone would pay most of the HOA fees at the resort.
  • The Fort Myers airport is 38 minutes away. The Miami airport is one hour and 16 minutes away. 
  • We were preparing to move out of Colorado anyway, as Mr. Dreamy has been having difficulties breathing at high altitudes. Now we can live in Florida and explore our beautiful country to determine where we want to establish a home base. 

Today we are putting in a bid on one of the lots. If that one doesn't work, there are others we like. We have reservations at another RV resort until March 10, and we are going to an RV Rally at Lake Okeechobee beginning on April 2. We were wondering what we should do between those dates. Perhaps we will be enjoying time on our own little piece of Florida swampland as we do all of the things we need to do to establish Florida residency.

Interesting times ahead!



4 comments:

  1. A winter home for sure but not so much in the summer! I am sorry to hear that Mr Dreamy has problems breathing at altitudes...I am certain my husband would too. Has Mr Dreamy taken the Alpha One Antitrypsin Deficiency test that is free at their site? I would recommend it, if only someone had recommended it before for my husband :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the lead. I will be putting the computer in front of my hubby, open to the Alpha-1 page as soon as I finish typing this response. He smoked for many years, which is probably the root of all evils, but who knows, perhaps it was that combined with Alpha-1. Thank you!

      Delete

What thoughts do you have?

I knew I Could - Vickie's A-musings

Hi, I'm Vickie, and I just had some great fun! I earned 4 ribbons!! Sweet! Me with two of. my 4 ribbons I just knowed I could do it. I&#...