What do you do after you get there - FL/TX/AL

[IC2]

We live just a couple miles from I-87 so Saturday we took a short hop in the car 40 or so miles North to do some shopping. Needless to say since the weather is changing, the NY North country and Canada (Quebec) appear to be evacuating in their MH's, 5ers, and TT's. I'm assuming that they are mostly headed to the South, Florida, Texas, Alabama and so on. Of course we will see the North bound migration returning come April. Now, my question (or rumination) is What do you do for those months once you get there? We've considered doing the migration as well, but we don't golf nor do we party much, have both lived in Florida and Texas in previous lives and have done the usual sight seeing. We do fish, but that can't 24/7/365. As far as sitting in the 'moveable home' in a park with others similar and watching TV or doing puzzles or other sedentary pursuits - I/we can't do that. My parents did the December-March/April Florida winters in the '70s, but my dad was partially disabled, so he did amateur radio and my mom - I guess she shopped/cleaned/cooked and taught worms how to swim at the nearest canal, like any other Depression era 20th century housewife.

Curious - what do you snowbirds do in the South land?

[blackf3504dr]

I think most just want to get out of the cold and snow...

[GG1]

I have to laugh at our friends that say "what do you do when you get there"? We do the same things we do when we are home but at a much slower relaxed pace. You are not on vacation you are getting away from the bad weather. If you think you are on vacation for 3-4 months and have to keep doing special things every day bring a large bank roll with you you will need it. Use your imagination

[Luckiest Dre]

Many of the parks are geared toward offering things for the snowbirds to do. The one we will be going to in south Texas has things like line dancing for those that want to exersize to Tennis, pickle ball, shuffel board, swimming pool, cards, wood shop, ceramics, knitting groups, and other forms of sewing, painting, for the artist in you as well as wood carving, you can bring your bikes along or go walking. Of course there is always Wal-Mart! Along with all that, read a good book, go fishning, golf or join a bowling league. One of the problems I have found is to find enough storage space in the Motor Home to bring along all my toys!

[jillie]

We spend our winters in Florida in a park with facilities for tennis, shuffleboard, horseshoes and bean bags. We have a heated swimming pool and a spa. There's a group that bikes 10 miles three times a week and a golf group that goes once a week. We have ice cream socials with entertainment twice a month and dinners about once a month. Some residents help out at the local day care center, some at the seeing eye dog center. If you're more into sitting, there are card groups and arts and crafts groups. I almost forgot the fitness center and the bus trips to the casino. We like to take our bikes to one of the Florida state parks and take photos of the scenery and wildlife. I should also mention that since this is a 55+ park, we have lots of friends here with the same problems we have. Everyone helps everyone with whatever needs they have. Without the large house and yard to take care of at home, we have lots of extra time to stay active or sit, whatever we feel like that day.

[Billieg]

Well, if you come here to SW Fl. your day will be hectic trying to avoid the mosquitoes, no-see-ums, spiders, snakes, panthers, gators and other such creatures. You should bring along a few chickens to distract them while you run away. Great exercise...

Some of your time will be spent putting on lotion for that lobster sunburn and lotion for all the bug bites. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours takes on a whole other meaning here...

Some of your time will be spent sitting in traffic as all the snow birds are here and it's bumper to bumper traffic everywhere you go with left hand turn signals on in case they need to make a right hand turn.

Shopping at Wal-Mart will be an adventure too as it's butt to butt traffic in there too. Waiting to eat at any restaurant will be fun with the 2 hr. lines to get in. You get to meet a lot of new friends that way.

If you come down now, we have had 7 days of rain (14") and you can lay on your float outside of your RV if it hasn't floated away already. Just watch out for the water moccasins, gators and poison frogs. Since you fish you can do that from your front door!

So come on down and enjoy all we have to offer in this tropical paradise...

[IC2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billieg Well, if you come here to SW Fl. your day will be hectic trying to avoid the mosquitoes, no-see-ums, spiders, snakes, panthers, gators and other such creatures. You should bring along a few chickens to distract them while you run away. Great exercise... Some of your time will be spent putting on lotion for that lobster sunburn and lotion for all the bug bites. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours takes on a whole other meaning here... Some of your time will be spent sitting in traffic as all the snow birds are here and it's bumper to bumper traffic everywhere you go with left hand turn signals on in case they need to make a right hand turn. Shopping at Wal-Mart will be an adventure too as it's butt to butt traffic in there too. Waiting to eat at any restaurant will be fun with the 2 hr. lines to get in. You get to meet a lot of new friends that way. If you come down now, we have had 7 days of rain (14") and you can lay on your float outside of your RV if it hasn't floated away already. Just watch out for the water moccasins, gators and poison frogs. Since you fish you can do that from your front door! So come on down and enjoy all we have to offer in this tropical paradise...

Now that sounds inviting - sounds like you are trying to make sure we stay home. And this year at least, we will

We did have our 15-20 inches of rain in two days in August, 747 sized skeeters and black flies, power outages and even some snow in the past few days

What I didn't say above is that we had a condo and some building lots - sold 'em mostly for the reasons you stated.

The other folks - you do sound like you do have plenty to do which is an improvement over when my parents made their pilgrimages in the '70s

Thanks for taking time to respond

[melvonnar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billieg Well, if you come here to SW Fl. your day will be hectic trying to avoid the mosquitoes, no-see-ums, spiders, snakes, panthers, gators and other such creatures. You should bring along a few chickens to distract them while you run away. Great exercise... Some of your time will be spent putting on lotion for that lobster sunburn and lotion for all the bug bites. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours takes on a whole other meaning here... Some of your time will be spent sitting in traffic as all the snow birds are here and it's bumper to bumper traffic everywhere you go with left hand turn signals on in case they need to make a right hand turn. Shopping at Wal-Mart will be an adventure too as it's butt to butt traffic in there too. Waiting to eat at any restaurant will be fun with the 2 hr. lines to get in. You get to meet a lot of new friends that way. If you come down now, we have had 7 days of rain (14") and you can lay on your float outside of your RV if it hasn't floated away already. Just watch out for the water moccasins, gators and poison frogs. Since you fish you can do that from your front door! So come on down and enjoy all we have to offer in this tropical paradise...

Please tell all your friends" we have to many people now.

[bsirby]

This January will be our first time heading south to Florida. We intend to relax after the hectic holidays with 5 grandchildren, fish, take walks on the beach, meet some new friends to play cards, try the line dancing, socialize in general, and relax. We've worked hard all our lives and it is now time to do what we didn't have time to do raising kids and working. Personally, it sounds like a real good plan to me.

[mccsix]

Come on down to Pensacola and watch the Blue Angels practice and visit the neatest air museum in the US.

[Good man]

Refugee Friends from the impending Frozen North,
I bid you WARMEST greetings and sincerely offer this thinkpiece...
One of the great things about the RV/Snowbird lifestyle is that you are able to go WHERE you want to and do WHATEVER you want to do when you get there... and keep repeating that until you find your particular "Paradise"... What's not to love about that???
As for anyone looking for WHAT to do... Please consider volunteering some of your time and talents to some good cause while you are down South for the winter. There are numerous opportunities in every community and a good place to start is to look up the "Volunteer Coordinator" for a given county. (I will gladly help you with that here in Florida if you PM me.)
Community service type agencies are always looking for energetic and bright persons to mentor/teach/tutor/aid and assist/caretake/staff/conduct/oversee/narrate/ plant/dig(archeological)/document/paint/hammer etc.X3
Who knows?... You may even become so enamoured with a "second career" that you want to make your winter retreat your full-time or most-time home.
Please give this idea your sincere consideration... Budget crunches are threatening the closure of many services and volunteering may just keep a given museum, zoo, health clinic or library open.
Travel safe, y'all!
Jim

[blackf3504dr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Billieg Well, if you come here to SW Fl. your day will be hectic trying to avoid the mosquitoes, no-see-ums, spiders, snakes, panthers, gators and other such creatures. You should bring along a few chickens to distract them while you run away. Great exercise... Some of your time will be spent putting on lotion for that lobster sunburn and lotion for all the bug bites. Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours takes on a whole other meaning here... Some of your time will be spent sitting in traffic as all the snow birds are here and it's bumper to bumper traffic everywhere you go with left hand turn signals on in case they need to make a right hand turn. Shopping at Wal-Mart will be an adventure too as it's butt to butt traffic in there too. Waiting to eat at any restaurant will be fun with the 2 hr. lines to get in. You get to meet a lot of new friends that way. If you come down now, we have had 7 days of rain (14") and you can lay on your float outside of your RV if it hasn't floated away already. Just watch out for the water moccasins, gators and poison frogs. Since you fish you can do that from your front door! So come on down and enjoy all we have to offer in this tropical paradise...

Pay no attention to what Bill says...... COME ON DOWN ! We need your money.

[NITEHAWK]

Even better yet--just send your money.

[FLYING BUTCH]

TAKE UP PICKLEBALL!!!! Fastest growing sport in the USA!!!! Goggle it. The most fun sport I have ever done!! You don't have to be a great jock. Anyone can play it. My 7 year old grandson loves playing it. You can get as competive as you want! Great social get together. Come to Arizona. Last year in the world senior games in Utah they had 27 events and a total of 600 players. This year they had same number of events and had to shut the pickleball event off at 420!!! They said they could have had 800 players if they had enough space for eveyone to compete!!
I have so many friends who were avid golfers until they played PICKLEBALL. Don't let the name confuse you into thinking it is a "badmittin" old folks sport. It will give you a great workout. TOO MUCH FUN!!