Why We Moved to Florida

After we lived in Guatemala together, Yohana and I moved back to Sacramento California. I have lived in the Sacramento area since 1978. I went to College and raised a family there. I know the town very well and for the last 4 years have taken Yohana to all of the cool places I could think to take her. Sacramento does not have beaches, big game fishing, cheap short flights, sailing, or anything that I have come to love. Nice beaches like Santa Cruise are 3 hours away.

Santa Cruise 3 hours from Sacramento

Once you move to an area you immediately start setting down roots. I only moved to Sacramento to go to college. I didn’t plan to live there my whole life. 42 years later, I started looking at places to move to. First was Costa Rica. Then Panama, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. While searching were to live, it became obvious that it would be difficult to make a living an any of those places. It had to be in the United States for now. It took 9 years after deciding to leave to finally get out of Sacramento. Had to sell the house, rentals, and a lifetime of stuff. This part was really difficult and very costly. I wanted to be sure that were I moved to would be suitable for the next 30 years. We liked that Florida had no state income tax and had airports that offered cheap, quick flights to the places that I had come to love. Also, the things that I love to do are right in Florida itself. We Flew to Fort Lauderdale in mid 2017 and again in 2018 to drive around and get a feel of the people and climate. Then in 2019 we purchased a 36 foot class A motorhome for the move.

My Basic Criteria

  • No State Taxes
  • Close to Sailing, Fishing, Flying sport airplane
  • Walk on the beach everyday
  • Excellent Fishing
  • Close to an international airport with short flights to the Caribbean, Central America and South America

Florida Airports

Florida has 3 great airports. Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Orlando. At first I was planning to move to Fort Lauderdale. However when we got there in the motorhome we didn’t like the traffic and the fast city life. So we kept driving north. My “close to an airport” criteria was to be able to drive to the airport in 30 minutes. The farther we drove north the longer the airport commute became. We looked at many cities. I didn’t want to live in Orlando. Similar to Sacramento. Years ago I took my family to Disney World during the summer and it was miserably hot and humid. However, Cape Canaveral is 45 minutes away and about 5 degrees cooler than Orlando and has an afternoon breeze. The direct flights to Medellin are 3 hours and 45 minutes. Sailing is big and close. Cruise port, fishing, and Sailing. I can walk on the beach every day and no state taxes! Cape Canaveral is 3 hours north of Fort Lauderdale. As a bonus, Orlando is even a better airport than Fort Lauderdale for European and Asia travel. Disney World and Universal Studios is one hour by car. For now, we are parked in an RV park in Cape Canaveral and walk to the beach every day. Soon we hope to have jobs, and settle in.

Port Canaveral Disney Cruise Ship

We Love Cape Canaveral

We have been living in Cape Canaveral for almost 2 months now. The COVID-19 shutdown started just before we got here. I feel lucky that a few of the RV Parks we tried to get a spot at were shut down and wouldn’t let us in. Lucky in the sense that those parks were located on the Mainland and this park is on the Ocean for the same price. Now that businesses are starting to open back up, we will be applying for jobs and looking for a home to transition to in the near future.

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