Our government’s requirement for all citizens to file income taxes can really put a kink in the cruising lifestyle. So can unexpectedly buying a home in Florida. We delayed our trip to the Bahamas for three reasons. The two aforementioned reasons, and also, the weather has just been lousy. Finally, the weather has started getting to be almost back to the norm for Florida, presenting nice seventy-ish degree days on this side of the state. Even though it’s been colder than normal, we still like it better here, than having to shovel snow in Indiana. Speaking of that, we’ve been told our wonderful neighbors in Indianapolis have been keeping our driveway clear of snow all winter. I don’t know the extent of each one’s participation, but our hearty thanks and appreciation go to Will, Lee and Jerry, and possibly David and Rod.
Going home to Indiana to take care of filing our income taxes and take care of other business, enabled us to spend time with family and a few friends. Not only did we get to attend Mother’s birthday party and see siblings, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews, we also had opportunity to see my two sons, their wives and two grandchildren. We had a great week visiting with everyone we could squeeze into such a short time. Last minute packing to fill the car with household items needed in Florida, ended the trip all too soon. We left a day earlier than originally planned because bad weather was approaching the state again, and by doing so, we were able to stay ahead of the snow all the way southbound. If there is something I hate worse than shoveling snow, it is driving in it. Gary heard a story about a man who tied his shovel to the top of his car and started heading south. Someone asked him why a shovel was tied to the top of his car and the man replied, “ I’m going to keep driving south until someone asks me, ‘What is that thing you have tied to the top of your car?’ “ We thought about tying a shovel to the top of White Swan before we headed south, but that is beyond our scope of imagination of acceptable boater’s behavior.
We left Indiana the 21st, giving us plenty of time to travel to Florida and then prepare for the closing of our new home on February 26th. Retirement, suddenly felt like “work” again, with all the necessary things to do to purchase a home: seek insurance for it, inspections, etc., etc,. etc. After the closing, we immediately began working on the house doing numerous repairs (nothing major), cleaning and landscaping. We worked most of the month of March on the house, preparing it for the move of furniture, etc. from Indiana, which we will do after we return from the Bahamas. We decided, we are not giving up our goal of going to the Bahamas with White Swan. That’s what this whole journey is suppose to be about. Not buying a house.
However, all it took for Gary to convince me to buy a home down here, was to ask one time, “Do you think you could live in Florida?” While traveling around the Melbourne area, he started thinking about the housing market being in a slump and wondered if we could find something we liked at the right price. So, we decided to work with a realtor and started looking. The first house we made an offer on was not accepted by the seller and we are so thankful, because we love this house even more. Mostly, because it has privacy in the backyard, and there is enough yard to landscape and have flower beds, and bird feeders. The layout of this house if very much like our home in Indianapolis, so we totally feel at home here. We both really like the Melbourne area and our new home is less than 30 minutes away from the marina where we are keeping White Swan. The Atlantic Ocean is about 10 miles away. We wanted to be inland enough to not be as threatened by the hurricanes as we would be if we lived closer to the ocean. Taxes and insurance are prohibitively higher nearer the ocean as well.
As with all decisions in life, we prayerfully hope we made the right one in buying this house. We certainly had no intentions of buying a house in Florida when we started our journey down the ICW last November, but here we are, and we are liking it…