Never say never, right? Most of my life, I’ve enjoyed snow. Even into my 60’s, I’d say, “I love snowy weather. I won’t ever be one of those geezers who go to Florida every winter. That’s totally not for me.”
But then arthritis and other vagaries of aging began settling in, making the long, gray Indiana winters more challenging. Snow fun turned into fall risk. Winter in Florida looked more inviting.
In January 2022, my newly retired husband, Mike, and I made our first winter trek to the Sunshine State. January of ’22 was heaven. We rented from friends who owned a place in an “over 55” resort near Ft. Myers Beach. We had a ball swimming, beach walking, riding bikes and enjoying the great weather.
We embraced geezer-hood and planned a return to Ft. Myers the following winter…but in September of 2022, just as we were poised to sign a lease for January 2023, Hurricane Ian blew away Indian Creek Resort…and a large part of southwest Florida. So we stayed home that January and groused about the cold weather.
For January of 2024, we cooked up a new travel plan. We’d visit several places in Florida we hadn’t been before. We accepted invites to visit friends in Satellite Beach and Kissimmee, and planned a stop in Hilton Head, S.C. on our way to Florida.
Hilton Head was a disaster. I contracted Norovirus there, so my experience of Hilton Head consisted of upchucking into a wastebasket, while sitting on the “throne.” Adding insult to injury, due to hotel remodeling, there were frequent water outages in our room.
To ensure I was completely over Norovirus—and wouldn’t infect friends—we detoured to St. Augustine for a couple of nights. Feeling sure the worst was behind us, we celebrated with a delicious seafood dinner. But later on, shortly after we had fallen asleep, I was awakened by Mike thrashing around. I thought he was having a nightmare. And he was, so to speak. He rolled over and puked into a trashcan. Norovirus redux. The next morning, Mike developed a fever and a sore throat and tested positive for COVID. Yep, a double whammy: Norovirus and COVID. Needless to say, we called our friends to cancel and limped back home.
Refusing to be deterred, we made plans to spend January 2025 in Port St. Joe in the Florida panhandle. We knew the temps would be cooler in northern Florida, but our VRBO advertised a heated community pool. We swam exactly three times before the pool closed for repairs…and never reopened. Our teensy apartment shared a thin wall with the owner’s home, and the owner and her teenage son had frequent loud arguments, which included mass quantities of “F-bombs.” There was no hot water in our rental most of the time, and the piece de resistance: it snowed! By week three, we threw in the towel and—you guessed it—headed back to Indiana. Travel tip: if you want to voice a complaint or feel like you’re owed a partial refund, VRBO will be AWOL.
One would think we might start considering winter trips to Minnesota after all that. But we journeyed to Florida again last month, and (fingers crossed) the travel curse lifted! The friends we rented from in Ft. Myers offered us their new place in Bonita Springs for January. We enjoyed our month in Southern Pines. We swam daily, took beach walks, visited friends, and ate our way through pounds of shrimp. We have our geezer bona fides now. No doubt we’ll head south again next winter. And here’s good news for Indiana: the snow is melting, and spring is officially less than a month away!
