central florida

English: Spaceship Earth in Walt Disney World ... — English: Spaceship Earth in Walt Disney World in Florida (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A few years ago I left Florida and moved back to New England where I grew up. My Florida friends thought I was crazy, but many of them had grown up in Florida and couldn’t stand the cold. I missed the change of seasons. There were things I did not like about Florida, but there were also many things that I knew I would miss.

I lived north of Disney World. Most people know where that is, or they know Daytona. So I would say I lived between Disney and Daytona. It was a nice area to be in. The east coast beaches were only about thirty minutes away, and the theme parks were about an hour to the south. I found out about “rush hour” and knew to stay off I4 during that time of day. And forget about driving in snow, driving in the torrential Florida downpours was worse. I can’t bring myself to go fishing up here in the north, since the fishing in Florida spoiled me. And I haven’t visited the beach since I left the south. It’s just not the same here.

There was much to do around my Florida home. Blue Springs state park is in Orange City which was close, and it’s a great place to swim if you like 72 degree water -which is the temperature year round because of the spring. The nice clear water was a treat too, but the park is closed to swimming when the manatees come in winter. It’s one of the best times to visit and view manatees in the wild. With the clear river water by the spring, it’s easy to see them swimming around.

The Daytona Speedway was just up the road, and they offer tours of the track and have a museum for race fans. And if you like biker bars, the Foxhead Saloon was always packed during Bike Week – and the surrounding weeks. I lived so close, I could have walked there. And just down the road (Doyle Road) was one of my favorite places – Pell’s nursery and fruit stand.

The St. Johns River was close by for boating and fishing too, and of course we could head south to the theme parks that offered Florida residents some “deals” at certain times of the year. We never made much money living in Florida, so even the deal tickets were expensive to us. Disney prices their tickets according to what the wealthy out-of-staters can pay (IMO).

So I lived in a great area of the state. About once a week we would tow our pontoon boat over to the ICW and go fishing and maybe stop at JB’s Fish Camp to buy a delicious meal of fresh fish.

I am not mentioning the horrible traffic and crowds of tourists that are often found at these places, and I miss Florida for many reasons, but I honestly don’t miss living there full time. To be a Floridian means you share your home with tourists – constantly.

Is There Fishing at Walt Disney World? (chipandco.com)
Baby It’s Cold Outside – Spring Break at Disney (thisfloridalife.com)
Disney World photo captures couple together 15 years before they met – Fate? Destiny? Chance? (danielhkwan.wordpress.com)

When I first moved to Florida, back in 1979, I lived in Deltona. Saxon Boulevard was a small back road that took us out to Orange City where a couple of stores were. A few years later the whole state had a population boom and Deltona became huge. That area is all pretty different now with shopping centers on every corner and Saxon Blvd. is a big, 4 lane road.

Deltona is about half way between Orlando and Daytona Beach in central Florida. It’s about 30 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean and beaches located in Volusia County.

When my oldest son (now age 36) began first grade there were only two elementary schools for the town of Deltona. One was in Osteen and one was in Enterprise – both little towns on the outskirts. There was one middle school and everyone went to Deland for high school, if my memory serves me right. Later on there would be two huge high schools and many other schools all over the city.

We had a house built in Osteen years later and by the time I moved back north and left Florida, Deltona had grown to be one of the largest cities in the area, if not the state. But there was nothing there except houses (lots and lots of houses) and schools with a couple banks, churches, grocery stores and gas stations thrown in. It had started off as a retirement community and a developer (Mackle Brothers?) came in and put up a bunch of tiny houses for retirees to buy. But it had become a wandering maze of streets filled to the brim with mostly average size homes and schools were everywhere. It’s one of the reasons I no longer enjoyed living there – crowds of people everywhere.

My son still lives in the area and he says that many homes now sit empty and they sell for next to nothing. Here is the link to info on the City of Deltona, in case you want to know more.