 
Lowell
Board Administrator
Username: Lowell
Post Number: 2583
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 68.156.43.202
| | Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 6:29 pm: |    |
Sitting here in FLL with good and free Wifi, I have been musing on a week’s business here. Here are some notes.
Warm weather all year around? Myth. Try hot weather most of the year. It is only May and it is insufferable, even in oceanside Hollywood Beach where I stayed.
Safe? A female jogger got pulled into a canal and chewed up by a gator. That’ll never happen in the D.
Basketball? Went to the Heat game last night. Piston home games are twice as loud, far better choreography of sights and sound. Half their fans were late for the start, so there was no build up. Miami sucks too. Pistons in five or less if the Heat survives the Nets.
Drivers? The absolute worse. They drive in the outer lane 10 MPH under the limit, speed up a little, slow down, speed up a little. At first I thought it had to be old folk, but no, just regular drivers, not even talking on cell phones. Had me pounding the steering wheel all week.
While playing some handball I was asked where I was from. When I said the D, they asked if I was here doing roofing. [Yeah sure.] There is a huge demand for roofers due to hurricane damage still not fixed. Signs advertising for them are all over and, oh yes another big topic here, hurricane season starts in two weeks. Maybe that will put out some of the many wild fires are raging all around, even shutting down interstates.
Yet this 150 mile long 10 mile wide city is booming. Construction cranes all over the place and even several huge projects in the old city of Miami. Good folks here too, but get me home to Detroit. |
Hagglerock
Member
Username: Hagglerock
Post Number: 230
Registered: 03-2005
Posted From: 12.214.243.66
| | Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 11:19 pm: | |
Florida drivers are the WORST in the country, hands down (and not because of all of 'snowbirds'). Lowell, is that why you are here?  |
Missnmich
Member
Username: Missnmich
Post Number: 511
Registered: 11-2004
Posted From: 70.186.39.150
| | Posted on Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 11:29 pm: | |
You told people in Florida you were from the D? And they knew what you were talking about?
Had they heard of Farmington Hills? |
Focusonthed
Member
Username: Focusonthed
Post Number: 155
Registered: 02-2006
Posted From: 24.192.25.47
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:04 am: | |
MANY people in Florida, especially SW Florida, are former Michigan residents. You even see the Michigan left. |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 2267
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 68.230.22.99
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:19 am: | |
I-75 musta been a dream come true for the Big 3 - first to get more of their current & retired employees as well as other Michiganders safely to and from Florida, and second to wear out far more cars in the process. |
Super_d
Member
Username: Super_d
Post Number: 876
Registered: 08-2005
Posted From: 70.227.84.17
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:31 am: | |
Hey Lowell, can you bring me back one of Shaquille O'Neals Miami Heat Jerseys?
oh! and make sure it is sign by the Big Fella' himself.
thanks
super d(motordetroit)
(Message edited by super_d on May 12, 2006) |
Pamequus
Member
Username: Pamequus
Post Number: 35
Registered: 07-2005
Posted From: 158.229.218.204
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 10:55 am: | |
South Florida is so very different than North Florida, where I'm at. Much like the difference between the UP and LP times ten.
Lowell....make your next trip to our fair state Ocala or north and you'll find a much more appealing area. Rolling hills, lots of trees, four distinct seasons and people who are actually from Florida. |
Detroitduo
Member
Username: Detroitduo
Post Number: 643
Registered: 06-2005
Posted From: 194.138.39.56
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 11:03 am: | |
wait a minute. rolling "hills" in North Florida? Are you kidding me? I have been EVERYwhere in Florida and I can safely say, I have never seen anything I would call "rolling hills". The closest thing could be the sand dunes, but those are dunes, not hills.
While I agree North Florida holds a much different climate and people than south Florida, I wouldn't go so far as to say it's more "appealing", unless ofcourse you like rebel flags, balloon tires, and couches on front porches.
(I'm partly joking. I have family in JAX and have traveled the entire panhandle, one end to the other. Still no place for me, personally.) |
Pamequus
Member
Username: Pamequus
Post Number: 36
Registered: 07-2005
Posted From: 158.229.218.204
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:16 pm: | |
Detroitduo.....what were you smoking when you were in the panhandle?? Did you even bother getting off the interstate on your trip across? If you had you would have seen gentle rolling hills, beautiful hammocks of live oaks, plantations, cattle ranches (Florida being one of the top 3 in the US in cattle production). Sadly most folks that come to Florida see the beaches and the bars.....we have so much more to offer than that.
North Florida definitely has four seasons BTW, but you won't freeze your ass off in the winter. |
Lowell
Board Administrator
Username: Lowell
Post Number: 2586
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.167.58.162
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 12:37 pm: | |
Pamequus, I know what you mean. My parents used to winter in the 'Florida Mountains' near Dade City. In fact the second highest point in Florida was directly behind them. I climbed this peak, all 260 feet of it. LOL. It was a lovely area, orange groves on the hilltops, cattle in the valleys and, at that time unfortunately, a lot of frost. No gators and swamp thereabouts, but also a bit dull with the true slow retiree drivers. Nature, great, nightlife, well... The biggest excitement thereabouts was and occasional sink hole that would swallow up a few mobile homes. |
Pamequus
Member
Username: Pamequus
Post Number: 37
Registered: 07-2005
Posted From: 158.229.218.204
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 2:13 pm: | |
Roflmao....at the sink hole comment. They are a rather interesting phenomenon.
Ifn' you want nightlife stick to one of the big cities, I hear South Beach is pretty nifty. ;)
260 feet isn't much but certainly qualifies as a hill wouldn't you say??
North Florida lacks, for the most part, the retirees (unless you count me who will retire in the next five years or so) but then we have Panama City which we refer to as the Red Neck Riviera, with good reason. We also have Wakulla Springs which is a marvelous step back in time, was never commercialized, held in private hands until the late 80's when it was given to the State. There is wildlife there that is found only there due to the fact that it has been protected since the 30s. We have probably the most beautiful beaches in the country, check out St. George Island and any point west, absolutely breathtaking and for the most part populated about 20% as heavily as the rest of Florida. Thousands and thousands of acres of National and State Forest, all easily accessible. Some of the best swimming holes you'll find are those sinkholes found sprinkling the national forests. Okay, get the picture?? I love this adopted land of mine and as Detroit has, North Florida has it's special attractions unique to it's location and unique to it's survival. |
Susanarosa
Member
Username: Susanarosa
Post Number: 830
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 208.39.170.90
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 2:16 pm: | |
My heart is with the Warren of mid-Florida -- Lakeland. |
Detroitduo
Member
Username: Detroitduo
Post Number: 644
Registered: 06-2005
Posted From: 84.156.20.54
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 6:29 pm: | |
Gimme Key West or gimme death! |
Treelock
Member
Username: Treelock
Post Number: 116
Registered: 03-2005
Posted From: 68.77.166.98
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 8:36 pm: | |
In the winter of 1999/2000, I spent several months aboard a sailboat with a friend following the Intracoastal Waterway down the east coast. As such, I saw all of Florida's Atlantic side.
If I were ever to return, I'd make port at St. Augustine and then not again at all until I made Key West. The rest of the coast held little interest and was like Sterling Heights-Sur-Mer. |
Lowell
Board Administrator
Username: Lowell
Post Number: 2590
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.167.58.162
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 9:44 pm: | |
I hear you Detroitduo and Treelock. I took a day to drive down to Key West, a trek I long wanted to do. What a fabulous place, lively, colorful and open-minded - loaded with character [and characters!]. While my visit was short, it immediately became my favorite place in FL, the one place I could live in Florida, hurricanes be damned too. It reminded me, in more than one way, of Provincetown at the end of Cape Cod. I be back.
We breakfasted in South Beach to take in the Art Deco / Moderne architecture. Nice, wonderful architecture, but a little too slick, kind of like Birmingham with good architecture. |
Mpow
Member
Username: Mpow
Post Number: 200
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 201.135.255.188
| | Posted on Friday, May 12, 2006 - 11:15 pm: | |
I always like to say miami is like detroit with palm trees.. |
Lilpup
Member
Username: Lilpup
Post Number: 1015
Registered: 06-2004
Posted From: 64.12.116.204
| | Posted on Saturday, May 13, 2006 - 12:15 am: | |
well there are always the palms in the RenCen's Wintergarden done GM style...
I think the conservatory on Belle Isle has some too... |
Barnesfoto
Member
Username: Barnesfoto
Post Number: 1975
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.2.148.162
| | Posted on Saturday, May 13, 2006 - 9:30 am: | |
If you are in Miami, I reccomend "Casa de las fritas" in Little Havana. Usually packed and absolute caos, with plates being passed all over, but somehow, you get your sandwich, and every waitress calls you "mi amor", when they're not screaming "dios mio, where eees hees sandwich!" |
Mikem
Member
Username: Mikem
Post Number: 2501
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 68.43.15.105
| | Posted on Saturday, May 13, 2006 - 10:23 pm: | |
Lowell, don't come back yet,. Speaking of hurricanes, we've had one hanging over our heads for the past few days. I see one of its arms even passed through south Fla:
It snowed on me in Madison, Wisconsin Thursday night. |
Ravine
Member
Username: Ravine
Post Number: 53
Registered: 01-2006
Posted From: 69.221.79.238
| | Posted on Saturday, May 13, 2006 - 10:37 pm: | |
Hurry home, Mr. Coordinator. The Tigers are a hair's-breadth away from First Place. |
Lowell
Board Administrator
Username: Lowell
Post Number: 2600
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.167.58.162
| | Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 12:53 am: | |
Nice maps MikeM. Very interesting slow motion hurrican pattern that seems stalled over us. It feels like we are in England. Anyway, i am back and have ordered the weather to move on. It didn't stop the Tigers tonight.
"Weather, everybody's talking about it, no one is doing anything about it." |
Supersport
Member
Username: Supersport
Post Number: 10067
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 69.246.37.236
| | Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 2:49 am: | |
So when did you move to Detroit? LMAO |
Davidmausolf
Member
Username: Davidmausolf
Post Number: 4
Registered: 04-2006
Posted From: 4.78.130.213
| | Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 8:15 am: | |
Can't wait to come home to Detroit from FL this week , its going to be great to see the D and get a new car. I'll definately have to check out downtown Detroit and see how the progress is, and maybe even stop in canada for that thing college students under 21 do when they go to canada. |
Rocket_city
Member
Username: Rocket_city
Post Number: 29
Registered: 04-2006
Posted From: 141.217.214.203
| | Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 1:45 pm: | |
Will someone kick that low pressure thing in the nuts and send it on its way already? It feels like Narnia around here but with a rainy season. |