Anyone from southern Florida???

ACStudios

ACStudios

Joined
Apr 9, 2001
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Hi all,

Does anyone live near, or have knowledge of the area around the southern shore of Lake Ocheechobee? The towns of Clewiston or Belle Grade?

I have a job offer down in that area that I'm considering... but I don't know squat about the region. I know it'd be a huge difference from where I am now. Then there are the hurricanes and all...

I'd love to hear from anyone who knows some stuff about the region (cost of living, weather, things to LOOK for... or to look OUT for...). After just getting settled in here, I'm really reluctant to move again. But the money I'm being offered (and chance for advancement) is too good NOT to consider.

Thanks!

Alan
 
The towns of Clewiston or Belle Grade?

Both of those small towns were primarily farming communities, and for the most part still are. Clewiston is slightly more affluent and is trying to develop some tourism. But, most of the dollars are still coming from orange growers and sugercane. As a tourist destination it offers a launching point for fishing and boating at the lake, and a small airport that does plenty of skydiving. The community is a scattering of modest to middle class single family homes. with some better ones mixed in. The main drag is about what you would expect in a mostly rural community.

Bell Glade was pretty run down the last time I passed through. There is not a whole lot to see there. The wife and I went through there a year ago and it was hard to even find a place for lunch (and we are in no way picky).

Both, towns are about an hour and thirty minutes out of South Florida, and perhaps a little less from the Tampa area.

n2s
 
Alan, I love the west, the hunting, the mountains, sking, and the vastness etc. I was elk hunting when my wife divorced me.:eek:

I don't know how the hell I ended up in Florida.

I passed through southern Fl many times. I agree with "N2S".

My take of Florida is mixed. Many old retiree's, many vagrants and dopers, many "don't wanna to work to much" men, low pay scale, no respect & no money for the "worker trades". If you are not bussiness management, you do not get much respect.

The upside...............first in the country for concealed carry permit [the other states soon followed],the Gov signed a "No Retreat Bill" [if you are threatened, shoot to kill],fishing is great, pig hunting is great, boating is great, summers suck but winters are great, the pretty girls on the beaches are great, scuba diving is great, and there are still a few good-o-boys to drink a beer with.;

If your'e coming down, email me, I will give you my telephone number.
 
Thanks guys. I'm going to have to think hard on this one. I'll get about a $7K raise... plus start in a management track. In 2-3 years I'd be a general manager and moving to Sebring. That would bring a LOT more money. Not to mention the job would be a hoot to do.

The dog would have to get used to NOT swimming in creeks/ponds/lakes. I'd have to get used to huge misquetos (somehow they aren't that big here in Wyo...). I'd swap out cold winters for hotter than heck summers. Hmmm.

I am having a moral delima on this one... moving away after only seven months (giving notice at four months) at my current job. I tend to feel one year is the minimum before moving on. But this opportunity won't be around much longer.

So do you take the opportunity or stand to your integrity in doing a job you said you would do (I'm leaning towards staying... but the offer has me thinking, which is always dangerous). The company I'm working for is a good one, but the hours are killing me. I don't see myself being able to handle them for more than two years. If I last that long, I'll be risking serious burnout.

Life always has interesting turns in store for you. Just when you have things figured out... things shift.

Alan
 
Those towns are about as southern and conservative (and red) as you can get, poor small about 15 mins one end to the other, glades and cane farms and suger mills, on one side- lake on the other. ok if you like fried catfish and hushpupies. Roll the sidewalks up at 6pm

But about an hour from palm beach and 1 1/2 hr from ft lauderdale. Lots of harleys on the weekends passing through
 
The dog would have to get used to NOT swimming in creeks/ponds/lakes.
Click to expand...

Speaking of which; beware of some of the developments around Clewston. Some of these plots have no public water supply and the well water is contaminated.

n2s
 
Hi Alan:

It's not a good area unless you like nothing and heat. Better to be on the outskirts of a bigger city where you have urban stores and country nearby. The pay scale in Florida is very low compares to NJ where I come from.

Go visit the area and explore it before making a move.

Thanks, Steve
 
I love the area.
I live in a smallish town south of Miami called Homestead.
Against popular beleif S Fla is NOT hot.
I have seen over 93 degrees VERY few times and then the afternoon rains come and it's fine.
Clewiston is about 1 hour from Cooper city/ Davie ( a suburb of Lauderdale) and quite affluent.
Great food/ shopping etc.
To the west is Ft Myers.
It's a nice place.
I can tell you this.
If you are under 35 you'll be hitting Ft Myers and Lauderdale on the weekends.
If you are older you'll probably just like to boat out on THE BIG LAKE and enjoy your time off of work...
 
Hot Women!!!!!!!

Andy's 1st Law of Sexual Dynamics: The farther south one goes in the United States the hotter the women get per capita.

As for the weather. Every day at ~2-3 PM it'll go from beautiful blue skies to nightmare black in minutes. Then it'll rain like hell for 15 minutes. The its blue skies. We moved from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta. Its hot in Florida.
 
I don't suppose it is a "dry" heat is it :D

Well... it looks like I am going to take the job afterall... there was a bump in my decision over the weekend, but it looks like my concerns were settled this morning.

Sooo... unless the world blows up in the next two months... or Buddy and I are attacked by zombies... or my current employer counter-offers something that I cannot turn down (doubtful), I'll be Florida bound come May. Just in time for hurricane season. :rolleyes:

This could be the best, or one of the worse career decisions I've made in my life. You gotta take a risk every now and then. If it works out, I'm going to be very happy! If it doesn't... oh well... :rolleyes:

Alan
 
Azis said:
ok if you like fried catfish and hushpupies. Roll the sidewalks up at 6pm
Click to expand...


Hmmm... fried catfish sounds great! I'm hungry. :p

I might have to look at getting a boat. I'm more of a golfer really. I figure if I have time to sit on my fanny and fish, I have time to be on the golf course... or on a harley, but I gave them up back in the 90's.

But Buddy (the dog) can't golf with me. He could go out on a boat though (loves to swim). As long as they don't have gators in Ocheechobee that is...

Thanks everyone for your input.

Alan
 
Hi Alan:

On the bright side the cost of living is cheaper down here than a lot of other areas. Sounds like you'll be making more money and should do well.

It does get hot, but you can go from a/c in house to car to work or store without wilting if you want.

Another plus might be the easy going firearms laws. No motor vehicle inspection either.

There are bad things anywhere there is water. Watch you dog.
 
Thanks for the warning about water creepies Steve. I'm going to have to break Buddy from launching himself into water every chance he gets.

Nice to know that Clewiston is cheaper cost of living... but then again, MOST places are cheaper that Sheridan.

Alan
 
You'll be in bass fishing heaven. Steve was right alligators love dog.

As for hurricanes, I've lived through several. (Ad Astra too!) You must not be below the storm surge!!!! Thats not to say that there isn't danger from other aspects (falling trees, spinoff tornadoes), but the storm surge is a KILLER everytime. The only time we evacuated was because we were below the storm surge. Every other time we just sat it out and drank a TON of beer. If its a pretty stiff storm sit in the corner of a room with a long wall and watch the wall bow in and out as the pressure changes radically. Be sure to get to the grocery store/hardware store before the crowd too, or there will literally be no: water, batteries, canned food, plywood, duct tape, etc. Keep some cash on hand, enough for a few weeks of groceries and gas.
 
aproy11011...

It looks like I'll be living in a trailer... I don't think I'll be hanging around in that during a hurricane :eek: I've stayed inside one during a tornado once... that was enough to cure me of that stupidity :rolleyes:

I'm planning on putting as much $$ into an emergency fund over the summer just in case. With a little grace and luck, it'll be a calm hurricane season. I think Clewiston is far enough inland to survive a storm surge (I think the town is 18 ft above sea level)... so that *shouldn't* be a problem. But what the heck do I know about hurricanes. I'm from the land of blizzards and tornados... I don't think I'll be in Kansas anymore!

I've never bass fished before. I spent my childhood catching bullheads in Minn swamps. I really haven't tried fishing since. But I will have to give it a shot. I'm lookng forward to golfing all year long :)

Alan
 
Sooo... unless the world blows up in the next two months... or Buddy and I are attacked by zombies... or my current employer counter-offers something that I cannot turn down (doubtful), I'll be Florida bound come May. Just in time for hurricane season
Click to expand...

Good luck Alan:thumbup: :)

You can still live in a trailer--even during a hurricane--you just need a root cellar;) Email the DUCK--he is an expert in subterranean lairs, and of course one legged dancing girls:p :D
 
ACS,

18 feet is not assuredly safe from a storm surge. Many of the recent storms have had 30' storm surges. A trailer would have made me nervous too. Learn the back roads. And do like everyone else secretly does. Pray for it to hit somewhere else!

If you're from the swamps you should be fine in Fla.
 
Alan?

on a more positive note, a quote from ULYSSES, by Tennyson:

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished'd, not to shine in use!




enjoy.
 
I've done many cave dives in Florida with gators. One gator was about 6' long kept getting bolder and threatening divers in the cave entrance of Peacock Spring while they were at their 10' decompression stop and had to stay put until their deco obligation was over.

Some of us would pick up a stick and fend off the gator. It wasn't bad when the basin had good visibility, but when the vivibility had been stirred up and you couldn't see past 12" it was a heart stopper to have a 6' gator suddenly appear in your face. It looked 25% larger underwater.

The gator finally succumbed to lead poisoning from the Rangers that figured it was just a matter of time before it attacked a diver.
 
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