Our Visit to Doris and Elias - and Ben and Carol

One of the nicest things about being a retired trailing spouse - is being able to travel at the drop of a hat. Sometimes I feel like a puppy standing at the door with my leash in mouth.

Living in Tallahassee, Florida - we are right in the center of some of my favorite travel destinations. New Orleans - Atlanta - Saint Augustine - Tampa - Orlando - Miami - and Key West are all within 10 hours of my front door. Also - there is never a worry of snow or ice on the highways.

On the way to the Keys - we stopped at the home of our friends - Doris and Elias. They live in Homestead. Doris graduated from high school with Lulu back in the 70s - and her home has been a terminal resort of many of our trips. She lives a couple of miles from the gate to the Everglades National Park. In 1992 - when Hurricane Andrew virtually leveled her home - we packed up our old camper with goodies - generators - well pumps - food - clothes - and drove the 1400 miles non-stop from the Northland. They re-built their home - lived in a trailer for a year - and still hunker down for each hurricane that flies by.


It is about 2 hours down the Keys to Ben and Carol's place. Ben was my eye doctor up north - and his home just east of Key West has been in the family for 50 years. In the "old days" - Ben would fly from the Northeast and land on a small runway closeby. Now that he has retired - he flies commercial - and spends 3 months here. I cannot even start to describe how neat this place is - on the water - guest cottages - boats - plants - neat toys.


Living in Florida has so much to offer - great beaches - warm sunshine - lots of pretty plants - excellent highways - and endless destinations. It is also fun to be able to talk to all the tourists and snowbirds - and tell them that we are residents - we live in Tallahassee - one of the few cities in the world that goes by one name. Like Rome - Venice - Berlin - New York - London - everyone knows about Tallahassee - and now it is part of me.

Pictures - Lulu and I on the beach 36 years after honeymoon - Doris, Elias, and Doris's mother down from our old hometown - the plane we will take to Fort Jefferson tomorrow "The Buddy Holly Special" - a wedding on the beach in Key West - and Harry's hero Robert Johnson - the father of rock and rock. "White men can sing the blues unless the Banana Republic runs out of Khakis."

But the best part of living here - is the opportunity that it has offered Lulu to work for a great university and with many world renowned professors. It could not have happened - unless I became "the trailing spouse."