The Great Outdoors

Since Lazy Days gives away free passes to the Port St Lucie resort, it was filled with people like us taking advantage of a free campsite. We met a lovely British couple, John and Kathy. They live in the UK half the year and spend the other half of the year in the States where they own a 40' motorhome and a lot in a place called "The Great Outdoors" (TGO). They encouraged us to come to visit and check it out. Since we were heading that way , we decided to stay a few days. TGO is located just outside Titusville and Cocoa Beach (directly across from Cape Canaveral). It's called a "RV Nature and Golf Resort". The entire orientation is for RV'ers - a gated community for people who own motorhomes. They have 24 hour security, a golf course and country club, pools, a post office, fishing lakes, restaurants, convenience stores, beauty shop, RV supply store......a self-contained community. They sell property that ranges from the "RV Site" -a concrete pad (although these pads provide you with a little storage shed and/or a little "Florida room" (a place for guests with a small kitchenette andbathroom), to a "RV Port" (a concrete pad with a cover for your motorhome and a Florida room and shed). They also sell "villas" (no place for an RV, but a small 2 bedroom house- designed for snow-birds). And the top of the line offering: the "Resort Home" – a real house with a garage for your RV!

We had been talking about our Daytona Beach offer and feeling a bit uncomfortable about the ability for it to support our lifestyle. We love the motorhome lifestyle- the idea of just taking off whenever we want – and also want to continue our overseas travel. So, we need a place where we can just lock the door and drive-or fly- away (the new term is “lock and leave”) When we took a hard look at Daytona Beach, we really felt that we'd need to have a rental apartment so someone would be there to watch the property. And that would mean dealing with City Hall to get approvals and permits, finding a responsible tenant (which could be a bit of a challenge here in Florida- there are some real crazies down here!). On top of all that, there were some problems with the title to the waterfront property- a possible lien on the title from 1924 when the developer put in a clause that gave him and his heirs use of the property. We had a few sleepless nights and came to the conclusion that no matter how beautiful the house and waterfront were, it would become a boat anchor to us.

Then we saw "the house"......imagine a house with 2400 square feet of living space - and 1600 square feet of garage! In the middle of the "snob zone" of TGO, we found a house that has 12 foot ceilings, 2 "master bedroom suites", a sunroom, a huge "great room" (living room, dining room combination) and a big kitchen -AND an RV garage (complete with full hookups), a 2 car garage and a golf cart garage. The house was built 2 years ago and was the builders model home. The original owners bought it completely furnished (decorator perfect) and wanted to sell it completely furnished. So, not only did we just buy a house, but we also got a full house of furniture and accessories. AND- John managed to get their golf cart thrown into the deal.

We set a closing date of April Fools Day- how appropriate. It's still hard to believe- we swore we'd never live in a gated community or a golf course community and never thought we'd ever own a golf cart. But, this house really supports our lifestyle. It's completely rentable--in season, it fetches about $2000/month and we won't have to worry about family antiques, etc. We can enjoy the house whenever we want- and it's perfect for visitors. We're only about 20 minutes from the Cape and the Kennedy Space Center, an hour from Daytona Beach (and Bike Week and the Daytona 500) and about 40 minutes from the Orlando airport and Disney World, Universal Studio .and "Splendid China”.