[MrTudo]

Well, not fire ant hills

[newteacher]

If you want "rolling hills" check out Ocala. That's where I'm going. There are many areas around Ocala in Marion County that are very beautiful, and there is a large lake called "Lake Weir" if you are into water. Just a thought.

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by MrTudo

Any kind of rolling hills would be wonderful

Mr. Tudo, we didn't really notice any rolling hills in the Sebring/Lake Placid area. Maybe our definition of hills is different, but to me, it wasn't hilly.

[pianogal]

Originally Posted by Jammie

Mr. Tudo, we didn't really notice any rolling hills in the Sebring/Lake Placid area. Maybe our definition of hills is different, but to me, it wasn't hilly.

This is true....the only 'hills' I've ever seen in Florida are in between Clermont and Ocala and then around the Lake Wales area just up Hwy 27 north of the Sebring/Lake Placid area. Of course, I've haven't made it yet to Britton Hill -- Florida's High Point at 345'. It is located in Lakewood Park - in Lakewood a small town in Walton County.

[MrTudo]

We went to Sebring today. Neat place! Turned out to be an hour and 15 minutes from where we live. Cruised around Lake Jackson, ( Lakeview Dr ) and the general area. Wish we left earlier. Picked up a lot of real estate info sheets from in front of houses.

There were a LOT of For Sale signs out there in every different price range.

We decided we're definitely interested in looking into it further. Property taxes are a consideration but not enough to deter us to look in another state at this point.

Took a different route back home and man oh man did NOT see another car in front of us for 27 miles and it was wonderful. Something you never see on the SE coast.

Looking for a realtor in that area. If anyone knows a go-getter please put them in touch with us. We do NOT have to sell our house in Port Charlotte in order to make a move....but it would have to be real motivating for us to tie up the loot in two different places.

What we really liked was the abundance of Oak Trees. We have those on our property here in Port Charlotte and the general area of our house ( Haverhill ) had many of them but also lost quite a few from Hurricane Charley. Our 4 giant oaks actually protected our house from what the officials claim was a 180 MPH gust that came thru the general area and wiped out much of our roof. No idea what the gust was but it did wipe out a number of giant oaks in the neighborhood. Both my Wife and I love those giant oaks which is a real Southern look about them.

Hence we really enjoyed the area up there and I also noticed quite a few different palms. I could have swore we saw a Mango tree. Does anyone know if Mangoes will grow there? On this side of the bridge in Port Charlotte, I'm told that mango trees do not do very well. So I wondered about that when Sebring is a little further northwest and more central.

Loved Lake Jackson

[pslOldTimer]

Did you turn up into the historical downtown district? Really nice, lots of brick pavers and old street lights and such, some nice boutique stores. It ends in a traffic circle, like all good traditional downtowns should. I don't know if they still do it, but every March, when the 12 hours of Sebring race is held, they used to have a historical race car parade around the circle and down the historical main drag. It was really exciting to see all those old Ferraris and other Formula I cars, and the old muscle-car road racers, and such. I'm pretty sure the Sebring track is the oldest track still operating in the US, although Watkins Glen would also be up there.

The firehouse in downtown Sebring is still a two-story building with the bunkrooms upstairs and a fire pole for the firemen to slide down.

I still prefer Lake Placid for the beauty of country living and then just a short run up US 27 to the "big town" attributes of Sebring. From our property in Okeechobee, it's just about the same distance from there to Home Depot in Fort Pierce or Sebring; I prefer to go to Sebring whenever possible.

Great area. Good people. But, I'd have to drive a little further to get my occasional opera fix -- one time we were at a race event at the Sebring track on the same weekend we had tickets for the Treasure Coast Opera Society in Fort Pierce. We left the race track, drove almost 2 hours to the civic center to see the opera, then 2 hours back to the track to spend the night in the RV and be ready for the next day's racing. I think we may have been the only folks at the race who went to the opera and the only folks at the opera who came from the race track...

[MrTudo]

pslOldTimer, I wish we left earlier to see more of it but yes we DID drive thru the downtown and it was neat! Much larger and better than Punta Gorda although the older houses in the area really could use a renovation whereas the older houses in Punta Gorda are already done for the most part.

I like it and so does my Wife. Lake Jackson is huge. We would like to see Lake Placid as well and investigate more of the whole area.

Have not yet been to a real Opera although I'd love to go to one. Too bad that Pavarotti is done......I would have given anything to see him, or better yet the three tenors at once. We did go to see the 25th anniversary of Cats at the Broward Performing arts theatre some months ago I saw that at the Winter Garden in NYC years ago .

Does Lake Placid have a downtown too??

[pslOldTimer]

Originally Posted by MrTudo

Does Lake Placid have a downtown too??

I'm sure it does, but it didn't leave as much impression on me. I've been there to visit some folks in the residential areas (absolutely beautiful in a nice but not ostentatious neighborhood), and I've been to the high school for football games (my daughter was a high school band director and we went to all the games, including the away games. She's moving to middle school so she can devote more time to her young family, and will go back to high school level when they grow up a little). We've been to all the stadiums in that neck of the woods, Lake Placid, Sebring, Avon Park, Wauchula, Durant, etc. etc., and they start to run together. I remember being lost in Lake Placid because the stadium is not near the school, so I'm sure I passed through downtown, but I can't remember it. I was under some pressure -- I was pulling a trailer with a 4-wheeler they used to haul the percussion pit equipment onto the field, and I needed to be there at a certain time.

The high school was very pretty and the stadium was nicely maintained.

[Jammie]

Lake Placid has more of a main street then a downtown. They have murals painted on the sides of all their old buildings. Their trash cans are painted in artwork, too. You'd have to be familiar with really "small town" living to be happy in Lake Placid though. But it's actually one the cutest, friendliest towns I've ever been to. If I wasn't in need of employment, I'd spend four months of the year in Keystone, So. Dak. and the rest of the time in Lake Placid. I don't personally know any realtors in the area, but there is a site to look at real estate there and I'm PM-ing it to you. As far as the cost of homes there, they have skyrocketed, maybe not like other areas, but they've increased greatly the past three years.

[MrTudo]

Thanks Jammie, what goes up, comes down which is what's happening now. Thank you for the PM, I'm much obliged and we're going to take off again on thursday to continue "exploring"

Rgrds
Mr T