Florida - Day 9 - towards Orlando via The Villages

Orlando/Orange Blossom KOA, Apopka

Monday, 23 January 2023

today's route

My main goal today was an odd place called The Villages.  It's a sprawling area of 79,077 residents, all over the age of 55 (though presumably there's an exception if some old guy married a young trophy wife).  It's a planned community that consists of a string of "villages" or, as I'd call them, neighborhoods.  The Villages covers an area larger than Manhattan, NYC, spread across 2 counties.  The neighborhoods have names like The Village of Bonnybrook, The Village of Tall Trees, Village of Bridgeport at Lake Miona, Village of Winifred.  These areas are all connected by Buena Vista Blvd. and there's a traffic circle at the entrance of each area.  (I negotiated 14 traffic circles today.)  There's also a security booth at each entrance, and the security staff checks everyone going in.

The landscaping must cost a fortune and everything looks serene.  There's a separated, protected paved path alongside Buena Vista Blvd. for pedestrians, bicyclists and golf carts (mostly).  In this extremely sunny area, I saw solar panels on only 4 houses.

Everything here is owned or controlled by the descendants of one of the original developers and that has run them into trouble with the IRS.  The Wikipedia page describes the development history of this place and, if you scroll way down, explains the IRS situation.   https://en.wikipedia.org/The-Villages-Fl  But that page doesn't include information about the social situation which made the news awhile back.   https://nypost.com/retire-to-the-bedroom  And one more account.   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/The-Villages-Fl

After driving down Buena Vista Blvd through almost all of the "town," my one thought was that it reminded me of a Stepford Wives community.  On that basis alone I think I'd rather live almost anywhere else in the country than in this place.  But apparently I'm in the minority: in the period between 2010 and 2020, The Villages was the fastest-growing metro area in the US.

I continued to make my way south and came to Fruitland Park, "The Friendly City."  I think it was a vet's office that had this sign:

     Dogs prepare you for babies.

     Cats prepare you for teenagers.

Sounds about right.

At Leesburg I passed a very large plant for Cutrale, a company I hadn't heard of that produces oranges and orange juice.

The town of Tavares calls itself "America's Sea Plane City" and provides a marina for sea planes to prove it.

I stopped in the town of Mount Dora at the CVS to pick up my most recent supply of blood pressure pills which they kindly filled for me after I'd called them from Tomoka State Park the other day.

We got into our new campsite at the KOA by about 2:00 and I did some chores.  Dumped the waste tanks.  Completed step 1 in hanging a new towel rack by the stove.  Refilled the kitty litter disposal gadget with bags.  Took Dext to the dog park.

By the time I'd gotten us all settled in, I was too tired to fix a real supper and made a BLT instead.  Pretty good.