What to expect when you visit Florida

Welcome to all the Winter Travelers who are showing up on our sandy shores. We want to invite you to the Florida Team while you are here and are learning about all the Liberty-Loving ideas, plans and solutions so you can be ready to meet the team in your home state.

The state website information is at this link: Florida Convention of States. The team is strong, growing and vibrant as one of the 15 passed-state teams in the US. We have 120 House Districts and 40 Senate Districts with Teams all across the state. Its not unusual to see a COS Table set up at a local event or see someone standing in line with a COS T-Shirt in Publix.

Once you sign the petition, set up your account by confirming and opening the email sent to you. Then SIGN IN and explore the website. Save your password and explore the menu. There are COS University courses you can take for free and learn about the Liberty Team and the Constitution. You can use your home address in your state and explore what the team is doing in your hometown by checking the state blog posts.

Here is a fun Florida Guide for visitors from other states. If you are getting or giving directions in Florida, you should always start with the words, “take I-75, take I-4 or take I-95.” If you’re a non-working snowbird, you absolutely cannot drive between the hours of 6am-10am and 4pm-7pm if in a big city. This is considered to be rush hour and you may not be in any rush. 

Tolls are a fact of life down here. The state has to make money, so sorry about that - it annoys us, too. I-275 (Tampa area) will always be under construction. There is nothing anyone can do about it. A1A and Alt A1A are the same road. Traffic lights aren’t timed well and may never be. We measure the distance we travel in time – not miles.

If you travel more than 5-10 miles on any road in any part of Florida without seeing an orange “Bob’s Barricade,” you’re lost. If you miss your exit on I-75, I-4 or I-275, it’s perfectly acceptable to take the next exit rather than swerve a few lanes and hit a Floridian by accident because you missed paying attention to your MapQuest. Your blinker should work and we will let you in. And it’s perfectly acceptable to brag about your camper.

Every street in Florida has both a name and a number just for the fun of it. Perhaps it is to make you feel at home. Once the light turns green, only 3 cars can go through the intersection, eight more go through on the yellow. Know the difference between Sun Pass, Sun Fest, Sun-Sentinel, and Sun Trust. Flip flops, tank tops and shorts are known as dress casual.  

There is an Okeechobee Lake, Town, County, Blvd, Street and Avenue. Most Floridians own a boat. You can make friends with someone who already owns one. That way you don’t have to deal with any of the maintenance. Another option is to buy a home with a dock and somehow the boat shows up.

• There’s always a Walgreen’s across the street from a CVS on almost every corner – with more being built every day.
• It’s normal to sweat when you are putting up your holiday decorations.
• There is a city called “The Villages” where 77,000 people live that drive golf carts and dance in the streets.
• Jupiter is a city, not a planet.
• Senior’s have to do their errands during the weekdays. Not weeknight or weekends – that’s for the working folks.
• There are three types of dolphins: Mahi-Mahi, Flipper, and also a football team.

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  You can’t say “this is how we did it up north”. If you think that way, then go back up north.
• Just remember, I-95 and I-75 flow north and south.
• No matter what they decide in Tallahassee we will probably always see higher property taxes in the future. 
• To survive a Florida winter: have on hand a long sleeved T-shirt, tank top, sunscreen and light sweater.
• We have two seasons, wet and dry. Winter is the dry season so the rivers and lakes get lower and lower with each passing month.

  

• Dry Season means the neighbor who smiles at you every day will be the first one to rat you out if you are violating water restrictions. We call them the neighborhood den mothers.

Our goal in Florida is to have a highly engaged District Captain in each of the 120 House Districts. Your home state probably has the same goal so consider becoming a Volunteer Activist or a District Captain in your state. Take this time to learn what that role is all about by engaging in webinars, taking the COSU courses or exploring any social media outlet you visit.

Ready to have some fun?  Enjoy each day you are here and Welcome. Got Any Questions? Let me know.