Yeah I’m not driving that far for the beach lol. I drove that far each way twice a week to foxhunt though lol
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It’s the humidity. If makes it so heavy during the hot months it’s actually hard to breathe . It’s totally different out west.
It’s a pretty red state , gets redder the more north you go except for around the college towns.
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I’m in an exceptionally red state 
I get it
I moved to Ocala from the AZ desert and the transition was easy. Yes there is humidity but the heat in my opinion is no where near as oppressive. My horse has never been happier to actually have acreage to graze on instead of tiny turnouts of dirt.
As far as living out 24/7 it’s doable but risky. Ocala is known as the lightening capital of FL and sadly horses and cattle have been killed by it. In the summer months mosquitos and gnats are more active at night so horses prone to sweet itch do better on daytime turnout and stalled at night. Fly sheets are generally too hot at least on super muggy days. Horses prone to skin fungus also need to be bathed with anti fungal shampoos to keep ahead of it.
Like you OP my husband and I are homebodies so I can’t tell you much about things to do outside of horses….but every weekend there is a show of some kind at WEC as well as at the other venues nearby. The Gainesville airport is tiny and easy to get to. The only issue is you will likely need to make a connection unless your destination is Charlotte or Miami. There is talk of eventually getting a regional airline to service the Ocala airport which would be so convenient.
If healthcare is an important issue University of FL Shand’s Hospital in Gainesville is nationally ranked. I don’t have kids but it’s my understanding the schools in Ocala are not great.
Ocala thankfully doesn’t get full impacts of hurricanes but for those is flood zones or horses living in turnout, WEC opens its doors to evacuees.
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There are areas in Florida that are pretty “blue.” University towns, government towns, and large metropolitan areas all tend to be blue. You might look at Gainesville as an alternative to Ocala if you want to live in a more liberal area.
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Unfortunately Shands university is going downhill. Their specialists have left in favor of other universities and the doctors “refused to see me as a patient” so I’m stuck seeing the nurse. They pretty much told me they don’t have a doctor with the knowledge and ability to treat me and I should try Simed. They completely closed down their allergy clinic and their GI clinic is operating but refusing to take me as a patient. I’m starting to think they aren’t paying enough to keep their staff.
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This is an issue in most places, I think – or at least it is where I’m located. Even my PCP has changed with a frustrating regularity
Yes! The few places I’ve looked at so far have better quality turnout – to your point, not a dirt lot. 24/7 is hard where I am, too; I own a fly sheet that I get no use out of because it’s too damn hot.
While crocodiles give me the creeps, the prospect of kayaking or paddleboarding in the springs sounds so nice. My husband is a big golfer so I’ve been luring him in with that, too.
We’ve looked at Tampa but, frankly, the housing isn’t nearly as nice. We know folks near the Wellington area who love it a lot, but that’s slipping a little close to the in laws 
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You will have to travel pretty far to worry about crocodiles. The native crocs are small and harmless and not at all like their aggressive African relatives. The gators get rather large though… 
I grew up in South Florida when it was orange groves, canals, cattle and everglades much further inland. All that’s long, long gone. But there were also gators everywhere and they were never a problem. Of course we weren’t stupid enough to feed them table scraps. But even back then there were stories of people who fed gators, and said gators became comfortable enough with people that they felt fine adding fluffy to the menu, even if fluffy happened to be on a leash.
Moral of the story? Don’t live around stupid people.
Good luck with that in Florida!
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I am curious if there is a measurable climate difference between Wellington and Ocala in the summer. I have enjoyed the beautiful fountains of HITS when the pipes froze in February and thought I was going to die when left in Wellington through the month of April. Today is forecast to be 10 degrees cooler in Ocala. Does that hold true in July/August?
Apparently not. Google says average July temperatures are about the same in both places.
S and central FL is hot af all the way around. Obviously Wellington area is coastal so you get more breezes off the water. Ocala is right in the middle of the state.
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We used to kayak on the Santa Fe River, and while there are alligators in there, we almost never saw one. In general, if you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.
There is a very funny video on social media of a woman standing near a pond explaining to Florida visitors how to tell if there are alligators in different bodies of water. She says go down to the edge and put your hand in the water.
“Now look at your hand. Is it wet? If it is, then there are alligators in there.” 
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the heat, and humidity,
that was one of the reasons we moved from Kentucky, in the summers we had to start working the horses early, a 3:30am morning feeding clean the stalls followed by starting to work the horses in training to be completely done by 9am
95f with over 80% humidity or worse was common. A temperature of 95°F with 100% humidity is considered the upper limit of safety for the human body.
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It sounds like you would really like the Gainesville and High Springs area. But before moving to Florida I would suggest coming to visit in mid summer and see if the humidity is really something you can tolerate.
Wellington does not have springs. Plenty of swimming pools and the ocean, but the traffic is another matter.
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I never forgot the time that for some reason we had to leave the farm’s mini pony in Wellington over the summer and I worried about her the whole time we were away. Went back to reunite with her in September and her fur coat was out to here 
———
. And standing on end. The vet said it was actually cooler for her that way but I had a hard time rationalizing it. She did not seem to hold a grudge.
Over 60% of Florida residents moved here from other states, so I’m not sure your statement is as much of an insult as you think it is.
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Right? Mostly from the NE in my experience.
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Spoken like a person who had no idea that all of our cars were plastered with bumper stickers to that effect as far back as 1978. (I mean it was almost like you missed the point of what I was saying, that Florida used to be different)
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Sorry this was the reason you left Kentucky or the reason you left Florida?
