I may have the opportunity to move to Tallahassee, FL in a few months, depending on DW 's career choices. I have never lived on a subtropic sea shore, and would appreciate any advice regarding housing selections (would like to live in the country, with an acre or two, have reservations about living south of town near the shore due to cost, and temporary nature of coastal landforms), lifestyle, gun ownership. Thanks-Mike

Wait for a while. Depending on what the BP oil spill does, prices may be going way down.

Tallahassee gets hot and muggy in the summer but you can expect a light breeze. I don't know what he statistics say but expect sumer temps in the high 80s and mid-90s with humidity sucking up to 100%.

On the other hand Tallahassee can and does freeze. So don't toss out your warm clothes. A Chicago boy won't have any problem with cold wind off water, Tallahassee is inland a good bit, but the chilling effects of cold, damp wind coming off water surprises people from the West who can't understand how 40F can feel so cold.

On the other hand coming from Chicago your probably used to a warm, friendly, benign, sun. Be careful. North Florida sun isn't as strong as Key West sunshine, which can flay the skin off you, but it can do a number on you if you aren't aware of the danger. Lilly-white people who can lay out for an hour up north are often surprised to find themselves cooked in twenty minutes. A light long-sleeved shirt, wide brimmed hat, and sunglasses are good to have around. Noses, necks and tops of feet seem to get ignored until they are screaming in pain. If you go out on the water, inland or Gulf, without good protection your going to get hurt.

"Bear caught" is a popular country term for heatstroke. Heat and humidity, which interferes with your ability to cool yourself, are real issues in the summer. This is one of the reasons southern boys move a bit slower. From Chicago I expect your going to find the slower pace, right down to the speech patterns, a bit odd. Slow down, relax a bit, say hi.

The breeze will be off the Gulf, essentially a huge shallow inland sea that gets and stays hot, so it won't be very cool. But the breeze will feel nice. With the hot, moist air from the Gulf hitting the cooler, drier air from up north your going to get thunderstorms late spring, summer (combined about 8 months), and fall. If the temperature differentials are high enough the storms can be fairly violent. Inch-an-hour rains, gusting winds, lightning, and the occasional tornado. Summertime might see a shower in the AM and again in the afternoon.

The good news is there is enough water around, rain and groundwater, to end most concerns with having water. It will still need filtration or treatment.

After the rains expect mosquitoes, BIG mosquitoes. If you have anything wool make strong provisions to protect them from moths and other bugs. I've just about run out of, given up on, wool. Good stuff but Florida is overrun with bugs. Get used to "Palmetto bugs", a roach that is most of two inches long. And they fly ... toward warmth and moisture. Like a mouth left open. Doesn't happen often but if it does your a Floridian when one can fly in and you spit it across the room ... roll over and go back to sleep.

On the survival side invest in repellent, a head net (a real life saver), and mosquito netting. Citronella candles, citronella fortified lamp oil, mosquito coils, perhaps a fogger, are fair investments.

Alligators are big, mean and dangerous. But remarkable easy to avoid. Do NOT feed them. Do NOT mess with them. Avoid stepping on them. Don't walk your dog near the edge of a lake or swamp. Don't step blindly into brush and grass around swamps or lakes, shallow water. A walking stick is handy for checking out where you are going to be stepping. They are not sharks and don't generally hunt or get attracted to humans if they are not fed. Most people who get bit are doing something stupid. Don't be stupid.

Same goes for snakes. A walking stick helps a lot. Cottonmouths and water moccasins can get aggressive if disturbed. Most other snakes you have to step on or mess with to get them riled. Most will calmly slither off and avoid you as soon as they are encountered. Best to let them leave. The local country boys may have a see-snake-kill-snake mentality. Its okay to observe but don't get involved or caught up in the action. Drunk country boys have been known to play Frisbee with a live rattler.

As mentioned before the attitude is likely to be a bit more relaxed and slow. But friendly. In the south it is considered normal to ask anyone for help. Walking into a bar and asking the crowd for a jump start for your car is not unusual. Seen it; done it. Interestingly enough it is also very safe. Oddly enough any responsible person who volunteers to help will tend to be protective. I've seen people who were bait for the worse sort break down in the worse possible spot and get away with it because they asked one of the locals for help.

Florida is oddly both socially conservative and liberal. Lots of open condemnation of homosexuality, feminism, environmentalism, and the 'liberal agenda'. But the same people are often quite sympathetic to homosexuality, feminism, environmentalism directly around them. And most of them don't see any contradiction. Along the gulf coast the same people who are quite protective of their wetlands and coasts are the same people who chant drill-baby-drill at rallies.

Race remains an issue in the south. In some ways this is good because it means it keeps getting worked on. A lot of progress is made when the harder racists are die off. But still race is all over the place and contradictions abound. It is loudly denied but it is clearly present. Mostly in an implicit, soft, patriarchal, form. But it comes up when a southern boy finds out his boss is going to be black. Unable to openly state their objections it can be fairly entertaining, in a sad way, to see an otherwise good and enlightened person struggle to state their objections in an acceptable way.

General rule in the south is that closer you get to the Mason-Dixon line the more southern you get. Tallahassee is much more southern than Tampa. That said, Tallahassee is the state capital and a college town so surrounded by a very southern countryside there is a moderated center.

Mike it would be a honor if you come down our way, I to am a native Floridian and sometimes takes a little bit to get use to. Tallahassee is quite a way from some of the fun zones but you still have pretty good stuff in that area as well. Florida has always been a lower pay state but we do have lots of activities to get into. If you do decide to stay for a while get a concealed weapons permit right off the bat. This will allow you to purchases and carry weapons instead of the 3 day wait. We have crystal clear springs located near gainsvile fla as well as where Izzy is at, and around central fla as well. There is fishing, skiing (water), parachuting, flying, diving (cave as well), paintball, hiking, biking, etc.. The biggest threats are constant hurricanes, but after awhile it becomes the norm. If you can deal with the heat, it's not a bad place, hopefully the oil spill won't do to much damage. Our governor has indicated he may not approve any more drilling off our shores over a isolated incident but that may be pending on the damage that does on fla. Any way if you get a house, try to look at something below $150K, the market is still falling and may not return to previous levels. Houses use to be in the 85K to 130K before the madness. I just bought mine last year for $107K by a lake with a pool on the outskirts of Orlando less than 15 min. from Disney to give you a example. Shoot me a PM or e-mail me if you have questions. Good Luck.

Thanks, y'all- I spent a year in Arkansas a while back, managing a 3 gun shot wound per week ER. I like the south, and seem to fit in okay, mostly cuz I spent most of my life in northern appalachia, upstate ny-the good ol boys up there have pickups and gunracks, but our necks are blue, what with the 120 inches of snow each year. I will let you know how this develops.

As a certified desert rat, I loved my introduction to Florida's wetlands (swamps and morasses). Instead of traveling dry land in search of water, one travels through water searching for occasional bits of dry land. If only it weren't so flat......