have been all over florida previously. there isn’t one square inch i have any desire to revisit. WRT water sports - there’s a shit ton of great water on this planet. florida doesn’t have a lock on that. they don’t even come anywhere near close to the best. what they specialize in is mass density, and paving shit over. no thanks.
WRT california being a shithole - a local sheriff deputy put it very succinctly after a big snow storm caused a minor exodus: it’s good that they’re bugging out. if they can’t take it, they had no business being here in the first place.
native son or not - somewhere appeals to you more? quit shit talking us and go. if you’re happy, we’re happy.
CA has some Great Lakes, but most can't be lived on/ own lake front property. It's a shame, but it's also the reason I love Clearlake and will always keep the place there. However, CA lakes are largely seasonal where FL's aren't. That being said: the 30 minute rain storms every day in the summer in FL are just weird...and the tannic acid water is hard to ge used to, sitting curled up in a ball waiting for the rope to get taught and hoping a gator doesn't chew your ass off. Still, 365 days of water sports is pretty nice.
It's not that "someplace else appeals to me more". It's that FL has better infrastructure than CA (and it shouldn't). It has more life and bustle the last 5 years or so and, it's an acceptable substitute for many. I live in 4 different states in any given year, all very different from one another and I still enjoy lots CA has to offer. But it's turned into a quite a different state in the last decade and I'd consider many parts of the state to be "shithole" status. While some of the best topography and views, CA's roads are unfit for good motorcycle rides these days. That's the most annoying to me...from the early 2000's where runs up through Napa and Sonoma were awesome to today where the holes, shit patch jobs and unmaintained seams, etc are a disaster. Even in a fast car, it's nowhere as good as it used to be.
I appreciate the sentiment of "if you don't like it; leave". I do, but always come back cause it's my native state and I still have to manage businesses/ assets here. I could easily consolidate to one of the others states I "live in", but CA has my heart...despite having turned into a drug addled, lill maintained, yelling and screaming and shitting (at the same time) crazy state, I keep hoping the state ill go through rehab successfully...as I type this excited to head to Clearlake this weekend.
So yeah...there's lots to do in FL where I see better business opportunities and a good water life. Eventually, FL's issues will bug me too. And bugs it has...
Cheers!