Count Your Blessings Naples
Why you should count your blessings if you live in Naples.
Recently my wife and I took a well deserved vacation through the Midwest. Without going into the details of a botched vacation on my part, (note to self, never travel without plans) I can at least say that something interesting did occur during the 10 days we wondered aimlessly throughout the upper Midwest and southern principalities of Manitoba and Ontario.
Every time we stopped in a town to have lunch, get gas, browse, shop, walk or look for a place to stay I always engaged people we met with conversation. Being from the Midwest myself, not only did I do this out of “habit” but I was also interested in hearing comments regarding where we were from.
Usually it went something like this, “nice town you have here, or great weather you’re having, we’re from Naples Florida up for a short get away from the hot humid weather.” I tried to recall how many people I approached or engaged with this “opener” and my wife and I have come up with a number of 28 people, give or take. All but 2 of the people had a comment about Naples Florida. All but 2 of the people knew exactly where Naples was. And all but 2 of the people basically showed signs of envy when we told them we were from Naples.
One young lady in Fargo ND said she’d been looking at properties on Zillow the night before that were in Naples. (We obviously gave her our contact information). One was coming down in the fall to visit a friend who’d recently moved here. And yet another asked us if we’d be so kind to take his contact information and send him available rentals in the area.
My point is this. We traveled to 4 different states, from Fargo, North Dakota, (don’t ask) to Two Rivers, Minnesota, including Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Thunder Bay, Ontario and almost everyone knew of Naples Florida. If you’d asked those people 5-10 years ago, I wonder how many of the 28 would know of Naples Florida.
Harsh weather, long winters, bad economies, grey skies, dead and dying trees, roads with pot holes as big as a volkswagon, that are constantly in need of repair due to the winter beating all make Naples look that much more desirable. We don’t have harsh winters, (one man told me that they recorded almost 100 days of 20 degrees below zero this past winter) OUCH! We don’t have long winters, though some of us wish we did, our economy is strong, just go to Fifth Ave or Mercato and take a look around. Our skies are rarely if ever grey, and when they are it’s usually in the summer with a quick storm passing through. Trees don’t lose their leaves and lay dormant, dead and dreary here. I don’t think I’ve seen a pot hole, at least I don’t recall one, and we always hear from Northerners how smooth our roads are compared to “up North”.
So, here’s the real point of the story. Next time you’re feeling our summer heat is too much to take, or the small town feeling of Naples is too much to bear. Or whatever your gripe may be at the time regarding Naples. Do yourself a favor, hop in a plane, take a trip up North, (any where North of Tennessee will do) and talk to the people about how they enjoy living where they live.
One woman we met who owned a small souvenior shop actually started to cry when we were talking about weather. She said that though she lived less than 2 minutes from where she worked, last year she couldn’t walk to work for weeks on end because it was so cold she couldn’t breathe. The shop remained closed because snowmobilers and ice fisherman weren’t coming up to do the winter sports anyway. She also said that summer hadn’t yet arrived, (this was July 16th by the way), and she was sure that if they were lucky they’d possibly get a week or two of nice weather if it came at all. This was just north of Deluth Minnesota.
Count your blessings Naples. Enjoy our heat. Go for a swim. Jump in the Gulf of Mexico. Take your pants off and put on a pair of shorts. Wear flip flops as often as possible. Turn your A/C down. Have a cold beverage. Eat some ice-cream. And hey, relax, you’re in Naples Florida. How bad can it be?
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