Couple more differences:
light!!! About 75 more minutes of light in south Florida versus Chicago on the shortest day of the year. Doesn’t sound like much but it is!
based on the pics folks down south continue to paddle. Up here after about 6 weeks without liquid water, I find myself taking out a nice wood paddle and just holding it…maybe even talking to it a little. And going into the garage just to visit the boats.
When the water is hard, we northeners take advantage of it. Skiing, skating, snow shoeing and shoveling.
@Andy_Szymczak said:
When the water is hard, we northeners take advantage of it. Skiing, skating, snow shoeing and shoveling.
Those activities sound good except the shoveling.
TomL, we have an overnight trip coming up the end of February on the Ausable.
I hate it when the winter temps get up to the mid 80’s! 
I want at least a chill in the air during winter.
@string said:
@Overstreet said:
@TreeA10 said:
Definitely do not have the traditional four seasons here in North Texas. 61 degrees yesterday afternoon and 16 this morning. I think the seasons are Dang Hot, Fall, Confused, and Tornado.Is that the part of Texas that gets “Blue Northerns”?
All of Texas is subject to Blue Northers. We had several in Houston.
A friend of mine was doing a slip form concrete silo in Texas. A blue northern came through and took the temp from 80 to COLD so fast the concrete in the form froze.
@castoff said:
I hate it when the winter temps get up to the mid 80’s!
If it gets to 80 in your “winter,” what are the summers like?
80F here in the summer is a heat wave.
@Overstreet said:
@string said:
@Overstreet said:
@TreeA10 said:
Definitely do not have the traditional four seasons here in North Texas. 61 degrees yesterday afternoon and 16 this morning. I think the seasons are Dang Hot, Fall, Confused, and Tornado.Is that the part of Texas that gets “Blue Northerns”?
All of Texas is subject to Blue Northers. We had several in Houston.
A friend of mine was doing a slip form concrete silo in Texas. A blue northern came through and took the temp from 80 to COLD so fast the concrete in the form froze.
Nothing between the Arctic and Texas to slow the cold down.
@castoff said:
I hate it when the winter temps get up to the mid 80’s!
Well castoff I don’t know how you can get a good night’s sleep in that heat.
Rival51 - very cool. It’s good to have moving water available in the winter!
I’m content now. Put the canoe rack back on the 4Runner yesterday and we have an extended forecast with temps in the 40s so the put-ins are opening up and I plan to get out on the water some time this coming week. And - with any luck I don’t expect to see any powerboats.
@Rookie said:
@castoff said:
I hate it when the winter temps get up to the mid 80’s!If it gets to 80 in your “winter,” what are the summers like?
80F here in the summer is a heat wave.
Summers are just south of hell, but we adapt and paddle on.
I haven’t been down to look but I expect that Hell (Michigan) is mostly frozen over.
@rival51 said:
I haven’t been down to look but I expect that Hell (Michigan) is mostly frozen over.
I’ll take your word for it. I spent awhile in the sun at 70° this afternoon.
@TomL said:
Well castoff I don’t know how you can get a good night’s sleep in that heat.
In the winter we generally have at least a 30 F difference at night. It was hot enough here today for me to be sweating as I sanded and varnished the wood seat and thwarts I took of my canoe. Had to be mid 70’s.
Just like the six shooter tamed the west, A/C tamed the south.
I grew up on the coast of SC and there were days when the bed sheets didn’t dry from the night before. Our summer uniform was a pair of shorts. No shirts, no shoes . We were tanned, burned, bug ate, and had really tough soles( as in feet).
Our beaches would be a lot less popular without A/C and pumped in fresh water.
Summer here in central Florida means lows in the mid 70s, highs in the mid 90’s. The afternoon may be cooler if we have a thunderstorm. Summer runs from May to October, more or less. Personally, I like it. If you stay out of the direct sun, or at least protect your skin, it’s not so bad!
After a thunderstorm the humidity can become oppressive even if it drops the temp, Still living on the coast in South FL it never was as hot as here in SC or GA. Winters hardly required a sweater. It was nicer too because the beaches weren’t crowded and there weren’t condos all in a row along the coast. Heck the population was much less too. I like the SC coast because much of it isn’t as built up with high rise condos. I am going to let a secret out, but don’t spread the word. We have the longest stretch of undeveloped Atlantic coast line in the USA.
We base camp a lot with the RV
AC in the summer , furnace in the winter and cold drinks in the fridge . It works now that I’m so over 50.
Today wire screens are taken for granted, but before they came into use it was smudge pots burning to keep the bugs away. Even after screens were developed you had to paint them with oil to keep the no-see-ems out.
@castoff said:
Today wire screens are taken for granted, but before they came into use it was smudge pots burning to keep the bugs away. Even after screens were developed you had to paint them with oil to keep the no-see-ems out.
The first settlement at DeLeon Springs was abandoned because of the bugs. It was before screens.
I have heard tales of the mosquitoes being so bad that they killed cows back in the early days. Many folks don’t think of Florida as a cattle state, but during WW2 my Dad won bets with guys that FL produced the most beef in the USA. He would pull out the current almanac to prove it. When fence laws came into effect there were range wars fought over grazing rights. Wild cattle roamed the state and so did hogs (the hogs still do). They were a legacy of the Spanish settlers. The term Florida cracker comes from cracking whips to drive the cattle, and some Native American breeds of dogs were used for herding.
Growing up on the east coast I always wanted to find a gold doubloon. They were found washed ashore after storms along the beach we swam at. I didn’t know at the time, but you looked for an encrusted round rock because the coin was inside. I was looking for shiny gold coins. Not many years ago they found the wreak these came from.
Then during a drought a number of years back they found many old dugout canoes on the exposed bottom of a central FL lake. I have also found very old arrowheads in the sand. I was so jealous when a friend found a Clovis point. Used no doubt to kill mammoth and giant sloths. I use to love exploring the phosphate pits and have found many fossils. south and central Florida was a great place to grow up in the 50s and 60s for a young boy interested in everything.
What FL is known for today is sunny beaches, and Disney World, Burmese Pythons, Green Iguanas falling out of trees ( had one escape when we took it outside and then got distracted so I guess I helped seed the population in the early 60s), but it has a fascinating history and unique subtropical zone for the US mainland.