You will be missed here. Will you be able to tow to Carlisle or VA Beach?

Welcome to Florida.  You should be happy here.  Although the Ft Lauderdale area is rather busy.   If you get near Orlando/Cocoa Beach, please let me know.  I am in Merritt Island.

We lived in Wellington (West Palm Beach) for seven years 2000-2007.  We loved it.  The whole area is beautiful and there are lots of great places to drive, ride bikes, or walk, not to mention having a beach nearby.  No state income tax and we had coconuts, papayas, and bananas growing in the postage-stamp yard.  Makes me sick to this day to think that we ever left … until I remember the downside.  That was when Hurricanes Frances, Jean, and Wilma came to visit.  The eye of all three passed right over our house and we survived without major damage, but we never wanted to go through that again, which is why we chose to retire in Nevada rather than Florida.

My advice is to assume you’re going to get hit, because sometime you will.  Get a generator and get a supply of roof tiles and glue as soon as you arrive.  We typically lost 40 tiles per hurricane but they’re easy to replace as DIY using glue Home Depot sells for that specific purpose.  You have to stock up in the off season, though, because after a storm, you cannot find either the roof tiles or the labor to install them at ANY price.  Accordion or Rolladen hurricane shutters are also advisable since putting up the metal panels is a PITA and they also occupy a lot of space in your garage.  Far better to just close the accordions when the storm actually hits and open them when it’s gone … while all your neighbors are wrestling with the metal panels and screwdrivers.  That, and always unzip the screens on your birdcage screen before the storm.  The screens give the wind something to push against until it pushes over your enclosure — we unzipped them and our screened porch survived all three hurricanes with no damage, while our neighbors’ screened porches were all totally crushed along with their furniture.