It’s Opening Day – not baseball or football, but Costco, big news in our neighborhood. I’ve been getting gas there the past few weeks, but the store itself, or should I say warehouse, is opening today. It’s only a mile from our house, so we no longer have to drive up to Sarasota to stock up. I’m getting some pictures from neighbors of the massive line to get in, a crowd that I will avoid. However, my wife will soon be on her way, curiously anxious to see the new store and undoubtedly vulnerable to buying some things that we either won’t need or will sit on our pantry shelves or in the garage for months unused. Once there was Woodstock, now it’s Stock Up at Costco.  Fortunately, we don’t have more than two small freezers. 

Chicken pot pies, toilet paper, paper towels, wine, bottled water, Advil, and Rotisserie Chicken are the main attractions. Even on a normal day, it’s usually a zoo! They wisely waited for the new roundabout on U.S. 41 to be completed to handle the traffic. This delayed the opening for several weeks. We can get there via the back roads from our back gate, avoiding at least this hassle. It’s right across the street from where my wife substitute teaches, but she’s on summer break. Believe it or not, her dream job would be to hand out samples at Costco. We’ll find out if she actually pursues this dream.

The school and Costco may be good reason to spend the money to make our golf cart street legal. Right now, we can only drive it to the gate, but have illegally ventured further through the many new neighborhoods, golf courses, and clubhouses that have popped up around Downtown Wellen and Cool Today Park. Baseball is limited to high school, college, and Minor League use now that the Atlanta Braves have completed their Spring Training activities. A Tiki Bar is open daily between concerts and outdoor movies. The downtown area provides even more live music along with restaurants, food trucks, and retail, all situated around the lake. It would be nice to eventually expand the use of our golf cart to this area. 

Retirement dreams like this are now the sole motivation in life as we start to limit our world travels. It’s great to just stay at home and take advantage of the resort pool activities, concerts, courts, and fitness centers all currently accessible by foot or golf cart. In a few weeks, however, we’ll entertain the kids at Disney World and head to Portland for a week. Later this summer, we’ll rent a car and drive through Indiana, New York, and Maine to visit friends and family. I’ll stake my banner in Maine, claiming it as my 50th state to visit. Meanwhile, we now have Costco to entertain us.