London to Paris is 300 Miles

Not even sure how to start this blog. It's a niche subject - moving to Cape Canaveral. A Tale of Two... Towns. Is Town the right word? I grew up in a small town - Frankenmuth, MI. To my recollection, there were about 4000 residents there while I was growing up. Now there are about 5500 according to the census bureau. And Frankenmuth is legally a city. It's not a city like Chicago is a city, though. Not like Denver is a city. It isn't much more than a village in my mind sometimes, but let's give it some credit and call it a small town.

The city of Brighton, CO, is a good deal larger, just over 40,000 residents and growing rather quickly. Still, it again isn't a city like Denver is a city. Around here, when you say you are going into the city (which, to be honest, people around here rarely say anyway), it means you are going into Denver. Having gone to school and then lived in Chicago, even Denver isn't all that big a city. If Frankenmuth is a small town, let's call Brighton a big town.

Cape Canaveral, FL, is that something in between. There are just under 10,000 permanent residents according to the census bureau. I'm sure there are plenty more part-time residents, primarily snowbirds coming down in the winter months. Sometimes it has that small town feel. In Cape Canaveral you might run into someone you know while getting groceries. In Frankenmuth it's a foregone conclusion you'll run into someone you know if you have to make a run to the Kroger. Sometimes it feels bigger, particularly with Cocoa Beach (pop. 11,700)  just to the south. There's just one grocery store, Publix, in Cape Canaveral (if you don't count the little mom n pop convenience store places), but there is also a Publix and a Winn Dixie in Cocoa Beach. Maybe municipalities should be arranged according to how many grocery stores they have. Dollar General doesn't count, either.

So I think "A Tale of Two Towns" is a fitting title. The two towns in this case being Brighton and Cape Canaveral. I left Frankenmuth a very long time ago. It's a nice place to have grown up in, and I am sure would make the fine subject for a blog. Just not this one. I can't even say why I want to write this; why write about two relatively small places almost two thousand miles apart from each other? Six times further than London to Paris. Maybe that's why: because of the contrast. One place as close to sea level as you can be, and the other almost a mile high. The beaches and the mountains. Maybe I just need something to write about

There is so much fodder for my mind. Why do I feel so much different one place than the other? (I don't think it is the geography.) How are people, in particular how are Americans, more alike than they are different? How are they different in different parts of America? How can one town support close to forty Mexican restaurants and the other barely have one? (You think I just exaggerated that, don't you?)

I hope a bit of this blog might be helpful to someone looking to move, either to Cape Canaveral or even to Brighton. Or maybe just for someone else looking to start somewhere different. Maybe this will be helpful to someone else going through the same difficulties with mental health and alcohol that I am going through. Maybe someone is just looking to declutter their lives both literally and figuratively as I am and can find either inspiration or warnings of what not to do here. Maybe I'll have a huge readership, and maybe it will just be my mother. Mostly I think I just need something to write about.

This could be my chautauqua. That is, if I were to lecture at a chautauqua, this would be it - the trials and tribulations and glories of living with one foot 2000 miles from the other. Maybe at some point I'll take a motorcycle ride from one place to the other and back again and write about everything in between as well. 

I was just thinking, too, maybe this will motivate me to actually participate in life in both places. It's hard to write about places if you stare at a computer screen all day and night.