The Perks of Living on Riverside Drive

 I never thought there would be perks to living in a trailer park, but specifically of living on a street with high property value. There’s probably over one hundred homes here, but there are only eight trailers that line Riverside drive (the new Rodeo, by the way), that get their own address and mailbox (the rest of the park is chopped liver (I’m only kidding)). It’s a privilege and a perk, and I’ll explain why. 

Riverside is the road that runs along the river. And the dock, the infamous dock that my posse hangs out on, is on that river. Our trailer is caddy corner to the dock, so it’s a hop skip and a jump for me to walk out there. Why does this matter? If I have to use the bathroom, of course! I can’t just piss off the lower dock like the guys do. I like a cold beverage, too. And I might have to run in the house for another one. I might need bug spray. I might have to get paper to burn. I’m running inside the house all the time (for: a new pack of cigs, you guessed it), so I like being right on the river (I’m spoiled, I know). 

The cool thing about being near the dock you can head out there to see the rockets go off (rockets? I’m in Florida, remember. We’re just north of Cape Canaveral). I’ve seen a few, and it’s alright, but I don’t do it anymore, just like I don’t frequent the beach that much. It’s something you get over (I didnt even want to see the July fourth fireworks for America 250 this year. Talk about disenchanted).

The other reason is you can get your trash picked up on Riverside. But nobody I know does it, not even us. We all walk our trash to the dumpster the old fashioned way. But it’s an option, so I’m told (maybe the trailers near the dumpster are the lucky ones…).

Another plus: we get the Hometown News delivered (it’s a free paper). And I do the crossword in the paper religiously. I like that. I feel like I’m living in a real house with a newspaper subscription, minus the dog and the white fence. 

I guess I led you on the with the title: it’s not all sunshine and rainbows on this side of the park (the breeze may be stronger but the grass is not greener). It is a main road, but only with a speed limit of 25 mph, but do you think people obey that? What we got here is…some speed demons. It’s true. And we have cats (I’m not going to say how many). And I worry about them being hit by a car. It’s happened, not recently, but it’s a definite danger (we couldn’t possibly keep all these cats inside, it be like 101 dalmations). I can’t control the traffic; I just pray the cats look both ways. 

And if you did the math right: Florida + hurricanes = flood, then you get extra credit. Yeah, the trailers on Riverside are prone to flooding. Especially the lower Florida rooms/porches. It almost always happens. Most of the homes have a couple steps up to go inside. If we get a really bad storm we could be in trouble. I just cross my fingers. If a cat 5 is coming, we are going to be out of here, with several of our precious kitties.

So that’s my unofficial rundown of the beauty of Riverside Drive. I hope I don’t seem like a snob. 


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