Here in Sun City Center, FL, many folks travel everywhere by golfcart. We were on our golfcart when we headed out this afternoon to shop at Walmart. It took much longer to make our purchases than we’d planned and when we came out to get on our golfcart (four or five miles from our condo), we realized we only had about 10 minutes until the sun would set (and at this latitude, when it sets, it gets dark immediately).

Our golfcart is fully equipped with headlights, “So what’s the big deal?” you ask.

In Sun City Center, golf carts are not allowed on the streets after sunset (no exceptions) and if you’re caught there’s a ticket and sizable fine.

We live in Kings Point, which is a large, gated, separately-managed area, within the city limits of Sun City Center. It’s a totally separate community. In Kings Point, golf cart restrictions are much less restrictive. If you have headlights, they look the other way and let us drive on the streets within the gates after the sun has set, but as a protection to the residents, the Kings Point guards do chain lock the golf cart gate INTO the community at dark. We don’t know of anyone who has tried to come in after dark. We figure there’d be hell to pay.

We didn’t want to get caught outside the gates. (It happened to us several years ago, when we were visiting my mother’s nursing home for a holiday party and over-stayed. That time, we managed to circumvent the Kings Point guard by edging behind their post. Quietly we manage to drive half in a ditch through a narrow opening but it was a challenge. The gate area has just been revamped, so I’m sure that access point has been plugged.)

Tonight we weren’t the only ones dashing for the security of our Kings Point gated area. There were at least three other carts rushing down the golf cart path ahead of us as the sun was setting.

With our headlights on, we made it home! (But it was fun and reminded me of beating curfews when I was in high school.)