Posted on 08/10/2006 1:09:00 PM PDT by madprof98
Joe Lettelier and his wife, Becky, are on the road in a bus, picturing naked people frolicking.
Maybe you'd like to have Lettelier's complaint. Business is so good, he can't bear to retire just yet. What he'd really like to do at 61 is kick back, splitting time between homes on Florida's Gulf Coast and in the woods north of Atlanta. But this real estate niche is just taking off.
The bus recently pulled into Paradise Valley Resort, an out-of-the-way enclave north of Atlanta that Lettelier and his partners bought and targeted for upgrades three years ago.
Visitors pull up to a security gate, pay a day fee and drive past campsites, trailers and cabins as they have for 28 years, yearning for an all-over tan and a skinny dip.
What's changing are subtle and not-so-subtle signs that nude resorts may be dropping the last veil of modesty and going mainstream, offering condos.
Paradise Valley is said to be the only nude resort in the Southeast outside of Florida with such residential aspirations.
Sixteen new two-bedroom, two-bath condos going for $170,000 to $180,000 overlook the resort, the first of 152 units planned to dot the hills at Georgia's most upscale clothing-optional resort.
Lettelier and his partners are continuing the success of heir Paradise Lakes Resort in Florida, which they bought in 1999. Thought to be the largest nude resort in the country, the Florida version of Paradise already has more than 510 condos, with 39 more on the way, starting at $250,000.
The newest of their resorts is in Tucson, Ariz., where the partnership is working with planners, hoping to build 114 condos at Mira Vista Resort, which has 16 little villas. That resort opened in May as clothing-optional and already has a waiting list of more than 100 people who want to buy homes.
"The nudist market is a very traveling market," Lettelier said, in a phone interview while wheeling toward the annual convention of the American Association for Nude Recreation held this week in DeAnza Springs, Calif.
"They fly, they drive, they motor home. They're on the go," he said.
And, apparently, many want to own a piece of the resorts once they arrive.
Beyond the Bare Cheeks Lodge, residents at Paradise Valley near Dawsonville will enjoy a view of the swimming pool with waterfall, tennis courts, a conversation pool, hot tub and all the usual resort amenities.
"People are shocked when they come here the first time," said Paradise Valley manager Jeff, in reference to the niceties, not the nudity.
Staff members still go by first names only. But these days it's common for residents and visitors to reveal their identity, sometimes even swapping business cards.
On a recent sunny Saturday afternoon, everybody in the pool was naked. Some women sashayed in wrap skirts, sandals or cowboy hats.
The nudity rule at clothing-optional Paradise is a nonrule. Wear as much or as little as you like at the pool, in the clubhouse, at the bar, in the restaurant, and later on Friday and Saturday nights at the dance.
Some resorts --- from the modest Serendipity Park near Cleveland, Ga., to the exclusive new Caliente club north of Tampa --- require full-frontal, at least poolside.
Nude recreation is hardly new, Jeff said, pointing out that Paradise Valley, previously known as Hidden Valley, has been here almost three decades. But it is becoming less rustic and more desirable among a wider variety of people.
Checking out the pool, Jeff said, "there are at least two millionaires in there now, and a guy who's probably got $35. You don't see that many places."
Seven years ago, Loretta Krohne was a newbie.
" 'Course, I didn't know there was a place in America where you could go naked," she said.
Since her first trip with a girlfriend, she was hooked.
"Going swimming in the nude in the afternoon is the most awesome thing," Krohne said. She met her husband, Eric, here and they were married on the grounds in 2001.
Gary Henshaw performed the ceremony, one of 25 in eight years.
A former student of theology and lay preacher, Henshaw said he is comfortable with the life his late wife introduced him to decades ago, despite frequent questions.
"I remember a lot of Scripture, and I don't see anywhere that anybody makes God's clothes," he said.
One Paradise neighbor complained about visitors wandering onto her property naked and another described the place as "unChristian" when Lettelier asked Dawson County to allow the condo expansion two years ago.
After promising to increase buffers and allow almost three times as much green space as required on the 106-acre property, Lettelier convinced commissioners he would be a good citizen and neighbor.
Among converts is Melodie Cunningham, a 52-year-old Dawsonville business owner who refused to visit Paradise with a friend for years until last month.
"It was low-key, relaxed," she said. "Nobody bothered you. It's weird. I guess the people are all used to it so it's no big deal."
At Paradise, the resort's restaurant owner Bill Ditomassi said it's difficult to explain the appeal to someone before they experience it firsthand.
"When you live in the Bible Belt, people think of sex, and this hasn't got anything to do with sex," he said.
With the new TSA (Thousands Standing Around) carry on regs, a clothing optional airline might be the only way to speed through security.
No, they would then slow you down with a body cavity search.
Usually, the people that go to these places, you don't want to see naked anyway.
Just hippies from the 60's who are or soon will be in their 60's. No thanks.
Helen Thomas
Exactly what I was thinking. Why is it that the ones who shouldn't get naked are so often the first ones to do it?
In that caswe I ahve three words, "I am driving."
I think a lot of folks will be lookin/ for alternative transportation, and you can hear the DUmmies now:
It was a plot by the oil companies to sell more gasoline, that's all.........
David Letterman used to have a funny routine about nude beaches in which he said, among other things, that the people who go there are "people who shouldn't be allowed to be nude in the privacy of their own home."
There are almost no people I would like to see naked.
They aren't built like idealized Greek antiquities.
Hairy butts and droopy behinds are just not a happy thought.
I guess the question would be...where do they keep their business cards, if they don't have clothes on, LOL.
A terrorism expert has already determined how much plastic explosive a man and a woman could carry...
Seriously.
And where are you supposed to PUT it when someone gives you one?
Now a Pajama Colony, where everyone wears pajamas with those shirt pockets all the time, everyone would be all set.
many Maine woods and coves are just private and warm enough summah time for a bun run, swim or sun.
No thanks.
I'll just remain "wrong".
I think humans are born with a certian amount of shame/modesty. I'm no fan of people who totally ignore that.
BTW, you seem to know a bit about the subject, given your tagline and all.
:)
Really? Why not?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.