Florida - Day 1 - Niceville to Monticello

A Stone's Throw RV Park, Monticello

Wednesday, 21 December 2022

The rain picked back up again last night, and we all enjoyed the thunder-and-lightning show (I say with some sarcasm).

I remembered that the time zone changes somewhere around Tallahassee, which we'll pass during today's drive, so I left before 8:00 central time, but it was just before 9:00 eastern time.

today's route

I see now that I should have studied the map a little more before settling on today's route.  I'd been thinking that I had only 2 real choices: the interstate or the road along the Gulf of Mexico.  But I hadn't noticed that there's a third route - I could have picked up FL-20 from last night's state park and run all the way to Tallahassee on it.  It couldn't possibly have been as featureless as that awful I-10 drive, which is what I took for more than 3 hours today.  But I'll be coming back this way before I leave Florida, because I can't leave an entire section of the state completely unexplored (not to mention seeing the state capitol).

I paid more attention this morning to Niceville as I was driving through, and honestly, it didn't seem to live up to its name.  Which I was curious about and looked it up and learned that the 1915 postmaster's daughter named it.  No word on how old she was at the time.  On the other hand, one of my mother's best friends was from here and she really was a very nice person.

On the highway I saw a billboard that said, "Not all victims of violent crimes can call 911."  And the photo was of a dog.  Good reminder.

I was surprised not to see a sign telling me I crossed the time zone line - or else I was so stupefied with boredom that I just missed it.

I keep talking about how boring this drive is, though if you were to see it for the first time you might not understand, because it's really pretty.  The interstate has a large median between the different directions of travel, and the median and both sides of the roadway are thick with trees - mostly pines, but lots of palms and magnolias and other trees.  It's just that that's all there is, for mile after mile after mile.  In that part of the state, towns don't seem to have ranged themselves along the highway and there's just nothing else to look at but the trees.

Actually, I've learned now that the time zone boundary is marked by the Apalachicola River, which runs nearly straight south from that corner of northern Florida that's sunk a little south, where Georgia gets chunked in.  You can see it on the route map above.  I was surprised to learn also that the Apalachicola begins right there near the state line with Georgia, where 2 rivers coming from Georgia - the Flint and the Chattahoochee - meet to become the Apalachicola.  I'm sure I'll see this river again when I come back this way, because it runs in a vaguely straight path down to the Gulf of Mexico, ending near the town of Apalachicola, named for the people who once lived along the river.

Tonight's campground wasn't all that much of drive past Tallahassee, and before checking in I drove into the town of Monticello to find a grocery store.  The town's only got one, but at least I got a few things I needed.

But that main road to town from the highway leads straight to the Jefferson County Courthouse.  I confess to being a little slow on this question and had to have Wikipedia point out to me that Jefferson County was named for Thomas Jefferson, and the town of Monticello was named for Jefferson's home, and the courthouse was modeled after the home as well.  Or so they say.  I have trouble seeing much resemblance myself.  The county courthouse was almost impossible for me to take a photo of, because of the traffic pattern, so I've downloaded photos of the courthouse as well as the original Monticello so you can see for yourselves.

Jefferson County Courthouse

Jefferson's Monticello

Tonight's campground probably got its name from being "a stone's throw" from the highway, which it was.  Which meant a fair amount of noise, though not as bad as I would have expected from the location.  

This was another strange campground: all reservations were made online, except I called to talk to the owner for mine, and she told me how to find my campsite - just as well because there was no office that I could find and no campground maps.  The only bathroom I could find was just a bathroom - no showers.  It was nice they had a dog park, but it wasn't more than 10' wide so it almost wasn't worth fencing in, except maybe for small dogs.  There were lots of trees, which was really nice except the roots made it almost impossible for me to find a level spot for the RV.  Just a strange place.