Thursday, 22 December 2022
Before we left that odd campground this morning, I was walking Dexter around the area, not bothering to take him to that dinky dog park. On our walk he met several dogs and stopped to sniff in a very polite way. Suddenly a dog that had been in the dog park got out of the gate before its owners - a couple - could get a leash on it, and it came running over to meet Dexter with the woman running along behind calling for it and trying to catch it. Then the man fumbled the leash on the 2nd dog which got out of the dog park and started running for Dexter too, which left both the man and woman to try to catch these guys.
The owners were both somewhat overweight and both the dogs were small ones and hard for the owners to reach down and get a hold of, though they were making a valiant effort. And at that point someone who was unloading a car by the alleged rec center (just a gathering place, actually) started yelling at them to put those dogs on a leash, which I thought was really unfair. So I called to that person that they were trying to do that, but she just started yelling at me too. Meanwhile, Dexter never stopped being anything but well-behaved and I was very proud of him.
I never did figure out who that person was that was yelling at us, not ever having seen anyone in charge here. It looked to me like she hadn't realized the dogs being loose was an accident, though I didn't see why she had to yell at me like it was all my fault. Very strange place and I was glad we were leaving.
.JPG) |
| today's route |
I'd originally planned to take the interstate to Jacksonville, but last night I did a rethink and instead insisted Google let me take a road less traveled - i.e. US-90. And after all, it was a US highway, so not exactly some dinky backroad, I thought.
The road between the campground and Monticello - US-19 - was called the Florida-Georgia Parkway. That road circled the county courthouse, and I took an offshoot from there which was US-90, aka the Florida Arts Trail. Actually, I tried hard to find out why this road is designated an arts trail and came up against a complete dearth of information Nobody wanted to admit this road had that name, though I swear I saw the sign.
US-90 is definitely not in the fast lane; it's almost always a 2-lane country road between Monticello and Jacksonville. But it's much more interesting than the interstate.
I saw signs to watch for logging trucks.
I saw shreds of cotton all along the roadside.
At Greenville, a sign told me to turn for the Ray Charles Memorial. I didn't because wasn't prepared for it and didn't know how far they'd make me drive. But I was curious and looked it up. This link has photos of the memorial and some information. https://www.atlasobscura.com/ray-charles-statue They say he was born in Georgia but moved to Greenville at the age of one month and grew up here. Although it sounds like he didn't grow up here because at age 7 he was sent to the state blind school and only came back to Greenville for visits to his mother until she died when he was 15. Anyway, the memorial looks pretty nice.
In the town of Madison, I passed another county courthouse. Actually, I learned that US-90 passes through the county seats of each of Florida's counties it hits, and actually past the county courthouses of several. Here's the one at Madison - and pretty fancy, too, for a town with fewer than 3,000 residents.
 |
| Madison County Courthouse |
At the town of Lee, I learned it's "Little But Proud." The little part is right because it had 375 residents in the last census, so I'm guessing the proud part is right too.
The road took me past a lot more farmland than I expected, and I was surprised so much of it had been replanted after the fall harvest. Though I guess Florida's climate allows for winter crops better than most states.
I crossed the Suwannee River, which I think flows from the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia. It's the one that Stephen Foster's famous song refers to - "Way down upon the Swanee River . . . .". Actually, that song is Florida's state song, and there's a state park that focuses on the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center not far from the interstate. I didn't bother to visit, though I may if I have extra time when I come back.
I passed a huge facility labeled for Pilgrim's chicken.
At the town of Falmouth I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Stupid People Vote - What's Your Excuse." I still can't figure out the point it's trying to make.
I passed through Live Oak and yet another county courthouse.
 |
| Suwannee County Courthouse |
At Lake City I passed the Columbia County Courthouse, and for some reason there aren't any photos online that aren't copyrighted.
Then a sign told me I was traveling through the Osceola National Forest, though I couldn't tell much difference because this whole route was heavily populated with trees. Very attractive drive, if you don't mind going slowly - the speed limit was usually 55 mph, which was reasonable given the number of turns the road took and the number of residences and businesses along the way.
And I came to a sign that said I was on the Great Florida Birding Trail. It looks like this trail consists of the southern part of the state plus the section in the north that abuts the Atlantic Ocean - from not far west of Jacksonville south past Orlando, and over to the east coast. While this leaves off maybe half the state, which undoubtedly has lots of birds in it, it still includes a whole lot of interesting bird habitat.
I passed the town of Olustee and the Olustee Battlefield State Park. Apparently I'm not alone in not having heard of this Civil War battle; it was in 1864, was the largest Civil War battle fought in Florida, and the Confederate victory ensured that Florida and all its resources stayed in Confederate hands until the end of the war.
At Sanderson I saw a B&B named "Bed, Bath and Biscuits."
The road took me through the tiny town of Glen St. Mary, where my cousin lives, across the South Prong of the St. Mary River, and through the nearby town of Macclenny (or MacClenny - I saw it both ways). Macclenny is the Baker County seat, though I didn't see the courthouse.
It was just past here that I saw a sign for the Jacksonville city limits, which I thought was a ways too far out of town, though I see from the map that the city has technically spread that far.
At Baldwin, I got stopped for a train and realized it had been a while since I last got stopped.
I wanted to run some errands in Jacksonville before going to the campground, and that turned out to be impossible. The directions Google gave me included nonexistent streets, and I wandered around Jacksonville for quite a while before finally, in desperation, pulling into an empty church parking lot to turn on my laptop and hotspot for directions.
Armed with this new route, I turned left out of the church, moving about as fast I safely could because of oncoming traffic, and saw a red sports car stopped in the almost nonexistent median. I pulled over to pass him when he suddenly, without any signal or warning, reversed into a driveway, going right in front of me and giving me almost no time at all to avoid a collision. When I honked at him, he gave a sort of half-hearted little wave. This did not give me a lot of confidence in the safety consciousness of Florida's drivers, though I was willing to hold off on my judgement.
From there it was easy to get to the campground, where I discovered that they'd given away the campsite they'd promised me. Actually, they didn't just promise it - they made me pay extra money in order to hold that site for me. After that strange driving experience I was pretty upset. To make up for it, they gave me my choice of all the available spaces, and I picked one that was much closer to the cabin David and Anna were going to stay in. So that ended up okay. But what a strange day.
Now I've tried to go back over the route Google gave me to figure out where it or I went wrong, and I can't find any of the places I'd planned to go at all. It's like they don't exist. I know I didn't imagine these very detailed directions so I can't figure out what happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment