{"id":2374,"date":"2011-04-25T21:31:49","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T02:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2374"},"modified":"2011-12-06T16:02:56","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T21:02:56","slug":"driving-through-rural-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=2374","title":{"rendered":"Driving Through Rural Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday – April 25, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

We left Sarasota, Florida fairly early and drove toward Route 75 by about 9:30 in the morning.\u00a0 We wanted to avoid driving into the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg, because we wanted to make better progress driving north.\u00a0 After we were well north of the cities, we drove west on Route 52 toward the Gulf of Mexico.\u00a0 When we almost reached the beaches, we turned north onto Route 19.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

It was a work day and Easter Monday, so there was very little traffic.\u00a0 It is amazing how many fast-food chain restaurants we have passed on this trip.\u00a0 I can understand why Europeans are appalled when they visit the U.S.\u00a0 I guess Americans eat a lot of greasy hamburgers!\u00a0 The other business which must be prospering is the pawn business.\u00a0 We can’t believe the quantity of pawn shops we have seen everywhere on this trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Fast-Food Restaurants & Ugly Signs<\/span><\/p>\n

One tourist attraction which we didn’t stop to see was in Weeki Wachee, Florida.\u00a0 This is the famous “Mermaid Show”.\u00a0 Apparently, young women perform underwater wearing mermaid costumes and put on an “interesting” show.\u00a0 They carry breathing tubes with them and gracefully make it look like they’re breathing underwater.\u00a0 Oh well, maybe next time….<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Northern Florida Farm Country<\/span><\/p>\n

We drove for a couple of hours then decided to stop for lunch at the coastal town of Homosassa.\u00a0 The road toward the water was lined with trees dripping with Spanish Moss.\u00a0 It was a cool, dark and interesting road.\u00a0 About a half mile down there was an interesting structure.\u00a0 It was the remains of a sugar mill from the mid 1800s. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Old Sugar Mill<\/p>\n

The plaques around the stone mill explained that the region had been known for its sugar cane production.\u00a0 The mill was used to squeeze out the sugar from the cane.\u00a0 We took some photographs and then continued down the road.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Other Side of the Mill with Iron Caldrons<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end there were several buildings which housed tourist boats for hire.\u00a0 There was also a hotel and restaurant on the water.\u00a0 We decided to have lunch at the Riverside Crab House.\u00a0 I had read about the restaurant and wanted to go there, not for their crab, but for its proximity to Monkey Island. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Riverside Crab House<\/p>\n

There is a small island located about 50 feet from the restaurant which is inhabited by five squirrel monkeys.\u00a0 People in the restaurant can watch the monkeys while eating their lunches or dinners.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Monkey Island<\/span><\/p>\n

We continued north on Route 19 through rural Florida.\u00a0 There wasn’t much traffic and we passed citrus orchards, strawberry fields, and other agricultural farms.\u00a0 The terrain is flat and the soil is sandy.\u00a0 The temperature was 86 degrees, hot and humid.\u00a0 It is amazing that anything can grow here.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On the Way to Georgia<\/span><\/p>\n

We continued east on Route 129 and finally got on Route 75 again.\u00a0 It was a long driving day through northern Florida and we finally crossed the Georgia border.\u00a0 We stopped at the Welcome Center for a map of Georgia and continued one exit to Valdosta.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>A True ‘Blue Highway’<\/span><\/p>\n

We drove to the Hampton Inn just off the highway and checked in.\u00a0 The architecture of this hotel was different than any of the others.\u00a0 There was a large three-story opening in the center of the building with the halls, leading to the rooms, overlooking the breakfast area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Front Porch<\/span><\/p>\n

After we found our room, we returned outside to have dinner at the Family House Restaurant.\u00a0 This was a local Mom & Pop type eatery which served “home made” southern food.\u00a0 On the menu were such delectables as grilled or fried catfish, grits anyway, biscuits with sausage gravy, hush puppies, fried corn bread, southern fried chicken, etcetera, etcetera. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Interior of the Farm House Restaurant<\/p>\n

I had Southern chicken ‘n’ dumplings with fried okra & green beans.\u00a0 Jeff had another Southern favorite: chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes with gravy and corn.\u00a0 It was an interesting place and the food was very tasty! \u00a0It had been a long driving day. \u00a0We saw many new and interesting places today.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday – April 25, 2011 We left Sarasota, Florida fairly early and drove toward Route 75 by about 9:30 in the morning.\u00a0 We wanted to avoid driving into the cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg, because we wanted to make better progress driving north.\u00a0 After we were well north of the cities, we drove west […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-united-states","category-florida","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2374"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3674,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374\/revisions\/3674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}