Florida Tales

The Throwin' Mayoan

2009-01-14T11:47:00.012-05:00

Mayo is a small town of about 1,000 souls in north Florida, about halfway between Gainesville and Tallahassee. It is the seat of Lafayette County. The town was reportedly named for a confederate colonel, James Micajah Mayo. The picture above is of a city park in Mayo.

Kerwin Bell was the University of Florida's quarterback between 1984-1987 and is still one of the Gator's best loved folk heroes. When he was still in high school, he was told by many major college coaches that he didn't have the skills to compete in Division I football. Kerwin did not agree with these coaches, and wanted to show everybody that he could indeed compete. He decided to try out for the Gator football team as a walk-on, a player without a scholarship, in 1983.

He began his Gator career as the eighth string quarterback, a redshirt freshman.
A year later Kerwin was the Gator starting quarterback, got his scholarship, and went on to become that year's Southeast Conference Player of the Year. By the time he finished his career at Florida he had become the conference's all-time leading passer with over 7,500 yards.

When Kerwin began his career as a Gator, the Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback was Jack Thompson, who had been born in American Samoa. Ever since Jack's college days he was known as the Throwin' Samoan. It was only fitting that Kerwin become the Throwin' Mayoan.

Kerwin had a fine professional football career in Canada, and in the World League in America with the Orlando Thunder. After his playing days were over, he coached high school football for a time in Ocala, and is now the head football coach at Jacksonville University.

Learn more about Mayo and Kerwin Bell at Florida Backroads Travel.

The Lonely Knight

2009-01-08T17:21:00.013-05:00

Port Charlotte sprawls along Florida's gulf coast for seemingly endless miles north of Punta Gorda and the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor. It is one of the typical General Development communities in Florida that popped up after World War Two as giant lot sale programs.

In the 1960's I would fly over Port Charlotte and other similar communities and look down in amazement at hundreds of miles of roads and canals with no houses. I never dreamed anybody would actually live there. Now Port Charlotte is crowded with people and has all the problems typical of Florida urban areas: crime, traffic problems, gangs, noise and pollution.

The main drag through Port Charlotte is U.S.-41, known as the Tamiami Trail for most of it's length between Tampa and Miami. It appears as if Port Charlotte never had a sign ordinance or architectural standards. Strip centers, fast food outlets, and other miscellaneous buildings, some old and shabby, some new and bright, straddle the highway in a confusing visual display of signs on buildings, next to buildings, all over the place. It is hard to pick a landmark when trying to describe the location of someplace.

The only landmark that stands out is a shabby knight in shining armour standing forlornly in a vacant lot in the south part of Port Charlotte. I don't know what his story is and I don't know how long he's been there. But he at least is some interesting scenery.

An idealistic Charlotte County planner, new to the area, recently told me that his goal in life is to turn Port Charlotte's US-41 into a beautiful thoroughfare. Perhaps the knight is symbolic of this planner, a modern Don Quixote.

For more about southwest Florida, see http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com

Fernandina's Many Flags

2008-12-02T16:42:00.002-05:00

Way up in the far northeast corner of Florida is one of its most interesting and historic towns, Fernandina Beach. It is one of the oldest little cities in the state, dating back to the days even before Florida became one of these United States. The state became a territory of the country in 1821, and Andrew Jackson was the first territorial governor.

This quaint little city is on Amelia Island. More countries, pirates and rebels have owned Amelia Island than any other place in the United States. Eight flags have flown over Amelia in the last five plus centuries. French, Spanish, British, Spanish (again), Patriots of Amelia Island, Green Cross of Florida, Mexican Rebel, Confederate States of America, and United States of America.

Fernandina reminds me a little bit of Ferndale in northern California near Eureka. Both towns are kind of locked in a Victorian era because they were passed by due to their remote locations. Fernandina is one of the few east coast towns in the state that was passed over when Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway south, snaking eventually all the way to Key West.

Lots of shrimping goes on in the town, and lots of paper making. A large pulp mill west of town on the St. Mary's River sends oderous wafts of smoke into the village when the wind is just right. At least that used to be the case a few years ago when I last visited. The Palace Saloon is probably Florida's oldest drinking establishment and was still serving brews when I last visited.

When I first visited Amelia Island in 1960, I saw American Beach. This was the oceanfront destination for African Americans who wanted to vacation and swim on the Atlantic. They were not allowed to use Florida's "whites only" beaches in those bad old days of Jim Crow segregation. It was developed in the 1930's by the owners of Afro-American Life Insurance Company. Many famous black people from around the country visited American Beach up until the era of segregation ended in the mid 1960's.

Just south of American Beach on the island is Amelia Island Plantation. This is one of the earliest and finest examples of developing in harmony with nature. The effort was led by Charles Frazer in the early 1970's, who also had great success a few years earlier developing Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island. He and his team took great care to preserve as much of the natural vegetation and wetlands as possible. As with most visionary developers, Frazer went broke on the project and subsequent owners made the real money.

Charles Frazer died a few years ago in a boating accident in the Caribbean.

Learn more about Fernandina Beach at Florida Backroads Travel.

Moon Over Cross Creek

2008-06-22T03:52:00.002-04:00

The first manned lunar landing took place on July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11 made that historic leap into history almost 40 years ago. That event is always linked in my memory to the warm Florida darkness of Cross Creek. It was there in that little village between Lake Lochloosa and Lake Orange that I stopped my car by the side of the road among huge old oaks draped with Spanish moss and listened to the historic event on the car radio.

The full moon was in the eastern sky. The darkness of this central Florida place made the lunar surface seem eerily bright and close. The moonlight bathed the old Florida cracker house across the road, the house where Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lived when she wrote The Yearling and Cross Creek. As I looked at the moon and heard the crackling words of Neil Armstrong, I imagined I could hear the faint clicking of her typewriter. The throaty croaking of frogs and the squawking of fishing night birds drifted in the sultry air.

The contrast between the modern accomplishments of the space program and the unchanged old natural feeling of Cross Creek has remained in my mind as the turning point in Florida's headlong rush into development and over population during my adult life. I had graduated just three years earlier from the University of Florida in nearby Gainesville.

Aeronautical engineering was a very popular program in those heady years, but I chose civil engineering and have spent my career designing and building things all over the State, things that have changed the face of Florida forever.

The building above is The Yearling restaurant in Cross Creek. For many years, with some interruptions, this quaint dining place served thousands of hungry Gator fans who would stop in after a University of Florida football game in Gainesville on their way back to Orlando, Tampa, and other places south. Gator tail and cooter were always on the menu, along with catfish and mullet.

For more information about Cross Creek and The Yearling see Florida Backroads Travel.

Nature Versus Nurture

2008-06-12T22:23:00.001-04:00

Edgewater is a little town south of New Smyrna Beach on the intracoastal waterway. The main part of town straddles both sides of US-1, but the older more interesting part of town is along an old river road. You get onto this road on the far south side of town near the development of Florida Shores.

There isn't much to see along this road except for a few old houses, some newer homes, and an unusual marriage of trees. Somebody years ago must have planted a young oak next to a young palm. Over the years, this person kept bending the oak against its will until it circled around the trunk of the palm. Now these trees look like they've been married forever.

How much of who we are is determined by genetic influences? How much is determined by who raised us and the influences of our culture. People have been asking these questions since the beginning of time. If trees can think, they surely ask the same questions.

Check out the picture above and see if you can find it yourself someday.

Learn more about Central East Florida here http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com

The Darker Side of Florida

2008-05-09T15:48:00.001-04:00

Gus was one of the best men I ever knew. He worked for me on one of the soil testing drill rigs that I ran shortly after I graduated from the University of Florida in 1966. He was a driller helper, and although a small man, did heavy labor all day long without complaint. He received minimum hourly wage and I was never able to get him a raise in the year that we worked together. My boss said the job was worth no more than minimum wage. Gus was getting close to retirement age, and although he couldn't read and write, his wife was a well educated woman. She was the principal of a black school in Tampa.

I managed the drilling department of an engineering testing company. We had three truck mounted drill rigs that made test borings at sites all over the state. The borings were to determine the quality and strength of soil to be used in design of building foundations or pavement sections. Each drill rig had a white driller, and two black driller helpers. Gus was the most senior of all the drillers and helpers.

Athough the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was on the books, not everybody in Florida was on board with the new laws regarding equal opportunities in jobs, housing and other areas of society. In those days, many motels would not accept black guests even though the new laws prohibited discrimination. This meant that my black driller helpers could not share a room with the drillers, and presented a housing problem for which a solution had long existed. Every town had a boarding house or motel that catered exclusively to black customers. These were not advertised as such, but any black person in a town could direct us to the appropriate place where Gus and the others could rest after a heavy day's work.

The picture above is not of Gus, but it was taken in 1959 in a southern courthouse. Things had not changed much by 1966, but those bad old days are just ancient history now, except to the people who lived them.

More about Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com

2008-05-09T10:35:00.001-04:00

Hurricane Charley slammed into Punta Gorda, Florida on Friday the 13th of August, 2004. My sailboat AWOL was in Burnt Store Marina south of town. She lost her mast, bimini top, bow sprit, bow pulpit and lifelines. It was enough damage that the insurance company had to ponder for some time whether to fix or scrap her. Fixing won out, and she was towed to the nearest boatyard that didn't have a huge hurricane-related backlong. That was Sailors Wharf up in St. Pete.

The wind damage to homes, especially mobile homes, was devasting in the area around Punta Gorda and surrounding Charlotte County. The familiar blue tarp covering a badly damaged roof was the signature of thousands of homes in the area for the next couple of years. A friend of mine who lives aboard his sailboat stayed aboard during the storm. He took pictures and videos of the whole event as the winds and tide screeched through Burnt Store Marina. Although these visual records were helpful with my insurance company, no amount of beer should convince a person to stay aboard a boat during a hurricane. He is lucky to be alive.

The defiant red Indian that stood for years at a Punta Gorda motel survived Charley, but the motel didn't fare as well. The Indian was moved to a new location, but is no longer red. The wind driven sand and debris gave the poor old guy an effective dermabrasion, and he is now a paleface.

More about Southwest Florida at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com

Homosassa: Lost In Time

2008-05-09T09:38:00.002-04:00

There are not many places left in sunny Florida that can give you a glimpse of the past. Many old timers down here mark the beginning of modern Florida by two historic events.

The first big happening was the establishment of mosquito control districts in some Florida counties during World War Two. Before the war, mosquitoes were so bad that cattle were known to suffocate from the little stinging beasts clogging up their noses and throats.

The influx of soldiers, sailors and airmen into the State to the numerous training bases made mosquito control necessary to control diseases like malaria and encephalitis. Mosquito breeding areas near the military bases and adjacent towns were routinely sprayed by trucks and airplanes, and diked impoundments were created in the swamps and mangroves to breed fish that loved to have mosquito larvae for dinner.

The second big event happened in 1964 or thereabouts, and most people don't know about it. This was about the time FHA (Federal Housing Administration) decided central air conditioning could be included in home mortgages.

Before then, only the house could be mortgaged because the government feared that air conditioning would not last the term of the mortgage. Once people could finance their air conditioning, things really began to boom down here.

In the old days before mosquitoes got under control and cool air was available in new houses, Florida Crackers used to say "Thank God for mosquitoes and the miserable summer heat down here. If it weren't for those two things, everybody would live down here."

Well, not everybody lives down here in this kingdom south of Georgia, but lots of folks do. One place that not too many people have discovered is Homosassa . This little town nestles on the banks of the Crystal River about an hour north of St. Pete and Clearwater just off U.S. Highway 19.

Fishing is the big thing up here, and manatee watching. Homosassa is home to several state parks including Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, where you can see West Indian manatees from the park's underwater observatory. The Yulee Sugar Mill State Park is the site of an old 5,100 acre sugar mill, which was used to supply troops during the Civil War. The park is named after Florida's first Jewish U.S. Senator, David Levy Yulee.

The picture above is of an old Florida house on the north bank of the river. Homosassa is a good place to spend a weekend or a lot longer.

Learn more about old Florida at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com

Naples: Mansions and Mobile Homes

2008-05-04T11:16:00.001-04:00

Naples, Florida - also known as Naples On The Gulf - is one of the richest towns in America. The mansions of Port Royale are home or second home to many of the leading industrialists and celebrities in America. Private jets landing in Naples are as common as the pelicans that glide over the beautiful white sand beaches. There are two Ritz Carlton hotels in town, one for golfers and the other for beach people. At last count, there were 82 gated golf course communities in Collier County.

Quaint little old wooden houses in Olde Naples, the downtown area, sell for one million dollars and up. That same little house in Melbourne or Gainesville might cost less than one hundred thousand dollars, but it wouldn't be in Naples. That same little house in my home town of Menominee, Michigan, might be fifty thousand, but it wouldn't be in Florida. The mansions of Port Royale, only several blocks south of Olde Naples, sell for many millions of dollars.

I am lucky to have two homes in Naples. My primary home is a condo in downtown Naples. If I get tired of swimming in my pool or relaxing stiff muscles in my jacuzzi, there are many other things to do. I can walk to the beach in 10 minutes, to Starbucks in 5 minutes, to Tin City and other restaurant locations on Fifth Avenue, Third Street and Bayfront in 5 minutes. If my car ever gets repossessed, I could survive without it. Everything I need, even a big grocery store, is within walking distance. The main Collier County library is only a few blocks away. This is new urbanism without design, a small hometown that didn't get spoiled by growth.

My second home is in Riverbend, a mobile home cooperative park on the Cocohatchee River in North Naples. Riverbend has two boat basins on the south shore of the river. My double-wide is on a narrow piece of land between the two boat basins. The home was built in 1977. Like most Florida mobile homes, this one hasn't moved since the day more than thirty years ago when a couple of trucks brought it from the factory to the park.

This home gives me feelings similar to those I had when I lived on boats, except that my neighbors are all over 55 years old. This is an adult park, and most of the 38 owners live full time up north and come down for the "season". The season down here is roughly January through April. From May through December, Riverbend is very quiet. The only noise one can hear is the splash of a fish jumping, the flap-flap-flap of a bird's wings, or an occasional putt-putt of an outboard motor on the river. My living room and front porch overlook the west basin, 30 feet away. The windows in the kitchen, dining room and bedrooms look out into the east basin.

Only Riverbend owners can keep boats in the boat basins. I bought the place to get the boat slip. Boat slips are becoming scarce and expensive in Florida. The water is very shallow in the basins and river. Only a small boat will keep you off the muddy bottom. This is no problem, because Riverbend has a maximim allowable length of 21 feet in their basins. Still, one has to be careful of the mud banks and sand bars between the park and the Gulf of Mexico.

Riverbend is about seven minutes at idle speed from the Gulf of Mexico. The winding shallows of the Cocohatchee River meander westward to Wiggins Pass. Inlets on Florida's west coast are usually called passes; on the east coast, they are called inlets. I don't know why. A few hundred yards upstream from Riverbend is the Cocohatchee Nature Center. Tour boats and kayak rentals introduce this beautiful mangrove lined river to tourists during daylight hours. The tour boat also makes a daily trip to Wiggins Pass to catch the spectacular gulf coast sunsets.

The picture above is from Google, and it a view looking west down the Cocohatchee River. The Gulf of Mexico is at the top of the picture. Riverbend and an adjacent adult mobile home park, Palm River, are just to the right of the Old Collier golf course . Probably not many of the residents of these two parks are millionaires, but most of them feel they are living like one.

Learn more about Naples at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/naples-florida.html

Kenansville and Henry Flagler's Divorce

2008-05-02T06:41:00.001-04:00

Kenansville is a spot on US-441 about halfway between Yeehaw Junction and Holopaw. Most travelers whiz through without knowing anything about the history of the place. It's name ties into the history of one of Florida's iconic developers, Henry Morrison Flagler.

Henry is the man who really opened up Florida to tourism. After making a fortune as John D. Rockefeller's partner in Standard Oil, he retired and focused his business skills on ventures in the Sunshine State. His projects and invested capital in the 1880's through 1912 transformed Florida forever. He started with big hotels in St. Augustine, bought a railroad, and then extended his railroad and hotel empire down the east coast of Florida until he finally made it all the way to Key West. The Overseas Highway follows the roadbed of Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad.

Flagler's first wife had died, and his second wife had been institutionalized for mental illness for many years. You might say he had been unlucky in love. At last, however, he fell in love with a lovely young lady named Mary Lily Kenan, and wanted to marry her. In those days, it was almost impossible to get a divorce in Florida. Flagler convinced the Florida Legislature to pass a bill allowing a spouse to get a divorce if their mate was mentally ill. It was considered a scandal at the time, but Henry Flagler got divorced. He and Mary Lily got married and lived happily ever after in Whitehall, their Palm Beach mansion.

One of Flagler's railroad spurs headed south close to the route of what is now US-441. One of the little communites along the way offered to name the town after him if he ran the railroad through it. Flagler declined the name offer, but asked them to name it after his wife instead. And thus was born Kenansville. Most Floridians know the town as the home of the Heartbreak Hotel. Rumor has it that Elvis stayed there and named his song after the place. The truth is the owner of the hotel liked the song and named his hotel after it.

The picture above is of Heartbreak Hotel in 2003. I believe one can still rent a nice clean room there and be surrounded by the quiet of the old Florida prairie.

Learn more about Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-history.html

Yeehaw Junction

2008-04-27T11:18:00.001-04:00

Yeehaw Junction is at the intersection of US-441 and State Road 60 between Vero Beach and Lake Wales. In the nearly 50 years that I have been driving through it, changes have been very few. A couple of gas stations, maybe a motel that came and went, a new connection to Florida Turnpike. But one constant is the Desert Inn, a unique combination of bar, restaurant and hotel that has been there so long it's on The National Register of Historic Places. The chili served in the Desert Inn used to be among the best in the western world. I haven't been there lately, but would be disappointed if the chili is gone.

In my early years in Florida, Yeehaw was where you ended up if your car broke down anywhere in the wilderness that exists on all four compass points. Many years ago there was a service station in Yeehaw Junction that sold tires to replace those that might have blown out on a unfortunate traveler's vehicle. Those tires were the most expensive in the State of Florida.

Time stands still for no place, not even Yeehaw Junction. A developer has purchased many thousands of acres and is currently planning to create a new town called Destiny. The destiny of Yeehaw Junction might be to become nothing but a memory.

A history of the Desert Inn and Yeehaw Junction are at http://www.desertinnrestaurant.com/.

The picture above is of the Desert Inn in 2003. Learn more about Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-history.html

From Iwo Jima To A Florida Potato Field

2008-04-24T21:58:00.001-04:00

My friend Howard was born and raised near Bunnell in Flagler County. His father was a pioneer Florida Cracker county commissioner who sold much of the original land to Marineland back in the 1930's. This marine attraction with dolphins and other sea life was created on the ocean by an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune and his friend, Count Ilya Tolstoy, a Russian.

Howard served in the Navy in World War Two. He had some unpleasant experiences at Iwo Jima as an explosives demolition specialist. He was glad to make it back to his Florida home after the war. One of his first jobs was as a construction worker on the bridge across the intracoastal waterway from St. Augustine to Vilano Beach.

After the bridge was completed, Howard went into the potato farming business in Hastings, a small town west of St. Augustine that was known, and may still be known, as the potato capitol of Florida. Howard leased hundreds of acres of land and planted potatoes. He had dozens of laborers, trucks, and other equipment and made a lot of money his very first year in the business. It looked like the American dream was about to come true for Howard.

He took his earnings and put every dime in ordering new potato seeds for the next year's planting. When the ship came into Jacksonville with his seeds, Howard went up to collect them but was told that a blight had infested his seeds and they could not be offloaded from the ship. He had no insurance, no savings, no goverment bailout. He was broke. From potato tycoon to potato pauper in one short year.

Howard moved to Orlando and soon had a job with a firm doing construction materials testing at Kennedy Space Center during the years leading up to the moon landing. He was smart and learned a lot about construction materials: concrete, steel, soils. He kept moving up the ladder and became chief construction materials technician during the construction of Walt Disney World in Orlando. He also worked at Epcot Center and Universal Studios making sure materials were certified and used properly.

Howard is now retired and lives quietly in Espanola, near Hastings. The photo above is of the potato growers building in Hastings.

Learn more about Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-history.html

Doc Ford, Sanibel and Pine Island

2008-04-24T21:18:00.001-04:00

My creator was John D. MacDonald. Old John D. died in 1986, and I floundered around without a plot to live in for many years. At last, after many years, a new creative genius arrived on the literary scene and created my soul mate, Doc Ford. This creative author is Randy Wayne White, who allegedly lives on Pine Island in Southwest Florida. His neighbors south of Pine Island on Sanibel have named a popular restaurant there after Doc.

Doc Ford doesn't live on his houseboat as I did, but he does live in a boat house at Dinkins Pass marina somewhere on Florida's west coast. Sounds like Sanibel or Captiva or maybe Pine Island or Cayo Costa or Cabbage Key or any number of Southwest Florida places becalmed in the mullet latitudes (check Al Burt, his titles, his memories). Doc is a marine biologist trying to earn an honest living providing specimens to labs around the world. His former mysterious life as either a CIA agent or Navy Seal or maybe both keeps landing him in one adventure after another.

Pine Island is sparsely populated. St. James City is on the south end of the island. It is kind of like the illegimate child of a Harley dude and a crabber or commercial fisherman. One restaurant down there nestled on one of the many canals that lace the city happily serves bikers and boaters, side by side. Way up on the north end of the island miles is Bokeelia, a small community of Florida Cracker houses sprinkled among the sand dunes and bayous. Pine Island is northwest of Ft. Myers, and one must travel through the burgeoning community of Cape Coral to get there.

Matlacha Sound, a shallow body of water where the tidal flows run fast, divides Pine Island from Cape Coral. This fisherman's land is where Randy Wayne White spent much of his career as a fishing guide before finding his muse and creating my buddy, Doc Ford.

There is a little community called Pineland on this island. Nothing more than a post office and a couple of houses and a very friendly peacock or peahen, I'm not sure which. When one visits the post office, the peafowl trots over to say hello.

If you will look very carefully at the photo above, you will see the friendly bird on the post office porch looking me over before trekking on over to say hello.

Learn more about Randy Wayne White at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/randy-wayne-white.html

Peaceful Brooksville

2008-04-22T21:34:00.001-04:00

Charles Sumner was a United States Senator from Massachusetts in the years before the American Civil War. He was an outspoken opponent of slavery, and known for his fiery speeches on the subject. Preston Brooks was a congressman from South Carolina, and outspoken advocate of slavery. One day in 1856, Sumner gave a speech in the Senate that was especially insulting to the South. Brooks savagely attacked Sumner on the Senate floor and nearly beat him to death with a cane. Sumner missed the next 3 years of service in the Senate, and needed extensive therapy to survive his injuries.

Brooksville is named for Preston Brooks. His attack on the hated Yankee senator made him a hero in the South, and Brooksville was very much a southern city in the years during and after the civil war. The weather worn statue of a confederate soldier still stands guard in front of the Hernando County courthouse in downtown Brooksville.

The violent act that inspired the town's name does not fit with its peaceful demeanor of today. Lovely ancient oaks line the brick streets. Grand old well maintained southern mansions stand proudly in quiet neighborhoods. Unlike most of table-flat Florida, Brooksville and Hernando County have many rolling hills. Some of them are among the highest elevations in Florida.

Right downtown, across from the County Courthouse, is the Main Street Eatery. This homey little restaurant seats only a few people, and serves wonderful lunches. One of their specialties is a multi-bean Cajun soup that is one of the best dishes in the State of Florida. The soup alone is worth a trip to Brooksville. The friendly, laid back residents of Brooksville are another good reason to visit.

The picture above is of the Confederate Soldier in front of the Hernando County Courthouse. More Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-history.html

Fort Lauderdale's Pier 66

2008-04-21T14:23:00.001-04:00

Pier 66 means different things to different people depending on whether they are new to Florida or have been around a few years. My Pier 66 is a tall hotel on the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale. It was built in the 1950's and was originally owned by the Phillips Petroleum Company, the sellers of Phillips 66 gasoline. There was a Philips 66 gas station in front of the hotel back in the fifties and sixties. It's easy for me to remember the date of my first visit to Pier 66. It was June 6, 1966.

Pier 66 had a revolving lounge on it's top floor named Top Of The Pier that was open to the public. Spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean, Intracoastal Waterway, Port Everglades and downtown Fort Lauderdale were available from this slowing revolving lounge. As I recall, the elevator took 66 seconds to rise from the ground to the lounge floor. The lounge itself rotated once every 66 minutes. I could drink 3 Dewars and water per revolution. It was important during such periods of libation to memorize where your table was when you left it to go to the restroom. When you returned, the table would be in a different location.

The last time I visited Pier 66 was in early 2005. The hotel was by now a Hyatt, and had been remodeled for probably the umpteenth time. I met a friend for a drink and to enjoy the spectacular sunset as I had done dozens of times before. As the sun descended below the horizon, the lights of Port Everglades and downtown Fort Lauderdale were twinkling decorations on a golden backdrop of green palms and blue canals.

The following month I was in Fort Lauderdale and went into the hotel for my habitual trip to the Top Of The Pier. I learned that it had been closed to the public and to hotel guests. It is now only available for private parties. Another chapter in Old Florida that is sadly closed. I think if one follows the money, there were probably too many tourists and sightseers using the lounge. Not enough of us 3 drink per revolution types to make it work economically.

The picture above is of the Pier 66 tower taken from the parking lot of the adjacent marina.

More information at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/fort-lauderdale-florida.html

Moon Over Miami

2008-04-20T22:25:00.001-04:00

As I write this from my home in Naples, the moon is glowing full in the eastern skies above Miami. Miami is a misunderstood city. I know, because I misunderstood it for years. From 1960 to 1992 I was able to live in Florida without once having to live in Miami. My many visits to the big city convinced me I never wanted to live there. It was big, ugly, dirty, noisy and dangerous. Traffic was horrendous and the many third world drivers made getting around a life threatening event. Store windows displayed signs that said "we speak English" for those few of us who didn't understand Spanish.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew lay waste to most of the area of Miami-Dade County south of Kendall Drive. Homes were devastated, especially further south toward Homestead. Of the several thousand mobile homes in that area, it was reported that none survived the howling powerful winds. I knew one man who stayed in his house in Homestead during the storm. He and his wife survived by taking shelter in their bathroom, but he suffered permanent hearing loss from the deafening winds that battered his home during the storm.

Two weeks after the hurricane I was transferred to Miami. It greatly depressed me, but I needed the paycheck. Such is the fate of the wage slave. There was no housing available in the entire area. People displaced from their damaged homes had taken all of the rentals. I was living in Melbourne at the time, and sailed Silverheels, my 33 foot CSY sloop, to Miami Beach. I lived aboard at Miami Beach Marina for the next year.

Miami is a land of many cultures, races, creeds and colors. About half the population is Hispanic, and about half of those are Cubans who came to Miami after Castro took over the country. Many of the Cubans are second generation, born in America, but still proudly Cuban and proudly American. They have been a great asset to South Florida. Other Hispanics are from South and Central America, with virtually every country in the Western Hemisphere being represented.

There is a large Jamaican population, many Haitians, and islanders from everywhere in the Caribbean. African-Americans and Jewish people round out the balance. About 10% of the population is standard old white anglo saxon protestant or catholic. It is a huge melting pot, and a wonderful place to learn how to get along with just about anybody.

A few weeks ago I told my doctor, who has lived in Miami all of his life, that I miss living there, even though Naples is quieter and probably safer. He responded that the thing he likes most about Miami is that it's so close to America.

The picture above is of the Rickenbacker Causeway between Miami and Key Biscayne. More information about Miami at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/miami-florida.html

The Timeless Space Coast

2008-04-14T22:08:00.001-04:00

Brevard County is about one hour east of Orlando. Of Florida's 67 counties, Brevard is probably the longest. It stretches about 72 miles from Scottsmoor in the north to Sebastian Inlet on the south. It also has more shoreline than any other Florida County: about 72 miles of beautiful white sandy beaches on the Atlantic Ocean, another 144 miles of shoreline along both sides of the Indian River Lagoon, about half that distance of shoreline again along both sides of the Banana River, and another 72 miles or more along the freshwater St. Johns River.

Brevard is the home to Kennedy Space Center on Cape Canaveral. This was a small rural county when John F. Kennedy pledged to put an American on the moon by the end of the decade of the 1960's. Overnight the Cape began to develop rockets and launches lit up the night sky for years until finally Apollo 11 made it to the moon. The astronauts were local heroes, and the aerospace workers were the backbone of the County's economy.

The sleepy old cities along the space coast were booming, and subdivisions sprang up overnight to house the space workers and their families. Many of the space people felt like transients, even though their children went to local schools. Between 1960 and 1970, the population of the county increased by about 600%. After the successful moon landing, however, the Cape began to lay off space workers. Unemployment soared into the plus 20% range. PhD's became gas station attendants; rocket engineers became convenience store clerks. Houses were foreclosed and opportunistic investors, many of them retired military officers, descended on the county and snapped up houses for pennies on the dollar.

But the sleepy old cities stayed pretty much the same during all of this frenzy. A visitor to downtown Cocoa or Titusville or Melbourne in the early 1960's would have no problem finding his way around today. Things have been gentrified, cleaned up, but the basic character of these towns stays the same.

The photo above is of an old house in Sharpes, a riverfront community north of Cocoa. The house looks out over the Indian River. In years past it was occupied by Captain Sharpes, the Pinkerton and Wenner families.

More information at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/cocoa-florida.html

The Ancient City Is Always New

2008-04-11T22:23:00.001-04:00

St. Augustine is America's oldest city. Founded by the Spanish in 1565, it retains many of its ancient landmarks like the old fort, Castillo San Marco. Although it is touristy and loaded with tee shirt and souvenir shops, it has a charm that has delighted visitors for centuries.

In the heart of town is the Old Slave Market, a reminder of a crueler time in our history. During the early 1960's, the town was the site of many organized civil rights demonstrations. Dr. Martin Luther King and others dropped in, and many northern activists came down from the northeast. Tensions ran high, and serious violence was only avoided by the diligent efforts of local and state police. Although St. Augustine was an ancient city, it was at its heart a small southern town whose residents did not appreciate the yankees coming down to demonstrate.

A short hop from the market is the city marina, with magnificent floating docks and a wonderful view of the historic Bridge of Lions. This marina has great facilities, and it is an unparalleled spot to dock a boat and visit this intriguing city.

Back in 1992 I spent a couple of weeks in my sailboat, Silverheels, a CSY 33. My youngest son and I visited the tourist attractions and ate at a different restaurant every night. We had sailed up from Melbourne. The first night of the cruise we spent the night in Titusville. I made the worst chili in the history of the world for dinner that night. It was inevitable after the chili that future meals would be in restaurants.

A favorite restaurant back then was Athenia. This small Greek place is across from the slave market, and serves wonderful and affordable meals. It was still there last time I checked in late 2007.

More about St. Augustine at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/st-augustine-florida.html

Small Town Hotels

2008-04-11T22:00:00.002-04:00

The 1920's were boom times in much of Florida. Sleepy little towns were crawling with "binder boys" selling lots on contract. Demand for real estate was so great that contracts were sold many times before the lots were even developed. It was one of the first booms in Florida, but not the last. Like all booms, it was followed by a bust. Eventually the last person to buy a contract realized there was nobody left to sell it to.

Banks and developers went broke, heartbroken investors moved back north and left their shattered dreams behind. The final straw came toward the end of the decade. A massive hurricane inflicted widespread damage and death across South Florida. The boom was over. Florida sank into decades of doldrums that did not begin to dissipate until after World War Two.

Many small Florida towns had tall hotels, relics of the glory days of the real estate boom. Prospective lot purchasers and binder boys stayed in these hotels, and many of these old buildings remain to this day.

The picture above is of the Grand Hotel in Lake Wales. More about Florida history and small towns at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-towns.html

Old Venus

2008-03-23T10:26:00.001-04:00

Venus is a place name on the Florida map about an hour's drive east of Fort Myers or Punta Gorda. Most folks in this part of Florida call it Old Venus, but I don't know why. Maybe there was a Venus that burned down and was replaced by a New Venus, and the former town was referred to as Old Venus. It will take a true historian to solve that riddle.

There isn't much to see in Old Venus these days. A couple of weathered old Florida cracker houses, a shed or two, and the silence I've only known in the great Florida wilderness. In Old Venus, the only sounds are the wind rustling through the palms and pines, and the singing of the birds. There is still a lot of this old Florida wilderness around, but one has to get away from the coasts to find it.

I don't imagine Old Venus was ever a very large town. It was probably just another of Florida's forgotten places, maybe a sawmill town that existed only long enough for the lumbermen to exhaust the then seemingly inexhaustible stands of pine and cypress that filled this area on the western edge of the Everglades. A couple of people still live in Old Venus, but the place is as quiet as a cemetery. It is a reminder of the Florida that intrigued me back in 1960 when I first arrived in the Sunshine State.

Old Venus is north of Palmdale, about 3 miles west of US Highway 27. Palmdale is a spot in the woods with a few scattered homes. The area is north of Labelle, via State Road 29, and north of Moore Haven via US Highway 27. This place is in the heart of the vast land holdings of Lykes Brothers, one of Florida's pioneer and still active agricultural giants.

More information about Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-history.html

Florida The Diverse

2008-03-22T21:43:00.001-04:00

I moved to Florida in 1960, and quickly discovered that north Florida was Southern and south Florida was Northern. The Florida panhandle and the entire northern tier of counties stretching from Pensacola on the Gulf of Mexico to Jacksonville on the St. Johns River was Southern Baptist country. The people in that part of Florida were culturally the same as their cousins in Alabama and Georgia. Confederate flags were flown everywhere, and Confederate Memorial Day was still celebrated in Jacksonville and some of the smaller towns in the panhandle.

Down in south Florida, south of Jupiter Inlet, the denizens of Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami were more typically immigrants from the northeastern states like New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Southwest Florida, places like Naples and Ft. Myers, were loaded with northerners from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and other midwestern states. In those days, US Highway 1 stretched from Miami north to New England, and was a natural conduit for those folks. US Highway 41 meandered from Key West up to Miami and across the state to Naples and all the way through Tennessee and Indiana to Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

More information about Florida history at http://www.florida-backroads-travel.com