MILEAGE TRAVELED SINCE MAY 2017: 43.000 miles

St. Joe’s Campground
See previous posts on Florida:
Breakdown, Beaches and Birds
GOBBLE GOBBLE-CAREFUL WITH THAT THROTTLE
I arrived in St. Augustine, Florida on Dec. 2, 2017 stayed there a few days, continued driving the state’s perimeter, stopped in various towns and reconnected with old friends. (See previous post links above. ) My route was St. Augustine, Jensen Beach, crossed over to Alligator Alley on Hwy. 75, went up the Gulf of Mexico coast-north to Florida’s Panhandle. It is a state of dredged swamp lands, artificial canals, developed lands on landfills, picture perfect gated communities and gorgeous beaches and sunsets to name just a few of Florida’s characteristics. Land “fingers” stretch out into dredged canals to allow million-dollar views of Florida’s legendary sunsets. Replicas of a Moor’s castle or who-can-build-the-largest house along with high rise condos, hotels and timeshares line the eastern coast. This is not to say there aren’t other neighborhoods throughout all this, there are, but they aren’t as visible. Florida is a mixture of lifestyles and landscapes–enticing from a developer’s point of view, destructive and artificial from an environmentalist perspective, welcoming and beautiful and warm from a retiree’s vision for his life’s autumn years–rotate the fish bowl around and different perspectives rise to the surface as a visitor. I knew I had become accustomed to “the scene” after the fiberglass dolphin spouting clear or blue-tinted water into the air became common place, along with plastic fish mailboxes.

Dolphin mailbox

Florida fountain
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