Home Again

Good to be back home. The weather is beautiful and we're ready to start working in the yard again.

Am sure we'll have the travel bug again soon.

Movietown

Today was a travel day. We are spending the night north of Jackson Mississippi. This is a new RV park called Movietown RV Resort. There are lots of sites and quite a few cabins. Looks like most of the cabins are rented but only 1/4 of the 120 RV sites are occupied. A nice, quiet place to spend the night with full hookups.

I guess Canton, MS is called 'Movie Town' because "A Time To Kill" and "My Dog Skip" were filmed here. There is supposed to be a historic area but all we see close to the RV park are new hotels, gas stations and fast food places. We won't have time to explore the area this trip. The CVB website tells about the film complex that they are developing into the Mississippi State Film Complex.

We traveled I-10W close to the Gulf Coast. I enjoyed seeing all the ships near Mobile at the Alabama Shipyards. The hurricane damage that we saw was mostly snapped trees and blue tarped roofs. The area around Mobile, Gulfport and Biloxi has had lots of clearing and cleaning done. A lot of new buildings. Large lots of damaged cars and mobile homes. At Gulfport, we turned north and took US 49 through Hattiesburg to Jackson. It was a scenic drive through national forest.

Jackson is the capital of Mississippi. My atlas places the population at 190,000. We drove another 20 miles north to Canton.

We were surprised to see Don Champion, one of our former newscasters, on a Jackson station.

Pebble Hill Plantation

After our trip to Wakulla Springs, we drove back to Tallahassee and north about 30 miles toward Thomasville, Georgia. We toured Pebble Hill Plantation. We only had 4 people in our tour and the guide gave us lots of additional information. What was supposed to be a 1 hour tour turned into a 2 1/2 hour tour. It was great. The house is massive -- about 30,000 square feet! It took 18 months to build in 1935. There is no information to tell about how much the house cost. If it's any indication, the dairy barn built a few years earlier cost over $1 million to build.

Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park

This morning we drove about 15 miles south of Tallahassee to Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. This is one of world's deepest freshwater springs and the mouth of the Wakulla River. We took a river-boat tour. The weather was slightly cool but clear and sunny. It was a perfect morning to see birds, turtles & alligators. The water was crystal clear.

Not only is this a wildlife sanctuary, but many movies were been filmed here -- Tarzan (starring Johnny Weismueller), The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Airport 77.

After the boat tour, we toured the 1937 lodge and ate a good southern meal of fried chicken.

Florida's State Capital

We enjoyed touring downtown Tallahassee and the state Capitol Complex. The Old Capitol and New Capitol buildings occupy the same complex. It was interesting to see the old, traditional building and compare it to the modern 22-story building where the state business moved in 1979. The photo shows the Old Capitol with the New Capitol in the background.

We also toured the Florida Governor's Mansion. It is in an area with dense trees so it was hard to get a good photo. Click the link above to see a virtual tour and more. Here is a photo of "Florida's Finest" sculpture from the grounds.

Most of the parking in this area is in parking garages. Walt always said he could park anywhere a car could -- except for the height. Here is a photo of his parallel parking. We took up exactly one parking space and he had no trouble getting in or out. There were some amazed stares as he maneuvered into the space only a block from the Capitol Complex.

The answer is --

camellia.

According to the Florida Extension Service, there are 42 varieties of camellia in Florida. Only a few have a discernable scent. They are grouped by the shape of their flower.

The wisteria and dogwood are also in bloom now. They are beautiful.

Moving Northwest

We left Bonita Springs this morning -- the weather yesterday was just too beautiful to leave. Our travel day was good but heavy traffic on northbound I-75. Then we turned west onto I-10 toward the panhandle.

The landscape had been changing subtly but it was most evident after we turned onto I-10. The palms have been replaced by tall pines, Live Oaks and other deciduous trees. The grass is more lush and there are many shrubs in bloom.

We are staying near Tallahassee tonight. These photos are of tall shrubs just outside our campsite. I don't know what they are but they are beautiful. There is no fragrance. There are two different shrubs. The flowers are different but the foliage is similar -- waxy, dark green.