2024 Spring Exploring Florida

[DonnaR57]

Day 9: Fort Zachary Taylor

The second item on our "must see" list for Key West was Fort Zachary Taylor. Built as a protector from pirates, it has served during many conflicts including the Civil War (though it saw no action during that war). We were a hair late to the one and only tour of the day at 11 am, as we had traffic issues. But after the tour guide finished his initial talk and had the group move towards the next place, he gave quite a few latecomers "the 30-second version". He was good-natured about it.

He said that this was one of 13 forts on the Eastern seaboard that were all built to the same specifications. During the late 1700s, the French government gave us the plans with one comment, "Build them exactly as they are on the plans, do not make changes." Well, that means a fort built on the Atlantic Ocean south of Florida has a LOT of fireplaces, many of which went unused. It also had an interesting toileting, relying on the tidal flows as a flusher, with water level change. What works on the Mediterranean does not necessarily work on the Atlantic Ocean. But this tour was far better than the one at Fort Sumter, which looked amazingly like Fort Taylor!

Day 9-4


We were allowed to climb up to where one story was taken down, and there was a beautiful view:
Day 9-10

Day 9-12

Our lunch that day was leftovers from the night before at Grand Cafe, and our dinner was a delicious one at Duffy's. For each of those dinners, we rode the hotel's shuttle to its drop-off point by the Key West marina. On Wednesday night, we weren't sure how late we were going to get back. We tried to get there before the 8:30 shuttle, but at 8:20, we saw it leave. We'd been told that as soon as it filled up, it would leave (no standing allowed). Well, fortunately, the normal airport shuttle bus/driver was free, so he came to get us at about 8:40.

This was our final full day on the island, and we spent the afternoon debating between the beach and the pool again - finally opting for the pool because shade was easier to find. We were starting to get a tad pink, despite sunscreen!

[DonnaR57]

Day 10: Leaving Key West, Seeing Everglades NP

We were slightly sad about departing from Key West after the lovely weather, but knew we still had some places and people to see in Florida. We just hoped that the good weather would stick around while we were in the state.

Driving back to the mainland was pleasant, and took around 2-1/2 hours. We didn't stop, but we drove slow enough to enjoy the scenery and for me to snap a few photos.

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In places, the old Railroad bridges have been made into pedestrian and fishing bridges, but in others, the bridge is too heavily damaged and therefore, closed.
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We stopped at the same little restaurant on Key Largo where we'd had breakfast on Monday, but this time we had lunch and key lime pie. I'm not sure that was authentic key lime pie, but it was yellow (as it should be) and very sweet -- just no real "lime" taste to it. The lunch was good, though.

Getting onto the mainland and into Florida City/Homestead, we headed down the road towards Everglades National Park's road to Flamingo Bay. Before this trip, my husband had not been to either Everglades or Key West. (Evidently I'd gone to Key West with my family, but as a day trip?! in the 60s. I have vague memories of Everglades NP from back then, but no memories of the Keys.).

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We stopped at two viewpoints that had nature trails, and also saw a sign that made us laugh -- something about rocks and "elevation 4 ft."

Swamplands:
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On the Mahogany Hammock Trail:
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We tried to find flamingoes, which are seen more often at Nine Mile Pond than anywhere else in the Park. Sadly, we did not see any long-legged birds of any type. So we moved on, to Flamingo Bay, a visitor center, the marina and basically the end of the road in ENP. We were looking out at the Gulf of Mexico when a park ranger came up to us and told us there were manatees over in the marina area. We hot-footed over there. Sure enough, there was a pod of them, including one that was eating algae from the side of one of the docks.

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Nice place for a picnic, but we were still too stuffed from lunch. However, we bought ice from the marina store so that we could have cold drinks from our cooler.
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With that, we headed back up the 38-mile road to Homestead/Florida City. We had made reservations for the same place we had stayed on Sunday night, doing that before we left home. I need to rethink doing that, as we didn't care THAT much for the place and they also put us in the same room! It wasn't a bad place, don't get me wrong, but there were others we could have stayed at. But we were trying to build up Best Western points.

We'd noticed that places now are collecting an "incidentals deposit", ranging from $50 to $150. Most were $50, refundable when you checked out. The BW Gateway to the Keys, in Florida City, charged $150, the highest anywhere on our trip. For ONE night. Yeah, obnoxious. Another reason to avoid making two separate reservations at the same place.

[DonnaR57]

Day 11: North via Lake Okeechobee

Being a weekday, we had debated how to head north to the Space Coast. We have friends there from our days in California, and we'd planned to spend the weekend visiting them. After our trip on Sunday, down FL-997, we decided to try the Florida Turnpike. Wisely, though, we waited until way after "rush hour" to depart our lodging.

I mentioned earlier that we had bought the SunPass Pro before we left home, by mail. The Pro is the type that you can transfer between vehicles. During most of the trip, it stayed in the glove compartment, but that morning, it got taken out.

We took the Florida Turnpike out of Homestead/Florida City, all the way up to I-75 (non-tolled section). Then got off of it again at US-27, before 75 turned toll again. The turnpike and 75 were both busy but not obnoxious. Later, we found out that we'd only used $2.09 of the money we'd prepaid. That's okay, we have trips on the Kansas Turnpike planned for later, and Kansas is going to all-electronic tolling in July.

US-27 took us over swamplands, but at South Bay we turned off onto US-98/441. This is labeled "scenic", and at Pahokee, was also to be right on the edge of Lake Okeechobee. Yeah, we were all right, but there was a big berm in the way of any views of the Lake. Finally, about halfway up the east side of the Lake, we found a pull out that appeared to have Lake access. Parked, my husband's phone rang -- it was the BW from the previous night, "you forgot your pillows." Oh, dang. Either we drive back to Homestead/Florida City (gas, tolls, time) or we just say, "OK, sorry," and buy new pillows and pillowcases. On to the sightseeing.

View to the land from the top of the berm:
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Lake view:
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Dike view: (There was a dike but no boat loading zone.)
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The Herbert Hoover Dike:
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With US-98/441 labeled as scenic, and seemingly on the shore of Lake Okeechobee, we were disappointed. Was it "scenic"? Frankly, we've seen a lot more "scenic" interstates in Missouri. Lesson learned.

At the town of Okeechobee, we turned east on FL-70 toward the coast. Trying to get on I-95 in what was now turning into Friday afternoon rush hour, was more of an issue.We probably ticked off some commuters by being in the wrong lane, accidentally. Sorry, commuters. Read the license plate and mutter. (We do when at home.). Finally made it onto I-95. We'd already decided what to do about the pillow situation, while driving on FL-70.

We couldn't stay at our friends home, for several reasons, so I'd made some reservations at one of the closest lodging to their home. They live way out in the countryside. That same exit for our lodging place had a Walmart down the street, so we went there FIRST. Bought 2 new pillows and maroon pillowcases. We surmised that it was too easy to miss our old ones when we did a check-out room scan, because they had cream-colored pillowcases. Maroon would remind us to pick them up.

We spent the evening visiting with our friends. Long story short, they'd moved from CA to MO to FL due to job changes and/or transfers. We got to MO after they'd already moved to FL. So we hadn't seen them in 10+ years.

[DonnaR57]

Days 12-13: Space Coast with Friends

We found our plans fit to visit our friends who once lived in CA, now live in FL. We'd spent Friday evening with them.

On Saturday morning, we enjoyed some "down time". In the afternoon, we enjoyed shared hobbies with them. At one time, we all camped together a lot in SoCal, but also shared hobbies then and now. Then enjoyed dinner out again.

They knew some great restaurants in the area. On Friday evening, we'd gone to Meg O'Malley's Restaurant and Irish Pub. Lunch on Saturday, for just us gals, was Crayderman's Deli. Saturday evening, I sadly did not write down the name or place we went. On Sunday at lunch, we ate lunch in Historic Village of Cocoa - a biergarten. Sunday night was at their home.

LATER UPDATE (since no one has responded/commented yet): The Saturday night dinner was at a place called American Icon Brewery, in Vero Beach. It is an old diesel power plant. Interesting history and great food.

Here are some photos from the weekends' jaunts:

The marina near the Historic Village of Cocoa:
Day 13-3

The Indian River:
Day 13-1

Beautiful downtown Cocoa Beach. We'd been there before, in 2012.
Day 13-9

Patrick SFB (Space Force Base):
Day 13-17

[DonnaR57]

Day 14: The Oldest City in the US

Leaving our hotel on Monday morning, we headed north on I-95. We'd gotten fuel when we saw an electronic sign mention an accident with a back-up ahead. So we took off and headed east on a side road into Daytona Beach, then north on US-1 for awhile, before going west again. In the meantime, I was checking the GPS to see how far north we had to go on US-1 before going back to the interstate. Too many traffic lights, and nothing really to see. Cities are cities.

Back on the Interstate, we got off of it again to head to Fort Matanzas National Monument, a very-very old fort. To get to the fort, you must ride a group pontoon boat over to the island where it sits. It was completely free! No reservations are taken, it's all first-come, first-served, and some days all the day's trips are filled by 10 am. We were lucky, this was NOT one of those days.

The boat:
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The fort:
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This is a link to the Fort's website.

Officer's Quarters:
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My husband went up to the top to see the view. No photo from up there (I have yet to get his photos from his phone).
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Once back on the mainland, we had a snack from our bag, and headed north towards Saint Augustine. Our plans were to find Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and view that. We had to circle around their parking lot ($2.50/an hour once parked, max 4 hours) 6 or 8 times before we finally got a spot.

Website for Castillo de San Marcos explaining its importance to Saint Augustine.

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It was a museum on the site, as many national monuments are. This was the view from the top:
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Weapons can be beautiful:
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We had heard this discussed at Fort Zachary Taylor on Key West, but here was the explanation in writing:
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What's left of it:
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Final view from the Castillo, before we moved on to find out what was in Saint Augustine and also an early dinner.
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Cathedral of Saint Augustine:
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Old governor's house:
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We did not know that there was so much to see/do in Saint Augustine (poor planning on my part, there). We've vowed to return soon. Dinner was at an Irish pub, Meehan's, which was not far from where our car was parking at the Castillo. It was EXCELLENT!

We sadly headed on, as our overnight was to be at the Holiday Inn Express along I-95 in Jacksonville. (I had originally made plans for an overnight at St Augustine, but on re-check, found out that it was being rehabbed. The place we originally reserved in Jacksonville changed from a BW to a Quality Inn, in March, so our third place was where we actually stayed. It was a nice Holiday Inn Express.)

[DonnaR57]

Day 15: Jacksonville FL to Pelham AL

This was a driving day, seeing whatever was along the sides of the road. We took I-95 up to I-10 and then west -- during JAX rush hour. We were relieved to be out of it in less than 15 miles. Going across I-10 was a breeze -- we took that to US-231 near Cottondale. We stayed on that for awhile, going around Dothan (by far the worst when it came to traffic lights!) and then up to Montgomery where we were able to pick up I-85 for a short jag before I-65 up to Pelham.

The Best Western, one of our free points nights, was very nice though the pool had yet to open (it wasn't warm enough outside anyway!). We took the car down for dinner, one of the rare occasions we used a chain because we don't have a Texas Roadhouse near us.

Photos:
Suwannee River in FL
Day 15-2

Changing states again -- and somewhere, we gained back that hour we'd lost on Day 4. There were also orange signs glaring at us, right at the Welcome Sign.
Day 15-3

Hubby treated himself after driving 140 miles on "back roads" (US highways) of the 450 miles total that we drove that day:
Day 15-4

[DonnaR57]

Day 16: Pelham, AL to Savannah, TN

Another leisurely morning while we let the Birmingham rush hour pass by (we were on the south side, heading north). When we finally DID leave -- around 10 am -- we still got stuck in traffic on the frontage road in front of the motel! Evidently a traffic light was misbehaving.

We headed up I-65, through Birmingham and got off at I-22 west. It's a good thing we weren't looking for fuel yet, nor anything to eat. I-22 has a few services, mostly just gas and those are spread out. It was lovely driving, though, as there wasn't much traffic on this Wednesday morning.

Day 16-1

Back in Mississippi, we decided that Tupelo was good for a few stops. First, lunch -- Popeye's. Then, gas -- Sam's Club -- the cheapest on the entire trip at $3.30/gal for premium. We debated whether or not to try to find Elvis' birth home, but ultimately decided we wouldn't want to tour it because we aren't huge fans. Time to head north.

From Tupelo, we used US-45 to head north into Tennessee. It was good road, and not too many stop lights. As we passed through Corinth, we reminisced about our visit there about 6 years ago.

Day 16-2

At Selmer, we turned east again on US-64, to get over to Savannah where we were going to stay for our visit to Shiloh. We chose a Quality Inn, which was next door to a Days Inn. That night, it was recommended that we try a restaurant called Mollie Monday's. In retrospect, we probably could have walked there but did not. It was pretty much diner food, decent. They had a Wednesday Night Breakfast Buffet for dinner, but we chose to have dinner from the menu.

[DonnaR57]

Day 17: Seeing Shiloh National Military Park

Our last "hurrah" on this trip was to be Shiloh National Military Park, in southern Tennessee closest to Savannah. Their visitor center is being rehabbed this summer, so we watched the movie in a temporary theater, and also did some shopping at the bookstore across the street. Our souvenir of choice is always a coffee mug from any national park or monument, and my husband collects t-shirts.

Much like Yorktown, you're given a map with the "tour stops" clearly marked and labeled. Though there are interpretive signs, you can also read the description of the tour stop in the map. These do not follow the battle itself or you would be criss-crossing the area several times, wasting precious fuel. They present more of a "this happened here", like Gettysburg and, to a degree, Vicksburg.

A link to the Shiloh National Battlefield website.

An example of how the stops are labeled in Shiloh. The interpretive signs are separate.
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Memorial to the Confederates, either stop 2 or 3.
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Interpretive sign with husband walking out on the field before coming back to announce he's hungry.
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We had seen a sign about someplace called "Hagy's Catfish Hotel" and "great food" just outside the entrance to Shiloh, so we headed there. It took two tries to find it, because the arrow had pointed down the road but didn't give us any indication on how far it was. It was GREAT food, GREAT service, and we vowed to go back there for dinner that night and sample a different item on the menu.

Link to Hagy's Catfish Hotel Restaurant.

Just outside "Catfish Hotel" (a restaurant, not a hotel) was the Tennessee River. There was a flight of stairs, so my husband walked down them.
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Once back on the auto tour, we eventually made our way to the Shiloh Church, which is how the battle got its name. "Shiloh" means peaceful place, which it is now, but never during a battle. There is a replica of the old Shiloh church, the modern church, and a cemetery. The latter is only for church members and their families. No one else.
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One trail we took was to a mass Confederate gravesite. It said 0.4 mile one way, but my FitBit registered more than that! There were several of these on the property.
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Memorials such as these, to Confederate Generals, were plenty, most of them using cannonballs.
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Next to the (former) peach orchard was an old cabin, which we walked to:
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The last two stops take you to Pittsburg Landing, and then the National Cemetery.
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Day 17-2

We felt we had seen Shiloh, reading everything that the map's description had at each site, but only skimmed the interpretive signs. Can you see every memorial and every mass gravesite? Only if you spend several days.

Indeed, dinner that night was definitely a return to Catfish Hotel, with different food that was equally delicious. Ordinarily we wouldn't do that, but Savannah doesn't have that much to offer and this was worth a return trip.

Day 18: The Trip Home

The next morning, we were up very early and on the road by 6 am. We knew we had about 520 miles to go, with the first 108 miles or so on 4-lane divided and undivided highways.

Our route took us back to Selmer via US-64 and then up US-45 to Jackson TN, then US-412 up to Dyersburg. We got on I-155 and decided that the first 108 miles had gone fairly well -- very much interstate quality in places -- so we'd stop for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, exit 13.

From there, we continued on I-155 until it ended in Missouri at Hayti.
Day 18-6

This is where our lollipop-route ended, so we returned home from here by the same way we came: I-55 to I-270 to I-44. It was good to be home, after driving what turned out to be 496 miles. While we were gone, our contractor continued some landscaping work that he was doing, finally finishing it after we'd been home a few days. The trees had also greened out quite a bit.

Day 19

We love trips, but it's ALWAYS good to be home!


Donna

[DonnaR57]

I finally did our trip statistics:

Miles driven: 3915 miles total
Fuel costs: $550 (premium), $4.14 highest, $3.30 lowest, average MPG: 25.4
Meals: $1690, about $94/day
Lodging: $3340 - but we had to factor in Margaritaville which is expensive, not our usual type haunt
Admissions: $75 (our park pass got us into Everglades, though)
Parking/Tolls: $36 (incl what was taken off our SunPass balance)

[Mark Sedenquist]

Donna,

Lovely field report. Thanks for the time to compile and publish it.

mark