Entry Into Florida

We’re not at our destination yet, but we are in Florida.  Gainesville, to be exact.  The Cracker Barrel just north of Gainesville to be more exact.  This is a popular place.  There are five RVs parked here and I would imagine we may see one or two more as the night progresses.

Mostly a travel day, 299 miles traveled.  We did make a few stops. The first was at the Georgia Veterans State Park, which is a few miles west of I-75 at Cordell.  Georgia is not known for its state parks, and it doesn’t have a lot of them.  So this is kind of a rare thing: a state park near the Interstate.

The park is an interesting combination of small lakes, hiking trails, a campground, a collection of World War II vintage tanks, aircraft, and artillery, A museum with artifacts from several wars, a golf course, and the Sam Shoreline Excursion Train, which will take you to a number of stops, including Plains, the hometown of former president Jimmy Carter.  The train operates only on Saturdays, unfortunately, so we were unable to take a train ride today.

The operation of the facility is done by a third-party concessionaire, which appears to put its priority on profit, so the golf course is the largest part of the park.  It’s a little hard to tell in the winter, when everything is brown, but I’m sure the golf course is beautiful.  The lakes are a popular fishing spot.  We just wanted to get out and hike for a while.  We did so, and found the printed map that we received at the entrance station less than helpful.  We chatted with a jogger who told us that he comes here all the time and a universal complaint is that the maps are junk.  We did hike, however, so in that respect, it was mission accomplished.

I always find old aircraft fascinating and they had a few interesting pieces, including the B29 Superfortress, a long-range heavy bomber which was used a lot in World War II and was the type of plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, accelerating the end of the war.  The engineer in me wanted to open the hood to see what a 2200 horsepower, 18-cylinder engine looked like and just where it would keep the 85 gallons of oil needed for lubrication.  But, alas, the aircraft was behind a fence, so no further investigation today.

What’s also interesting about this place is its location.  There are a bunch of wartime aircraft and tanks collected in a field which is essentially in the middle of nowhere.  It’s out of context.  Wartime aircraft, popular fishing lakes, golf courses, archery ranges generally aren’t clustered together.  Except here.

Interesting...

Directly across the highway from the state park is Stripling’s General Store.  “You never sausage a place” is its motto.  Again, in the middle of nowhere, there’s a gas station and this store, which has a surprisingly large array of meats, especially sausage, along with all the stuff that goes along with it, such as rubs and sauces.  Deb came away with a jar of Georgia Peach Pecan Dressing, which sounded uniquely Georgia.

We decided to take the minor roads again and hit US-41 south, which parallels I-75 until just before Valdosta.  A much more pleasant experience.  55 mile-per-hour speed limit, practically deserted, and no trucks.

We stopped at Carroll’s Sausage & Country Store (do you see a theme here?) in Ashburn but came away with nothing.  On the internet, some of their rubs and sauces sounded amazing, but the ingredients included monosodium glutamate, and I would rather have a good taste without the flavor enhancers.

We stopped in Tifton, at Mi-Lady Bakery for a donut and a cinnamon roll, and enjoyed these while walking downtown for a bit.  The pastries were fantastic, and the only problem is that they were too small.  I could have eaten a lot more.

We crossed into Florida and stopped in the welcome center for our complementary cup of orange juice and to pick up some updated travel brochures.  Note the short sleeves in the picture.  The weather was great.

Stopped for dinner in Lake City in a Lowe’s parking lot. The nearby Walmart was very crowded and we have been reading stories of increasing hostility towards RVers from Walmart, even asking them to leave five minutes after arriving.  Lowe’s was much more low key.

On the way back to the freeway we stopped at Sonny’s BBQ, which appears to be a chain here in the south.  We took a look at some of their sauces as they appear to be rather popular.  They were pretty much all vinegar-based and we prefer tomato-based, so we didn’t end up getting anything.  Aren’t we quite the sauce snobs?

Another hour or so got us here, to Gainesville, in a rather full parking lot.  At least it’s quieter than last night.