Friday, April 15, 2022

A Long Rainy Drive


I spent almost all day yesterday behind the wheel of a car. Remember how I wrote several weeks ago about how hungry I was for a road trip? Well, I sated some of that hunger by driving from Jacksonville back to Tampa on little back roads through tiny towns like Florahome and Interlachen and Fort McCoy. These are not places I'd ever been before, at least not that I remember.

Since I spent so much time driving, I didn't have an opportunity to take many pictures. So today's post consists of a roundup of Florida photos I've collected over the past few days. The bright bromeliad (above) was growing by the side of the road near my stepmother's house. I think it's an escapee from someone's garden.


I liked this bright manatee-motif mailbox. Manatees sort of look like mailboxes, actually.


I stopped at a drug store to buy some shaving cream and razors, and an oak tree outside the front door was teeming with these odd little fuzzy caterpillars. They were all over the tree, sidewalk and asphalt. I rescued a few of them from the parking lot and put them back on the tree -- because how bleak to be a tiny caterpillar stranded on a vast expanse of hot pavement -- but there were way too many to even consider doing that for more than a handful. I'd have been there a week! I think it was all very amusing to the woman behind the counter of the drug store.

I believe these caterpillars are the larvae of a tussock moth.


In Jacksonville, some of the manhole covers feature an image of Andrew Jackson (the city's namesake) on horseback.


This was a street I passed on my drive back to Tampa yesterday. Isn't that a great name? It didn't look especially infernal, though -- just a harmless dirt road.


Here's today's Florivideo™! It's a very simple one. I got caught driving in the rain for a lot of my trip -- in fact, a downpour at times. This just gives you a sense of what that was like, with ambient sound.


And finally, near Silver Springs in Ocala, I passed some great old mid-century motels.

In Pasco County I took a quick detour through our old neighborhood to see what used to be our family home, which my mom sold back in 2015. It looked pretty good, though the new owners have replaced the windows, painted the house an avocado green and changed the landscaping. They left the pine trees in the front yard, at least. The whole neighborhood is much more built up than I remember. I'm probably picturing it more like it was when I was a kid -- widely spaced houses on big lots with lots of citrus trees and nature. Now the development is more dense.

I'm off to meet my friend Sue for an early morning walk!

60 comments:

  1. It's cool to be in the same time zone this week. That rainy drive could have been a lot of places. But I wouldn't have thought Florida

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    1. Well, there are a few palm trees in it, so that narrows it down! LOL

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  2. Excellent Photos - Classic Rain Storm Video - Life Is Good - Enjoy The Walk Brother Man

    Cheers

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  3. Welcome back to Florida, Steve. Although this snowbird will be leaving too before much longer.
    And yes, the development is dense - in every sense - around us, too.it’s insane, the massive and many developments. I can already see the change in the traffic.

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    1. I think the snowbird exodus is about to begin! It's usually the weeks right after Easter when everyone leaves, right?

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  4. I kinda like the idea of living on Devils Den Rd. If only to see the faces of people when I tell them.

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  5. $300 for an entire week iso my kind of place. I should rent it for a month and work on my book while eating out of the vending machine outside which I’m sure it has. If I survive that I could become famous!

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    1. I think you might be distracted by the meth dealers in the next room.

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  6. I think all of the worst U.S. Presidents should be immortalized on manhole covers over a sewer.

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  7. Yep. Florida in the rain. This was a quick trip, wasn't it? Glad you made it.

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    1. It is a quick trip. I'm here until Sunday, so there are still a few days left.

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  8. I hate driving in the rain actually. I have a phobia of driving through puddles on the road since I "sunk" my minivan quite a few years back now.
    Glad you are making the most of your time in Florida. Have safe travels back home!

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    1. We sunk our car too when I was a kid. I remember water flooding in through the floor pans! The car never smelled the same after that.

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  9. I thought so, but looked it up to be sure...tussock moth caterpillars? The ones you're not supposed to touch because they are poisonous??? THAT tussock moth caterpillar????!!!!

    Happy Easter, Steve.

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    1. Well I didn't touch them with my hands! I just scooped them up onto my credit card.

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  10. Another nice road trip. The Sun Plaza Motel looks OK!

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    1. Actually, despite my joke to Ed above, it looked fine. It seemed well-maintained.

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  11. I love those old mom-and-pop motels and often like to stay in them (though some are a little dicey!). But the signs are great. I'm not big on rain driving. And you've had your share. But it must be nice to be in a new (old) spot for a bit! Have a wonderful time.

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    1. I like Mom-and-Pop motels too. When Dave and I drove through Central Florida a couple of years ago we stayed in those sorts of places and it was fun.

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  12. A nice set of pictures as usual. I like the mailbox and caterpillars are all over the oaks here too but not the tussock moth kind. In fact, during a slow time at SHARE yesterday several of the volunteers were complaining about them. They're tent caterpillars or processionary caterpillars.

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    1. Those processionary caterpillars are an invasive species in England. They've been found on Hampstead Heath. No idea how they got there.

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  13. A great collection of Florida photos. Love that manatee-motif mailbox. And I love that you rescued many of those tussock moth caterpillars. You are a true mensch, Steve. Thank you for that.

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    1. Well, I suppose not ALL the caterpillars can survive or we'd be swarmed by tussock moths, but I just couldn't take the sight of a little caterpillar trying to make its way across a parking lot.

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  14. Looks like you are having a great time Steve. Seeing the Manatees reminded me of a couple we follow on you tube called 'Tread the Globe' they are in Florida at the moment and were showing the Manatees last week, funny creatures aren't they?
    Briony
    x

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    1. Manatees are amazing. They seem so prehistoric.

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  15. You're the only person I know to put caterpillars back on their trees. Good for you! As long as you only had to drive in the rain for one day, then no problem. We all have to have a little rain. Enjoy your vacation, hugs, Edna B.

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    1. Yeah, I think that might be the only real rain I'll have to deal with on this trip!

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  16. Manatees do look a lot like mailboxes. Who would have thought. So nice of you to rescue the caterpillars. I hope the rain has stopped now. A long drive in the rain was probably not what you had in mind when you thought of a road trip.

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  17. Too bad about the rain but I guess that's the pay-off for the lushness. Nothing weird about trying to save some caterpillars (although touching Tussocks can give you blisters)! I even try to save flies by catching them in a glass and releasing them outside, I mean, imagine being born as something everybody feels free to kill without a thought .. I know, I'm rather nuts.

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    1. I liberate flies from our flat all the time! The poor things only live a day or two -- I'd hate for them to spend that time locked inside!

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  18. Love the mail box and the video especially, got a rhythm you can dance to. that sign is so cool- I would love to go to an old sign graveyard sometime.

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    1. Florida IS an old sign graveyard, at least in certain areas.

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  19. Love the manatee mailbox! Some of us think of FL as the Devil's Den these days, considering what's been going on there.

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    1. Ha! It's true -- that name fits the whole state, or at least the government.

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  20. Arkansas has a Devil's Den State Park! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Den_State_Park

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    1. Aha! Maybe that's where the name came from? Maybe someone from Arkansas lives on that road.

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  21. I went back to see where I lived when I was 10. It was amazing how small the house was. That was impressive rain.

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    1. I visited my old elementary school several years ago and had the same feeling! The cafeteria seemed vast when I was a kid, and it was actually pretty small.

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  22. I love the sound of the rain and I don't mind driving in it ... Better then snow! I marveled at the lack of traffic on your drive along that road!

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    1. I agree -- I am NOT a snow fan. The lack of traffic is one of the reasons I like taking back roads.

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  23. You certainly get a change of scene by visiting Florida.

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  24. Good travels!
    Those colours on the bromeliad...such a contrast.

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  25. Replies
    1. They're amazing creatures. Apparently they're struggling because they usually eat sea grass, and the grasses have died back because of pollution. People are feeding them lettuce to keep them from going hungry!

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  26. Hope it was a great walk... and not in that rain.

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  27. I guess the motel is not flash, but wow. $42 a night, or monthly $23 a night. Amazingly cheap. Do staff get paid at all?

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    1. I know! It's amazing the owners can make a living.

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  28. You missed another singing opportunity - providing background music for the rainy drive video:-
    Raindrops keep falling on my head
    But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red
    Crying's not for me
    'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complaining
    Because I'm free
    Nothing's worrying me

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    1. Believe me, I am sparing you (and B.J. Thomas) that indignity.

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  29. I looked at the older post about your family home. It does look isolated with lots of trees around. I love it.

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  30. An avocado green house? Not my favourite colour.

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    1. It wasn't bad, actually. It was always an off-white or ivory when we lived there.

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