Observations along the Way

"I have traveled much in Concord." -- H. D. Thoreau

With great stretches of New England (indeed Concord) still unexplored, it seems unnecessary to look far afield for new sights. But even Thoreau ventured away from the area on occasion, and so we don't feel improperly adventurous as we set out for a short visit to family and friends. Even though the trip will take us halfway to the equator, much of American culture is so homogenized that one can avoid any great sense of displacement if one doesn't look too carefully beyond the highways and national chains. Still, the point is to see something different and stir ourselves out of our habitual responses to familiar surroundings, and the tropics are about as different as it gets. A bit of dépaysement can be refreshing, and if it's in a warm, comfortable climate, so much the better.

3/26 - We left at 9:00 in the morning and went all the way to Florence, SC, which we reached about 10:15 pm. This will allow us to get to Augusta at a reasonable hour on Sunday. We stopped, as always when we drive through Connecticut, at Rein's Deli in Vernon, and bought enough for lunch and supper along the road. New Jersey ("the Turnpike State") had the cheapest gas, as usual, and the most aggressive drivers. Dela-where? passed quickly, and the Beltway traffic was not as bad as last year. We drove through Virginia's great swamp in the dark, but didn't miss much, although while it was still light we caught some glimpses of daffodils and flowering trees. Once again, we didn't stop in the town of Skippers, the name of which is vaguely unsettling. We passed through North Carolina ("come visit our state and drive around a lot, since we have the highest gas prices on the east coast") without stopping, and passed into the Palmetto Bug State, where we were tempted by the neon dazzle of South of the Border, but it was a temptation we were able to resist without great effort. Near the huge outlet mall in North Carolina is a sign indicating the presence of the Ava Gardner Museum. Don't know if there's any connection between the two.

3/27 - Our night in Florence was punctuated by screaming from a horde of spring breaksters, but we made it to Augusta by 11:30 the next morning. The apartment complex that Mike and Corrine are in is quite nice, with beautiful grounds and a little patch of woods behind their patio. They even had a redbud in bloom among the brush. I was very impressed with Mike's knowledge of electronics. His work sounds interesting and challenging -- even fun. After lunch and visiting, we headed south on US 25 to see some of the countryside. It started pouring, so we saw lots of soupy-looking Georgia red clay. In Statesboro, we finally saw a small town with its fine older buildings and classic character. Along the way, we also saw some silos that were completely covered with vines, though at this leafless season they merely looked hairy.

As usual, the Florida "Welcome" Center was closed. Tourists travelling the highway are apparently expected to conform to normal business hours. This has not been our observation in other states, but perhaps this is Jeb Bush's effort to encourage privatization of vacation planning.

3/28 - The sun came out, but it was so windy we had to hang onto our hats. Jacksonville is a curious place. It's modern, well-kept, and comfortably walkable, but there didn't seem to be much foot traffic about. Even the bums in the park were few and far between.

St Augustine was very crowded, so after looking at the lighthouse we continued along the coastal roads for a time. Back on 95, we got stuck in traffic behind an accident, and so left the highway again and went out to Cocoa Beach, where we stopped by the famous Ron Jon Surf Shop. It's sort of the surfer's LL Bean of ... Cocoa Beach. Although Cocoa Beach has grown beyond its pejorative representation by Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff, it still has a somewhat funky, old-fashioned feel to it. The towers at the space center are clearly visible from the beach. We finally arrived in Miami about 8:30.

3/29 -- After a slow start, we had lunch outside by the bay, and then went to the beach for an hour or so. Near the beach was a bird feeder at which were clustered several green parrots. We later learned that there had been lots of sharks at a beach about 30 miles to the north.

3/30 -- We went to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden down past Coconut Grove. It is a remarkable collection and arboretum devoted to creating tropical habitats, especially those of south Florida and the Caribbean. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the grounds and facilities are maintained with an obvious enthusiasm for the project on the part of the staff and volunteers. Some of their more striking specimens are pictured on this site. We were especially fond of the rainbow eucalyptus and the deceptively named silk floss tree.

3/31 -- Did some shopping today and walked around the neighborhood. I have been trying to tune Sarah's child-size guitar, but something strange is going on. Perhaps I will have better luck after downloading an mp3 of an A 440 tone.

4/1 -- We've decided to move to Florida. April Fool! The traffic here is even worse than Boston. We spent much of the afternoon at the beach, which was perfect today -- not too hot, nice breeze, and warm water, at least by our standards (about 75°). And, indeed, having an accurate pitch makes a big difference when trying to play a fretted instrument.

A certain Floridian was nearly taken in by an NPR April Fool's story on the necessity of tapping maple trees to lower their sap pressure so they won't explode and behead people. I've walked safely among enough maple trees (and been taken in by enough April Fool's stories) that I was immediately suspicious.

4/2 -- It rained much of the day, so we went to the Bayside shopping center near downtown Miami. It's a semi-enclosed mall along the water near the seaport. One shop window displayed a nearly life-size replica of an Egyptian mummy labeled "Golden Buddha Statue". Some woman started laughing because I had been standing near a wooden Indian, and she thought I was a statue.

4/3 -- Cool today -- finally broke 70 later, but we limited our outdoor activity to a long walk around the neighborhood. We looked in some antique store windows, but what passes for antiques here is mostly shiny stuff from the 50's.

4/4 -- We finally went to the John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo to see the sights and take the glass-bottom boat tour out to Molasses Reef, so named because of a molasses spill from a cargo ship many years ago. I'm sure it dispersed more easily than the spill in Boston. While we weren't as close to the reef as if we'd been snorkeling, we came at times within 10 feet of it and had quite a good view of waving coral, colorful fish, and the general reef structure. The park is touted as America's first undersea park, but there are lots of nature trails through the woods, boardwalks through the mangroves, beaches, campground, aquarium/museum, etc. One of the curiosities was a gushing fountain, the vestige of a project to find brackish water for desalinization. It may be one sixth as salty as sea water, but it smelled quite sulfurous and left a white deposit along its course.

4/5 -- We went to the beach again this afternoon, though it became a bit cool toward the end of the afternoon when the sun went in and the wind came up. Still, I think we've had enough sun for the moment.

4/6 -- We took our leave of Miami after struggling to get a large piece of furniture into the car then out again, since it left little room for anything else. A trip up "Florida's Turnpike" to Orlando introduced us to three large landfills over which swarmed more hawks than we had ever seen together.

4/7 -- Susan has been swimming in the pool and shopping at Bargain World. The conference isn't the worst I've been to. High praise, indeed. The food isn't bad, but we went to a casual restaurant tonight at which the waiters suddenly turned up the music and tried to get everyone to participate as they played YMCA. I somehow managed to contain myself. This area resembles Route 9, but the Disney empire is lurking beyond the trees, and is the chief raison d'être for all the commotion. We hope to escape tomorrow without having to confront any giant rodents. Except...no, I'll deliver my impressions of the conference participants in person. We may be on the road for a few days, so, not sure when I'll be posting next.

4/8 -- The conference managed to remain reasonable until some marketing fraud began lecturing on the benefits of certain trendy analyses whose value, if one is objective, simply can't be verified. After that, the big cheese started droning a two-hour litany of platitudes and tautologies which I decided to leave after one hour. Since that was the end of the conference anyway, I figure the company got its money's worth. And indeed, some of the speakers were worth hearing, and some of the staff and attendees helpful with technical information. Still, the single-minded focus on "business" seemed to blend dismayingly well with Orlando's seething consumerism. Our trip out of the area was delayed about 45 minutes by exceptionally bad traffic, with which Florida seems to be afflicted from top to bottom. A billboard ad for extermination services showing a mouse with large ears seemed a slap at Mickey. We eventually reached St Augustine, where we walked around a bit as it got dark and ate outdoors. We like St Augustine, and could see spending more time there. We are passing the night in Georgia ("the confederate flag state"), where the sulfurous waters of Brunswick are stronger even than those of Jacksonville.

4/9 -- The remaining ride through Georgia ("the penal colony state") was uneventful. Before crossing from South to North Carolina, we drove a bit off the highway to fill up on gas to carry us through to Virginia. There was some nice farmland and various curious manifestations of backroad culture. We stopped at a good diner near Rocky Mount, NC where we had fried chicken as our farewell to southern food. The Carolina roadsides were liberally sprinkled with redbuds, wisteria, and a bright yellow flowering vine. We are spending the night in northern Virginia ("Virginia is for spendthrifts"), before starting on the last leg of the trip, during which we still hope to see a few sights.

4/10 -- Seeing as we were so close to DC, and the weather was so nice, and it was the last day of the cherry blossom festival, we decided to take a brief stroll around the Tidal Basin. Ha, ha. After two hours crawling around the area (though not without a few nice views of the trees), we escaped to have lunch and shop at the IKEA in Baltimore. The store is amazing. Like Trader Joe's, it makes you realize what thieving purveyors of junk most retailers are. We are waiting impatiently for the Stoughton store to open. The Jersey Turnpike was worse than ever, but we still made to Rein's by 9:30, where we avidly gobbled a bunch of greasy food, and we were home before midnight. Now we hope to rest and recover from our vacation. There were several other curiosities worth mentioning, but they will have to wait a day or so.