AN EDUCATION IN TALLAHASSEE, FL 4/11/2011

Rose at 7:15 AM. The air conditioner was left on all night.  When I rose it was 75 degrees outside and 70 in the trailer.  I went for a walk and then showered.  I got back to the trailer and typed until Ann got up at 8:30 AM.  While she went to shower, I started getting things packed up for leaving.  Today we begin our trip to Orlando FL  Thousand Trails Preserve where we will stay for a couple weeks.  But first Ann had to take a picture of her lilies.

We fueled up in DeFuniac, FL.  $3.89 per gallon.  It is getting harder and harder to find it below $4.00 now.  We use the internet to look for the lowest prices as we travel, trying to fill up when we find a place that is the cheapest.

Drove down I-10 for about 100 miles to Tallahassee, FL.  It was like driving through a park the whole way.  Beautiful large pines, magnolia, oaks, cedars and a few deciduous trees I was not familiar with.  It is entirely spring here.

It was in the high 80’s to low 90’s all day.  We love our air conditioning and had it on in the truck all day long!!

There is a lot of lakes, swamps and muddy rivers throughout all the areas we passed today!  They say that Florida’s land is 33% covered by water!   
Speaking of rivers… we have observed that most of the rivers east of the Rockies are brown muddy things.  Most of the rivers west of the Rockies are much clearer and faster flowing.  Speaking of lakes… we passed a pond today that reminded us of the pond on Hwy 62 on the way to Shady Cove.  It is in a big field on the right after you pass the Butte Falls turn off.  It is a man made pond that has been there since before 1964.  Well anyway, this pond and field looked just like it!  Many of the swamps and lakes here have a lot of lilly pads in them and right now they are all covered with beautiful white flowers.  They are beautiful!!

We stopped for lunch at exit 147 on I-10.  We pulled into a truck stop and ate sandwiches.  Wayne had a black bean sandwich (one of his favorite)  and Ann had PB and J.  Nice and relaxing, not to mention cheap!

One thing we have noticed out here, they use pine needles for mulch in their flower beds and gardens.  You can see layers 1-2 feet thick on the beds surrounding the plants.  Strange looking, but effective.

We passed over into the Eastern Standard Time Zone today, so we are in the same time zone as our oldest and third son now!  It was strange when we called our doctors and business people today to have to figure out when is the best time to call them.  When it was noon out here, they were just opening their businesses out there!!

We stopped in Tallahassee to view the Capitol and buy fuel at the cheapest station we had found on the internet.  Most places we saw was $4.19 - $4.39 for diesel today,  But we found 3 stations in Tallahassee for $3.89.  We be cheap!!!  Seems strange to be thinking of $3.89 as a good deal!!!!!!  And I found a good manhole cover!!

At the capital, Wayne did what he usually does in big cities and got us off on a road that was too small for us. Then to fix the situation he pulled into a small parking lot with no place to turn around and had to pretty talk a policewoman to allow us to stay in town and escape the parking lot.  We parked in a huge Civic Auditorium parking lot and hoofed it 3 city blocks uphill to the capitol.  There were two side by side; the old one and the new one.

 The new one; we got to see the senate and the house

and then went up a very fast elevator to the 22^nd floor and got to walk around and view the city from on high.  That's where we were, way up there!!

  It was beautiful.  Tallahassee is a very tree filled town that from up high makes the city look really small because so much is covered from up top by trees!

 We also got to see our rig parked way out there in the parking lot.  Can you see it?

Maybe not.... I'll zoom in for you.  Now can you see it?

That's how far we walked!!!

Then we walked over to the old capitol and it was closed for the day.  Different time zone, remember???  We walked around it and enjoyed the view of the old building and the beautiful moss covered trees that are everywhere down here! 

While walking around we saw a small group of what looked like they were Hispanic.  They were being paid attention to by a few news people, so we stopped and watched a minute.  We were approached by two little girls, one in 4^th and one in 5^th grade.  They handed us some fliers and merrily began to skip off.  Wayne, being the teacher, stopped them and asked them to explain what the fliers were about and what they were doing there.  They were hesitant, but got started.  A man that might have been their dad walked up to try to intervene.  Wayne put his hand up to him and encouraged the little girls to explain further.  When he figured out what was going on, Wayne asked questions that would lead the girls to explain at a level they understood.  It was fun.  We then thanked the girls and turned to the man. Wayne explained to him that he had been a teacher and it was fun to encourage the kids to speak their mind and share their understanding of the reason they were there in front of the capitol building.  We then had about a 30 minute discussion about their cause.  It was fascinating to learn from an educated man from Mexico, his opinion, and belief.  They were there to try to educate the Floridians about the plight of illegal aliens in Florida. Currently, Florida is attempting to pass legislation like the Arizona legislature did to allow police to check those that appear as if they may be here illegally for papers that show that they are here legally and detain and deport them if they are not here legally.  The young man made a good case and educated us about people like him and their plight.  We had a really healthy discussion, each sharing our thoughts.  A good man he is.  A far cry better a person than some of our citizens we have here.  Wayne told him he would love to work for him to stay here and send a few of our citizens down to Mexico to their politically corrupt and drug lord run country. 

We feel sorry for their situation, but feel the laws are just should be upheld.

Got a good phone call today!  Our former financial adviser, Andrew, is back in Oregon after a year taking care of his father in Colorado.  It was good to hear his voice and have him back on board with us again.

Got down to Perry, FL, where we pulled off at Camp Wal-Mart for the night.  Nestled in among three other rigs and then went out for pizza for dinner.  As we were walking to the pizza place we passed by a Chinese Buffet.  We were tempted to have Chinese food, but after reading the sign by the door, we wondered if maybe it was a little too rough of a place for us.

We knew that the southern states were a little red necked, but this was a little ridiculous!!  If you can't read the sign, here is a closer picture of it.

 The wild, wild west ain't got nothin' on the deep south!!
After a yummy pizza, we typed and phoned and read.  To bed by 11:00 PM EST.  It is warm here, but there is a little breeze blowing in the windows.  At 10:30 PM it was 73 degrees outside.

Tomorrow, we head a little closer to Orlando, FL
By the way, the store that we think the sign was for, was on the left of the sign.  There was a pawn shop there.  But it sure made for an interesting second look as we approached the restaurant!!!