Photos from North Florida

Click each picture to see the full sets of photos!

Worth a million words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, well, you figure up what this post is worth. I just got back from a short vacation to south Florida, and am currently VERY busy. (In fact, I am going to be incredibly busy for the next three months, so expect little in the way of blog posts over here until mid August.) Anyway, instead of writing detailed posts to cover what I did while I was away, I'm merely posting links to my flickr sets, so you can view the photos. Clicking on each picture below will bring you to that particular set of photos. Enjoy!!

Additionally, there are several new videos on my youtube channel.

Adventures on December 25th and 26th

On Thursday, mom and I left Waycross and drove down to Frank's house in north Florida. About an hour into the drive, we passed through the small community of Stockton, GA, and decided to stop and check out the old school building:

It was boarded up, but not locked...
so we went inside.

Someone's using the main auditorium for storage and woodworking.


The classrooms were pitch black and I didn't have my flashlight, so I just stuck my camera in and snapped and checked out what I got later.


This room has a blackboard that still has writing! If I'd known it was in there, I would've gotten a clearer shot so I could read it!

I liked this shot, looking out the exit.

The weather in Florida was hot and sunny - t-shirt weather!

And mushroom photography weather

Frank collects old cars... so while he and mom were working on dinner, I poked around in his garages:

Frank's Studebaker

Frank's Packard

Frank's Ford

Frank's Corvette

Frank's 1927 Chevy

For some reason I neglected to take a picture of our dinner - it was absolutely delicious and I ate more in one sitting than I can ever remember doing! But moving on to the next day...

Leaving Frank's the next day, we passed this super awesome tiny trailer that MUST be a relative of my Spartan. I would *love* to own it.

Mom and I had to go to Lake City to pick up a car (long story) and on the way there we passed a Mosque - in Columbia County! I was quite impressed, as I'd had no idea there were enough Muslims in the area to warrant a mosque... and I was impressed by the fact that it hadn't been torn down by any of the Christian fundies who make up so much of the population down there!

After taking pictures of the mosque, we decided to drive by our old home to see what it looked like. We drove through the long loop driveway. The two videos below aren't too great and will probably only be of interest to people who knew me when I used to live there.

We stopped at Chris's to pick up Melissa's car... just in time to meet a stray cat that wandered up. I took him home with me, and I've named him Krosp, after the King of Cats.

Duck Day and Black Friday

On Thursday, Mom and I drove down to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with Frank. He had promised to cook us duck, and to be honest, I wasn't too thrilled by the prospect. Now, I'm not too big a fan of turkey, so it wasn't like I was worried about missing out on that, it's just that the few times I'd eaten duck, I hadn't really enjoyed it. Well, Thursday changed my views on duck forever. He cooked it just like you'd cook a turkey (stuffing and all) and it totally blew all previous Thanksgiving turkey experiences out of the water. So. Delicous. From here on out, I'm through with the Thanksgiving turkey. Duck Day it is!

Sweet potatoes, rutabaga, cranberry sauce, stuffing, duck, and apple slices :-)

The next morning, I drove to Macclenny, FL and met up with Melissa and Alex and their baby, Madeline. She was born in March, and this was my first chance to see her. I'm not a baby person, but I utterly adore Madeline. She is adorable, funny and well-behaved. And she loves the camera.

Melissa and Madeline


Alex and Madeline


Me and Madeline


Madeline

Took a brief trip to North FL today...

...and had the following conversation:

Jane: I'm going to Kyrgyzstan in January.
Old Man: You in the military?
Jane: No, I teach English.
Old Man: You do that with the government?
Jane: No, I'll be working for a local school.
Old Man: Them those same Kurds who are in Iraq?
Jane: [sighs internally] No, these are a completely different group.


Suwannee River, Fargo, GA (near the FL/GA border)
I may have peed in the bushes here. Just so you know.

Floridian Road Trip Weekend

Friday afternoon I left Waycross and headed south to visit Melissa and Alex, who live in Orlando. It was an excellent trip - especially since I hadn't seen Melissa and Alex since July 2006. While there, we went out for really delicious food: Indian, Mexican and Korean - heavenly! In addition to ethnic culinary pleasures, Alex has recently decided to take up baking, and his creations are fabulously scrumptious. We didn't merely eat our way through the weekend: we also went to Wekiwa Springs (which we were unable to get into back in July 06) and we saw King of California at the Enzian (we'd actually tried to go to the Enzian back in July 06 only to find the show sold out...) Wekiwa (also sometimes spelled Wekiva) was pretty, although I have to admit that I prefer Ichetucknee. At least at Ichetucknee you can hike along the river if you don't want to swim in the springs or canoe/tube the river. At Wekiwa, it seems that your options are limited to swimming in the springs, or hiking through pine forest nowhere near the river. And really, if you've seen one Floridian pine forest, you've seen them all. Unless said forest goes along something scenic, like a river. Meanwhile, I have nothing but positive things to say about King of California - it was hilarious and well crafted, and I highly recommend it.

Friday was Melissa's birthday. Alex baked her a cake.


Melissa and Alex are having a baby girl!!! :-)


Alex bakes cheddar pennies.


This cranberry-apple pie, made by Alex, was possibly the best pie I've ever eaten. He also made fresh homemade whipped cream to top it off.
Yum, yum, yum.


Likewise, his bread was was simply delicious as well.


Melissa and Alex's cat, Henry


And their cat Henrietta


Wekiwa Springs

This dragonfly hung out on my leg for a while at Wekiwa.

I left Orlando early Monday morning and drove to Tampa, where I spent some time with my dad, and got to see his new Harley:

I was feeling pretty sleepy by the time I left Tampa to begin the five hour drive back up to Waycross. I made it to just south of Gainesville, FL and then decided to stop at a rest area for some rest. And slept for a little over an hour :-)

July 4th.... 1998

Here in Korea, it's not as if I did a damn thing to celebrate the Fourth of July. In fact, I had forgotten all about it until I pulled out my calendar to see what the date was. Last year for the Fourth, my mom and I went to Frank's house, where Frank put on a rather splendiferous fireworks display. I've been told that this year's display at Frank's is supposed to be bigger and better. This year wasn't nearly as interesting; in fact, I spent the bulk of it really sick and crappy feeling. But, I do have something that might interest you:

The summer of 1998, I lived in Gainesville, FL, with my friends Melissa and Tina, who were students at UF. I spent a lot of the summer impersonating a UF student: I snuck into classes (hey - you knew I was a geek already!), attended a non-credit course on self hypnosis (happy, healthy, high levels of energy), frequently used the computer lab, and got myself pictured in the UF newspaper, The Alligator, as a UF sophomore. (Well, technically, the reporter only asked me if I was a university student - which I was, just not at UF.) Every year, weather permitting, there's a big Fourth of July celebration in Gainesville called Fanfares and Fireworks. In 1998, due to severe drought and too many wildfires burning in North Florida, the fireworks part of the festivities were cancelled. We attended "Fanfares and..." nonetheless. Melissa sent me the following today:

I'm the one in orange (surprise!), and this was found here.
Although, what's with that title? Workin' it anyway??

That fire's still burning towards Lake City!

The fire continued its march south on Thursday, driving through the dry swamp beds and tinderbox scrublands of drought-stricken Columbia and Baker counties. They are two of the state's most rural counties, but the fire remains on a path toward the more populous Lake City. As 700 state and federal firefighters descended on this city of about 11,000 residents two weeks ago, many thought their stay would be quick and easy, mostly mop-up operations to keep the fire from spreading. Now, though, the endgame seems far off, and some officials say the fire could rage for the rest of the month. [full article]

Meanwhile, Gwen's getting ready to go on a month-long vacation to Lake City!

More on South GA / North FL Fires

Smoke Closes Roads, Hampers Firefighters (Possibly the only time ever that Lake City has been featured on NPR)

Fire Closes Highways in Georgia, Florida

Evacuees Deal With Smoke, Stress as Fire Near Lake City Grows

Wildfire Smoke Closes Interstates in Florida

Rest of Florida Smolders Too

State of Emergency in Columbia County

As I mentioned in this post, I grew up in Florida. I lived for the first 18 years of my life ten miles south of Lake City in Columbia County, and it wasn't until 2003 that I left the LC for good. Nonetheless, I still have friends in Columbia County. I just checked my friend Stephanie's blog to discover that she's been asked to evacuate as a result of the fires. Then I checked the news... Things are scary down there right now.

Fire Causes State of Emergency in Columbia County: Columbia County was under a state of emergency late Friday after a massive fire prompted officials to notify about 500 families to evacuate their homes.Thousands of children were sent home from school early, and state troopers kept close tabs on area roads as visibility fell to a quarter mile Friday.

Crews Attack Massive Fire from Air, Ground: Calling the blaze moving through Baker and Columbia counties the largest and most dangerous fire in the state, firefighters said Friday they have managed to protect homes from a fire that advanced nine to 10 miles in 24 hours.
Driven by winds, fire sparked by lightning in the Okefenokee Swamp on Sunday has spread out of Ware County, Ga., through Baker County to threaten homes on the outskirts of Lake City. It has burned 180,000 acres in three or four days.

Lake City Brush Fire Named One of the Biggest: One of the biggest brush fires is near the Georgia border in Lake City, where people have been evacuated from their homes. On all of the roads, smoke is making visibility difficult for driving. Over Thursday night, nearly 600 homes were evacuated in Columbia County.

179,000 Acre Fire Threatens 1-10 and Homes Near Lake City: Firefighters said today that a wildfire that has raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into northern Florida has charred at least 179,000 acres -- or 281 square miles -- since a lightning strike ignited it a week ago.The fire, which started last Saturday in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, took just six days to grow larger than a wildfire that has burned 116,000 acres ofGeorgia forest and swampland over more than three weeks.The fast-growing fire more than doubled in size, from 88,250 acres Thursday as wind from the northeast fanned it across dry swamp grasses.Its movement slowed today, but firefighters expect the blaze to keep growing.Schools closed early in Columbia County Friday as the fire that started in Georgia crossed the Florida border.About 570 homes in northern Columbia County were evacuated overnight. Heavy smoke blanketed the area and visibility along Interstate 10 was down to about a quarter of a mile.The leading edge of the fire is four miles east of US 441 and seven miles north of Interstate 10.

Calm Winds Aid Firefighters: Wildfires scorched the wooded northern area of Columbia County Thursday at an alarming rate, but began to slow Friday as calm winds assisted firefighters in their task of slowing down one of the most dangerous fires in the county's history.The blaze remained in the Deep Creek area Friday night, located approximately two miles east of U.S. 441 and six miles north of Interstate 10.With wildfires having burned more than 82,588 acres in Columbia and Baker counties by late Friday, the Columbia County Board of County Commissioners and Lake City City Council both declared a state of emergency for the area. The city also declared a water shortage because of the firefighting emergencies.

Evacuees Reluctantly Retreat to Shelters: People took shelter at Winfield Community Center as wildfires raged in northern Columbia County beginning at about 10:30 p.m. on Thursday. By 8:30 a.m., Friday, about 30 people had evacuated to the temporary Red Cross shelter, volunteer Sylvia DeLoach said.

Fire in GA/FL

Well, the Georgia wildfire has shifted enough that at this point in time it is no longer a direct threat to Waycross. However, the fire spread to the Okefenokee Swamp, made its way southward, and hopped the St. Mary's River into Florida. Additionally, there are apparently hundreds of fires currently burning throughout the state of Florida. Now, I am currently a resident of Georgia, but I grew up in Florida, and many of my friends still live there. Below are some images taken by friends in Lake City, FL.

Taken at 3:45pm, Thursday, May 10 by Stephanie Tyson
(Yes, that photo was taken in the middle of the afternoon)


Photo by Caitlin St. John - flakes of ash on her dad's truck

Adventures in O-Town

[This post has a large number of photos. If some don't load, simply right-click on the image and select show picture.]

Sorry for the lack of postings of late... I’ve been out of town, visiting my friends Melissa and Alex down in Orlando. Friday morning I left Waycross around 11:30 or so in the morning and drove to the Evil Black Hole that is Lake City, FL. I swear, no matter what I do, I simply cannot escape that place. Not that I was there for long or anything. My purpose in making for LC was to meet with my friend Chris, who is currently there visiting his family. (See, I’m not the only one who can’t escape. Really, it’s a chronic problem; all former LC denizens suffer from it.) Anyway, I left my car at Chris’s and rode with him down to Orlando. [Alright, as much as I hate to do it, I have to actually post something specifically regarding Lake City. As I was driving towards Chris’s, I ran across the first of many very large signs depicting the face of a kid who went through middle and high school with me... Turns out he’s running for County Commissioner. I find that kind of disconcerting somehow. Nonetheless, I wish him luck.]

Anyhow, Chris and I drove to Orlando and arrived at Melissa and Alex’s new house. I guess it isn’t that new, as they’ve been in it what – two, three years? But, it was all new to me as this was the first time I was able to see it. I guess this is a sign that we’re really adults, having houses and all. I realize that the law has said that I’m an adult for almost a full ten years now, but it never really feels like it. Yet here we are, showing each other our houses. After dinner, we went for a nice long walk along the Econlockahatchee River near their home. There’s a really nice, scenic park along the Econlockahatchee and it was a great place for shooting photos, in addition to exercising. (Linda and Shaggy: There’s a really nice Y attached to this park!)

Limpkin (possibly) along the Econlockahatchee River

Econlockahatchee River

Sunset along the Econlockahatchee River

Melissa and I using the tall and short fountains at the Y

Melissa's cat Henrietta ("fatty")

Melissa's cat Henry ("orangie")

The next morning (er, well, afternoon... it’s not like we’re morning people or anything) we set off on our adventures of the day. Our first stop was Big Tree Park, home to the Senator, a 3500 year old cypress tree, one of the oldest in the world. The girth and height of this tree was quite impressive.

The Senator: 3500 years old
That little speck of turqouise at the bottom is Chris.

Me and the the Senator

Melissa and Alex and the Senator

Melissa, Me, Chris
(Former Lake City people with the Senator)

After leaving the Senator, we made our way to Cassadaga, Florida’s oldest spiritualist community. Now, being that the four of us are all a tad bizarre and periodically inclined to celebrate pagan or pseudopagan holidays, Cassadaga seemed like a logical destination; however, we were pretty disappointed. The “community” seemed more like a highly commercialized, trashy tourist trap. It did, however, have a decent park for picnicking, were we dined on homemade hummus (courtesy of Melissa) and yummy, non-iceberg salad. (Seriously, iceberg lettuce should be banned. That stuff is foul.)

The bulk of the town looked like this.
We made Chris pose in front of the Father Christopher sign.

There were many pretty flowers.

I matched some of them.

I thought this was awesome - way to go Mother Nature!

That evening, after some scrumptious Indian food, we went to Sea World. They were having a special event for members of the UF alumni association and their friends. (I being the friend, obviously, although this certainly wasn’t the first time I’d pretended to be associated with UF! PS, Go Sewanee!) Sadly, while we did get in for free, only a small portion of the park was open for this event. We didn’t get to see any animals, other than some incredibly animatronic looking penguins, and the only two rides that were open were Kracken - a ginormous roller coaster that I refused to ride - and Journey to Atlantis - which may have been incredibly cheesy, but was far more surprising than one might expect. But all in all, considering that it was free and that we had fun, I’d say it was a good deal.

On Sunday, we had planned to go to Wekiwa Springs. Unfortunately, as there wasn’t a cloud to be seen, and as the temperature was hovering around 100F, too many other people had the same idea. Due to the delicate ecosystem of the springs, only a certain number of people are allowed in the park at any given time, and when the park reaches the limit, access to visitors is closed. Annoyingly, instead of allowing those of us who wanted to swim in said springs to wait for someone to leave, we were simply turned around and told to try again later. I think we tried to enter the springs at least four separate times during the course of the afternoon, but to no avail. Sadly, we didn’t have a backup plan, so in the interim we drove aimlessly around a part of the area that none of us knew well. At one point we attended an open house for a $425,000 house (obviously out of our budget!) simply for something to do. Chris asked a fellow in a convenience store parking lot if there were any other “swimming holes” in the area – he gave us directions to another spring, although its park, too, was closed to overcrowding. Quite frustrating! That evening we tried to go see A Scanner Darkly at the Enzion, but it was sold out. Clearly not our day. Ahh well. On the bright side, we did get to walk around the UCF campus, which was quite nice. Apparently they’ve just finished up a lot of construction and landscaping, turning the campus into a really attractive place. They’ve done an excellent job landscaping, and have planted oaks strategically all over. Granted, these oaks are still pretty small, but eventually they will turn that place into a shaded paradise.

Sunset at UCF

The next morning, after dropping Alex off at work, Chris and I began our journey home. At Chris’s I spent a good deal of time playing with his new kitten. He found it abandoned and near death in the back of his parents’ property (someone probably tossed it over the fence) and nursed it back to health. It’s adorable and playful. I love kittens.

Isn't he adorable?

On my way back up to Waycross, I stopped in northern Columbia County to photograph an old, abandoned gas station along Hwy 441 that I thought was picturesque.

Old gas station

Formerly Chevron, apparently

Later, in Argyle, GA I stopped to photograph the old train station. Oddly enough, I think that this was moved here from the nearby community of Manor, although I don’t know why. I would have explored the train station more had I been wearing shoes other than flip-flops and had I not been in fear of surprising a bum or two all by my lonesome. I think it would be awesome to either restore the train station and turn it into a museum or to fix it up and convert it into a house.

You can tell that it's been moved to this location

I liked this shot.

I would totally live here.

Speaking of houses, there haven’t been any more incidents at my house, other than learning that the estimate from the plumber for hard piping is about double the rough estimate we got from the gas man. Ahh well. I’m feeding at least one stray cat - although I’m not going to try to catch it and bring it inside, as that would defeat my semi-allergy free environment. It’s orange, and if it ever doesn’t run like the wind when it sees a human, I’ll try and take a picture of it. I guess that’s all the news for now!