All Roads Lead to Orlando (12-18-12)

Orlando is what we call a “bookend”.  It’s a reservation we’ve had for a long time and as we meander in that direction, we decide where to stay and how long to stay there based on being in Orlando by December 21st.  We could, of course, take the direct route, the highway, and be there in about 2 days, but for the last week or so we’ve decided to meander along the coast and through some of the smaller towns.  We’re not doing anything exciting, just some shopping, exploring and biking.    Here are some snippets of what we’ve been doing:

The snowman cometh: Paul bought a snowman to decorate the front of the truck.

  






   

We heard that Tony’s Restaurant on Cedar Key won the National award for Clam Chowder 3 years in a row before the recipe was retired, so we had to check it out. After stuffing ourselves we can both attest to the fact that this clam chowder is definitely some of the best we’ve ever had.

After gorging ourselves, we biked most of the island of Cedar Key. Ok, we weren’t really supposed to take the bikes on this boardwalk but the “No bikes” sign was so old, the circle with the slash wasn’t visible.  Oops.

Manatee Springs State Park was on our route so we stopped in, just in case the manatees had arrived at their winter stomping grounds.  They hadn’t, unfortunately. The spring was pretty, but not as “swimmable” as Balmorhea in Texas.

The hiking trails at Manatee Springs involve boardwalks above the swamps.

It’s not often that Paul has truck envy, but when he saw the horns on this truck, he had to start a “honking” war. A good time was had by all.

The bike trail near Bushnell, FL, led us through a  regional park, complete with resident hawks.  The trail we biked was a “rails to trails”- a bike trail that was originally a train track.

A nearby sign posted the story of a long ago railroad tragedy. Two freight trains, loaded with perishables and dry goods  were headed towards each other on the same track. With no way of communicating, they collided  head on, at this spot, in 1956, killing 4 people. The local dispatcher realized the trains were going to collide, and sent the station agent to see what he could find.  By the time he arrived, the two trains had already smashed into each other. derailing 4 engines and 16 rail cars.  There is an irony to this story.  Aboard both trains were brand new radios. The engineers were part of a group that had decided not to use the radios until they were granted additional pay as Radio Operators. 

 
Way Down upon the Suwannee River….When I saw the sign for this river, I thought it was a different river from the one in the Stephen Foster song because that Suwannee is spelled Swanee.  As it turns out, he just misspelled it, and it IS the same river.  In fact, that song is the Florida state song.