Last Sunday we headed east on Interstate-10, then south on Interstate-75 for a 500-mile drive to Venice, Florida to visit friends we hadn't seen in many years. A few hours after we started we noticed the trees were showing signs of spring with pink leaf buds and some of the trees were in bloom with dramatic white or purple blossoms.
As we got closer to Interstate-75 we saw lots of green foliage and now and then dogwood trees covered with big white flowers. By the time we got to Tampa it looked like spring everywhere. We were in another climate zone.
We spent the first night of the trip in Gainesville. We arrived in Venice on Monday afternoon. Our friends are in fine shape after all these years. And they have a beautiful home. For dinner they fixed us an English-style roast beef feast with Yorkshire Pudding, two kinds of potatoes and even parsnips. And trifle for dessert.
On Tuesday morning we headed back home via the beach road through Clearwater. We drove over a grand bridge to see Clearwater Beach but the view from the bridge was all that was worth seeing.
Back on the highway heading north we found the traffic congestion impossible. And the slow, boring commercial highway was drab to the point of depressing us.
So we found an escape route over to Interstate-75. We took Florida Route 52 and it is indeed an official escape route, a
hurricane evacuation route -- and once we got to I-75 we sped north at 80 miles an hour on the freeway.
We had a long drive that day, almost 400 miles, and spent the night in Midway, 5 miles west of Tallahassee.
On the way home on Wednesday morning the scenery got less and less green and flowery. By the time we got back to Pensacola there were few signs of spring.
We got home before noon.
Driving distances:
Pensacola to Gainesville, 337 miles
Gainesville to Venice, 211 miles
Venice to Midway, 395 miles
Midway to Pensacola, 182 miles
Total for the trip, 1154 miles (1857 km)
Our recent trip took us to Venice, Florida. For many years it was winter quarters for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus -- "The Greatest Show on Earth."
Spring has arrived and it's time for cleaning and planting. And pruning and getting ready for summer.
As we got closer to Interstate-75 we saw lots of green foliage and now and then dogwood trees covered with big white flowers. By the time we got to Tampa it looked like spring everywhere. We were in another climate zone.
So we found an escape route over to Interstate-75. We took Florida Route 52 and it is indeed an official escape route, a hurricane evacuation route -- and once we got to I-75 we sped north at 80 miles an hour on the freeway.
We had a long drive that day, almost 400 miles, and spent the night in Midway, 5 miles west of Tallahassee.
For dinner last night I made us a classic Southern California favorite -- French Dipped Sandwiches. Legend has it that the original was made by mistake at a lunch stand in downtown Los Angeles, in 1908. The restaurant, still in operation and very busy, is Philippe, The Original and it moved to its current location in 1951.
We had lunch the other day at a favorite place, Jesse's Restaurant, in Magnolia Springs, Alabama. It's in a beautiful, heavily-wooded spot on the Magnolia River a few miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. It's a sleepy village where the mail is still delivered by boat. If you have read Fannie Flagg's, A Redbird Christmas, you know all about Magnolia Springs.
Attached to Jesse's is Moore Brothers Village Market with one of the best butcher shops in this part of the south. It is also worth a visit. We often take a cooler with some blue ice in case we buy a supply of steaks or chops. It can be a long, hot trip home.
Not only is the house in Fall River, Massachusetts, still standing -- today it's a restored, upscale bed & breakfast inn. With, what else, an ax murder theme. And guided tours. You can even sleep, or try to sleep, in rooms where the bodies were found.
