Dave and I loved our 2012 trip to the Australian outback, which felt very isolated and remote. As we crossed the "red heart" of Australian by plane, we looked down and couldn't see any roads. We had a that same feeling on February 29, 2016, a we took a boat trip through the Okefenokee Swamp, just over the Florida border into Georgia, The quiet was broken only by bird calls and the hiss of alligators when our "good old boy" ranger nosed the boat too close to them. We were away from the world.
I bought a book, compiled by a naturalist who lived in the swamp during the 1920s and 20s, before it became a national wildlife refuge. The book is full of stories of the "Georgia crackers" who settled there. They were Scotch-Irish, so I felt kinship!
Northern Florida is covered with sparse pine forests which, every once in a while, erupt in forest fires.
We paused to eat lunch and take pictures in White Springs, Florida, on the Suwannee River. That river was immortalized by the pre-Civil War song composer, Stephen Foster, in "Old Folks at Home," which begins, "Way down upon the Suwannee River, far, far away..." White Springs is faded and empty now, but it has a colorful history. It was filled, during the Civil War, with the families of Georgia and Florida plantation owners fleeing to safety from the fighting. In the early 1900s, it was a hot springs resort, with 15 hotels and huge bathhouses visited by Teddy Roosevelt and President Taft. During World War II, it housed a prison camp for German soldiers.
We hoped to eat at the Telford Hotel, the last of White Springs' resort hotels. It was listed in the guide book, but it had shut down by the time we arrived. Our second choice was Fat Belly's, advertising catfish, burgers, and shrimp.
The house specialty was "buffalo shrimp salad," with fried shrimp tossed in hot sauce and layered on a bed of lettuce. The appropriate side was, of course, fried onion rings. Interesting.
We walked through White Springs, admiring the white clapboard houses, all built between 1900 and 1910, in White Springs' hey day. I paused to talk with the owner of the house below, who was lovingly restoring it. He said he had grown up at the Telford Hotel--his parents had owned it.
We were sorry to miss the grand old Telford Hotel. The guidebook raved about its Southern buffet, with ribs, fried chicken, two flavors of cake, and banana pudding.
Next stop was the Stephen Foster Folklife Center.
Stephen Foster was a songwriter from Philadelphia who wrote such wildly popular pre-Civil War songs as "Oh, Susannah," "Old Folks at Home," "Camptown Races," and "I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair." He never visited White Springs, Florida, and pulled the name, "Suwannee River" off a map for his song. Still, he is revered in White Springs.
The Folklife Center hosts craftsmen and folk artists from around the South. This woman from Columbia, Missouri, played hauntingly sweet music with her mountain dulcimer.
There were hand-crafted leather items for sale, dulcimers, and shawls woven on a triangular loom.
We also stopped at the Olustee Battlefield, where the Union Army unsuccessfully charged into Florida in early 1864 in an attempt to cut off the Confederate Army's supply of beef, which came from Florida. Olustee had the third highest casualties of any battle in the Civil War--30% of 10,000 soldiers--even though it is unknown today.
We were fascinated by the monuments constructed by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1935. They extolled the bravery and shrewdness of the Confederate Army.
We drove back to St. Augustine via Amelia Island, a barrier island north of Jacksonville. The beaches were endless, and sunset fell on an old plantation house which served as a school for former slaves after the Civil War ended.
We also visited Ft. Clinch, an old Civil War fort, with an interpreter dressed in Union battle gear. Part of Florida was controlled by the Confederates, and part remained with the Union army.
We ended our trip in the main city on Amelia Island, with its quaint main street and historical marker for the Revolutionary War! Who would have thought--all the way down in Florida!
Florida sunsets are breathtaking.
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