First town we passed was Wetumpka (6,528; 191 ft.). Wetumpka is known as the "City of Natural Beauty." The Coosa River flows through the middle of the town. Upriver you can see sn unusual rock formation rising out of the water. This is the remains of a 4-mile wide crater formed 83 million years ago as a meteor more than 1,100 feet wide crashed into the earth's surface. Today's city sits right on the bull's-eye. (Logic similar to , "Lightning doesn't strike the same spot twice??")
We got off the Interstate at Montgomery and ended up on a 4-lane road called the "Troy Highway." This was like a freeway only with regular intersections. You could go fast in the country, but when you got to a town, there were a number of stop lights. We figured that you could measure the size of a town by the number of stop lights -- just like we measure the size on the Interstate by the number of exits.
At Troy, we saw a sign, "Have More Fun in Troy -- Zip Lines." Wasn't expecting that. Troy University is somewhere around here and according to the signs, we were in "Trojan Territory." It is also "piggly wiggly," "Chick-fil-a," "Whataburger," and peanut and pecan territory. We saw our first cotton fields and passed the "Nut-Bama Hut" offering pecan everything.
We stopped at the only rest stop on the highway. There was a sign as you entered the building that said, "No weapons inside." Someone had blacked out the "No."
We saw a turn-off for a "historic marker." There was a boat at the entrance positioned at a rather odd angle, almost vertical. I figured this was either an odd form of art similar to the windmill art in Iowa, or the boat had some significance. So we decided to make up our own story ... Jim's story was that the boat was blown here by Hurricane Katrina.
Just before Dotham ( 65,000, 355 ft.), Jim's glasses fell apart again. Fortunately we were at a stoplight by a shopping area so we stopped. We went to Lowe's to get some glue, then Jim worked on his glasses and I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get him a better butt-pillow. When I got back, his glasses were together, but there was a large glue smudge on the lens thanks to a Parkinson tremor. So we stopped at Target and I got some nail polish remover, alcohol, and q-tips to try and get rid of the smudge. Those didn't work, but strangely enough when Jim decided to try some of my Dr. Pepper it worked better...Makes you wonder.
We got back on the road and entered the Dotham "circle" which is a cross between a beltway and a traffic circle. You circle around town and take off on one of the spokes heading in different directions. We turned on the south fork to connect with I-10 in Florida.
Soon we entered the "Sunshine State." We saw the Florida Welcome Center and rest stop, followed immediately by the Lotto Discount Liquor Store, which told me that there must be some cross-border traffic. We saw signs for "gater jerky" and "boiled peanuts", and at Marianna, we saw our first palm trees.
Soon we were on the Interstate again. First town of note was Tallahassee (181,000, 216 ft.). It was the only Confederate Capitol east of the Mississippi not captured by union troops. The area is full of rolling hills, oak forests, rivers, beautiful landscapes, and large lakes. I don't quite know the difference between a "lake" and a swamp around here. Lot's of water by whatever name. The Interstate is elevated through this area.
We passed over the Suwannee River and stopped at the next rest stop. We noticed a large sign stating that the area was "Patrolled by armed guards at night." After that we noticed that the rest stop signs would advertise that they had "Nighttime Security." So rest stops in Florida are "modern" and "secure."
We turned south onto I-75 and pulled off at the next exit to spend the night in Lake City (population 12,000). Lake City was originally a Seminole Village. There is a Battlefield near here that was the place where the Confederate soldiers turned back the union troops marching towards Tallahassee. They hold a reenactment of this battle in February.
We pulled into a Best Western which had a "lake" water feature in front. Jim jokingly asked the clerk if there were alligators in the swimming pool. She said, "Oh, that happened before I came to work here." Evidently, about two years ago an alligator meandered into their water feature, then migrated to the swimming pool." He was relocated.
I went out to take pictures of the alligator's path. I found a gap in the fence. The water feature looks like a gater's delight and then on to the pool.
We went into Lake City to see the "lake." The name is "Lake" city, so there must be a lake, right? The only lake I could find on the map was called "Alligator Lake" and located south of town. We found the lake, but there was no park or scenic pull-out. So we went back to the "historic" downtown area.
They have a very nice town square and park. Behind the courthouse, I glimpsed water. We found our way back there and there was a "lake" (Jim called it a reservoir) behind the town center with a one-way driving/walking path around it. It was rather small, less than a quarter mile in diameter. "Lakes" seem to be very common in this area.
We had dinner and called it a day. Should make it to Naples tomorrow! Our first stop will be LensCrafters.
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