The Murals of Palatka FL

Palatka is about 12 miles from our campsite at Rodman Campground along the Majorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway.

The greenway is a designated Florida Recreation and Conservation area after a storied past of litigation and partial progress.  FDR authorized funds for work in 1934-1935 to construct a canal across the state.  Work also was re-initiated in 1964 before President Nixon stopped the project by Executive Order in the 1970's.  Finally Congress de-authorized funding and all lands were transferred over to the state of Florida.

Today the canal is far less than what was intended, and only covers 110 miles of canal connecting the St. John's River (near Palatka on the east coast) with Yankeetown on the west coast.

Our interest in the area was two fold:
1) We needed to find a place to stay for a week in February after waiting until December to find a campground in Florida.  This presented a few issues, mainly -- all the State Parks were filled (except for a couple of days here and there; and
2) Commercial campgrounds this time of year command a pretty high dollar.  After all it is in the middle of snowbird 'high season'.  Rodman Campground fees:  $24.42/night.

After a couple of hours of calling around and finally securing a spot at the Rodman Campground, we looked forward to 'checking out' the local area.

Palatka is about 12 miles away from Rodman Campground in the middle of the Ocala National Forest.  On one trip to Palatka, we stopped at the local Chamber of Commerce.  We learned Palatka had a number of murals depicting snapshots in its history.

This caught our interest as we have been to a number of other towns with murals.  Some of those we have seen in our travels included murals in:

- Pontiac, Illinois (aka Walldogs), July 2009

- 29 Palms, California, January 2010

- Lake Placid, Florida, February 2013

- Vicksburg, Mississippi, June 2013

Each have their own unique style and approach but we find them all pretty interesting.

I think we captured most of them after tracking them down on the city map.  Sometimes we had to go down another street and change directions.  Lots of pictures here which are probably not the best way to represent them, but for documentation reasons when we want to go back and relook at some Roadrunner adventures years from now -- we'll be able to find them in one place.

Here they are in no particular order:

Train Station

 Mary Lawson Hospital

 Harlem Nights in Palatka

 Mural on side of local business

 Night Passage

 Putnam Treasures

Annie Oakley

 Senator B.C. Pearce

 Cattle Drives to Paines Prairie

 High Time in Palatka

 Work in Progress:  Honoring Vets including those that served in Iraq and Afghanistan

 Bygone Days

 To God Be the Glory

 Night Passage

Putnam County Wildflowers

 Battle at Horse Landing

 William Bartram 

 The Putnam House

Putnam County Jail

 Putnam County Courthouse

 Bronson-Mulholland House

 Palatka City Hall

 Old JT&K Railway Station

 Old Palatka Waterworks

One of the reasons we chose this area was because we wanted to get to know the Central Area of Florida a little better.  We've been able to get a glimpse of the Canal, Palatka, the Ocala National Forest.  Plus we've put a few hundred miles on the car as we have taken a number of day trips.  Its been fun to get a semblance of 'the lay of the land'. 

And we enjoyed chasing down the Murals of Palatka.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Roadrunner Financials - January 2016

Roadrunner Recap
In January, we visited the following locations along the Florida Gulf Coast and into Central Florida:

• Angler RV Campground, Cedar Keys FL    
• MacDill AFB FamCamp, Tampa FL
• SanLan RV Resort, Lakeland FL
• 12 Oaks RV Campground, Sanford FL       

One of our goals in 2016 was to see more of Florida.  We love certain areas of the state and end up sometimes missing out on the 'backcountry'.  In January we found ourselves in Cedar Key and learned a little bit about the history of that area.
Then it was onto MacDill AFB in Tampa.  We saw friends and visited one of the nation's largest RV shows.  We also spent time in Lakeland, FL seeing Marg and Bill before we moved on to the Orlando area and saw more friends there.


Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

We had a very good month budget-wise.  We drove a lot and therefore paid for a lot of diesel but were still under budget.  We also ate too much and spent too much for Christmas.

Biggest Expenses
One area was an increase in medical.  We had dental bills and also decided to both go to a Physical Therapist which was a bit pricey but we were interested in learning how to deal with foot, tendonitis and flexibility issues.

Large One Time Cost Item
Our biggest overrun was in the area of eating out which is a recurring theme for us.

Monthly Average
Here's a look at the monthly average of the last six months from Jan 2016:

We are still recovering from out big month to get the Roadrunner engine fixed in August.  That month was a big one for us.  But we have steadily decreased our spending so our averages look better.

So that's a recap of where we spent our dollars in January.As always, if you think this spreadsheet might be useful I'd be glad to pass it along at no cost.  Just let me know.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Our Stay in Sanford

We needed to find a place that wasn't too far away from DeBarry, Winter Park and Orlando.  We have friends in each place and didn't want to camp too far away.  But we didn't want to pay the high $$ for some campgrounds.

The State Parks were full for the 7 days we wanted to stay, but we found a small commercial campground that worked fine:  Twelve Oaks RV Resort in Sanford.  We had full hookups, a level site, access to internet and our phones worked fine.

From there, we got took day trips to Mount Dora and Sebring before checking out the local museum in Sanford.

At the end of town not far from the Sanford Harbour Marina on the edge of town, we found the Sanford Museum:

Background:
- Henry Sanford was born into wealth and prestige in 1823. He traveled in Europe as a young man and obtained a law degree from the University of Heidelberg. He was Abraham Lincoln's diplomatic appointment in March 1861.
- He purchased a large tract of land in 1870 near Fort Mellon at the convergence of the St John's River and Lake Monroe.  He saw the potential of the area as an economic hub and transportation center for Central Florida.
- In 1880, the railroad came to Sanford along with the city building its first hotel.  It had all the infrastructure it needed to become "the Gateway to Southern Florida".

Sanford moved to the area and cleared land for groves of citrus fruit.  He imported over 140 varieties looking for those that would adapt to the climate.  His biggest grove he named Belair.

I had never heard of Sanford until we looked for places to camp to be near our friends in the area. Some things we saw and learned after visiting the museum:

The museum was a fairly good size with three large rooms of artifacts.

 There were quite a few items on display commemorating the life and impact of Henry Sanford

As an emissary of the U. S. Government to Belgium, Sanford attended many functions where military attire was the order of the day.  He was was not in the military but obtained the rank of Major General along with the appropriate uniform for his social functions.  He retained the title 'General Sanford' after his service in Belgium.

Former president U.S. Grant was traveling in Florida at the time and participated the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the railroad terminal.

Sanford's great winter and spring weather made it a good site for Major League Spring training.  In one noteworthy game, (March 4, 1946) Jackie Robinson made his major league debut breaking the color barrier for the first time.

Due to segregation practices at the time, this caused the local sheriff to request he not complete the game after his first and only 'at bat'.  He was escorted from the field and there was no incident.

Later in the 1970's, baseball great Tim Raines was drafted by the MLB Montreal Expos.  He was born and raised in Sanford and had a successful major league career.

We loved this city museum and learned more about Florida's history.  Another part of the country that owes a large part of its early growth to the arrival of the railroads.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Day Trip to Mount Dora

We got to meet up with Tim at a good Italian Restaurant in Sanford FL the other night.  We missed seeing his wife Wendy who was out of town.  Tim recommended Chianti's which was a great choice. We were neighbors back in the 1990s when our kids were in grade school and mid-school.  Their boys are now in the world of academia with both holding PhD's.

Tim had another great recommendation which was to visit Mount Dora.  We took off mid morning and drove the 30 miles to the place and found it to be a very charming little town with some history.
It was a big of a foggy and drizzly day, but the temps were in the 60's so it was not at all unpleasant.

We drove around the town first, then parked our car and walked it.

A great thing about the soggy weather was that it wasn't too crowded.  I think I read that this small place somehow handles 250,000 visitors at their annual Arts and Crafts festival!  Yikes..  Glad we missed that.

It looks as if it is mostly a tourist town with a historic area that is thriving.  Many times old downtown areas have empty stories and are neglected.  This place looks like it is thriving.

 In one store we saw this display of orchids.  In fact as we drove from Lakeland to Sanford, we took some back roads that were along 10-15 orchid nurseries.  There are lots of those here.

We'd probably get a couple, but we have a trip north to Virginia Beach into the cold weather in two weeks so we declined.

We had a nice lunch at the Lost Parrot Cafe that was great.  The atmosphere at mid day was terrific.  It has some 70's music playing in the background (Linda Ronstadt, Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor etc)that made you want to linger and take it all in.

It was fun.

The town is on the shores of Lake Dora and there are a couple of old tourist hotels still in full operation.

 Now too, there are a lot of bed and breakfast places which look like a nice option.

We wanted to see the local museum and found it after a little bit of hunting.

 It is housed in the old firehouse and police station on one of the older streets that is now almost an alley.

Inside the small museum there were all kinds of interesting pictures and displays.  One area on the wall had a number of small signs with Florida Orange / Citrus companies that were in the area at one time.

 Fire was a devastating issue in the early days of our country.  Often times in these days, we don't seem a lot of fires.  Back in the late 1800's and into the first part of the last century - city fires affected almost every community.

 The Firehouse where the the City Museum was located also included the city jail with some cells.

When we showed up in the early afternoon, the docent volunteer there was only too glad to show us around.

It was a great way to spend the rainy day in Mount Dora - walking around, checking out the shops and historical buildings, having a nice lunch and spending some time in the small hometown museum.  Tim was right about this place.  It was well worth the visit and there was lots to see.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!