My friend Marty was pissed off about something; I forget what, but he decided that the way to deal with it was to go lose himself in Ft Lauderdale for a while. Then he got over it (by pricing hotels) and decided not to go. But it put me in mind of the fact that I hadn't been to Key West in more than 3 decades. And there were seven counties in Florida that I'd never been to. So I decided to go to Key West for a few days, and then Lauderdale, and along the way I figured I could drive through those seven counties in the uninteresting parts of Florida.
Then I priced hotels in Key West and Lauderdale, and decided that New Orleans was a better place to be. But there were still those seven counties....
So Marty flew down to New Orleans, and we made a quick drive around Florida, then came back to what has become our preferred ground.
We started by taking in the high-end yard art at the US Sports Academy, in Daphne, Alabama. Then we drove on to Florida's highest waterfall (73 feet high; but it falls into a sinkhole about 65 feet deep, which makes it less impressive than it sounds), and through Liberty County, which has nothing to recommend it, and on down to Gainesville, in Alachua County. We spent the night somewhere around there -- I don't recall where -- and continued south until we hit the handful of really dull counties that help keep the Atlantic Ocean out of the Gulf of Mexico. We went to an overpriced drive-through alligator sanctuary before going through such dull spots as Glades and Hardee and Highlands and Okeechobee counties.
On the way back up, we passed by the Ste Anne Shrine, near Lake Wales, Florida. This is identified on Roadside America as a mostly-destroyed remnant torn down by "an unsympathetic Catholic Church." That's not true. The pictures on that web site are of a lakeside altar that once honoured St Christopher (who is no longer considered a saint), and apparently people just assumed the rest of the false story. The shrine to Ste Anne is about 100 yards east of there, in the woods off the road, and in fact is to be the site for a sunrise mass on Easter Sunday, according to one of the locals who's lived there for more than 30 years.
So nice to have gotten that straight.
After that: New Orleans, where we've done nothing but party since arriving. We had outstanding meals at Alfonso's in Faubourg Marigny and St Charles Tavern and Ruby Slipper (which now has a location right on Canal Street, so we didn't have to schlepp all the way to Mid-City); and we did a street-car tour that included the Riverfront and City Park, plus a ride along Rampart street, so now I've been on all four lines in town. I feel so accomplished.
