Half the park residents - those driving around in the classic Airstream trailers - left today leaving the park half deserted.
I had a brief discussion with our neighbor as he was hooking up his Airstream and he said there were 35 of them traveling together all over Florida. When I said that must be an impressive sight on the freeway he told me that their club rules do not allow them to travel altogether.
"If you can read the numbers on another Airstream, you're too close," he said. They all left at staggered times and will meet up at the park near Gainesville later this day.
The big yellow ball appeared again in the sky today so we took advantage of the weather and decided to head back downtown to walk through the Capitol complex and Historic District.
Before we left though there was a minor flare-up when Joan lost her keys to the trailer. I had gone out to the car to wait for her as she was almost ready to go, but then started to wonder what happened to her.
After about five minutes I thought about heading back to the trailer door to see what had happened, but didn't want to bother her or rush her. A few minutes later she came huffing out to the car asking me if I had any idea what happened to her trailer keys.
Before I said something stupid like: "Why would I know where her trailer keys were?" I reached into my pocket and discovered that for some unknown reason I had picked up not just my trailer keys, but hers as well.
After convincing her I hadn't taken the keys on purpose we finally got started on our journey.
Parking is at a premium downtown and there is no such thing as free parking anywhere near the Capitol. Even the friendly churches have parking lot signs that threaten "24-hour towing of unauthorized vehicles."
We found a public parking garage on Duval Street and walked the several blocks through the Historic District on Park Avenue and then onto the Old State Capitol.
A very nice lady gave us a personal introduction to the Old Capitol building and a brief history on its development and then shrinking. The shrinking came in the 1970s when a new high rise complex was planned for the Capitol mall.
Florida residents balked when plans were announced to tear down the Old Capitol after the construction of the new one, but for safety reasons they had to demolish some of the additions to the building that had occurred over the years.
The Old Capitol which was first built in 1845 had been expanded several times over the next century to meet the growth of the State. It was decided to tear down additions to the building so that it would revert to it's configuration in 1902.
At that time the building housed the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Governor's Office in relatively small two story building. The current government is housed in a 22-floor building that dwarfs the old building on the same site.
Inside the Old Capitol are housed a number of historical exhibits and the recreated House, Senate, Supreme Court chambers as well as a recreation of the Governor's Office of 1902.
One of the rooms housed an interesting display of artifacts from the 2000 Florida election fiasco including a box of those famous "hanging chads." Another room contained election memorabilia from the past 100 years. Bumper stickers, banners, buttons and countless other advertising gizmos purchased by candidates.
There were Civil War exhibits and a 15-minute movie on the History of Florida.
We also learned that the Florida Legislature is part-time, they work only 60 days a year and are expected to hold a job outside of government. Are you listening Michigan Legislature
?
I like the idea of a part-time Legislature. Give them 60 days to get all the work done and then have them go back and live like the rest of us. Not a bad idea at all. But enough of that.
After the tour of the Old Capitol we moved over to the new Capitol building which required a security check, which meant Joan and her fake knee had to go through a security wanding, similar to every trip we make to the airport.
We took a fast elevator to the 22nd floor where you can look out over Tallahassee and all the surrounding counties. We had a beautiful clear day to look out over many miles of northern Florida.
The Capitol grounds were also very beautiful and some of the Oak trees look very old here, probably because they are.
Traffic in the city here is horrible, especially at 5 p.m., which is precisely the moment we ended our tour and began our journey out-of town. It took us nearly 40 minutes to go 9 miles through traffic and with a 10-minute stop at the local KFC restaurant to pick up dinner.
I had a brief discussion with our neighbor as he was hooking up his Airstream and he said there were 35 of them traveling together all over Florida. When I said that must be an impressive sight on the freeway he told me that their club rules do not allow them to travel altogether.
"If you can read the numbers on another Airstream, you're too close," he said. They all left at staggered times and will meet up at the park near Gainesville later this day.
The big yellow ball appeared again in the sky today so we took advantage of the weather and decided to head back downtown to walk through the Capitol complex and Historic District.
Before we left though there was a minor flare-up when Joan lost her keys to the trailer. I had gone out to the car to wait for her as she was almost ready to go, but then started to wonder what happened to her.
After about five minutes I thought about heading back to the trailer door to see what had happened, but didn't want to bother her or rush her. A few minutes later she came huffing out to the car asking me if I had any idea what happened to her trailer keys.
Before I said something stupid like: "Why would I know where her trailer keys were?" I reached into my pocket and discovered that for some unknown reason I had picked up not just my trailer keys, but hers as well.
After convincing her I hadn't taken the keys on purpose we finally got started on our journey.
Parking is at a premium downtown and there is no such thing as free parking anywhere near the Capitol. Even the friendly churches have parking lot signs that threaten "24-hour towing of unauthorized vehicles."
We found a public parking garage on Duval Street and walked the several blocks through the Historic District on Park Avenue and then onto the Old State Capitol.
A very nice lady gave us a personal introduction to the Old Capitol building and a brief history on its development and then shrinking. The shrinking came in the 1970s when a new high rise complex was planned for the Capitol mall.
Florida residents balked when plans were announced to tear down the Old Capitol after the construction of the new one, but for safety reasons they had to demolish some of the additions to the building that had occurred over the years.
The Old Capitol which was first built in 1845 had been expanded several times over the next century to meet the growth of the State. It was decided to tear down additions to the building so that it would revert to it's configuration in 1902.
At that time the building housed the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Governor's Office in relatively small two story building. The current government is housed in a 22-floor building that dwarfs the old building on the same site.
Inside the Old Capitol are housed a number of historical exhibits and the recreated House, Senate, Supreme Court chambers as well as a recreation of the Governor's Office of 1902.
One of the rooms housed an interesting display of artifacts from the 2000 Florida election fiasco including a box of those famous "hanging chads." Another room contained election memorabilia from the past 100 years. Bumper stickers, banners, buttons and countless other advertising gizmos purchased by candidates.
There were Civil War exhibits and a 15-minute movie on the History of Florida.
We also learned that the Florida Legislature is part-time, they work only 60 days a year and are expected to hold a job outside of government. Are you listening Michigan Legislature
?I like the idea of a part-time Legislature. Give them 60 days to get all the work done and then have them go back and live like the rest of us. Not a bad idea at all. But enough of that.
After the tour of the Old Capitol we moved over to the new Capitol building which required a security check, which meant Joan and her fake knee had to go through a security wanding, similar to every trip we make to the airport.
We took a fast elevator to the 22nd floor where you can look out over Tallahassee and all the surrounding counties. We had a beautiful clear day to look out over many miles of northern Florida.
The Capitol grounds were also very beautiful and some of the Oak trees look very old here, probably because they are.
Traffic in the city here is horrible, especially at 5 p.m., which is precisely the moment we ended our tour and began our journey out-of town. It took us nearly 40 minutes to go 9 miles through traffic and with a 10-minute stop at the local KFC restaurant to pick up dinner.
I'm going to put some add more photos from today to another post.
My knee is not FAKE!!!! It is titanium!!! Joan
ReplyDeleteNot real, not authenic = Fake.
ReplyDeleteJim