The Letters
The Times
Tracing a T to Sebring
Day 1
It's a Start
Day 2
Into Kentucky
Day 3
I Got in the Inn
Day 4
CocaCoca-ColaCola
Day 5
Uh-Oh Atlanta
Day 6
More Georgia
Day 7
Made It to Florida
Day 8
A Primary Target
Day 9
A Day of Discovery
Day 10
Still in Florida
Day 11
Midnight Rambler
November 4, 2023 (day 11)
Yesterday, my own unwise decisions teamed up with circumstances beyond my
control to limit the distance I traveled. Today they did the opposite. I
made it home in time -- much earlier than planned actually -- but I'm not
all that happy about it.
November 3, 2023 (day 10)
After starting late, I was treated to central Florida traffic congestion
demonstration which left me a little shy of the Georgia line when the day
ended. I just roll -- or don't -- with it.
November 2, 2023 (day 9)
I reached some of the same spots that Granddad and Granny reached a
hundred years ago although few looked the same. I also reached some newer
places, met some really helpful and welcoming Floridians, and heard some
great music.
November 1, 2023 (day 8)
I've gone almost as far as intended and will pause in Avon Park for a
couple of days to look at history.
October 31, 2023 (day 7)
I was in Florida by noon and in bed by nine.
October 30, 2023 (day 6)
Barnesville, Forsyth, and don't forget Fort Valley.
October 29, 2023 (day 5)
This was the day that I should have started this trip and the day I
finally realized that Granddad and Granny will never catch up with me. I
had great luck getting a seat for breakfast, bad luck getting through
Atlanta, and decent luck everywhere else.
October 28, 2023 (day 4)
I finished off Tennessee, passed through Alabama, and got started on
Georgia. Along the way, I photographed one old car, two old theaters, and
two Coca-Cola murals.
October 27, 2023 (day 3)
There was rain in Kentucky but none in Tennessee. In fact, the rain
stopped before I reached the 200-year-old Sandford Duncan Inn where I got
to look inside.
October 26, 2023 (day 2)
I believe the rain stayed away overnight and it continued to hold off
throughout the day. I finished off Indiana, got a good start on Kentucky,
and ended the day at another inn with good keepers.
October 25, 2023 (day 1)
I started trying to trace my great-grandparents' 1923 Florida trip four
days shy of its one-hundredth anniversary but I have excuses and I didn't
get very far anyway.
Prelude - July 18, 2023
I drove to Florida in 2001 and again
in 2020 along a path that my great
grandparents had driven in a Ford Model T in 1920. The 2020 trip started
on November 4, the centennial of the start of that 1920 trip. I referred
to both of my drives as "Tracing a T to Tampa" partly for
alliterative reasons and partly because Tampa seemed to be the point where
my great grandparents stopped exploring new places in Florida to
eventually return home. It was not the end of their exploring on that
trip. Their path north began by retracing their path south but ultimately
branched off to visit more new places including Washington, DC.
As I explained in the journals for both of my trips and in the book that came out of the 2020 trip, the tracing was possible because of letters that my great grandmother wrote and my grandmother saved. I was surprised when I learned of these letters years ago then got another surprise as I prepared for the 2020 drive. While working on some details with a cousin who has the original letters, we realized that some pages we initially thought were misplaced letters from 1920 were actually letters from a second trip to Florida that our great grandparents made in 1923.
Sadly, the letters available from this second trip are not complete. There are letters from the beginning of the journey but after approximately 175 handwritten pages they end -- in the middle of a sentence in the middle of a trip. They have set up camp in Avon Park, FL, at this point and there has been at least one day trip to Sebring, FL. I intend to start retracing this trip starting on October 29, the centennial of its beginning. Naming my trip was not tough.