Day 7: October 31, 2023
Made It to Florida
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In 1923 Granny wrote "From Valdosta to Lake City we had good roads" which was quite different from what she had to say about the road past Valdosta in 1920. They took a different route and I'm guessing it was on a road that was new since their previous visit. Although I don't think the change was entirely due to new roads, only a tiny portion of their 1923 travels south of Valdosta duplicated those of 1920.

Looking back, I see I've done a horrible job of noting differences between the 1920 and 1923 trips. They began the 1923 trip by heading west through Indiana. Granny offers no clues as to why but it might be to reach the western Dixie Highway earlier. Perhaps it had been improved between the trips. In 1920, they had headed to the western Dixie Highway from Lexington, KY, and reached it at Munfordville. Munfordville is where, in 1923, they picked up their previous route after passing through Louisville.

From Munfordville to Valdosta the 1923 trip was essentially a repeat of the 1920 trip with two exceptions. One was the Nashville to Murfreesboro drive "to avoid paying toll". The other was in Alabama where they turned east at Albertsville to reach Leesburg via Crossville rather than dipping south through Gadsden as they had done in 1920.

ERRATUM: Jan 10, 2024 - There is nothing in the letters to support the idea that the 1923 route did not duplicate 1920's route through Gadsden. The error was mine in following the routing software's shortest path through two points that were mentioned without a closer look.

Here's some of that good road, now US-41, between Jasper and White Springs, FL. Down-the-road windshield shots were almost directly into the low sun so I pulled onto a crossing to grab a shot between the rails and asphalt. I took one shot toward the sun and another away. As I shot away from the sun, I spotted a bit of white in the middle and threw on a longer lens.
A collection of student transportation at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
I missed the turn to the old alignment through Micanopy and ended up entering the town from the south just as I had on my only previous visit. The Herlong Mansion is still there and ready for Halloween. After passing the museum, which I checked out in 2014, I turned around and drove through the town the way I had intended.
My end-of-day stop was at the Shamrock Cove Inn at the north edge of Ocala. The current owners are well on the way to bringing the 1958 motel back from a period of neglect and are doing it quite nicely. My room is on the far left of the third photo.
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