Tracing a T to Tampa Again at DennyGibson.com

November 30, 2020 (day 27)
I didn't help pave roads or pick oranges or shoot any rabbits but I did cover in four weeks the same territory that my great-grandparents covered in four months. And, just like them, I encountered snow on the final leg.

November 29, 2020 (day 26)
Back on the somewhat familiar National Road, I stopped at a couple bridges and a couple toll houses, crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, and said hi to Madonna.

November 28, 2020 (day 25)
I didn't even make as many stops in Washington as Granddad and Granny did and I didn't see as much, either. But I've seen most of it before and did not feel cheated.

November 27, 2020 (day 24)
I hooked up with two different friends today. One introduced me to a diner that has been feeding Richmond since 1946 and the other took me to the cemetery and bridge in Fredericksburg that Granny wrote about.

November 26, 2020 (day 23)
My Thanksgiving Day started in a laundromat and ended in Virginia's capital. In between there were walls and groves of signs and several pigs.

November 25, 2020 (day 22)
With much better roads than Frank and Gertrude had to deal with, I made it all the way through South Carolina in a day.

November 24, 2020 (day 21)
It was a day of old and new, remembered and forgotten, and a little red clay and smoke. It ended just across the GA-SC border.

November 23, 2020 (day 20)
Great weather returned. I did not take to the expressway as planned but did expedite the northbound pass by staying on the straight and level US-41.

November 22, 2020 (day 19)
I was back on my planned route today and eventually reached new-to-this-trip territory. Today was one of the rare occasions when I got to visit a place that I know for certain that Granddad and Granny also visited.

November 21, 2020 (day 18)
I ended the day back on my planned route after saying goodbye to the Rowlettes and hello to the Shannons.

November 20, 2020 (day 17)
My car didn't move a bit today as I relaxed while being chauffeured to Venus where I relaxed some more.

November 19, 2020 (day 16)
My big activity for the day was visiting the Ringling Museum in Sarasota where a considerable amount of artwork is displayed along with lots of circus history.

November 18, 2020 (day 15)
I exposed myself to several pieces of art as I walked to and from the pier in Saint Petersburg then immersed myself in art at the Dali Museum before ending the day in Sarasota.

November 17, 2020 (day 14)
There are no more country roads once you hit Ybor City. I thought the Dali museum was in Clearwater, realized it was in Saint Petersburg, then discovered it's closed on Tuesdays. I'm here through Wednesday.

November 16, 2020 (day 13)
I made it to the middle of the state and a little beyond and got to drive one of my all-time favorite stretches of highway.

November 15, 2020 (day 12)
I headed farther into Miami then turned around and started north on the route I had intended to follow south. I was surprised by a bunch of bicycles at the start of the day and a bunch of water at the end.

November 14, 2020 (day 11)
I followed the twists and curves of the old roads until I had to scurry along to a meeting with my cousin and aunt. The expediting continued until I reached the day's pre-booked lodging.

November 13, 2020 (day 10)
I balanced a late start with an early stop which meant I didn't cover a lot of ground. But it was really good ground, Mrs. Presky.

November 12, 2020 (day 9)
I delayed my departure until tropical storm Eta moved out of my path, then had some excitement on a road where effects of the storm's rain could be seen. The day ended with a friend and live music on the Florida coast.

November 11, 2020 (day 8)
My cousin's husband chauffeured me past some good Florida scenery and led me to a couple of good Florida breweries.

November 10, 2020 (day 7)
Made it to a couple of familiar places with a 1920 connection plus a new-to-me (but quite old) diner.

November 9, 2020 (day 6)
Not many pictures today but I did make it into another state.

November 8, 2020 (day 5)
After checking out a new-to-me monument and restaurant, I verified that familiar things can look even better if you add a train or some decorations honoring veterans.

November 7, 2020 (day 4)
I had breakfast in Tennessee and dinner in Alabama. In between, I photographed courthouses and public art.

November 6, 2020 (day 3)
COVID-19 thwarted a photo op I'd been planning for years, but that was the only flaw in another warm and sunny day of driving.

November 5, 2020 (day 2)
With plans to move less than thirty miles today, I anticipated a lot of idle time but was kept quite engaged by just one bridge and one village.

November 4, 2020 (day 1)
Today was the 100th anniversary of the start of my great-grandparents' snow bird experiment and the start of my second attempt to follow it. With sunshine and temperature near 70, it sure didn't feel like November.

Prelude 2 - October 10, 2020
COVID-19 has canceled trip after trip this year, but this retrace is important to me and I really do intend to launch in about three weeks. I have completed plotting my intended route and used that to produce a locator map accessed by the USA shaped button above. More details on the route are available via the text link in the upper left corner. Of course, the route is largely the same one tackled in 2001, but it has been plotted from scratch using different software. I thought two other areas of the 2001 trip journal were important enough to warrant supplying new versions with minor edits. These are Granny's letters and a time line of events which are also accessed through text links above. There is quite a bit of additional auxiliary and background information posted in 2001 that I haven't reproduced here but which I suggest anyone really interested in the trip take a look at. That journal is here.

Prelude 1 - February 16, 2020
I drove to Florida back in 2001 because my great grandparents drove to Florida back in 1920. I am again attempting to retrace their trip with a departure on the 100th anniversary of theirs. Of course, 2020 is the centennial of not only my ancestors' road trip but of the ratification of the 19th amendment. The first election in which women were allowed to vote took place just two days before Granddad and Granny headed south. The 100th such election will take place just one day prior to my own departure.

This first prelude is just my public commitment to the trip. Over the next several months I hope to hang several bits of auxiliary information onto this page. Some will be essentially the same as background information for the 2001 retrace, but some things have changed in nineteen years. One change has been my level of understanding of old roads. That 2001 trip was just the fifth documented on this site. Calling the knowledge of early auto routes I had then 'meager' could be considered bragging. The basic source of information on the original trip will again come from my great grandmother's letters and I intend to reinterpret those letters rather than sticking with the 2001 path. Whether or not that produces a noticeably different route remains to be seen.

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