Finch Jackie Sheckler - Florida off the beaten path: discover your fun

Diana and Bill Gleasner, an award-winning writer/photographer team, have 35 published books to their credit, including the popular Popoki series for children, as well as hundreds of articles for national and international magazines and newspapers. As professional travel photojournalists who have roamed the globe in search of fascinating travel experiences, they admit a continuing addiction to Florida. The Gleasners are members of the Society of American Travel Writers and the Travel Journalists Guild.

Jackie Sheckler Finch has written about a wide array of topicsfrom birth to death, with all the joy and sorrow in between. An award-winning journalist and photographer, Jackie has written more than a dozen guidebooks for Globe Pequot, and is a member of The Society of American Travel Writers, where she was named the 2016 Bradshaw Travel Writer of the Year for Central States. She is also a member of Midwest Travel Writers Association, where she has been named the Mark Twain Travel Writer of the Year a record five times, in 1998, 2001, 2003, 2007, and 2012. One of her greatest joys is taking to the road to find the fascinating people and places that wait over the hill and around the next bend.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

ISSN 1539-0845

ISBN 978-1-4930-2787-3 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-2788-0 (e-book)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Many thanks to the wonderful tourism folks of Florida for answering my many questions. My appreciation to the excellent public relations officials and to the Florida residents and business owners who took the time to share what makes Florida special.

Gratitude to my Globe Pequot editor Stephanie Scott and production editor Meredith Dias for inviting me on this treasure-filled trip through Florida. It has been a delight and a pure pleasure.

This book is dedicated to my family: Kelly Rose; Mike Peters; Sean and Emma Rose; Stefanie, Will, Trey, and Arianna Scott; and Logan and Grayson Peters.

A special remembrance to my husband, Bill Finch, whose spirit goes with me every step of the way through lifes journey.
Jackie Sheckler Finch

Warning! Straying from the beaten interstate can be addictive. But is it ever fun!

By poking and prowling around this incredible state, we discovered a high-rise for bats, the worlds smallest police station, a McDonalds complete with salt licks and hitching posts, and a museum dedicated to the inventor of air-conditioning.

Florida seems to have cornered the worlds largest market. We saw the largest concentration of saw grass; the largest bald cypress tree; and the largest collections of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, Art Deco buildings, Salvador Dal artworks, and Tiffany glass in the world. We even strolled the worlds longest continuous sidewalk.

We traveled by inner tube, pontoon boat, car, motor home, houseboat, sailboat, seaplane, canoe, motorized gondola, swamp buggy, and airboat. Our meanderings took us through Little Havana, the Greek community of Tarpon Springs, and a Miccosukee Indian village.

We heard a dolphin take a deep breath in the Everglades, toured a thoroughbred farm, and chatted with a cow hunter rounding up one of the few remaining herds of scrub cattle in existence. We saw manatees, wood storks, a herd of buffalo, and alligators romping in the surf!

We slept in a lighthouse, cheered ourselves hoarse at a rodeo, hunted for fossil shark teeth, lunched in an indoor swimming pool (luckily for us, it was dry), nibbled on alligator tail (lucky for us, it was no longer connected to the animal), and pitched a tent on more than a few of the Ten Thousand Islands.

In short, we have enjoyed an abundance of serendipitous experiences. But there are many more discoveries waiting to be made in Florida. Write us (c/o Globe Pequot, 246 Goose Lane, Suite 200, Guilford, CT 06437, or editorial@GlobePequot.com) and tell us your special finds.

Travel safely and have a terrific time!

Florida Facts

Name: Discoverer Ponce de Len named it Florida, the Land of Flowers, for its abundant flora.

Official nickname: The Sunshine State

Location: Southeastern US. Floridas southern tip is 1,700 miles (2,742 kilometers) north of the equator.

History: Florida has belonged to five different nations: Spain, England, France, the Confederacy, and the US.

State capital: Tallahassee was selected as the capital in 1824a compromise between Pensacola in west Florida and St. Augustine on the east coast.

Population: With more than 20 million people, Florida is the fourth-most populous state in the US after California and Texas. The population increased 1.84 percent from July 1, 2014, to July 1, 2015. The largest concentration of Finns (17,000) outside of Finland lives in the Lake Worth/Lantana area. When asked where they would most like to live other than their current residence, many Americans made Florida their first choice.

Time: Most of Florida is in the eastern time zone. The area west of the Apalachicola River is in the central time zone.

Weather: Abundant sunshine, pleasant coastal breezes during summer months, and 53 inches of annual rainfall.

Average annual temperatures: Summer: 80.5 degrees Fahrenheit in north Florida and 82.7 in south Florida. Winter: 53 degrees Fahrenheit in north Florida and 68.5 in south Florida.

Geography: Total area is 58,560 square miles. From Pensacola to the southernmost point of Key West is 832 miles (1,342 kilometers).

Lakes: Florida is sprinkled with more than 7,800 lakes, ranging in size from an acre to the 448,000-acre Lake Okeechobee, the second-largest freshwater lake in the US.

Rivers: Florida has 34 major rivers. Certainly one of the best-known rivers (thanks to Stephen Fosters song Old Folks at Home) is the Suwannee, in the northern part of the state.

Springs: There are 720 known springs in the state and 33 are classified as first magnitude. First magnitude springs produce at least 100 cubic feet of fresh water per second. One of the longest underwater cave systems in the continental US (over 28,000 feet), Peacock Springs State Recreation Area, is a popular place for cave diving.