2002 March Free things to do in Tallahassee, FL

 

Tallahassee, Florida       March 2002

I cannot think of a better way to spend a weekend than to exercise our favorite four-letter word, that is the "F" word. Yes you got it FREE......free events, free sightseeing, free touring. We found another excellent location for "F" in downtown Tallahassee, Florida.

What a glorious day, we had met up with our friends Brad and Janice Parent from JRC the night before.  We had all decided to get together over Easter and take advantage of an extra day off over Good Friday.  We headed out from our campground Friday morning around 10:oo am, stopped for a hardy breakfast then continued downtown to take in the sights.  Driving in Tallahassee is easy, the streets are laid out in squares even with the rolling hills. The area around the capitol and tourist areas has one-way streets making it easier to watch for unfamiliar streets and allowing time to look as Tom drove. Parking areas were difficult because this is obviously a government city with most parking reserved for state employee’s, fortunately Good Friday is a government holiday and parking lots were open to the public and traffic was light.

The first “F” stop was the Museum of Florida History.  Permanent exhibits include a nine-foot mastodon, Spanish galleon treasure, and Civil War memorabilia, reconstructed steamboat and Prehistoric Florida plus traveling exhibits.  We wondered around and looked an all the exhibits we all felt fortunate to be a part of this great land.  Our favorite exhibit is an 1923 model-T motorhome, it was called the Tin Cup, the windshield would fold down to allow an foldout to create a bed, small cast iron stove, hurricane lamps. A club for Florida “Tin Cups” was established also, I wonder was this the origin of Good Sam's Club? Oh, my how things have changed each one of us commented on how we would not like to live back then and forgo the conveniences we now enjoy.

Next “F” stop is the Knott House Museum.  It is also known as “The House That Rhymes” for the poems written by 1928 owner who attached them to its Victorian era furnishings.  Mr. Knott was Florida’s elected treasurer and comptroller during the depression.  The family remained living in the home until 1988 when their only son donated the home to the state before his death.

Next “F” stop we drove by the Governor’s Mansion, this is Georgian-style mansion patterned after Andrew Jackson’s home “the Hermitage” features antique furnishings and gifts from foreign dignitaries.  The house is only open 2 hours a day and we did not make it in time; we thought the iron gates were closed to on lookers.  So now refreshment was in order, and we found a wine shop to have a glass of tea, very special tea in a bottle a different form of Arizona tea that was quite good, labeled X-Stress tea. This wine and spirits shop offered an assortment of unique and domestic wine and bears.

We all sipped our tea and looked at our option as we decided to take in the old and new Capital building, which are of course an “F” location.  We got in our car and headed back to capital district finding a parking spot not far from our target. We all got out of the car and headed down the streets just beautifully covered with early spring flowers that only the south can bring.

The Old Capitol Building is now a museum.  Restored to 1902 appearance featuring red candy-striped awnings, stained glass dome, House and Senate Chambers, Supreme Court and Governor’s office.   We all enjoyed the walk   to the capital building, the grounds were landscaped in red, white and blue flowers.  Fine trimmed lawns that had their own story to tell. The majority of exhibits have recently been moved to the Florida Museum, what was available to see is the House and Senate Chambers with exerts from newspapers as a walking tour guide.

Of course, our next “F” stop was the new capital building.  One of five capitals in the U.S. feature’s panoramic view from the 22-foot floor observatory and Art gallery and the new House and Senate viewing galleries.  We thought we would stop in and see Geb Bush but as we arrived we were informed that he was not available to see us right now, he and us was deeply sorry that he missed our visit.  We all wished him well and promised to stop in the next time we came to his lovely city.

Its now late afternoon and needless to say we were all famished, just down 1 block from the capitol is Andrew’s Capital Bar & Grill. Arriving just in time for happy hour and half price appetizers fits in with our conception of another “F” attraction. We all ordered something wet and filling as we reminisced about our perfect day.  Even though our feet and our backs had started to ache we were all glad to have had the opportunity and the time to share in a few of the “F” events available together.

Tomorrow we shall have to leave Tallahassee. En-route to arrive here we discovered a campground offering a Renaissance festival combined with a campground. So, we shall have to revisit the rest of Tallahassee’s “F” attractions at another time.

Rather than going along the interstate we chose to take highway 90 that parallels I-10 along the route we wished to go. We communicated with Brad and Janice with 2-way radios, and it was fun to chat as we went. More than that it made it possible to share what we saw along the way.

From Tallahassee all the way to Monticello, FL the road was lined with Fichus trees, unfortunately they were not in bloom yet or that would have been a phenomenal sight. In Monticello we visited an old Jail, nice courthouse, the largest steam engine Tom has ever seen. 500 HP was used to drive a cotton gin and sawmill for many years. Afterward we toured the shops in the historic area, Tom chatted with a clerk who has always returned to Monticello for he likes the quiet life.

The route from Monticello, FL to Madison, FL was lined with azaleas and red tip shrubs for about 4 miles. Again, it was the wrong season and although some of the azaleas were blooming the red tips were not showing at all.

Arriving at the campground were disappointing, very crude sites with a lot of leaves keeping bugs around all the time. The pond was small moss covered green throughout. The Renaissance Festival was isolated from the campground, the few individuals seen about were poorly costumed, so we did not attend the renaissance festival.

We did park the RV's facing each other and enjoyed dinner and cards that evening.

The trip home was uneventful, we took blue roads through Georgia and that was very relaxing, once on I-95 north rain slowed traffic considerably and that last 100 miles was much more stressful.

All in all we confirmed that blue roads are the way to go, also “F” trips can be a lot of fun and cost effective.