Kevin B Parsons: 50 States, Day 294

Monticello to Tallahassee & back, 65 miles

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

~Mark Twain

Tallahassee looked to be a nice capital city, the trees hanging low with Spanish moss. I'm a sucker for that stuff, it looked so cool.

We found a parking garage ($1, cool) and headed to the Capitols. Yes, the old one remains and the new one (a hideous modern box) stands tall behind it. The pleasant man informed us the old one was a museum, and the new one was closed on Saturdays. Budget constraints. Been listening to those Post Office people.

And what a fine museum. While others use most or parts of their buildings, Florida (the fourth most populated state) set up a fine museum, and restored the court, Senate and House to 1920 condition. Offices were changed to theme museums such as the history of different branches of government, the environment, Indian, black and Cuban histories, and highlights and lowlights of Florida's past governments. Like for instance:

Lynchings. Florida lynched over sixty men (all black, or course) in twenty years for such things as frightening a white woman and a fifteen year old sending a Christmas card to a white girl. A lynching is defined as a hanging without due process.

Civil War. Florida sent 15,000 Confederate troops to fight. 2,000 fought for the Union. And Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.

Water. Because of so much growth and development, they had to do something. And one visionary attempted to drain the Everglades to develop land. Another started a huge canal that would have cut off water migration to the Everglades.

Gambling. They voted it down. But instigated state lotteries.

People. One governor committed suicide, citing he'd be better off dead than equal to blacks, just after the Civil War.

Parties. They were dominated by Democrats for fifty years, and swung more toward the Republicans from 1995.

And of course, the famous Presidential Election of 2000, which took a couple of months to determine.

Hats off to Florida for making a very compelling museum of the old gal, after she served the people for over sixty years. While most Capitols may have a bit of history and a hallway lined with paintings of past governors, Florida really delivered a bang up performance. Great place for teachers to bring their skulls full of mush as they morph them into gray matter.

And now, bundled up and ready, Quilter Girl.

We are thinking we are crazy for camping tonight. It is very cold, hard to imagine we were wearing shorts and tees a week ago. We have the tent heater cranked up and it is still cold.

After our Capitol tour we searched for a restaurant. Nothing. We ended up eating at a Huddle House near the campground. It was a good choice, better than Mickey D's place! I had a great country fried steak and Kevin had rib steak, we both had salad. Now we are full and ready to cuddle up tonight with our nice warm quilt.

Yes, it's supposed to get down to 29 tonight. Having made a huge judgment blunder, we'll huddle together in the tent. Oh for a motel.