On the Road

Bridge over the Suwannee River at Dowling Park.

Visits to My Old Florida will take you down dirt roads, up tannin-colored rivers and into towns that look like they did 50 or more years ago.

Change has come and continues so quickly that much of the backbone of what was has eroded, turning hard-won footholds in the land into rivers of asphalt and mountains of cement. Like much of America, Florida is undergoing homogenization and My Old Florida hopes to lead you into places that have held onto their sometimes scrappy, sometimes elegant charm.

Certain roads call out to be driven from one end to the other. These were frequently roads that had been the big roads before turnpikes and interstates took that distinction. And like a lot of former “big” roads, parts of them have become time machines ready to take you back.

My grandfather, John Hinson, in Gulf Hammock, a tiny town on US 19 circa 1950s.

US 1 Part 1: Through the Florida Keys to the mainland

US 1 weaves its way up through the Keys starting in Key West where mile marker 0 says here is the beginning of a road that keeps going for almost 2400 miles before saying goodbye in northern Maine at the Canadian Border.

But when you start at MM-0, it's a different world. The streets are full of folks intent on making each day in paradise count. There is so much to see and do in Key West and the waters that surround it that it's hard to get this road trip started but you won't be sorry you did.

When you leave Key West you run a bunch of different worlds. Some keys are all about fishing, some about finding great seafood, some about shopping, some about getting a perfect tan or just doing nothing at all. And sprinkled throughout are a handful of really terrific state parks. Want to sleep on the beach and not get arrested, the parks have a place for you.

By the time you get to Homestead over on the mainland you will be living on island time and loving it. Read more about US1 in the Keys.

US 27 — from Glitz to Gophers
Part 1 - Miami to Lake Placid

US Highway 27 runs from Miami to Monticello, just east of Tallahassee before veering off into Georgia. It cuts a long diagonal across the state from east to west. Quickly leaving the high-rise beachfront of Miami and Fort Lauderdale behind, 27 heads into the flat green expanse of the Everglades and surrounding area now semi-tamed for farming.

The first section runs through the Everglades, around Lake Okeechobee, up through the orange groves and into the land of caladiums and murals found in Lake Placid. Read More about the what's on US 27.

Soon to Come:

US 27 — from Glitz to Gophers: Part II & Part III;
US 1 — Coasting Along the Coast on US 1: Part II from the Gold Coast to the Space Coast, Part III Daytona to the Georgia state line;
US 441; US 301; Dixie Highway