Taking the Scenic Route

Have you ever taken a different way home for the sake of variety? Or followed an unfamiliar road on a whim just to see where it leads?

As a child, I collected road maps. I would find myself entranced, following the routes, drawing my own maps on a sheet of paper, following our progress on family trips. Before I could do long division, I could tell you that the main interstate highways that end in odd numbers run north to south and those that end in even numbers run east to west.

That seems like an odd hobby, but it had an unexpected practical benefit: I rarely get lost.

This motivation hasn’t gone away, either. In fact, once I started driving, I found myself with the ability to drive the very roads that I followed on the maps. I commuted from Fort Lauderdale to Boca Raton when I was in college, and every now and then I decided to take the scenic A1A beach route home instead of the faster I-95 route. Or I would discover new “territory,” such as Loxahatchee Road, a 5-mile straightaway that leaves the suburban communities of Parkland behind, passing farms, rock quarries and a radio-controlled airplane runway before ending at the southern entrance to the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

What finally inspired me to start this blog, however, was something recent. Earlier this month, the girls soccer team at the school where I am athletic director crossed the state from our Cape Coral home to a game in the Miami suburb of Coconut Grove.

I take Alligator Alley (I-75) across the state frequently, as my parents live in Fort Lauderdale, so I know it like the back of my hand. This time, however, I had some time to kill, so I decided to take US 41 (Tamiami Trail) home instead.

I was immediately struck by how much different the drive was. Much of US 41 goes through the Miccosukee Indian Reservation, so you come across several tiny isolated villages. Oddly, each one has a little green sign with white lettering that says “Indian Village” right before you pass it (presumably so you don’t get it mixed up with an un-Indian village).

Then when you get to the other side of the state, you find yourself going right through the heart of Naples. Keep going and the landscape changes to the car dealerships of South Fort Myers and the pastures of Ocala, and so on.

In other words, when you take the long way, you get to see different cultures, different ways of life — even within the space of a few miles.

With this blog, I hope to provide descriptions of Florida’s highways, with as many of the unique places to stop as I can get to. There will be photos, as well, when possible.

Here’s the way it will work:

Each route will have a thread. Each thread will have a posting describing the route itself, followed by descriptions and reviews of the places to go along the way.

I will limit this to interstate, US and state highways. For the routes that are expressways, I’ll be stopping at points of interest that are close to exit ramps. For other routes, I will only stop at places that are on (or on the corner of) that highway.

Several routes overlap with others. To avoid redundancies, the thread for one route may link to the other. For example, if US 441 merges with US 41, you will be linked to the US 41 thread.

Some parameters: I’m not going to write about every gas station or big box store I come across. I’ll focus on local businesses, regional chains, and places that have entertainment value. I also plan to avoid places where huge purchases are made, for the most part, and members-only facilities, such as private golf courses. There will be exceptions, but I’ll be mostly following this.

Also, this is a huge undertaking, so it will take a while to get it going. Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of posts about Southwest Florida. I live there, so it’ll be a lot easier for me to cover the region.

I hope you enjoy this and feel free to make tasteful comments!

-Dave