Diary for Daniel Tours America


Tallahassee, Leon Sinks, Apalaciacola, gulf coast road

2008-04-17

Today I spent the morning in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida, where my host, a young student/soldier, took me on a tour of the Soroity houses.  Sadly no-one was in as they were all at classes, but it was just like in the movies.

The rest of the morning was spent at the state history museum, before I went to the Apalaciacola forest.  Here I visited the Leon Sinks national/state park, which is a collection of geological sink-holes.  It was quite amazing to see a river flowing and then disappearing into the earth, only to reappear around the corner.

My drive to Panama City was disrupted for 30 mins by the air force:  they were testing their predator drones and, in the words of the officer to whom I spoke, "they sometimes crash and we want to close the road to ensure we don`t kill nobody." Nice.  The rest of the drive was along a beautiful cost road where the sea was literally next to the road and sand blew over the tarmac.

My host today, an artist and pharmacist, took me to dinner and to an indie film show in an art gallery.  Panama City is very nice, a centralised walkable downtown area with streetfront bars and restaurants.  Luckily I missed the mayhem of Spring Break.