Lake City

Ocala, Florida

Weather: low 70 degrees, high 88 degrees, partly cloudy skies

It seems as though the little excursions that we have been doing are taking us further and further away from the RV. Today's trip took us all the way to Lake City, as we continued our drive down memory lane.

It had been about 40 years since we had actually been in Lake City, so that seemed like a good enough reason to go check out the area. Before I-75 was built, the most direct route to Carolyn's hometown of Nashville, Georgia was on US-41. We followed that part of the old route from Newberry to Lake City today, and as might be expected, didn't see a thing that we remembered.

We took the back roads because we like the slower pace, less traffic, and more things to see. Since we had recently been to Newberry, we only slowed down enough to obey the traffic laws. Once outside Newberry, we headed north to High Springs, another of those little Florida towns that are so neat. High Springs has a population of about 3600 people, and is a nice little town.

From High Springs, we headed north across farmland and pastures, eventually driving into the south side of Lake City. This medium sized city has a population of about 67,000 people, and is the county seat of Columbia County. Here's a picture of the courthouse, which is a good representative of the architecture of Florida.



During our drive around town, we found what we named The Duck Lake, because of the large number of ducks that live on the shore of the lake. The buildings in the picture are in the downtown area.



The area in front of the courthouse has a little park with the usual statues and memorials to honor past events and heroes. The most intriguing sight to me was this little fountain.



After leaving the downtown area, we started looking for a place to eat lunch. We didn't want a fast food restaurant, such as hamburgers, but couldn't find anything that drew us into the store. Finally, we stopped at McAllister's and had a couple of club sandwiches with potato salad.

By the time lunch was finished, we were ready to head back home. The trip back to the RV was via I-75, more for the speed than being able to see the sights. By the time we arrived back at home, it was the middle of the afternoon. At least our urge to explore has been scratched for one day.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Lake City, Florida: The Gateway To Florida

Not all who wander are lost.