Florida Road Trip 2014 - Day 5: Sunday, November 30

Today we went to Metro Diner for brunch.  When we ate here after Mary had died, there was only one and Guy from Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives had made it famous.  Now there are five locations.  I had the shrimp and grit cakes and Rick had the SOS and Mat had some kind of Megga Burger.

Then we picked up Daddy Stone and headed out toward Mayport to catch the ferry to cross the St. John's River.  

Some pics while waiting for the ferry:

Joanne, Rick and Daddy Otis Stone.

The Stones---Rick, Otis, Mat.

It was $9 for the four of us and a vehicle to go across the river to the other side.  A huge container ship was going by as we waited.  

The Pelicans on the other side seemed to be content to hang out on the dock railing.

We stopped off at Amelia Island State Park, one of Bill Stone's favorite fishing places and where the family scattered his ashes.  Met this fisherman in the parking lot. He asked us if we wanted to see what he had caught......

....the Sheep's Head Fish--it has teeth like a human.

Mat said they look similar to a Drum Fish which is excellent to eat -- and when they would catch the fish they would look to see if it had the teeth--and.....

.....if the fish had teeth like this--they knew it was a Sheeps Head and would throw it back.

It was here that Rick recounted the story of going to Uncle Woodrow Stone's in Georgia catching 70 cat fish for the family get-to-gather, and making 2000 hush puppies in a big cauldron.  Rick and Deb stirred the hot oil in the cauldron, going in opposite directions so the hush puppies would float across, flip over and be taken out - - they made about 2000 in about an hour.  Someone requested a recipe for these in the Columbus Dispatch and Mary submitted the recipe for 2000 saying that it needed to be cut down for smaller portions.  Mat said he ran across the article and has it somewhere.  Daddy Stone remembered the name of the river and how to spell it ---- Altamaha.

Next, to Ferdanino, nice old buildings and looked like a nice sea-side town to get to know over a few days.  Then a stop to actually walk down to the Atlantic!  Saw a huge cactus and a couple of 13 year old kids, Justin and Casey who had just finished surfing and were heading home for supper. My, what different upbringing I had growing up in land-locked Nebraska.

Rick, Mat, Otis. What a good looking familiy those Stones are.

 I love how there are so many public boardwalks down to the ocean from the street.

Headed back, stopping for some boiled peanuts at a roadside stand for Otis.  The recipe:

Soak the peanuts overnight.  Drain, put new water over and bring to a boil.  Add salt, one cup of salt to each gallon of peanuts. (He did 5 gallons at a time.) Simmer until done - could be one to two hours but keep taste testing to see when peanuts are done. If you spit them out and say "yuck" they aren't done.  

Next, we just barely caught the ferry back in order to get to Safe Harbor Seafood Market in Mayport to eat supper.  Our tradition up to this point is eating at Singleton's in Mayport. New tradition.  I had the bangin' shrimp - -not as good as Bone Fish Grill, Rick had scallops - - yummmmmm, Daddy Stone and Mat the Grouper.

We took Daddy Stone home, and finished off our night with apple pie - -and Mat ate his boiled peanuts.  

While Melody and Macy look on.

And I got the blogging done with Melody snoozing with me in the chair. 

Florida Road Trip 2014 - Day 4: Saturday, November 29

Ohio State v. Michigan, need I say more. We ate breakfast at Denny's and picked up Daddy Stone to come over for the game. Mat tried to get the green beans ready and the dogs, Melody and Macy as well as Mat and his beer were in appropriate Ohio State gear. The lucky charm buckeye nuts seem to be working.

 Daddy Stone with Melody, Mat and Rick with Macy.   Mat went crazy a few times over football but I think his dogs are getting used to that!

Mat with Melody.

Rick with Macy.

Out with an injury.

The "horseshoe" --after the last touch down and final score.

Rick with Melody and Macy.

Daddy Stone third from right with his siblings at brother Woodrow's in Georgia.  Mat made a nice Thanksgiving dinner for us with turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes and we had apple pie afterward.

Florida Road Trip 2014 - Day 3: Friday, November 28

Today we visited the National Park's Service Martin Luther King Birth Site and Center for Nonvoilent Social Change in Atlanta.  The whole complex takes up both sides of the street for about 1.5 blocks.  This is the new church that replaced the Ebenezer Baptist Church once it became part of the historic site.

Next to the church is the National Park Service Visitor's Center. I met a kid from China visiting.  The majority of the visitors were African American which is no surprise, but I heard different languages being spoken while we were there so it draws people from all over the world. 

Between the church and the NPS site was a Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have A Dream" World Peace Rose Garden. There are inspirational messages written by students from the area and a new message is added each year.  The wall at the end where the people above are walking had a lengthy mural - this is just one tiny piece of it - - captured because of the Peace Now and I Am A Man signs.

Inside a great deal of semi-circle exhibits with a replica street and marchers inbetween.  This is the antique dealer's wagon that carried MLK's casket.

One exhibit had some of the signs carried in demonstrations.

Up the street were these row houses that were originally built by a company for their employees.  This was originally a German neighborhood, but after the 1906 race riot a lot of African Americans move in.

There was an informational plaque about the MLK Birthsite house looking across the street at the actual house.  Here is MLK with two of his children when they visited.  The iset photo shows MLKs parents, and grandmother in the back row, his sister, brother and MLK in the front. They all lived together in this house. His maternal grandfather, Rev. A. D. Williams, was the 2nd minister at the Ebenezer Baptist Church down the street in the next block.

This is what the house looks like today. We missed getting the free tickets for tour- so waited for the group tours from 2-4.  

Next to the birth site house was another house that is part of the complex that has been changed into a book store and gift shop.  I was kind of surprised to see a MLK bobble head for sale.

Next to the gift shop house was the historic Fire House #6.  This was manned by white firemen until the 1960s when it was integrated.  The people walking across the street are heading toward the MLK Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

The Center is behind me - in front is a long pool reminicent of the Washington Memorial where he gave the "I Have A Dream" speech.  In the middle of the fountains you will see a white tomb where MLK and Coretta are.  To the right is a plaza with speakers and ongoing speeches are heard.  The Ebenezer Baptist Church is in front of the tall white building. 

Along the left side of the pool is a covered Freedom Walk with large format photos along a wall.  Here were a couple.

Even one with MLK and Malcolm X.

We finished the day (10-5) by visiting the Ebenezer Baptist Church. 

It had been closed for four years to undergo an extensive renovation to take it back to the 1960s as it would have been when the Kings were there.  We were lucky to be able to attend the 4pm history of the church and rendetion of the "I have a Dream" speech by Stephon Ferguson in the basement below the sanctury. This was where MLK had given his first serman after he had graduated from seminary at age 19 and became a Reverend.  There were so many that showed up they had to move into the sanctuary upstairs.  It was also the first meeting place of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's first organizational meeting with over 100 ministers.  His talk and speech was the highlight of the day. We were lucky to be there on a day when he was there.

We ate lunch at the Edgewater Tavern - breaded and deep fried turkey breast sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy between Texas toast.  Next door was this interesting bar!

Headed toward Jacksonville, FL. Drove through Robbins Airforce Base where Ann spent the last two years of her career and retired from in 2001.  Stopped at a Piggly Wiggly to get canned boiled peanuts for Daddy Stone. The girl said the best fresh ones were at the Flash Foods gas station.  We stopped to get a 32 oz container for $2.99 and a roll of paper towels and ate these for our supper.

Arrived at Mat's in JAX about 11 pm traveling on some back roads.

Florida Road Trip 2014 - Day 2: Thursday, November 27-Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! Left Columbia, MO this morning about 9 after breakfast. The gas there was $2.39 but we didn't need any and when we crossed over into Illinois it was $2.74.  Got a call from Tate's birth mom thanking me for making this the best Thanksgiving in 41 years.  We had a nice talk. She is looking forward to meeting Tate December 12-14th when he flies out there.  Ended up on I 70, but then took backroad 109 through Missouri to Saint Louis past the Gateway to the West Arch, then jumped off on a backroad 109 through southern Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee. Went through areas that had had snow, maybe last night, still on the trees and pretty, but the roads were clear.  

Off of 109 in Southern Illinois I thought we were going to go through their Omaha, but it was down the road not taken:

We went over the Mississippi River into Kentucky:

We went past a few underground Kentucky coal mines.  Here a few piles of coal covered with snow:

Went through a valley with a lot of smoke from a tobacco drying facility.  I can tell you I'd rather smell that then feed lot!  Also went past a manufacturer for huge black plastic tubing that was on rolls, and a U. S. Smokelss Tobacco plant and a lot of Kentucky towns that looked like a lot of towns elsewhere-plenty of churches and dried up store fronts:

Here was a mural to the coal miners in this Kentucky town:

Finally, Nashville:

  We were going to stop to see N & W friends Marcia and Ed north of Atlanta but they called to say they were not home they were in southern Georgia at Marcia's parents. They were thinking we were coming through tomorrow night! They will call tomorrow and we may rondevouz with them in Atlanta for lunch.  With tha knowledge we didn't need to race to their house we stopped in Nashville about 5 pm at Cracker Barrel for supper. They had a 1.5 hour wait for Thanksgiving dinner special so we looked at all their goods. 

Of course Santa has to be a Unversity of Tennessee Volunteers fan:

Found this sign that I though Liz would like:

 It turned out to be only an hour wait, so 2 Burt's Bees lip shimmers and a fake pearl bracelet later, we were seated and quickly served our Thanksgiving Dinner.  Amazaing how many people were out eating.

I tipped the waitress about 30% and by the time we got out of there it was 7pm. We hit the road and drove in the dark through what were probably some pretty mountains, across the Tennessee River, to Chattanooga and in and out of Georgia and Tennessee to Atlanta. Got to our Holiday Express on 111 Cone Street at about 11pm.  We have a very long and skinny room but nicely furhished .