Day 11 (25 May) Northwest Florida

From: Lake Placid, FL

To: Perry, FL

Miles today: 288

Total miles: 2525

Another travel day, although I didn’t make 300 miles.  The goal was to follow US 27 north between Tampa on the left and Orlando on the right, but the number of traffic lights finally drove me over to I-75.  The only real stop of the day was in Gainesville, where I visited the Florida Museum of Natural History.  This museum is actually on the campus of the University of Florida (the Gators). 

The FMNH was actually a bit smaller than I expected.  It had the mandatory section on the current fauna and flora of Florida, and a nice room on the prehistoric peoples that lived here.  Artifacts have been dated to 12,000 years ago, which is about as early as could possibly be; these people basically took the route through Alaska in reverse that I will be taking this summer, and the route through the glaciers didn’t open up until about this time.  Interestingly, among these artifacts are worked copper pieces from the Great Lakes; wherever humans go, trade follows.  Another part of the display noted that the current sea level was not established until about 6,000 years ago.  Florida, it seems, has always been ground zero for climate and sea level change.

One of the temporary exhibits is Sue, the famous T. Rex that normally lives at the Chicago Field Museum.  (The fossil, the most complete T. Rex found to that time, was found on private property, and it looked like it would be sold to a private collector rather than end up in a museum.  Then McDonalds (!) stepped up and bought it for something like $6 million, and donated it to the Field Museum.  I would like to say that this is why I eat at McDonalds so much, but I’m afraid that this isn’t really factual!)  Anyway, it seems that Florida (or at least its museum) has Dinosaur envy; they note with a hint of sadness that Florida was underwater for the entire era.  The do have some nice mastodon and mammoth fossils, though.

Mastodon (left) and Mammoth (right) skeletons, both found in northern Florida.

And yes, in case you were wondering, the FLORIDA Museum of Natural History does have a small but nicely done exhibit on climate change.  Here are some photos.  I am sorry the words are too blurry to read.   

A museum in Gainesville, Florida discusses climate change.

One particularly nice thing they do, in my view, is explicitly define ‘weather’ and ‘climate’ to show that they are not the same. The exhibit, aimed at youngsters good for me, states:

            Weather is different from climate.

            Weather is the day-to-day condition of the atmosphere at a certain place.

            Climate is the average weather pattern in a place over 30 or more years.

I cleared out of Gainesville via I-75 again before cutting back over to US 27.  I am in the small town of Perry, FL.  It has a surprisingly large number of hotels for a town that seems to be little more than the county seat, but the brochures in the lobby (all for Tampa) imply that it is a good stopping off point from other states.

My front tire seems to be overly worn. I’m going to try to see if I can get it replaced in Tallahassee tomorrow, about 50 miles from here.