Many have dreamed of seeing Florida at a slower pace than through the windshield of a car whizzing along the interstate, and yet few have done so. Road Biking Florida provides an exquisite tour of the Sunshine State, offering bike routes for every taste and moment. Each ride—whether along highways or quiet rural lanes, from short 25-mile rambles to 100-mile classics—has been ridden and reviewed personally by local author Rick Sapp. He highlights not only the unique features of the road but also the people, the ecology, and the history of the areas covered. The author’s passion truly brings alive those halcyon rides under hammocks of oak draped with Spanish moss, past whitetail deer munching on acorns, along stretches of white sand beaches, and through wide expanses of the Everglades and swamp.
This entertaining guide directs travelers to the off-the-wall and offbeat destinations in Florida, home of gator wrestlers, school bus demolition derbies, Hemingway wannabes, the Fountain of Youth, the Nudist Hall of Fame, and a utopian community based on the premise that the earth is not round, but concave. Additional oddball attractions include a graveyard for roosters, the world's largest strawberry, the world's smallest police station, and museums dedicated to seashells, hamburgers, oranges, teddy bears, sponges, air conditioning, and one very old petrified cat. Documenting local oddities and forgotten history, this travel guide covers Florida in six regions with maps and detailed directions for each site as well as phone numbers, hours, web sites, and various photographs.
Developing numerous themes, including leisure, state-promoted tourism, citizenship, and business investment, Godefroy Desrosiers-Lauzon considers advertisements, movies, policymakers, and the behaviour of snowbirds in Florida to provide the most thorough study of the vacation state to date. He also looks at the temporary communities of Canadians, Québecois, New Englanders, and Mid- Westerners that develop, showing how they blur the lines that usually divide national and regional identities, and youth and age. An insightful work full of amusing details, Florida's Snowbirds pieces together a complete cultural atlas of Florida Snowbirds that goes far beyond the familiar postcards they send home
"For four hundred years Florida has been North America's ranking treasure hunt, a national Never-Never land." Gloria Jahoda unfolds the colorful story in this book, from the gold-seeking conquistadores of Spain, and the alleged search for a fountain of youth, to today's vast influx of tourists and the retired in search of sun, health, and the delights of Disney World.
Curated from the archives of FORUM, the award-winning magazine of Florida Humanities, this anthology presents 50 often surprising and always intriguing stories of life in Florida by some of the nation’s most talented writers and scholars Once Upon a Time in Florida transports readers into the eventful life and times of this remarkable state through 50 stories vividly rendered by some of the nation’s most acclaimed writers and scholars, along with 150 evocative images. This collection opens more than 14,000 years ago with the first people to inhabit the peninsula and continues through the state’s territorial beginnings, the era of slavery, statehood, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Jim Crow period, and Florida’s transformation into a complex, powerful megastate. Throughout, readers will encounter the unexpected: The myth-busting truths behind Ponce de Leon’s search for the Fountain of Youth; the real First Thanksgiving; the first legally sanctioned free Black town; the revealing wartime letters of novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; the Jacksonville principal who penned the lyrics now known as the Black National Anthem; and the little-known story of how Mary McLeod Bethune saved World War II‒era Daytona Beach. The stories also highlight Florida as a magnet for dreamers and doers, featuring the heady days of the Space Age seen through the eyes of a teenager; the secretive mission that brought Walt Disney to Orlando; the music culture that has churned out a stream of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers; and a look at how Florida’s glossy image has been indelibly shaped through the eyes of Hollywood. Told through the lens of the humanities, at its heart this anthology is the story of what it means to be a Floridian. In these pages, folklorist Stetson Kennedy travels the back roads with novelist Zora Neale Hurston, capturing vanishing stories and songs. Former U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Latina in Congress, remembers her family’s early days as Cuban refugees. Novelist Lauren Groff describes how the writings of literary giants taught her to love Florida. Columnist Bill Maxwell and novelist Beverly Coyle, who grew up in the waning days of Jim Crow, share clear-eyed memories of experiences as different as black and white. And southern grit writer Harry Crews tells of a family memory evoked by the Suwannee River. There is much more to discover in this vibrant anthology, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of Florida Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and presents selections from the timeless and treasure-filled archives of Florida Humanities’ award-winning FORUM magazine. Contributors: Jerald T. Milanich | J. Michael Francis | Michael Gannon | Kathleen Deagan | Darcie A. MacMahon | Larry Eugene Rivers | Robert A. Taylor | Casey Blanton | Rick Kilby | Gary R. Mormino | Stetson Kennedy | Betty Jean Steinshouer | Gordon Patterson | Rick Edmonds | Andrea Brunais | Steven Noll | Richard Foglesong | Eric Deggans | Bill Maxwell | Beverly Coyle | David R. Colburn | Nila Do Simon | Stephen J. Whitfield | Willie Johns | Ron Cunningham | Jon Wilson | Dalia Colón | Bill DeYoung | Maude Heurtelou | Lauren Groff | Maurice J. O’Sullivan | Michele Currie Navakas | Craig Pittman | Thomas Hallock | Edna Buchanan | Philip Caputo | Gary Monroe | Peter B. Gallagher | Bob Kealing | Jack E. Davis | Charlie Hailey | Terry Tomalin | Bill Belleville | Cynthia Barnett | Jack E. Davis | Jeff Klinkenberg | Harry Crews Distributed on behalf of Florida Humanities
Discover the hidden treasures of the Sunshine State with the second edition of this illustrated road trip guide featuring thirty-one new routes to explore! Apart from its world-famous attractions, Florida is full of natural splendor and historic charm that can’t be found unless you know where to look. The second edition of Backroads of Florida contains all-new routes along timeless backroads with new, vibrant photography and pithy stories of what can be found on your drive. As you explore the roads less traveled, you’ll follow in the footsteps of the Spanish explorers, pirates, and cowboys who shaped Florida’s early history. Whether it’s skimming across the Everglades in an airboat, snorkeling with manatees in a crystalline river, or paddling your kayak through a cypress swamp teeming with alligators, orchids, and tropical birds, there’s a world of excitement and beauty waiting for you. Leave Disney World and the hectic bustle of Miami Beach to the tourists. With this book, you’ve got a one-of-a-kind trip in store.
Virtually every month for fourteen years, Gene Burnett wrote a history piece under the title "Florida's Past" for Florida Trend, Florida's respected magazine of business and finance. The first volume of collected essays from that series proved so popular among book readers that two more volumes have been published. Pineapple Press is now proud to make them available in paperback. Burnett's easygoing style and his sometimes surprising choice of topics make history good reading. Each volume divides Florida's people and events into Achievers and Pioneers, Villains and Characters, Heroes and Heroines, War and Peace, and Calamities and Social Turbulence. Read a chapter and you'll find you've gone on to read more. Read this volume and you'll find yourself looking for the next two. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series
