Jacksonville

Jacksonville lies in the north-east corner of the state of Florida in the United States of America. It is just under two thousand kilometers drive south from Toronto.

We set off on a trip to Florida Sunday, February 02, 2014. The plan was to arrive after two days of easy driving and stay in a pre-booked motel for three nights, giving us two days to do little else but cruise around.

Me being me, I have tabled intermediate locations and plan to log our travel times. And after three brutal cold snaps in Toronto, I want to see a gradual increase in temperature as we travel South!

As we set off on our trip, a stream of bad weather channels up to New York State from the south-west. It looks as if we will have lousy weather until we leave the I-90 at Erie and head South on I-79.

Oh well.

2014-02-02 Sunday

We packed the car the night before and set off at 7:15 a.m. From Toronto.

Along the I-90 silver-grey decked trees lined the way.

Some parts of the highway were eerie in their silver stillness.

Just beautiful, albeit cold and somewhat treacherous.

True to form the weather stayed rotten until Erie, but then continued to be rotten all the way to our mid-point stop in Princeton West Virginia.

Here we are crossing the Ohio river north-east of Pittsburgh. This section is part of the original Ohio river heading north-west, before the days of the Wisconsin Ice Sheet which diverted the Ohio river to the south-west and into the Mississippi River.

Of course I get sidetracked and miss the continuation turn for I-79 after we leave Washington and head off east. Luckily for me my navigator spoke up after about half an hour, so we doubled back down a very weird toll way (#43) and didn’t I then get lost in Morgantown.

Rats.

We lunched at the Waffle House; Betty hadn’t eaten in one before, and I practically lived in them on my trips around the south eastern states years ago.

And so past Beckley and to Princeton.

We were supposed to be enjoying beautiful views and vistas in the Appalachian Mountains, but instead we were restricted to a view of about one hundred yards – intense fog for hours on end.

2014-02-03 Monday

We left Princeton at 8:00 a.m. after learning that parts of the town were without power from around eight the night before, and after seeing Flood Warnings broadcast on the local TV.

Shudder! The air was cold, a light rain fell as we continued our dreary trek south.

This is the approach (from the north) to the East River Mountain Tunnel which straddles the border between West Virginia and Virginia. Two lanes North, two lanes South.

We then drove through the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel.

Both tunnels lie between Princeton and Wytheville.

For a short stretch, south of Wytheville, highways I-77 and I-81 share the same stretch of countryside. This leads to interesting setups, as shown in this screen snapshot from Google Maps. Our weather was not this good.

Here we are on a stretch of highway with relatively good visibility. We can see part of the next mountain through the mist.

It reminded me of every trip I’ve ever made to Prince Rupert BC.

Here we are just bopping along.

Fog, fog, fog, as far as the eye can not see.

THEN!

We were in Georgia, or one of the Carolinas at any rate. A civilized state. GREEN GRASS on the roadside, none of this dead orange-gray stuff we’ve been seeing for the past few months.

There you go – 1,000 Km the first day (including my one-hour deke around Morgantown!) and 900 Km the second day. Twelve plus ten hours in the car, of which two and a half hours were spent in rest and lunch stops.

FWIW the trip went according to my plan, which was to drive slightly over 50% of the distance on the first day, when we were fresh, leaving a lesser amount of driving on the second day.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Up and out. Brekkas in the hotel.

Looks like a simply beautiful day, doesn’t it?

After this it clamped down to cold winds, drizzle, and deep fog.

Again.

We lunched at the Soul Bistro, where I pigged out on as many southern foods as I could cram into me – Braised ox-tail, okra and tomatoes, fried cabbage, collard greens, candied yams, cornbread, and more.

For dessert I asked for Hummingbird cake, wanting to find out what they did with the beaks and feathers, but they were all out, so I settled for Peach Cobbler.

I confess that the best part of the meal was the wait staff, and their accents.

There are two outlets in Jacksonville.

Then off the check out some of the beaches. This sidewalk of bricks caught my attention. At first I suspect several of my family might have had their ashes entombed here. Then I considered that a guy named Graves might have operated a brick kiln in Birmingham Alabama.

And so to Neptune Beach. We’ve been looking forward to this for five months.

The palm trees are in place …

And there is our first view of The Atlantic Ocean.

Looks like thick fog to me.

Yup.

There are the tourists, huddling together for warmth.

Here’s a view looking south, in theory, a warmer section of beach.

And here’s a view looking north.

We returned to the motel and turned on the kettle, made a pot of tea …

FWIW, here’s the forecast. Until Saturday, every day looks like it’s going to be like today.

I hope we don’t run out of tea-bags.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

The day dawned clear, but by one o’clock we were clouded in and thunderstormed upon.

Here is the back page of USA Today; note the cold air that stretches all the way down to almost-here

Here is some detail of the foot of the back page.

Note that Jacksonville is expecting (expectorating?) rain all this week, but on Saturday the rain ends.

And the snow starts.

Just my luck (glum).

As yet undismayed I set off for a walk to the nearby plazas and strip malls. The sky clouds over …

Here I am in one of the nearby strip malls. This one is typical; up to 75% of the stores moved or gone out of business. We are staying in a depressing area adjacent to the naval yard.

The lack of cars in the parking lot tells a lot; Jacksonville Atlantic Beach is NOT a pedestrian area. No cars means no customers.

Here is what a portion of the mall looks like.

Dead; just dead.

One bright spot; on the walk home I spotted some grass of the type we grew in Southern cross. Kikuyu or Buffalo Grass.

Here a shoot has leaped upwards away from the sand and is growing outwards and downwards ready to nose back into the sand and make roots before continuing its leaps across the ground.

Another bright spot, I suppose. A dandelion. Sure.

But a dandelion head? In February?!!

This man, a hotel employee, came out with his leaf-blower while we were enjoying lunch-by-the-pool. With a strong westerly wind taking care of the leaves in the parking lot, he fired up his gasoline-burning noise machine and began a slow, meticulous sweep across the entire parking lot.

He annoyed the heck out of me, but managed to corral perhaps a half-bushel of leaves from about a quarter of an acre of bitumen.

As he worked his way downwind, the strong westerly wind collected leaves from the hedge beds and blew them onto the once-clean parking lot.

We figure that he is under contract, or it is one of his scheduled duties, His work was pointless.

He causes noise pollution and gasoline pollution and waste because if he were to just sit in a chair for that hour, he wouldn’t burn gasoline, and so the accountant’s budget wouldn’t be used up, and so the budget would be less next year, and that’s NOT how you build empires.

The thunderstorm approached and we ducked indoors.

Just in time. Here is a view out of the motel window. Compare it with Tuesday morning’s view.

Boom!

We took dinner at The Seafood Kitchen where I ate too much, but couldn’t resist. The waitresses wore T-shirts, each a different shade of poster-paint colours.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

This morning’s USA today weather map:-

I am keeping the newspaper and will probably stuff it in my shirt to keep me warm when I head out for my morning walk …

Off we went to St Augustine, the USA’s oldest city. We took highway A1A down the coast.

St Augustine, the USA’s COLDEST city.

We stopped along the way, just so we could say we had seen the Atlantic Ocean (so much for JAX beaches in February) and here’s a guy in his windcheater, hooded up, back to the northerly gale, enjoying, I don’t think, the sunshine.

Same view looking south; no-one on the beach.

Looking north: A couple rugged up. Probably in love.

We hopped on the $30/head guided tour trolley ride – use all day long, hop off, hop on – and the tour was good, but we were practically in tears with the wind chill. The tour ended. We abandoned all thoughts of returning to explore downtown on foot, and retreated to the greenhouse car to thaw out, then drove home, stopping off at The Village Inn for a good lunch and friendly service (Hi Katie!).

It was so cold I kept my hands in my pocket for the entire trip, except, before I froze, this one shot of Spanish Moss behind the Trolley Tours office.

Friday, February 07, 2014

The deep blue is the 30Fs, so today USA Today predicts temperatures in the 60s, and along the bottom, rain today and tomorrow.

I have scrubbed my idea of taking Jacksonville Transit into the downtown core and will spend much of this day indoors doing crossword puzzles and feeling as if I am eight years old on a week-long holiday in Morecambe, Lancashire, UK.

We have decided to quit Jacksonville earlier than planned. On Tuesday we drive to Fort Walton where the weather will probably be the same, but we’ll be able to look out of our window at the storm-lashed Atlantic instead of not driving to the beach to stare through fog. If you know what I mean.

In the afternoon I set off walking southbound with a plan to locate the CT4 bus stop for the bus to take me into downtown on Monday, but lucked out! A northbound Community Shuttle picked me up and gave me a grand tour of Mayport before dropping me off at Atlantic Village Shopping Centre.

I show my starting point with a cross-line; the bus took me out to the Mayport peninsula then all the way back to the Atlantic Boulevard. I walked home.

Here is the shuttle bus, partly obscured by the bus shelter. Yes, that’s a bike on the bike rack at the front.

And the CT4 has just pulled in behind it. The CT4 runs every 30 minutes (weekdays) and takes about 45 minutes to get downtown.

The next northbound shuttle is pulling away; I think that the front shuttle is heading south down Penman Road.

The shuttles are in effect feeder services into routes such as the CrossTown CT4 and the Arlington AR7.

I walked around the North Beach Shopping Centre; it is dead/dying like every other plaza I’ve seen so far.

The Days Inn across the street sports something I’ve not seen before: A rack of wines, $5.95 each; right next to the service desk.

More empty stores; I imagine that the loss of revenue is crippling the landlords.

Later: Here is another CT4 bus waiting to set off, and behind it the Beaches Trolley – another shuttle service.

Here a section of pedestrian area has been cut away to provide extra turning space for drivers who make a U-turn from southbound on Mayport Road to northbound.

These cutouts are seen Mid-block, where there is an appropriate break in the median strip.

Saturday, February 08, 2014

I remember a holiday in Morecambe when I was eight years old. One week at the seaside; four of us cramped up in a single room in a hotel away from the beach. My sister and I had colouring books, my dad had crossword puzzles, my mother had knitting. The sand-castle flags and buckets and spades stayed in a corner of the room.

This is not much better.

No weather map from USA Today today; it is Saturday. Jones College Radio (90.9 FM here in Jacksonville) has just played “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”.

I will not be sending them a donation.

No Comment.

And so off to the Beach Boulevard Flea Market, a dim and somewhat sleazy affair, where I bought 8 VHS tapes for a dollar each.

I dunno; would you get your laptop services by a guy who uses battery charger clips as pegs?

We had a first-class lunch at Crispers ; I had two half-serves of flatbread; Ms B had the crab salad. Both were excellent dishes.

I laughed at the dispenser. You order a beverage, and are given a cup to fill. I wanted plain water.

The dispenser is all modern, but the manufacturer doesn’t want people to drink just water – that would hurt his client’s sales.

So the manufacturer provides a secret tap, but doesn’t tell you about it.

So the client (Crispers in this case) gets a marker and a bit of masking tape and draws your attention to the small, thin plastic tab that will deliver tap water.

I imagine that until this was done, Crispers went through an inordinate amount of LifeWater without charging for it.

I finally twigged to the scene that’s been bugging me all week.

The palm trees say “Tropical climate, sunshine, warmth”, but the weather says “Toronto, mid-December”. These two statements conflict in the brain.

The locals are wearing gloves; I am in a short-sleeve shirt under my light jacket which I brought with me In Case; but have worn every day so far.

The jacket hasn’t spent any time at all in the case.

After a quick tour of Dillards we went for a trip clockwise around the ring road.

Sixty minutes after jumping on the I-295 at the point labeled “A”, and traveling at 65 mph most of the way, we jumped off at the point labeled “B”.

It took us an hour and even then we hadn’t circled Jacksonville.

It’s something else to spot downtown Jacksonville’s towers from ten miles away as we circle the core.

Sunday, February 09, 2014

The day dawned clear and bright. A miracle! I am growing tired of the friendly well-meaning locals who parrot the party-line “You should have been here last week …”

So we set off to Jacksonville Beach, about five miles away.

A container ship is chug-chugging its way past Jacksonville.

The locals are rugged up for the cold wind coming in off the Atlantic Ocean.

This is Jacksonville Beach Pier. Folks were walking up and down along the length of it, but I refused to tour; I figured it would be way colder up on the pier than it was on the beach.

A few more brave vacationers trying to enjoy the beach.

Bah!

I stood in ankle-deep water for a few minutes to see how long it would be before my feet went numb.

A few minutes.

The islands of foam stray down the water-slicked beach, pushed by the wind. I find myself wondering what chemical keeps the bubbles so firm.

And so off to the St John River Ferry; the BH20 shuttle bus brought me up here yesterday. The ferry runs every half hour, cars $6, pedestrians and bicycles $1.

Here cars are streaming off after the westward crossing. The captain is in the bridge which straddles the deck.

I zoomed in on the bridge; little to see because I am shooting into the sun.

I thought the ferry scooted across to a point just in front of the big ship moored on the other side.

I did watch a pelican glide across the water a full sixty feet from left to right without flapping its wings; I swear it was no more than six inches above the water. An effortless glide.

Here are cars driving on to the ferry. This fellow has a canoe strapped to his vehicle.

This area abounds in creeks and lagoons where one could paddle all day, with parking spots alongside.

Here is a brief/flock/pod/pouch/raft/rookery/scoop/squadron/rookery of pelicans.

The ferry has pulled away and is heading diagonally away from the dock; only the bridge is visible.

We are impressed with the orderly and fast traffic flow; there is not the rabble-like behaviour of Toronto.

Many factors contribute towards this, not the least the clever use of the median strip.

The Google Maps view above is of Highway A1A running north-south between Neptune and Jacksonville Beaches. The highway is two lanes each way, but we travel in either lane at speed without stopping.

If you want to make a left turn, you slide into a left-turn slip road and wait for a break in the oncoming traffic.

In Toronto, all too often you just pull up to a halt, pray that you won’t get rear-ended, and the dozen cars behind you all make two lane changes – a swerve into the right-hand lane and a swerve-back into the left hand lane.

In Jacksonville, left-turners do not hold up the through-traffic and the through-traffic does not rear-end left-turners.

I’ve driven around for four days now looking for a letter-box in which to post a letter; finally dropped it off at a post office letter-box.

Waddya Know! No letter-boxes on the sides of roadways, so no-one pulls up in the right hand lane and leaps out of their car to post a letter. Another traffic-blocker eradicated!

Monday, February 10, 2014

The day promised to be bright and sunny. The mass of cold air is retreating northwards. Orange shading has returned to Jacksonville.

Rain is however threatening the Gulf Shores, where we are due to be tomorrow. Aargh!

I set off at 9:25 and caught the southbound Community Shuttle BH20, which deposited me in Atlantic Village in time to catch the CrossTown CT4 into downtown Jacksonville at the Rosa Parks transit hub. Each trip cost me $1.50; there is no transfer system.

Here is a shot upstream of the Mathews Bridge; it is a sunny day, mid-winter Perth IMHO, not foggy. The blur is due to the grease on the bus window and the speed of the bus. Once the CT4 hits the Arlington Expressway its non-stop hammer-lane until it runs out of steam.

I bought a one-day STAR card for $4.00 – excellent value when you consider it cost me $3.00 to get downtown in order to buy a card and yes, I know, if I were really clever I would have found out where to buy a card in Mayport.

I figured that the card represented my trip home with a dollar to spare, so I was, in effect, riding around all day for $1.00.

Here is a photo of the SkyTrain route. Remember, from Rosa Parks you only go two stops, then you get off and wait for another train.

I took this photo in Rosa Parks – the terminus at the top-right of the map. I have no idea whether the next train goes west or south, but I don’t care.

So naturally the first thing I do is mount the stairs to the Skyway platform where rides on the train are free, so I don’t get to use my card.

Here is a view to the north-east; away in the distance are the cooling towers of what I think is the electricity generating station for Jacksonville. Their plumes of steam serve as a reference point for the visitor.

I am waiting …

And here comers the train. Whoo!-Whoo!

Brave little train; two-car units, each car about as long as my friend’s Toyota Camry. It was upon me and nearly past me before I clicked the camera shutter trigger.

And here we are, ready to board the train for ??? There is no sign on the train giving its destination. Turns out you have to read an electronic board on the platform.

We are not going to the southern terminus – Kings Avenue – and we are not going to the western terminus – Convention Center – we are going just two stops to Central.

Two stops later, everybody (all five of us) get off the train and watch it steam back to Rosa parks.

I hop on the next train which turns out to be going to Convention centre – two more stops. I return, then hop the next train which is going THREE stops to Kings Avenue.

At each terminus or at Center, everyone gets off. Tourists like me get off and go back the way we came. Locals, as confused as I, get off and ask each other where they are. As confused as I.

No one seems to know what the SkyTrain is good for. When you get somewhere, you could have walked it in the time it took waiting for the train to come. And when you get there, there’s nothing to do there – no shops, no offices that I could see.

I took some photos through the sloping front/rear of the train. A huge area is unavailable for seating at each end; I presume it holds the motors, although why they need about four cubic yards of space for electric motors baffles me.

That’s not the floor you’re looking at, it’s a huge rear-seat-at-back level behind the rear seat – which (bench) seats only three people.

I took a photo of Jacksonville Landing as we crossed the Acosta Expressway Bridge. Later on I walked Jacksonville Landing.

The Skyway line ducks underneath the freeway ramps before returning to freeway level. It was like a tamed-down roller-coaster line with the sudden dip and sharp bends at the bottom.

Here is a view as we approach Riverplace Station. That’s the station with the angled canopy at the left of the photo; a curved canopy is peeking from the right.

Here is the curved canopy. What? What is it for? Why so short? Why curved?

Answer: look at the right – an apartment building. Presumably any suicide jumpers hit the convex canopy and bounce into the living-rooms of the first or second floor dwellers.

More to the point, why can’t Toronto erect canopies over the Scarborough LRT line? It will snow again next winter, as it has been doing these past thirty years …

The bridges bear protected pedestrian walkways. Look closely and you can see a pedestrian in a red sweater, protected from traffic by heavy concrete barriers.

I liked this sign, especially the first sentence. Don’t be afraid to talk with a fellow-passenger.

On the trip back I took a shot down-river; this region of the river is spanned by beautiful bridges; beautiful in shape and in colour.

Here is part of the roller-coaster ride heading back to Center station.

I could not get a good photo of the driving mechanism, the sunshine was too bright. Three, I think, rubber wheels grip the concrete guide way. It reminded my of Adelaide’s Busway .

My south bank train pulled away, and I clicked goodbye.

OK. So here I am, two or three stations from the end of the line to nowhere in any direction.

I abandoned the Skyway and took a final shot from below.

The whole thing seems like an exercise in futility.

A hawk circles the building at the intersection of Hogan Street South and Water Street; the building with its pyramid top is a Jacksonville landmark.

Here is the view in zoomed-out mode.

A back-hoe is busy at work uprooting an entire tree. To the left, just above the rear of the SUV, you can see leaves on some of the limbs already ripped off.

The back hoe couldn’t knock the tree down, so it resorted to digging away at the roots, forcing the tree to release its grip on the earth.

I suppose this happens in Toronto, but I rather wish that our tree laws would insist that an atrium be architected around the trees.

I start my walk through Jacksonville Landing from the up-stream end.

I find a small amphitheatre, reminds me of Dundas Square, south-east corner of Dundas and Yonge streets in Toronto.

There is a water-taxi; it makes a 25-minute circuit of the downtown river area on the half-hour, I think.

I’m told it runs at a loss. Certainly no-one was interested in a ride at this time. I see it as a shuttle service rather than a taxi, but still …

Off they go, a two-man crew with no passengers.

Here is the taxi’s route; I thought they told me five stops, but it looks like only four.

The restaurants that line the river were empty. Here we are, a quarter to noon on a calm sunny day, and nobody eating Chicken Salsa salad out on the deck.

Where is everybody?

There goes the brave little SkyTrain; probably only four people on board now that I’m not on it.

The train carries no operating personnel; the doors open and close automatically.

Here’s another view of the entertainment deck; you can see the second-floor walk-around gallery.

The Jacksonville Landing includes shaded open-air walkways with stores along the side.

Inside are more stores – clothing and jewelry.

I emerged from the north side and took a photo of the statue of Andrew Jackson .

Walking up Laura Street I spotted about three dozen hawks circling above the downtown core. True to form, folks walking towards me saw me aiming upwards and looked up to see what was happening.

I asked a street-janitor about the hawks, and she shrugged and said that when she got to the spot she’d probably find a dead bird.

Where is everybody? Noon Monday in the very core of downtown Jacksonville. You can walk a hundred yards in a straight line without having to deke around slow-movers or strollers, and without someone cutting in in front of you.

This is not at all like downtown Toronto at noon on Monday. Even if they are, again, at -20c with a wind-chill of -40c, there’d be people rushing to lunch …

The square Hemming Plaza is sparsely populated with people lazing in the sun, but apart from that, no-one.

I ducked into the Public Library.

Many buildings have umbrella bags; there’s no need to drip rainwater all over the floors.

A magnificent building. This shot of the front lobby doesn’t do it justice; the halogen chandeliers prevented me from getting a true view of the white-plaster and grey-marble facades.

Here is the entrance; “Start Here. Go Anywhere”.

Nice.

In the basement is the Adult Literacy centre, an impressive idea. Come here to learn to read; then make use of our books.

A close up of a sign in the basement.

I tried a panoramic shot, but it does not give a great idea of the overwhelming view of the centre of the library, a bright, white space that extends four storeys to the roof.

The area is flooded with natural light.

The First Baptist Church in Jacksonville occupies pretty well nine downtown blocks.

Here is a poor photo of their Campus Map.

I made a couple of panoramic views. This from the south-west corner of Laura and Ashley, looking to the north-east.

This from the south-west corner of Laura and Ashley, looking to the south-west.

This is not a parking garage.

It is not even a parking garage for The First Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

It is the Preschool parking garage for The First Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

As distinct from any other parking garage of The First Baptist Church in Jacksonville.

This the Welcome Center, I think. I’m not sure if this is what I would think of as “The Church”.

Pedestrian bridges link most of the buildings in the nine-block area.

Pedestrian bridges link most of the buildings in the nine-block area.

I walked back up Laura street and headed towards Rosa Parks transit hub. That’s the SkyTrain platform, perched above the hub.

The next bus out was a CrossTown – the CT1, so I took that.

“Do you go out and back again?” I asked. “Sho’ do” the reply. “How long does it take?”. “Two hours”; and it was – one hour out and one hour back.

Down at the corner of Mandarin Road & San Jose Boulevard I spotted a giant oak tree whose three-foot diameter limbs were covered in parasitic growth.

From inside the bus it looked like coarse moss.

I checked from Google street view, but to do it justice I’d have to walk up to the tree and take a detailed shot.

The buses are clean and tidy; transit users don’t leave read copies of the free newspapers all over the floor. There’s no sign of chewing gum or Tom Horton’s coffee cups.

The seats are jazzy.

I got off the bus early and walked back up Main street. Here’s a pretty orchid bravely blooming all by its bloomin’ self.

And here it is in context.

I stitched together two shots of the rear of what I think is one of the schools of The First Baptist Church.

Here is a panoramic view from Church street. The three spires belong (left to right) to Immaculate Conception, First Methodist and First Presbyterian.

The two blocks of building that make the Public Library.

Then back to Rosa Parks. A SkyTrain has just pulled in. The trains could be massed into six-car units and still fit within the station canopy.

Here is the weather radar showing a stormy set of fronts heading to Fort Walton Beach. Are we making a mistake?

Note the absence of rain over Jacksonville, just as we are about to leave.

Please follow the trip to Fort Walton Beach .

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