Day 10 -- April 10, 2003 -- Thursday

Today should have been two days. I simply scheduled too many miles to be covered in one day. It took us five hours to go the first 100 miles. It seemed like stoplights were every few feet along Highway 41 from Fort Myers to Tampa, and the traffic was terrible. I will look again at the remainder of the schedule and see where I need to add a day here and there.

We had some fun today, but we couldn't see as much as we would have liked.

It was the second day in a row of overcast skies, and it sprinkled on us several times throughout the day. The temperature was in the low 60's and dropped to 50 when we rolled into Tallahassee. At this rate, we'll lose our tans by Texas.

The day started with a bang at the world's largest shell factory in Fort Myers. The Shell Factory must sell every souvenir item ever made, and if that's not enough, they have people making new ones every day! The place occupies 18 acres; it looks like the size facility needed to mass produce jumbo jets. A Super Wal-Mart seems tiny in comparison to the Shell Factory. There was one building the size of a normal souvenir store that displayed nothing but magnets. We were there early in the day, and there weren't many customers, but it has been in business since long before I was a little boy, so they must do a good business.

We stopped briefly at the Warm Mineral Springs Hotel, a classic roadside motel. We also paid a brief visit to the Warm Springs International Spa Resort and Wellness Institute where you can swim in 87 degree water. Swimming in warm water has as much appeal to me as hot Coca-Cola, but some people love it and find it therapeutic. The Warm Springs International Spa Resort and Wellness Institute had evidence of pre-historic man having been there 10,000 years ago.

As we drove on, I noticed a manufacturing facility called Tervis Tumblers. We went into their factory store to discover that Tervis is indeed the manufacturer of fabulous insulated glassware that were given to us by Barbara's parents. These glasses will keep a drink cold like nothing else will, and the plastic glassware is virtually indestructible and has a lifetime guarantee. We toured the place and bought an American Flag tumbler and a Texas Tech tumbler. Amanda helped us. If you want some great glassware, buy some online from www.tervis.com.

We saw the My-Way Diner with a sign advertising "hot Cubans." We hoped that meant a sandwich. We didn't stop because Barbara said it looked a little dirty, and she said she wouldn't eat there if I stopped. Then we noticed it had been closed, probably by the Health Department.

Lunch was a treat as I spotted a little place that a tourist would never visit, Big Dogg's, and Barbara agreed to stop. There were local construction and landscape workers eating there. We had a great Philly Cheese Steak. Holly was our window waitress.

All day long, we saw one 50's era motel after another. It continues to be both amazing and gratifying that these places still exist - and most are still operating. I could have taken a hundred pictures of "classic" motel architecture and signage, but time was not on our side, so I just snapped a few. The Cadillac Motel featured an old Cadillac out front, and the Warm Springs Motel had an especially flat-roofed look.

I really regret that we were unable to see the Shuffleboard Hall of Fame in St. Petersburg.

We stopped a number of times for mailboxes and to photograph other roadside stuff, but our next big stop was in Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is a predominantly Greek community that was originally established for sponge fishing. And we were there to see Sponge-O-Rama.

Words cannot really describe Sponge-O-Rama. At the risk of sounding insensitive, Sponge-O-Rama has the worst-looking displays of any attraction we have ever seen anywhere. It was a very amateurish job when it was constructed 50 years or so ago. Almost any gradeschooler's science fair project would be more professional these days. But what is amazing is that the windows to the displays do not appear to have been cleaned in 50 years, and there are burned out light bulbs, and parts of the displays have deteriorated. It would be fascinating to speak with the owners to ascertain why the place looks like it does. Is it that they don't realize it's so bad? Is it that they don't care? Or is it that they now consider the displays to be camp, realizing that a lot of people will come because they've heard how bad it is? We fall into the latter group, but we somehow doubt that the owners see it that way. We went to Tarpon Springs to see Sponge-O-Rama just because we had read that it was so bad that it was funny. As we exited, we passed by a young family, and the mother was reading all about how sponges are harvested from the ocean, and she was dead serious about the experience and the information. Boz and I felt bad about sharing looks and whispers of disbelief.

I was really sorry that we couldn't take the time to visit Jungle Gardens and Weeki Wachee Springs. Our family went to Weeki Wachee when I was a child, and I loved the mermaids!

When we passed through Chiefland, it reminded me of the kind of town that we definitely would have driven through going somewhere else when we were on vacation when I was a child in the 50's.

We grabbed dinner at the Circle K -- a most nutritious meal of Fritos, cheddar cheese sauce, a chocolate bar, and Canada Dry Ginger Ale.

We took a sunset picture just outside of Perry, Florida. It wasn't a very good sunset picture but as they say, sunsets are free. Sometimes you get what you pay for. We received a call from a reporter at the NBC television station in Panama City, and she wants to do a story about our trip Round America.

One of the things I like best about driving these roads is that you see classic old motels that are still in business. You see them in every town. You see them even in the bigger towns and as Barbara says "you can't imagine anyone would stay in them." I'm sure a lot of them are nice for what they are, but they are classic to look at with unusual architecture, and they usually have great neon signage.

We were reminded several times today of "different strokes for different folks." One of the most amazing things about humans is that we are all so very different. Some of us find places like Sponge-O-Rama to be funny while others take it as a serious educational experience. I've always preached to salespeople how important it is to recognize that everyone is different, to find out what is important to someone, and then tailor the sales presentation to deliver the appropriate appeal. I call this The Platinum Rule - "Do unto others as they would have done unto themselves." It's important to realize that everyone is different and to celebrate this rather than belittle it. As we all know, this is far easier to say than it is to do.

Random Comments:

Before we do another one of these trips, I need to investigate whether it's possible to find a way to mount a camera, and then I could just point the car in the direction of what I wanted to shoot. I wouldn't have to get out of the car and take my glasses off and stuff.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we've been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we've seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of "vital statistics" on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you'd like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.