Welcome to Florida, Juice at the State Line!

I know just about everyone in the world thinks palm trees and beaches when they think of Florida, but that's just not right. If you want to consider a masterpiece of orchestrated landscape here, you must experience the orange groves. Not the south Florida ones, but the mid to northern Florida groves, ones that gracefully rise and fall over slight hills near Ocala. The sweetest flower is that of the citrus tree, there is just a hint of the fruit that is to come. In the rush of tourism, the classic Florida orange grove has been passed by, the interstates taking up less arable land, and the real estate on it's edges turned over to cultivate Starbucks and McDonalds.

Stop at the State Line Welcome Center, take a cup of complimentary citrus juice (and darn it, even the grapefruit juice is good). Look at some of the brochures for Walt Disney World, Busch Gardens, Miami Beach and possibly even the Keys. Spare a glance too, for the traditional Weeki Watchee, Silver Springs and my favorite, Cypress Gardens. At the Welcome Center they had displays for children to pose as a skier or southern belle for pictures.

By the way, this wayward child is hanging by his left hand, you can see his fingers at the top, which makes his head look a bit odd. He is only exceedingly dirty because he stole all the oreos from his siblings' stash as they exited the car, then crammed them ALL into his mouth.