Still Gravity

Cheaha Falls: A tiny waterfall in the mountains of Alabama -  License our images here .    After an easy mile of hiking through the Chinnabee trail, we reached the little waterfall.  The water was pretty low for a summer. We expected something bigger. A real waterfall, not a shower. But anyway, it's a cute waterfall with a tranquil pool at its base. We didn't swim, but it's said that many locals do.  Last picture of C before the accident.  The best part was that we were the only ones there. C seated on a big flat rock and grabbed a snack from her blue backpack.  She loves these quiet places. Immediately, she got lost into herself surrounded by the sounds of nature and the smooth hammering of falling water over ancient rocks. Who knows what she was thinking. I didn't.   We left for another day the hike down to Devil's Den Falls and Lake Chinnabee. There was time for them. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We had some days to spend camping in this forest .  How coul

Talladega Scenic Highway is a nice road. It's nice because goes through the highest mountains of Alabama.  This is one of those so-called "scenic roads" in travel sites and paper magazines. The ones of, "the best drives in America". You know the marketing gimmick. But honoring the truth, the paved road is pretty good and low in traffic. Judge by the next photo.  The Scenic Highway through the Talladega forest - License our images  here . We came in through the Adam Gap - the southern entrance - and took a campsite at Turnipseed Campground. This primitive camp seats between Talladega National Forest and Cheaha Wilderness. Nature in both looked pretty much the same to me. It's just an administrative division.  The campground is close to the paved road but shielded by a dense wall of trees. The access goes through a

Rising moon over White Oak Creek - License our images  here .          We reached White Oak Creek Campground on the Alabama side of Walter F. George Lake fleeing hurricane Idalia.  The camp is big. With four loops covered by trees, it's managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. All was clean. Our campsite was on the shores of White Oak Creek by Mallard Point. Just two other vehicles camping there. Plenty of silence.   This campground is close to the city of Eufaula, a jewel of antebellum architecture. We visited some years ago, so this time will pass on - our photos in this post .  The outer bands of the hurricane gave the sky a sad winter look. No rain, but humidity was high. The propane stove heated up and the cooking session began. Fresh nigh thanks to the bad weather punching North Florida. 

The giant elder of Florida - License our images  here .   This oak is the elder king of Bulow Creek State Park. A giant 78 feet tall and 8 of diameter at the trunk, this tree was lucky to escape the axes of colonists, farmers, and modern real estate developers. Fairchild Oak is now one of the largest of its kind in the south of the United States. The plaque at its base says that it's 2,000 years. The data is wrong. Between four and six centuries is the estimated age of this tree. Either way, it's a pretty old tree.   The "Fairchild" in the name was to honor botanist David Fairchild - same guy of the Fairchild Tropical Garden of Miami. This happened in 1955. Before it was just a common oak. Haunted legends surround the tree. Two folks lost their lives under the magnificent branches - or at least were found dead there. One by unknown cause and the other by suspected suicide. But no worries, these dark events happened in the 19th century.    A trail close to the tree get

Dummett Sugar Mill Ruins - License our images  here . Ruined chimneys and an old wall of coquina and bricks on the eastern side of Old Dixie Highway. What is that? U-turn and stop in a small clear on the side of the road.  Surrounded by a forest of Spanish moss draped oaks, pines, and Florida palms, these are the leftovers of the Dummett Sugar Mill after being destroyed by an Indian attack almost two centuries ago. Age, decayed mortar, and intrusions of tree roots have taken a toll of the ruins.  Colonel Thomas Dummett, an ex-officer of the British Marines, bought these lands by 1825 from John Addison and Bunch. A year later, he built the sugar mill and distillery. He brought the boiler from Barbados, the island of the Caribbean where he learned the business of sugar production - Dummett fled the place after the slave revolt of 1816, the Bussa commanded rebellion. His new sugar mill became the first steam-operated i

The confluence of the Halifax and Tomoka Rivers - License our images  here .          Small state park between rivers and marshes in the east coast of Northern Florida.  The expedition of Álvaro Mexía in 1605 mentions an Indian village near the point of the photo. This was the Timucuan town of Nocoroco, the first Indian settlement south of the city of St. Augustine at that time.  In 1766 the area of the former Indian village became part of the Mount Oswald Plantation. Its owner was Richard Oswald, a rich Scottish trader that bought a big tract of land from the British government.  Oswald participated in the peace negotiations at the end of the American Revolution, signing an agreement with John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Henry Laurens in 1782.   The Mount Oswald Plantation was abandoned when the British left Florida in 1785.  The statue of Chief T

Ouroboros. Illustration from Keith Henderson (1922) - Public Domain. Many times, we read stuff written by someone interpreting something written by somebody else. Does this sound familiar?  Well, at that moment, we become the interpreter of the interpreter. The process repeats and repeats in an awful looping chain and most of us don't read the original text anymore and settle for believing the latest tale - be it true or false.  Plato put it well in his dialog between Socrates and Ion.  SOCRATES: And you rhapsodists are the interpreters of the poets? ION: There again you are right. SOCRATES: Then you are the interpreters of interpreters? ION: Precisely. It's good to read the originals. Sometimes one gets surprises. 

The wonderful loneliness of Apollo Beach - License our images  here .   A whole day in Apollo Beach in the middle of the week is a rewarding experience in solitude. Here you walk an ancestral Florida, because this is one of the largest undeveloped strips of coastal land that survive in the Sunshine State.  Located in the northern section of Canaveral National Seashore, Apollo Beach conjures images of rockets and moon landings. But the name doesn't relate to the Apollo Space Program. The tale says that it came to be in 1958 to celebrate the Greek god of the sun and the amazing sunrises of the Atlantic - before that time was known as "Tampa Beach" and "La Vida Beach".  Stop at the Apollo Beach Visitor Center.    A short film about Canaveral National Seashore in the visitor center works well to plan the day.  We took a glimpse of Mosquito Lagoon from a dock behind the building. There were not mosquitoes, but I wouldn't dare to come here by the sunset. Then we d