22 February

Stop the presses: sandwich found! More later.
Before I went to sleep last night, I was watching the History Channel and saw two interesting shows – one was on the Donner Pass and the other was on Interstate 70 through the Rockies. Both of these I had seen for myself so my plans of sleeping early went down the drain.
I did sleep in a little, then showered and dressed and went down for breakfast (if walking four doors can be described as such). The weather was still overcast, warm and humid, so I decided to stay another day here in Tallahassee (if only to be able to spell Tallahassee correctly a number of times).
I headed out to see a cavern, described as the only one of its kind in Florida. I must remember that because most of the states are small, that often is of little significance. This required a little backtracking, no real problem as now I saw what I went through last night. I arrived in the Florida Caverns State Park before I left the motel (due to the time difference) and was told there would be a long wait to see through the cave as a school had booked the early tours. However I managed to tag along with one (Maclay School, from Tallahassee – see, I worked the name in again!) and so saw over the cave at the 10 o’clock tour. In the short wait time, I harangued the local law enforcement officer (the State Parks have police too) and found out about the semi-trailers with only tandem axles in the rear (weight limits because of bridges) and the State retirement schemes (just like ours, you can retire from one and work for another and then retire from it, accumulating benefits along the way. It was just like being back at work and I even told one child to do up his laces so he wouldn’t trip, on the way in. As it was a small group (about twenty children and three adults) it was a very intimate tour through the cave. I was even able to explain what the term “in the limelight” meant as the guide mentioned miners’ acetylene lamps. After a quick look through the visitors’ centre there I was off and back to Tallahassee and in to see the museum. Here it became more interesting. As well as very good displays of local material (and the usual problem of funding, etc.) I found the museum on the GROUND floor when it was actually the basement. I was asking the front desk person (who I found out was a volunteer) about the museum and the token necessary to allow me to get my car out of the car park when we ended up in a linguistic discussion. Her supervisor came over and the discussion became even more interesting. I went off to see the displays (my reason for being there) and, apart from interesting displays, found myself talking to a couple about retirement, Australia and the upcoming US presidential elections. I also ended up chatting to a girl in a wheelchair and her mother about the museum. Deciding to support the facilities I went to the café and ordered a sandwich and got a SANDWICH, not a burger in a bun! The girl and her mother (who I spoke to earlier) were there with her father. Chatting away (as the mother had to translate my order – I didn’t realise my accent was so broad) we discussed what I was visiting and it turned out he is the director of a Navy SEAL museum (and did exercises with Australian SAS troops and would like to visit Australia for an extended time) and he gave me his card and the directions to the museum. The only problem is, of course, this will eat into my other plans, but quite often things like this turn out to be the best part.
Then it was over to the new Capitol to visit the Observation deck (22 floors up and a wonderful view all around – but if the day was clear I would have seen to the Gulf) after a security check – but this time the officers were thoroughly professional and made sure everything was scanned and checked – not just me through the detector! One even saw me to the lift and explained the quickest way to get up there. Upstairs there was only me and a few others setting up a display. If this was private enterprise, there would have been queues, tickets, multiple screenings (instead of just the one proper one) and it would have cost.
Then it was to the old Capitol which is now a museum of the government as well as the buildings. This was beautifully restored and was a mine of information – too much to be absorbed in the time available but I was able to get a good overview (it was presented warts and all, with truth being more important than a fancy and glossy veneer.
It closed at 4:30 so I returned to my motel, walked down to a Chinese Restaurant and had a real meal for a change, then scampered back in the aftermath of a torrential downpour which had happened while I was eating. Then I wrote up my blog, processed the photos, continued to try to upload the pictures (this time only a few at a time), then went to bed for a long sleep.