At the new Panera Bread, I got some bagels for breakfast.
We headed off down I-4. When I lived in Florida I used to drive 45 miles each way to work, most of it on I-4. During the time I lived there, they finally finished the road-widening project that they had begun many years before. I had even found it immortalized in a Carl-Hiaasen-ish novel set in Tampa as "the perpetual road construction outside Plant City".
I-4 has some interesting scenery. I think the sky really is bigger in Florida; Buffalo is flat but Central Florida is even flatter, and I think the air pressure tends to be higher so the clouds are at greater altitude. It just seems more magnificent.
There are commercial buildings sprouting up all over the "I-4 Corridor" (as it is only known to Chamber of Commerce types). I will mourn the passing of the goofier down-home flavor of the area. For instance, the Bates RV showroom (center) usually has a big yellow RV winched halfway up this crane to serve as an unforgettable signpost. But they ground it during hurricane season, so you'll have to use your imagination. Also, I have never been able to figure out just what this antenna (right) outside Plant City does; it's not a cell tower nor is it Doppler Weather Radar. If anyone knows what it's for, drop me a line!
Central Florida is so flat that you can sometimes see things you'd normally only see out on the ocean. Here I have a rare picture of an entire rainstorm. You can see it's clear to the left, and clear to the right of the rain in the center of the horizon.
In contrast to the above antenna, it's fairly obvious what this structure is for.
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