This blog can serve as a calendar if you read it regularly. It was Memorial Day Weekend and Daughter and I again drove up to North Florida for the annual Florida Folk Festival at the Stephen Foster State Park. We always break up the drive with a great Golden Corral lunch at Fort Pierce, also a good place to fill up the gas tank as well.

Along the way to our destination, we made two more stops, each unexpected. Since we’ve been making this annual trek, I’ve been curious about a large barnlike structure that advertises itself as an Antique Emporium. Upon seeing a sign for it, we detoured off the turnpike at Irvine, Florida, to satisfy my curiosity. And that’s what it is, an aggregate of sellers with a wide variety of old stuff where everyone is bound to find something to take home with them (http://www.i75antiques.com/). I’m on a buying moratorium, that is unless there’s something really exceptional. Curiosity satisfied!

The landscape leading up to the expansive structure included magnificent, tall trees draped with Spanish moss, one sure sign that we were reaching North Florida.

A little while later, when I saw the road sign for Micanopy, Florida, Daughter and, at the spur of the moment, I decided to take detour number two! Constant Companion and I have driven through Miconopy at least once on our way home from past Festivals. But, as it was Memorial Day Monday, the town was locked up tight. Not so this day.

It was Thursday late afternoon and Daughter and I strolled around the town center, not quite a town square, went through several stores, spoke with a new resident. What a lovely town with quite a multi-layered history. It takes pride in being the oldest inland town in Florida.

Micanopy, after whom the town named, was a hereditary Seminole principal chief in the mid nineteenth century (https://aaregistry.org/story/micanopy-seminole-chief-born/).

Another individual associated with Micanopy is Moses Elias Levy, a Moroccan-born Sephardic Jew, who established Pilgrimage Plantation nearby in 1822 with the goal of establishing an agricultural utopia for Jews fleeing religious persecution in Europe. Unfortunately, Levy did not reach his goals and after thirteen years, abandoned the settlement though he had a successful sugar mill. His son, David Levy Yulee, was the first Jew elected to the United States Senate after serving in the Florida legislature.

Because we arrived late in the afternoon, we missed seeing the local historical society. We did enjoy browsing in several of the antique shops as well as the gardens of one. And, my shopping moratorium was lifted at the Micanopy Outpost where I purchased several artworks by Gainesville folk artist Jerry Coker.

Another sign of North Florida was the blooming magnolia in Miconopy. We saw many more in White Springs and at the state park.

Three days at the Folklife Area in the Folk Festival and a range of traditional culture across the state, some new and some we already knew followed.

The plan on the trip home on Memorial Day was to stop at Mount Dora. We really enjoyed all the town offers two year’s ago, though it seems only like last year (6-28-2023)! Driving along Florida Highway 48, we suddenly saw a sign for German Bakery. Yes, I turned around and we had an unexpected detour at the family-owned Yalaha Florida’s German Bakery; the large Bavarian style building was crowded with many other people seeking exceptional baked goods from pastries to breads to deli sandwiches.

When we reached Mount Dora and rounded a corner with the lake and railroad track on one side, I saw the amazing Starry Night house there was the other side. The wall around the house and the house itself pay homage to van Gogh and his memorable masterpiece. Originally painted in 2017, it received a refresh last year. Read more about this remarkable city landmark originally painted by Richard Barrenechea at: https://www.mountdorabuzz.com/arts–entertainment/filmmaker-taps-mount-doras-van-gogh-house-for-documentary.

After this stop, we made our ritual coming-home Fort Pierce Golden Corral dinner stop. We even got to enjoy the finales of the beautiful Fort Pierce sunset. Then we continued our annual Florida Folk Festival trek and all that awaited us at home

.