After our customary meet and greet over breakfast, four riders headed south by southeast for the day's ride. Not far afield from the morning repast, however, Preacher bid adieu and turned for home. That left three hearty souls to continue the journey.
We rode down into mine country -- phosphate mining, that is -- making our way over to Agricola Mine Road; one of the best stretches of riding in this area.
After negotiating the twists and turns of Agricola Mine Road, we beat feet over to Ft. Meade, where I decided to stop at that town's history center and take in the sights. We have ridden past this museum many times and not taken the time to check it out, so today I decided to change that.
One of the more striking exhibits is a train that they have on display and open for you to walk through. That was where I headed first and started collecting photos. I started at the nose of the train and worked my way back:
No one seemed to mind, so I climb around on the engine to get some detail shots like this one of the upper cab windows:
Of course I had to get some shots of the engineer's work area inside the cab. Sadly they have the cab sealed tight, so all of my photos were shot through the glass of the windows:
There are plenty of interesting angles to work on one of these large machines:
Not to mention interesting details like this wheel that is mounted on the nose of the engine below the main headlight:
You can rent the train for parties and other functions, and they have one car setup for dining, complete with a small kitchen in the rear:
The next car back is setup as an art gallery and working space for local artists:
Among the art was this portrait of General Meade, the namesake of the town of Ft. Meade:
Other art hanging in the train car depicts scenes of Florida life, both past...
... and present. That's one of the large "walking cranes" that rip open the earth to get to the phosphate:
That black bucket in the painting above can serve to give you some scale as to the size of the "walking cranes", as this shot of one at the history center is the real version of what is depicted above. There are no photo tricks here, the bucket is really taller than the building next to it:
Back behind the train, this old tractor was sitting all alone:
Check out those wheels! This thing must have been able to go through anything, including mud and sugar sand:
They also had this beaten and bruised old engine that no doubt saw service at the local phosphate mines:
Vandals have broken out all of the glass on the Plymouth engine, so it was easy to climb up and get some shots of the decaying interior:
It was getting hot outside, so I ambled over and went inside the old house that serves as their museum. This house was one of the first school houses in Ft. Meade and they had photos of the building when it was a school. However, none of the nice ladies manning the museum could tell me when it was retrofitted into the very nice home that it became before it was turned into a museum. I did learn that the school/house was moved several blocks from its original location to where it sits today:
Room after room of the museum is crammed with historical artifacts, photos, and memorabilia. Upstairs I spotted this rather interesting display of old cameras and desk tools:
These old cameras are a far cry from the digital point-and-shoot Canon S90 that I used to capture all of these images:
Across the room from the old cameras, I spotted these fossilized shark teeth. These things are abundant in the region and are frequently turned up by the phosphate mining process, so it isn't really surprising to find such a collection of them in this otherwise incongruous location:
Back on the road and just a short piece south of Ft. Meade, I spotted Sand Mountain Road and decided to go down it in search of the road's namesake. We found what is left of Sand Mountain just a quarter-mile off the highway:
From the same location I looked to the northwest and saw this other kind of Florida "mountain", a phosphate mining stack, out on the horizon:
We headed south to Bowling Green via US 17, and then turned west via the back roads to re-enter mining country. We turned north and made our way back toward Bradley Junction in Polk County. Just south of Bradley Junction, I stopped to take a shot of this abandoned smoke stack and some ruined buildings at its base. Sights like this are common out in mine country:
We headed back to the west and home from Bradley Junction, making sure to take in the twists and turns of Keysville, along the way. I parked the bike with 115 miles on the odometer and a smile on my face. It was a good day for riding and the three of us that made the journey certainly made the most of it.
We rode down into mine country -- phosphate mining, that is -- making our way over to Agricola Mine Road; one of the best stretches of riding in this area.
After negotiating the twists and turns of Agricola Mine Road, we beat feet over to Ft. Meade, where I decided to stop at that town's history center and take in the sights. We have ridden past this museum many times and not taken the time to check it out, so today I decided to change that.
One of the more striking exhibits is a train that they have on display and open for you to walk through. That was where I headed first and started collecting photos. I started at the nose of the train and worked my way back:
No one seemed to mind, so I climb around on the engine to get some detail shots like this one of the upper cab windows:
Of course I had to get some shots of the engineer's work area inside the cab. Sadly they have the cab sealed tight, so all of my photos were shot through the glass of the windows:
There are plenty of interesting angles to work on one of these large machines:
Not to mention interesting details like this wheel that is mounted on the nose of the engine below the main headlight:
You can rent the train for parties and other functions, and they have one car setup for dining, complete with a small kitchen in the rear:
The next car back is setup as an art gallery and working space for local artists:
Among the art was this portrait of General Meade, the namesake of the town of Ft. Meade:
Other art hanging in the train car depicts scenes of Florida life, both past...
... and present. That's one of the large "walking cranes" that rip open the earth to get to the phosphate:
That black bucket in the painting above can serve to give you some scale as to the size of the "walking cranes", as this shot of one at the history center is the real version of what is depicted above. There are no photo tricks here, the bucket is really taller than the building next to it:
Back behind the train, this old tractor was sitting all alone:
Check out those wheels! This thing must have been able to go through anything, including mud and sugar sand:
They also had this beaten and bruised old engine that no doubt saw service at the local phosphate mines:
Vandals have broken out all of the glass on the Plymouth engine, so it was easy to climb up and get some shots of the decaying interior:
It was getting hot outside, so I ambled over and went inside the old house that serves as their museum. This house was one of the first school houses in Ft. Meade and they had photos of the building when it was a school. However, none of the nice ladies manning the museum could tell me when it was retrofitted into the very nice home that it became before it was turned into a museum. I did learn that the school/house was moved several blocks from its original location to where it sits today:
Room after room of the museum is crammed with historical artifacts, photos, and memorabilia. Upstairs I spotted this rather interesting display of old cameras and desk tools:
These old cameras are a far cry from the digital point-and-shoot Canon S90 that I used to capture all of these images:
Across the room from the old cameras, I spotted these fossilized shark teeth. These things are abundant in the region and are frequently turned up by the phosphate mining process, so it isn't really surprising to find such a collection of them in this otherwise incongruous location:
Back on the road and just a short piece south of Ft. Meade, I spotted Sand Mountain Road and decided to go down it in search of the road's namesake. We found what is left of Sand Mountain just a quarter-mile off the highway:
From the same location I looked to the northwest and saw this other kind of Florida "mountain", a phosphate mining stack, out on the horizon:
We headed south to Bowling Green via US 17, and then turned west via the back roads to re-enter mining country. We turned north and made our way back toward Bradley Junction in Polk County. Just south of Bradley Junction, I stopped to take a shot of this abandoned smoke stack and some ruined buildings at its base. Sights like this are common out in mine country:
We headed back to the west and home from Bradley Junction, making sure to take in the twists and turns of Keysville, along the way. I parked the bike with 115 miles on the odometer and a smile on my face. It was a good day for riding and the three of us that made the journey certainly made the most of it.
