To round out the series, here are the final 3 Wonders of the Panhandle: Wakulla Springs, the Suwannee River, and the state capital Tallahassee.

6. Wakulla Springs

Wakulla Springs

The signs you see everywhere at Wakulla Springs proudly state that it is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world.  The Spring flows up and out from an underground river at a rate of over 400,000 gallons per minute. While the county government of Wakulla County claims the springs as the largest and deepest in the world, the Weeki Wachee Springs go down to a verified 403 feet, which makes them deeper.

Even so, I’ve been to Wakulla Springs, and it is truly a stunning place, full of quintessential North Florida wildlife and glass-bottom boats to fully appreciate the wonder of the springs. I highly recommend going.

A few famous movies were shot at Wakulla Springs in the 1940s and 1950s: two of Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan films, “Tarzan’s Secret Treasure” and “Tarzan’s New York Adventure,” and “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

Click to read more…

I’ve been doing some recreational reading here while visiting family in Florida (by the way – Lord I had forgotten how much happiness the Sun brings me).  Right now I’ve been reading The American South in the Twentieth Century and I came across a passage worth sharing.  I’m not sure how much I would agree with the rest of John Shelton Reed’s work (this is just a short anthology piece); but I think this passage sums up the spirit of what we’ve found at the Guide:

To allow that southern culture has changed, is changing, does not mean that it is disappearing as a variant on the American norm (whatever that might be).  It is difficult to summarize the facts of southern cultural difference, however, because nearly every logical possibility of what could be happening is happening.

For example, most of the recent economic and demographic change in the South has been a matter of the South’s converging on nonsouthern patterns (and the same could be said, in general, about changes in race relations), so those “southern” characteristics that were, in fact, the characteristics of poor, rural, poorly educated folks are plainly on the wane.  But other longstanding cultural differences are hanging in there.  For instance, attitudes toward the role of women have been changing everywhere, but the South remains relatively conservative on this score.

Some regional differences are getting larger: the South is more Baptist now than it was a century ago, for instance; regional differences in churchgoing are larger than they used to be; southerners are now more economically conservative than they were a generation ago.  And they’re more likely to say “fixing to” and “might could.”

Click to read more…

Jeff has started us up by discussing three of the panhandle’s natural wonders.

Although I take exception to his determination that the Emerald Coast, and the world’s most beautiful beaches are bound to the east by Sandestin. Point of fact, Panama City’s ABC affiliate, WMBB TV is so named because of the acronym World’s Most Beautiful Beaches. If you can’t trust the call letters for a TV station, what can you trust?

Insert your favorite line from "Network" here.

By bringing together both the natural and built environments, the wonder that is the Panhandle is readily apparent, so, without further ado…

Click to read more…

Welcome to our list of the Panhandle’s Eight Greatest Wonders.

(It’s a wonder we came up with eight things, am I right?)  Over the next couple of days, each of us will uncover 2 or 3 of the panhandle’s most awe-inspiring features.  So, at nummmmmmberrrrrrrr onnnnnnnnnnne…..

• Although in fancy magazines they rarely make the cut for “Best Beaches of the World,” the beaches stretching from Navarre, FL to Sandestin, FL are truly some of the best you could ever want.  Powder-fine, sugar-white sand extends for miles in this area; forming mountainous high dunes that greet warm Emerald green waters.

Okaloosa Island

There are places in this area where the dunes are so high, driving past them you could mistake yourself as traveling the Sahara, were it not for the sea oats and bright-white sand.  Fancy magazines probably exclude these beaches because of the surrounding environs (“Redneck Riviera“); but I have no doubt that if you carved these high-caliber shores out of North Florida and put them on a tiny island in the Indian Ocean, they would be the #1 destination for the rich and famous.

Click to read more…

Jeff, Brian, and I all decided to do southern music posts, and Jeff has already put up a number of classics, ranging from old school blues to The Man in Black. However, I am not a fan of most music considered “Southern.” As a rule, I don’t listen to country performed after 1980 (but my iTunes isn’t bursting with Hank Williams or Gene Autry, either), cannot really get into jazz/blues, and do not listen to a lot of bluegrass or even southern “gospel” music that Jeff has mentioned in this space (I blame Catholicism). To be honest, I’m a little closer to…

"I'm a rocker through and through. Here's a list of my favorite bands: AC/DC, Van Halen NOT Van Hagar, Skynyrd, Def Leppard..."

Click to read more…

There are a few things I miss about living in the Panhandle, but perhaps the hardest one to replicate in the Midwest is the food.

Oh Lord...

Click to read more…

In case you’re wondering, this post has nothing to do with the vaguely racist Disney movie featuring “Uncle Remus” singing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.”  Rather it’s a collection of Jeff’s favorite southern songs.

Uncle Remus

Although the three of us have tried to remove a lot of our Southern background; nothing seems to stick with a person like the music from whence they hail.  And maybe that’s a good thing in this case; seeing as how most of the country’s great music ultimately came from the South. (Although truthfully, so does some of the country’s worst music.  Still, what kind of music does the the North got? Punk? How about the West?  Cowboy songs? It’s no contest, really.)

Anyway, without further ado — here is my top 5.

This is going to be hard given how many southern songs I like.  Still, here’s a representative sample:

1) Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

2) The Freedom Singers – This Little Light of Mine

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

3) Jerry Lee Lewis – Honky Tonk Rock’n'roll Piano Man

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

4) Fats Domino – Jambalaya

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

5) Allison Krauss – Oh Atlanta

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.