Download the Wild Florida pdf here. From time to time I teach at Eckerd College as part of their OLLI program. It's a not-for-credit program geared towards adults. One of the things I enjoy the most about OLLI is that my "students" want to be there; they aren't there for a degree or a grade. They choose which classes they want to take based solely on what piques their interest, not because they're trying to graduate. These classes are supposed be fun for them, and so the people who come to my classes either love Florida as much as I do or they want to learn more about Florida, which makes the classes fun for me (not that they aren't fun already because, hey, I'm getting paid to talk about Florida, which is my favorite subject ever). Creating these courses also gives me an excuse to do...
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Road Trip: The Forgotten Coast, unluckiest town in Florida and a lighthouse
This article originally appeared in the Dec. 29 issue of Creative Loafing Tampa. Lying on a Panhandle beach, I turn to Barry and ask, "Why don't we live here?" "You'd be too cold," he answers, and he's not wrong. My friends joke (but not really) that I get Seasonal Affective Disorder when the sun's behind a cloud for more than 15 minutes, and that whenever the mercury drops below 80º I run for my sweatshirt. Right now, it's in the low 80s and I'm writing with a blanket over me. Nevertheless, the Florida panhandle beckons. Specifically, the Forgotten Coast of Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla counties. Sand dunes line the coast, buffeted by pine forests from the small towns selling hyper-local seafood and low-key tourist dreams. Few roads trace the edge of the land here — US 98 through Port St. Joe and, to its west, 30A. I am hopelessly, totally, irrevocably charmed by...
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Backroads of Paradise in the New York Times
Welp, they don't seem to care much for Donald Trump, but the New York Times likes me. A weeks ago, I'd shut down email for the day, except — fun fact — I'm almost always trying to clear out my email. Over at Creative Loafing, our food editor and one of my favorite people, Meaghan, always has about three or four emails in her inbox. She's that good at clearing them out. Right now, I have roughly seventy-seven million emails waiting for me, so I feel compelled to check them from time to time, even when I'm theoretically done for the day. So, the de facto in-laws are down for the holidays, and as we're all watching football I start looking for easy emails to handle. I see one from a John Dorman, who says he's with the Times and would like to do a Q&A with me. Now, we have a daily paper here...
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