Concord, NC
Feb 24, 1946
Dear Mavis,
I am still way up in the clouds about my trip, don't think I'll ever come down.
We got home last Sunday night. I felt fine after a nice long rest. I didn't know if I could ever cook a meal again or not. Mary Va took a cold after we left Florida. Bill got sick Saturday night in Augusta but felt better Sunday. Uncle Henry and I stood the trip best. He was the nicest old man (73 years). He had been to Florida before so he had the trip planned almost to the minute. We stayed the first two nights in Jacksonville. He had reserved our rooms by mail or we would never have gotten any there. We spent one day in St. Augustine, drank from the Fountain of Youth. We left Jacksonville and went on down and ate dinner at Daytona Beach. It was cool there that day. We asked someone why. They said the Carolina's were having freezing weather and they were getting a little of it there.
We got to Sanford on Thursday 5:30PM. Uncle Henry knew some friends there. They had gotten us a place to stay and we were invited out to their homes to eat (a Mr. and Mrs. Brown Miller and a Mr. and Mrs Wallace). Mrs Miller was a War bride from Scotland. She was a charming hostess. We went for breakfast one morning and she had a spray of sweetpeas on our napkin. We had dinner and supper with them. They raise celery. We saw them gathering the celery then saw them pack it. The Millers took us to see some friends that had an orange grove. We could pick all the oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit that we wanted. It was a 40 acre grove. On Sunday the two families took us to the St. John's river and fried fish with all the accessories to go with them. On Saturday night Bobby Wallace took us to the dog races. They call it going to the dogs on Saturday night. We left Sanford on Monday morning. We hated to say goodbye to such nice people. We saw them packing oranges also while we were there. The girls make $60 a week in the packing houses. The flowers were beautiful. Azaleas, poinsettias, sweetpeas, flame vine and camillas. As I was saying we left Sanford Monday morning, ate breakfast in Orlando "the City Beautiful". We went to Lake Wales to see the singing tower. That was beautiful. We got to Tampa about 5PM to visit Bill's two uncles. They had supper ready for us. Than night they took us to a wrestling match. The next day we went into Tampa (they live about 5 miles out). We drove for miles along the Tampa Bay and went on Davis Island. That night we went to the State Fair at tampa. That was the biggest fair I have ever seen. The next day we got ready to go to the beach. The uncles knew a man that let us stay in his cottage right on the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. We went in the next morning and were going to stay in all day, but it came up a cloud and got too cool, so we left and went to St. Petersburg and stayed awhile, then went home and went to the show that night.
We left Tampa about 9PM Friday morning and went by Ocala and visited Silver Springs. I think that was the most beautiful sight we saw. They take you out in glass boats and you can see all the way under water. 81 feet is the deepest place. Then you ride down the river for 10 miles on the Jungle Cruise. They show you where Tarzan pictures are made and you see monkeys in the trees down the river.
We spent Friday night in Valdosta, Georgia then Saturday night in Augusta Georgia, then came on home.
We drove 2084 miles without a bit of trouble. Maybe I have written you some of this and I meant to write you more cards, but we were kept so busy. Bill's uncles said when we left there were 1000 places they wanted to take us. So two weeks flew by before we knew it.
I am trying to get Harding and Pop and Mom to take a trip.
Love,
Muriel