July 4th Tallahassee Trip

Gainesville Sonny's

Headed home from Tallahassee today. The trip back down to Orlando was the opposite of the trip up - no traffic, no wrecks. It was almost as if most of the population had decided to leave the state and nobody told us where.

We thought we'd see something in Tallahassee for the 4th, some bunting or flags about the place. We saw nothing. The night before there was a part being held on some closed off streets running parallel with Monroe next to the state capital building, but that was it. And the revelers looked like college types. Drinking and partying college types.

We had our final breakfast at The Village Inn on Apalachee parkway. Then back to the hotel room for the wife to pack everything up, while I drove with Megs to pick up groceries and do some simple dad-type fixes at her apartment. For example, I had to release her "Emma" DVD from a six-year-old Panasonic Walmart-special DVD player she'd picked up for her high-school movie club when she was 16. Six years later and it tried to die and take her "Emma" DVD with it. Remove a few screws, pull the cheap DVD mechanism out of the case, open the drawer mechanically, and "Emma" was free again.

Then back to the hotel, load up the luggage and the Labs, then one last trip to say a final goodbye to Megs. Then off back to Orlando.

Coming down I-10 you'll see a lot of agriculture and taking place on both sides of the highway. Right now there seems to be a fair amount of acreage used for soy and corn. I decided to stop and try photographing this Reinke center-pivot system in a soy field. This wasn't the only one I saw from the side of the road. All the fields were nice and lush and green. It's also a reminder that contemporary farming consumes a lot of fresh water. I'm reminded of the concerns over industrial farming and the large amounts of energy and resources it consumes to keep us all fed. Unsustainable amounts. Sooner or later we're going to have to address these issues, or a lot of us are going to go with not-quote-full stomachs. Which may not be such a bad idea. After all, this nation is suffering from an obesity epidemic.

I photographed this with both the E-1 and the E-3. This is the exposure from the E-1. For whatever reason I much preferred the E-1's frame. The E-1 had the 50-200mm mounted, while the E-3 had the 12-60mm.

For our forth meal we stopped off at a Sonny's right off of NW 39th Avenue and I-75, the first Gainesville exit headed south. We don't go to Sonny's much anymore. Personally I prefer Bubbalous. But we stopped anyway, thinking that Sonny's would have some all-you-can-eat 4th specials. Nope, not this time. We parked in some shade, left the car running with the A/C for the labs and went in for a quick meal. The food was reasonable, but the wife and I have decided this is our final Sonny's trip. Anywhere.

We got back to Orlando in plenty of time to unload and clean everything up. Tomorrow's another day at work, and I may have to head back up to Tallahassee this coming weekend to lend some more assistance.

Technical

Top photo taken with the Olympus E-P2 and 17mm. Bottom with the Olympus E-1 and the 50-200mm SWD zoom. Both post-processed in Lightroom 3.4.1.