On our journey down here, I picked up a book called "Best Backroads of Florida".  This edition covers the "heartland", which includes our area.  So we opted to take a look along old Hwy 41, from Brooksville north to Floral City, with a side trip to Nobleton.  The latter exists today solely to rent canoes to tourists who want to wander down the Withlacoochi River.  It also opens up an option to hike along the Withlacoochi Trail, which is the old railbed for the train that delivered phosphate from the mines in the area, to the harbour at Tampa Bay.

All in all, it was an incredibly scenic ride; lots of cattle ranches, live oaks overhanging the roadway, quaint little "old Florida" towns and an overall sense that, although its history had not been quite so idyllic, it remains today a placid, laid back part of what is otherwise a state in the throes of beach-driven escapism.  These pictures will hopefully give substance to my feeble attempts to describe:

As you might expect, I have many more, but those were taken in RAW format.  Until I figure out how to save them in jpeg or similar formats, they will continue to reside in obscurity on my hard drive.  Until then, I will try to take pictures using both my Fuji and my Canon cameras, the latter providing the more accessible jpeg format pictures.

We stopped for lunch in Homosassa, another area that derives its claim to fame from a spring-fed river.  As with the Weeki Wachee river, this one also maintains a constant year round temperature of 72 F.  This allows the manatees and other temperature-sensitive sea creatures to survive the winter months when the Gulf water temperatures fall into the mid-60's farenheit.  Our lunch at the Riverside Crab House (http://www.riversideresorts.com/RiversideCrabHouse.html).  Very busy, but very good food.  Most patrons opted to sit inside despite the bright sunny day; the high today only reached 13C.  The breeze from the north put the kiss of death on dining on the patio!

All in all, a great little day trip!