Anne Rodgers Archives

May 21, 2014

Levy County Quilt Museum

When I told Wife Lila that the Warriorettes and I were going to stop for the night in Chiefland, Florida, she sent me a link to the Levy County Quilt Museum just outside of town. She said it looked like it was small enough that we could see it all in about 15 minutes.

As it turned out, the place was HUGE.

Open Tuesday – Saturday

It’s open 10-3 Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free, and there are plenty of volunteers around who are more than happy to talk with you about quilting in general and the museum in particular.

Visitors from all over

The volunteers are especially proud of the maps they have showing where their visitors come from. The East Coast is well-represented, but they get international visitors, too.

I stuck a pin in for Cape Girardeau, Curator Jessica marked Athens, Ohio, and Anne tagged her past and future home of Texas.

Political quilt

One quilt contains neckties worn by Presidents Ford and Carter, plus ties worn by more than two dozen governors.

History of the museum

A brochure says, “In 1983, the Log Cabin Quilters were formed and met in various homes throughout Levy County. Two of the founders were Mary Brookins (1934 – 1988) and Winelle Horne (1924 – 2012). Over the years, interest grew in building a place to call their own. From 1988 – 1990, the members raised $18,000 and, with the aid of a 99-year lease on this site from Thomas Brookins (Mary’s husband), the construction began in 1993. Inmates from Lancaster Correctional Institution worked four days a week for four years helping in the construction of the building.”

Photo gallery of quilt museum

The place is full of interesting exhibits and relatively inexpensive hand-crafted items for sale. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 17, 2014

Contrail Brings Challenger Chills

The Road Warriorettes and I had a great day touring Florida. I’ll be sharing some of those stories and some neat things we discovered in Georgia in the future. Getting along toward sunset, I said we should take a look for gators at Nubbins Slough on the northeast corner of Lake Okeechobee.

When we got to the top of the dike, we met a pickup truck parked looking east, but didn’t think anything of it. Curator Jessica got out to shoot the clouds turning orange on the north side of the lake. When I went to swing the van around to get it out of the road, I froze.

Flashback to January 28, 1986

In the rearview mirror, I saw a contrail that brought back that cold morning on January 28, 1986, when I climbed on the roof at The Palm Beach Post to see the corkscrewing smoke left over from the Challenger explosion.

I called Wife Lila in West Palm Beach to ask if she knew if there had been a rocket launch at The Cape. She said one was supposed to have gone off at 8:03, but she didn’t know if it had any problems.

My photo was taken at 8:07, assuming the time programmed into my camera was correct.

It wasn’t until I got home that I read that a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket carrying a $245 million Global Positioning System satellite was launched into space Friday after a 24-hour weather delay.

Shortly after I turned my attention away from the rocket trail, the sky came alive.

Warriorettes are leaving me

Anne Rodgers, Texan, former newspaper colleague and bike riding partner, is moving back home to Texas early in June. Curator Jessica Cyders, from the Athens Historical Society and Museum, will be heading back to Athens, Ohio, next week to her husband and cat. She hopes that neither has starved to death in her absence.

I hope the pictures they shot at Nubbins Slough this afternoon will bring back fond memories of our meandering.

Y0u can click on the photos to make them larger.

May 16, 2014

Warriorettes Hit Florida

I got Road Warriorettes Anne and Curator Jessica over the Florida line without too much difficulty. I’m tired enough, though, that I told ’em the best gift would be for us to check into a joint without a WiFi connection so I’d have an excuse for not filing

Anne suggested we name this the No Bad Food Tour, because we haven’t had a single bad meal. Part of that is from stopping at places I’ve discovered over the years, and part is from our rule of thumb: stop only at locally-owned restaurants that have a bunch of cars in front of them.

Cypress Inn Restaurant

It’s been at least 20 or 25 ars since I ate at the Cypress Inn Restaurant in Cross City. I don’t remember if I was covering a flood or a hurricane or if it was on a vacation trip with the family.

I had the seafood platter that was every bit as good as the shrimp and oyster combo I had at a fish camp in Gastonia yesterday. The oysters weren’t quite as big, but everything on the plate was tasteful. Anne had a ribeye that was tender and had good flavor. Jessica was craving a big, greasy burger, and got her wish fulfilled.

It won’t be another 25 years before I go back. This moves up to a prime spot on my list.

We’re going to try to get into West Palm Beach early enough for Anne to wrap loose ends before she leaves Florida for her home state of Texas. Gonna miss her.

May 14, 2014

A Rainy Night In Georgia

My Road Warriorettes, Anne and Curator Jessica, don’t understand that a man has strong biological needs: the primary one being lots of sleep. Against my better judgement, I was convinced to set my alarm for 8:27 a.m. and not the usual 9:37.

I have other photos of our Beckley, West Virginia, to Athens, Georgia, leg of our trip, but they expect me to get up early again tomorrow, so the rest of the pix will have to wait.

The sky opened up

We’ve had good weather up until the last 35 miles, when the sky just opened up. Traffic wasn’t too heavy, and Rain-X kept the windshield clear (Anne is a great window washer, but Curator Jessica is going to require some training), so I didn’t mind the deluge.

The first place we checked out in a line-up-the-animals-two-by-two downpour was full, but we heard of another one on the other side of town that was even cheaper (and perfectly acceptable).

On the way to it, we spotted what would have been a really nice shot of lights on a glistening street, but I couldn’t grab the camera before we were past it. In the confusion, we missed 0ur turnoff and had to make a U-turn. Since we had to go back anyway, I decided to check out our rainy night in Georgia.

I don’t know if it’s as good as what we saw on the first pass, but it’s good enough to let me go to bed early. You can click on it to make it larger.