Granny's Letters:
We are now something like 4 miles from Gainesville, it has the University of Florida, the college buildings are fine, the town is a fine looking town. We met a man from Marietta Ohio he is in Gainesville for the winter, he has his boys in school, he said the living is cheap there, we bought oranges 3 for 5¢, the man had them in a wagon like we would have apples. We have not seen any orange groves yet, we are still trying to get to Jacksonville to get our mail. I think we have about 120 miles yet. We were going to make a big drive today but the men have gone in the woods and here we are at 10 o'clock and not started yet. It is cloudy today, when the sun shines it is too hot. We have a little fire today but no wraps just my short sleeves. Mrs. Willy Bitner is sitting out writing but we are in our tent. We went up to a house to see the banana tree and get some flowers, she had some princess feathers, chrysanthemums, periwinkles, they were very scrubby but she thought they were fine, she called bananas, pananers. The boys came in with 5 squirrels, we had dinner and started for Palatka, we had about 41 miles to go and it took us about 4 hours, the road was rough and sandy. We came to a town called Edgar where they washed the sand out of clay to make dishes and spark plugs. Palatka is a nice place, it has the State University. We crossed the St. Johns river on a bridge, 30¢ toll, the bridge was 7/8 miles long. We camped in east Palatka in a grove owned by Mr. Brownie. We started on Sunday about 10 o'clock and reached St. Augustine about noon, got some sandwiches, paid 25¢ apiece for them and went and sat on the sea wall to eat them. We saw some lovely orange groves between Gainesville and Palatka, but it was raining so we did not get any, they were laying under the tree like apples do in our country when the trees are full. There was nothing to see between St. Augustine and Jacksonville but swamp the road is brick paved about 8 or 10 ft wide the bricks are loose. There was no towns between the two places, a distance of 41 miles, only a few shacks in a turpentine camp. Jacksonville is a large place but not a nice place. We crossed the St. John river in a ferry, cost 51¢. We were on 2 sailing vessels at Jacksonville, one river vessel and an ocean liner, the river vessel was the nicest. We drove out over the residence part of town but there was nothing extra to see.