Going north and exchanging greetings as we go. Nancy used to live on Big Pine and had a job with Monroe County that put her in an office close by Laynes’s when she worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer. As always Layne has kept in close contact with one of her earliest friends in the Keys. Every time Nancy meets Rusty she starts talking earnestly about getting another dog. This was in 2018 and she is still dogless:
Ocala in the fifteen years we have been visiting has grown like everywhere else has. It’s one of those mainland towns where Conchs move to after they sell their homes in Key West and discover a million bucks will buy a lot of land in horse country. Nancy has made a success of her move as retirement looms in a few years as a senior clerk in the Marion County courts. Once retired she’ll own her home free and clear, with a decent state pension after 30 years at a state job, and she’ll have a life close to her son and his family who really like her.
For much of the country it isn’t an unusual story to work, retire and enjoy life, but for me Nancy’s move from the Keys is the story that illustrates how you can leave the much desired islands in good order and make a good life elsewhere. She doesn’t miss her former life and never goes back to visit. I enjoy seeing her flourish in horse country.
I left Layne and Nancy talking after I finished my brisket. While they were picking rib bones apart the conversation was intense and they had already forgotten I was there. Rusty was glad to see me back at the van and we walked. It’s not often you see a farrier’s truck parked on the street. Like I said, Ocala is horse country.
Ocala has a population around 55,000 with reasonable rents and the official median price of a home is around a quarter million dollars. In Florida Ocala rates highly as hurricane and flood proof as much as anything can be and has a relatively mild climate with hot summers and occasional frost in winter. Marion County has a population under 400,000 but that is quite populated for North Florida and you can see why.
When a bank calls itself “Seacoast” you would imagine there might be some sign of the sea around you. Ocala is about an hour from the Atlantic beaches so the back is slightly off course. Ocala was built around Fort King which in turn was built in 1827 on the border of the newly created Seminole Reservation. The Indians had fought the US army to a standstill and earned themselves the right to live in the swamps south of Fort King. They still proudly point out they have never been defeated in battle. The northern border of the Seminoles got pushed south to Ft Myers over the decades as white settlers pushed past Ft King, but that was the original border.
Parking rules in Ocala, sensible simple and clearly posted. And affordable. Key West could do worse than follow their lead.
By 1819 Spain was impoverished and had no interest in populating Florida where they had built settlements since the 1500s. The US worked out a treaty to take control of the territory and assume any debts owed by Spain to the occupants. The entire peninsula cost the US five million dollars when all claims were paid. 1821 saw the creation of an official territory with statehood following in 1845.
Meanwhile the Seminoles wanted nothing to do with the US so Fort King was built in 1827 and named for an officer who governed western Florida, Colonel William King. After the majority of Seminoles were expelled following repeated wars a city was built nearby and it became the county seat of Marion County in 1846 following the creation of the 27th State. A decade later Ocala was booming and well established until the Civil War cake along and wrecked their prospects entirely reducing the population so much its future was in doubt.
If outsiders think of Florida at all they don’t think of horse country and rolling hills and oak forests and white post-and-rail horse fences. But that is what you will find here.
A drive across Florida from Brooksville to Ocala to Palatka and St Augustine will reveal pretty little towns connected by smooth winding roads shaded by huge live oaks and Spanish moss. You’d be amazed if you thought Florida is all Disney World and sandy beaches.
It was a pleasant cool evening for a walk so Rusty and I hit the pavement for an hour or more wandering this way and that.
Youthful brew pubs and a movie theater downtown is part of the revival of Ocala as a hub to rival Gainesville and its university.
Eventually we moved on crossing the state in the dark to reach I-95 on the east coast where we slept to get ready to run up the freeway to Hilton Head.
Next stop South Carolina and Webb Chiles followed by ten days in Ocracoke, the southernmost island in North Carolina’s Outer Banks where we shall park GANNET2, turn up the heat in our rental home and take Rusty for romantic winter walks.
No, I don’t miss working one bit.
