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Our trip to Naples, Florida

• Mason City, IA to Paducah, KY
• Paducah, KY to Valdosta, GA
• Valdosta, GA to Bonita Springs, FL
• Bonita Springs, FL to Naples, FL
• An day in Naples, FL
• Naples, FL to Sarasota, FL
• Andersonville and Plains, GA
• Warm Springs, Georgia
• Dalton, GA to Mason City, IA

Our trip out of Florida seemed to take forever; perhaps it was the fact that we found nothing of interest to look at as we traveled north on Interstate 75. The road, as mentioned before, is lined with pine trees, which obscures the view on both sides. We stopped for fuel in the morning and picked up a variety of citrus fruits to eat along the way. Then when we got into Georgia we stopped to buy pecans and a few other treats. We left I-75 at Cordele, GA and took US highway 280, a two-lane highway that runs through a picturesque rural area of Georgia. The pecan grove in the picture below is just one of many that we observed along the way. We noted that the farmers in this area leave nothing to chance, the trees are fully irrigated to make sure they maximize their crop.

It was late afternoon when we pulled into Americus, a town of about 18,000. We had booked a room at the historic Windsor Hotel, built in 1892 and checked in before looking around town. The next serious of pictures show the interior and exterior of this wonderful old hotel. It has that sophisticated look of the late 19th century and yet has all the modern amenities needed for the current day traveler, including high speed internet service in the guest rooms.

Our room was on the third floor and after checking in I took a few pictures on the way down to the lobby and of course snooping about to see what this hotel had to offer. All the hallways meet on the central atrium, which is open 4 stories high, and has balconies overlooking this open area. The second and third floors have outdoor verandas looking south providing plenty of sun to warm the area on chilly days. Hotel information indicates that Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a speech from one of these verandas. The picture below is the view from our third floor balcony.

The second floor balcony is a bit fancier with turned and carved columns overlooking the atrium, you can see this detail in the picture below. The second floor also has a huge dining room for the restaurant and it appears to have not changed a bit since the hotel was built.

The lobby, as you can see below, is spacious and has plenty of chairs and couches for a place to relax. There is also a large fireplace, and even an old phone booth complete with wall phone. The picture below looks towards the front door of the hotel.

This final picture of the interior is the lobby with the front door behind us. This is just such a grand looking building we had more fun exploring it than anything else we did.

Following dinner in the dining room we went for a walk around town and took this picture of the front entrance of the hotel.

Our walk this afternoon and again tonight took us by the Rylander Theatre, which has been restored and now serves as a home for the local community theatre.

This business trip/vacation was pretty tightly planned up to today. We had booked rooms in advance and planned on our travel in advance. When we arrived in Americus this afternoon we had to make a decision on what our next few days would look like. The more we saw of Americus and looked at the travel information we realized that we needed to spend more time here than originally planned. So tomorrow we will visit Andersonville, a civil war prison of war camp, Plains, GA, and eventually we will end up in Columbus, GA. We will plan the rest of our trip tomorrow.