Day 133: Orlando, FL to Astoria, GA

We departed bright and early this morning after many farewells and headed North to Jacksonville, Florida. We had a date with the head confectioner of Sweet Pete’s Candy Factory, Sweet Pete himself, for a chocolate factory tour. Pete operates a micro-confectionery specializing in caramels, custom chocolate bars, and hard candies like lollipops and candy canes. He employs four candy maker helpers and is hands on with the candy manufacturing process. It was the smallest factory we have visited, except for the very small scale Gouda cheese maker we visited in Montana that had his factory in his house and his cheese aging room in his basement.

Our tour guide was Sweet Pete himself!

We got to see an actual Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. This is Sweet Pete’s prize possession and was on display in the factory.

This was Miss Deedee working with Rosie the caramel wrapping machine. Pete told us that sometimes Rosie eats the caramels instead of wrapping them!

As part of our tour we each got to create a custom chocolate bar which was made specially for us. We splurged on mystery bags of seconds that turned out to be jam packed with loads of goodies like chocolate coveted Oreos and Rice Krispie treats, chocolate bars and peanut butter cups. Yum!

Creating our custom chocolate bars. So hard to choose!

Happy with our choices.

Alistair picked toasted coconut, rainbow sprinkles and mini marshmallows. A delicious combination.

The candy shop occupies a huge mansion that used to be a social club for rich white gentlemen. Several US presidents from Roosevelt to Nixon frequented the club over the years.

Next we visited the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art. This was a letdown with only two small galleries open and about two dozen paintings on display. As anticipated with contemporary art, the paintings’ subjects were quite odd - public washrooms and street signs - but the museum failed to engage the boys and it was a quick visit.

This painting didn’t warrant a frame? Weird. Gave it a real shower curtain vibe.

This piece was a ball of lost clothing from Hurricane Katrina. Again, weird.

We saw a series of paintings of pavement. What a strange subject to paint.

Also painting icky public washrooms is a choice.

We can appreciate the street signs. We have certainly seen lots of these over the past several months.

Driving towards Georgia we passed a burger joint with my name! We didn’t stop but snapped a photo.

We crossed the state line into Georgia on the way to our campground at Laura S. Walker State Park. Laura Walker was a conservationist who championed tree preservation. President Roosevelt established the park in her honour, making her the only living person at the time to have a state or national park named after them. We ate dinner and casted for fish, being careful of alligators of course, and enjoyed the blush coloured sunset.

Goodbye to the Sunshine State.

Hello Georgia!