Florida – Disney World, white sandy beaches, golf courses, retirement homes… right?  Not so much.

Those are the parts of Florida in magazines and travel brochures.

The Florida that we drove through and lived in, however, was much different.

The Florida panhandle is filled with small towns built with wood.  There’s a simplicity in the air.

Rolling pastures with sandy dirt and lots of cows fly by the car windows.  And deteriorating signs with names like Tate’s Hell painted on them point to marshy swamps. (Redundant?)

The people there are friendly, but understandably weary of young people passing through.

On one hand, even in areas off the beaten path, tourism is still a huge part of the economy.  But unique to Florida, a large portion of those tourists are young people, mostly there to cause trouble, that come in this time of year.

I can’t fault their hesitation.

Signs on the way to Panama City advertise “Don’t pay beach prices”.

This time of year, they don’t even have to say “for alcohol”.

Some of the signs might as well read, “You’ll get carded on the beach.  Here?.. Not so much.”

Cute shops and stands along the roadside sell kitschy souvenirs (I can spell kitschy but not souvenir) and produce posing as locally grown.

Then comes Panama City.

I’ve done my fair share of traveling and never before have I seen hotels anywhere near the size and magnitude of the ones on the beaches in Panama City.  Giant hotels stretch a quarter mile long and 20 stories high.

Even the resorts at Disney World don’t compare.

The beach front defines tacky.  Most of the outdoor decor looks like hand-me-downs from Branson, Missouri.

There are two head shops in the city.  Let me rephrase, there are 60 head shops in the city, 30 locations each of two separate companies.

Every 400 yards, we’d pass a Purple Haze, right next to a Rasta-Beach-Bum-Al’s-Beach-Smoke-a-thon-Whatever-It’s-Called-Get-Paraphenalia-Here shop.

The rest of Florida that we saw was swampish.  It’s full of mosquitoes, car key swallowing alligators and vast expanses of wet (very wet) unpopulated areas.

And it’s all really quite wonderful.  It looks like Jurassic Park.  I literally spent a fair amount of time sitting back and imagining dinosaurs grazing on the tree tops. (But that’s not really unique to being in Florida)

Florida is beautiful.

Disney World is fantastic, the golf courses (I’m told) are beautiful, the beaches are wonderful, but there’s so much more to the state than what’s plastered all over the local travel agent’s office.