Weeds & Wildflowers August Prompt / Road Trip!
Springs and Other Things
A road trip photo story — chapter one
As of this week, I hadn’t been out of town in 15 months and, even then, I only went 10 miles to a vegetable stand at a farm. A change of scenery was sorely needed.
My friend Gina and I started exploring road trip destinations in the spring after we were both fully vaccinated. Then, I got sick. Then, hospitalized. My recovery was slow. We didn’t revisit the road trip plans until late June but by then, we were in a cycle of daily rains. Not good weather for a road trip or photography.
Early this week, Tropical Storm Fred skirted the west coast of Florida, soaking up all the available moisture, and then exited the Gulf through the Pandhandle. After tropical storms, we typically have a few dry days. The road trip was on!
Our destination: Green Cove Springs, a small community a little more than 50 miles to the east on route to Jacksonville. I’d only passed through Green Cove but Gina assured me there was a beautiful park on the St. John’s River that would surely provide me with photo opportunities.
I was hoping for wading birds since they’ve been missing from our neighborhood lakes and ponds this summer. But, there wasn’t a single wader in Green Cove. Instead, I was mesmerized by the river, grackles, flowers in stones, a bubbling spring, a charming church, and a ship graveyard.
Too much to cover in one post. This will be the springs/river chapter of our road trip.
The predecessor of Green Cove Springs, then called White Sulfur Springs, was born in 1854. It was renamed Green Cove Springs in 1866 and became the seat of the Clay County government in 1871.
Green Cove quickly became known for its spring water that was rumored to have healing powers. Tourism boomed. Wealthy northerners came to Green Cove to be healed of a litany of ailments. It became known as the “Saratoga of the South”, referring to Saratoga Springs, NY, also known for its rejuvenating spring waters, as well as horse racing.
Unfortunately in the early 1900s, Henry Flagler’s railroad system bypassed the popular hamlet, taking the tourist business south to Miami and leaving Green Cove as a dying town. Now, as a bedroom community for the expansive city of Jacksonville, Green Cove is a typical small Southern city with old Cracker homes, new golf course McMansions, decrepit shopping centers, and a beautiful waterway.
The spring waters feed the municipal swimming pool and then flow over rocks, creating a small waterfall, before becoming a lazy stream that empties into the St. John’s River.
Rocks line the rivershore to control flooding waters and flowers flourish in tiny spaces between them or along the shoreline.
And cattails attract lizards in the sultry sun.
Sailboats dip and sway with the waves of the St. John’s.
An odd maple tree with exposed roots left us perplexed. There was no informational sign explaining this uniquely deformed tree.
Scattered on the ground we found unfamiliar nuts or fruits and discovered them growing on a stately bald cypress by the rivershore. It turns out that they are inedible seed cones.
Gina and I walked the piers over the river before leaving the park to discover the next delight on our road trip.
Stay tuned for chapter two of our Green Cove Springs road trip!
© Dennett 2021
In response to the August Weeds & Wildflowers Prompt, Road Trip!
