The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-07-21
TRIP TO GAINESVILLE AND
NEWBERRY

tion to the players.
The twenty Ocala automobiles,
with pennants flying looked quite i'm
posing and gave a gala appearance to
our neighboring city, who did us the
honor TO meet us with like number
of machines, the whole presenting
picture that the most optimistic of us
would have thought impossible a few
years ago.
The car in which we took passage
(it was not on record-making tour
made the trip in two hours and five
minutes. The one, however, driven
by Claude Haycraft, covered the dis
tance in one hour and forty-f1ve min
utes, which shows the possibilities of
auto travel when We shall have a sys-
TEN of good roads throughout the
state of Florida.
The road between the two cities is
good in spots and bad in spots, and
the spots that are bad are horrid.
Eetween Ocala and Evinston the
road is fairly good There is a strip
between Reddick and Orange Lake
recently completed by Mr.. Gordon,
that can be said to be elegant In
deed. there is no finer piece CT road
in Florida, and when all TIE ~ Gs in
the state shall be is eQ':al Florida
auto travelling will be a luxury-Iike
a thing of beauty and utility it will
be joy forever.
The road from Evinston to Micano-
py and from Micanopy on to Gaines
vile, with the exception of a few mi
nor places, is bad enough, and makes
autoing anything but pleasure, and
the Alachua county commissioners
ought to get busy at once and make
good road to meet the one of the Ma
rion county commissioners at Evin-
ston.
We, went on from Gainesville to
Newberry, twenty miles westward,
and we do not believe that any road
in Florida traverses a prettier section
than from Ocala to Newberry via
Gainesville. Those who are given to
traduce Florida and persist in the
statements that it is low, sandy and
swampy, ought to take this trip. 1t
would prove an eye-opener.
The road from Gainesville to New
berry is fairly good, and the crops are
exceptionally fine. Over the entire
route one is scarcely out of sight of
a farm, and as a rule one joins anotn-
er, and they stretch out in either di-
rection as far as the eye can reach.
There seems to be no fancy farm
ing, but the old-style staple crops are
very much in evidence. Corn, cotton,
peas, sugar cane, beggarweed, and
haystacks were plentiful and men,
women and children seemed busy put
ting out potato slips.
Alachua certainly does not take a
back seat for any county in Florida IN
the farming line, and the statistics
show that her farmers are successful
and prosperous.
Another thing that attracted our at
tention was the rural free delivery
boxes every few miles apart; some
times we counted as many as twelve
in number.
So far as we know there is not a
single rural delivery route in Marion
county.
We took dinner with Mr.. Chas. H.
Lloyd who has a position with the
Cummers at Newberry, and we are
prepared to say that there is no fam
inc in the land in Alachua, and the
art of cooking is thoroughly under
stood.
There were only four of us, and We
sat down to four broiled chickens, de-
Iicious gravy, rice, excellent corn
bread, biscuits, mutton corn on the
cob, hop-in-john, potatoes, potato sal
ad, coffee, milk, pastry and side dish
es galore.
Don't tell us that life is not worth
living. Those who think so should
take this trip.
We were glad to note the evidences
of growth at Gainesville. The remov-
al of the university is the predominant
ing cause for this splendid growth.
The residential section is very at.
tractive, and property values have
doubled themselves many times over.
The merchants and business and pro-
fessional men generally are prosper
ing, and everything has spic and
span appearance, which is delight
to see.
The Elks have a beautiful home,
and like all other institutions and or.