Arcadia Florida, an Old Florida Town

Our first stop along the way was Fort Ogden and little town just south of Arcadia and Nocatee. We made a short stop at this old country store which had been closed down. I was told that this place was a landmark at one time so it made for a perfect photo.

The old train rail system was still usage across from the general store from the looks of the picture however as you can see the rail cars had been sitting there for some time based on the tagging on the side of on of them.

Next we found our way north to Arcadia where my riding mentor lived before he went off to the military back when he was 18. Nestled in a little town called Arcadia we found ourselves on the main downtown street by the "Old Tree of Knowledge" a 100 year old tree which has rumours that old men used to sit around this tree play checkers and often talk to each other. It is a known landmark to many in Arcadia and it sits across from the Arcadia old posting train house (which shows the build date at the top) which was actually younger then the old oak tree.

After leaving this area we went up the street to a small family owned diner called the "Wheeler's Cafe" (believe the names was didn't catch a photo of it), as we talked to several other motorcyclists on many touring Euro motorcycles, American Cruisers and Euro cruisers outside the diner, we decided this was the place to eat. Upon leaving this restaurant we noticed a sign near where we had parked that read "Car show 1-4 PM, Downtown street to be closed" how cool is that we ended up coming up to Arcadia at the right time as we were just finishing lunch at 12:30.

So to stay in the area, James took me to some old area parks which had some military memorabilia located within them (see the jet pictured below). We also walked on the original state road 17 while across the street from this park below. The old single lane bridge had been decommissioned at it was found un-structurally sound for a motor vehicles to cross over it, however people can still walk on it and I believe bicyclist can ride over it as well.


Once we returned back near Wheeler's Cafe, we found that more cars had show up, all 7 to 8 of them. While this may not have been a good turn out to me, I think the city was happy to see some business to the local establishments on a Sunday afternoon.
While we were walking around the cars I found a building which read "Arcadia Opera House Museum" and about 35 stairs going straight up. I couldn't help but wonder what all the stairs lead to so I journeyed up them. To our surprise we found the old 1906 Opera and stage house in Arcadia which was upstairs above all the local businesses ranging the whole 2 blocks, in other words the place was huge!
The Opera house museum was very interesting with the costumes and stage props used back when the plays and operas took place. Many of the items pre-date the 1900's and many of them were still usable! To bad I didn't think to take pictures as I was in owe of everything. The building and the items inside are older then everyone I know in my family and that is impressive to me.

So much walking today my back actually hurt and that is uncommon for me.
Today marked the ending of my learning period with James and I am now considered a riding buddy/partner and no longer a student of his. Although I like that feeling, I know there are many things which I still need to learn which will come with experience. I also know that there will be times when we venture to areas which I do not know so I will have to follow his lead once again. I have come to enjoy Jame's company as a rider and as a friend.

Ultimately this all comes down to wanting to purchase the motorcycle which I am riding of theirs. I have come accustom to riding this motorcycle and I like the way it feels to me. I know in the future I will probably be riding something larger as I have ambitions to make riding a part of my life now and look forward to longer trips and weekends. This is something that I can do on the weekends to enjoy my life again and get to see much of the unappreciated areas of Florida. In my short 7 weeks of riding I have seen so much of Florida already and I have lived here for 21 years.

More Photos from my trips click Here!

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Colby Butler aka Kingkole02