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Our trip to Naples, Florida

• Mason City, IA to Paducah, KY
• Paducah, KY to Valdosta, GA
• Valdosta, GA to Bonita Springs, FL
• Bonita Springs, FL to Naples, FL
• An day in Naples, FL
• Naples, FL to Sarasota, FL
• Sarasota, FL to Americus, GA
• Warm Springs, Georgia
• Dalton, GA to Mason City, IA

Today’s trip was all about sightseeing. We didn’t cover much ground as far as getting home, but we did cover a lot of stops seeing the scenic spots between Americus and Columbus, Georgia. To keep the pages smaller I have decided to split today into three separate pages. We took 153 pictures today and sorted them down to 29 for the website. This page will feature Americus and the links below will take you to our other stops:

• Andersonville Prison Site
• Plains, Georgia

We began the day with a continental breakfast at the Hotel Windsor. This was served on the second floor balcony giving us a chance to view the wonderful woodwork surrounding us. The clock we could see across the atrium is the only original furnishing in the hotel. To make sure I could capture the detail I used a tripod to shoot a natural light picture of it, as well as the close-up that follows it.

I also caught Sandy going over the maps and brochures as we planned our trip around Americus, then to Andersonville and Plains.

We picked up a brochure that detailed the many historic homes in Americus and set out to find as many as possible. This home is not listed on the tour, but it looked pretty impressive and thought it deserved to be displayed regardless of when it was built.

Many of the homes on the tour are on College Street and this 1840 home was renovated, removing the gingerbread of its Victorian years and is said to now demonstrate the beauty of its original simplicity.

This 1850 home is listed as an antebellum cottage with Greek temple motif. We aren’t sure what the Greek temple motif is, but the home is remarkable considering it is over 150 years old.

Although we found many of the homes on the list and took pictures of nearly all that we found, we will conclude our home tour on-line with this 1890 Queen Anne style home with all the typical identifying features such as spindles and multi-colored panes of glass.

As we drove around town finding homes and historic buildings we ran into Reese Park. This park contains two soldiers’ monuments, and although this one only indicates that it memorializes the soldiers of Sumter County, the figure on the top is surely a likeness of a Confederate Soldier. He is facing the old Americus High School building, now used as an arts center.