The Wandering Disciple

Spanning the Savannah River, the Talmage Memorial Bridge connects Georgia and South Carolina. The cable-stayed bridge replaced the original bridge in an effort to allow larger port traffic to pass beneath the bridge. The bridge was named after a southern Democrat Eugene Talmadge. Efforts to rise above the racist history of Talmadge and that era, the city council passed a resolution in 2017 to rename the bridge the Savannah Bridge. (Photo: March 13, 2014)

Rising from beyond I-95, Jacksonville is the first major city as you enter the Sunshine State from Georgia. If you were to conduct a poll on the city with the highest population in Florida, you would probably get answers like Miami, Orlando or Tampa. But in fact Jacksonville has the highest population in the state with over 920,000 people living within the city. (Photo: March 13, 2014)

Slow and steady wins the race. Well this gopher tortoise wasn't racing a hare but it was racing across the hiking trail at Oscar Scherer State Park. The threatened gopher tortoise can be found throughout Florida scrub habitats like the one here at Oscar Scherer. The gopher tortoise is important to the ecosystem as its burrow system provides homes to over 300 other species of animals. That is crucial in this landscape that is controlled by fire. (Photo: March 8, 2014)

When out for a hike, watch where you step. You never know what might be along the trail; a nesting bird, a delicate flower or a slithering snake. Here a harmless black racer snake slithers across the hiking path. (Photo of the Day: January 12, 2014)

The iconic Boeing 727 has been a work horse of the aviation world since the 60's.  It saw its first commercial flight in 1964 with Eastern Airlines and served the commercial industry until 2019 when it made its final commercial flight with Iran Aseman Airlines. While it may no longer provided scheduled passenger flights, the 727 still flies strong in the cargo industry.  This 727 is on display at the Florida Air Museum at Lakeland Linder Airport.  (Photo: June 30, 2019)

A hawk keeps a watchful eye for prey along a trail at Blind Pass Beach in Englewood. Birds of Prey are common throughout Florida and can be found in wooded areas looking for mice, snakes and any other tiny critter they can feast upon. (Photo: January 5, 2014)

North Port, Florida:  Friday night lights, Minor League Baseball style, swept over the West Villages at the Atlanta Braves opened their spring training home for some Gulf Coast League baseball.  A large crowd, uncharacteristic for a GCL game, filed into the newly built stadium for an evening of baseball action. The home team Braves jumped out to big lead in the second inning.  They collected four runs in the frame by the way of six hits to take a lead.  Joel Reyes drove in a run, Wiston Cerrato collected two, and Madson Berne plated another to give the Braves a 4-0 lead. The Brave picked up two more runs in thee bottom of the seventh by the way of a two run homer by Michael Harris, his first professional home run to make it 6-0. Braves pitching kept the Rays off the board until the eighth inning when the Rays scored a run on an RBI single by Johan Lopez for their first run of the night.  They got two more in the ninth by pushing across two runs on an er...