Painting the town: Wynwood, Miami, Florida

Back in 2003, some forward-thinking folks created an arts district in a run down part of the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami that would eventually turn it into one of the largest open-air art installations in the world. Tony Goldman, a real estate developer and arts visionary, came up with the idea of capitalizing on the graffiti in the area due to its dilapidated state and spearheaded the painting of exterior murals by some of the world's premier street artists in an effort to increase pedestrian traffic. The area now houses art galleries, museums, restaurants, shops and art fairs and draws in locals and tourists from around the world. The art evolves, too, with new murals being created all the time. The neighborhood is still quite gritty, which adds to the credibility of the artworks' subject matter but the juxtaposition of a double-decker tourist bus with socks-and-sandals-wearing out-of-towners trundling through this ultra-urban art scene is amusing.

So if graffiti is welcomed by a community, does that diminish its credibility and rebellious nature? Will whitewashing a building become the new form of renegade art? Do pretentious
questions about what is and isn't art give you a headache? I think we've hit the wall here.

Key and appeal: A visit (pre-Irma) to Key West

We were lucky to take a brief trip to Key West, Eccentric Roadside's first, one week before Hurricane Irma hit. The Keys got beat up but bounced back and opened up to tourists a few weeks later, and the famous Southern-Most Point marker, a classic Key West tourist attraction people line up to get their picture takeen in front of, has been restored to its pre-hurricane luster after getting pretty badly bruised.

Good on you Key West, for restoring the laid back Jimmy Buffett vibe, and please, Eccentric Roadside readers, please go visit there because the local economy depends on you. As Mae West said, "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough."

Now you've seen a mall: the retro-tastic Southgate Shopping Center of Lakeland, Florida

There's a shopping plaza in the central Florida town of Lakeland that's celebrating its 60th birthday this November, and it doesn't look a day over the Eisenhower administration. The Southgate Shopping Center on South Florida Avenue was the brainchild of George Jenkins, founder of the Publix grocery store chain. He figured a plaza with many stores would attract more customers than just a free-standing supermarket, a rather "no duh" idea by today's standards, but revolutionary at the time. The beauty of this location is the fact that that the stupendous parabolic arch with its mid-century modern lettering and style hasn't been updated to something more current and, in most cases of older places being "modernized," made bland. Say what you will about Southgate, bland it ain't. Director Tim Burton thought as much, and he chose the Southgate as a location for his 1990 movie "Edward Scissorhands." It's where Edward, played by Johnny Depp, has his hair salon.

Bravo to the Publix grocery store chain for keeping the retro vibe alive in Lakeland. It's Fat city,  the place to make the scene Daddy-O, and we dig it the most.

See you later alli-crater: the coastal limestone gator of Jupiter Island, Florida

Blowing Rocks Preserve is a beautiful natural wonder on Jupiter Island along Florida's Atlantic coast. There, you'll see craggy Anastasia limestone along the shore, giving the area a bit of a Maine coast feel. As if to remind you that you're still in the Sunshine State, an outcropping resembling an alligator, Florida's unofficial ambassador, juts out into the crashing foam. We love this place, and that's no crock.

Zero F's given: Greetings from Lorida, Florida

We've been doing most of our roadtripping around Florida these past few years and there's no shortage of eccentric roadside attractions in the sunshine state. Take, for example, the tiny town of Lorida. Lorida, Florida. Florida without the F. Now, that's just funny. This little berg with a population of 1,696 rests in the south central part of the state along Route 98, about 43 miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. It's a bucolic farming and fish camp community with beautiful Lake Istokpoga right nearby. According to this guy's blog, it got its name from its postmistress Mary Stokes back in 1937, after several names (Can I get a whoop whoop for Sunnyland? No?) didn't work out. Apparently she liked the Spanish origin of the name Florida so much she corrupted it a little and the name stuck.

Places with names like this make roadtrips fun. WTF, notwithstanding.

I say a little ospreyer for you: The osprey nest in the pineapple sign of Lake Placid, Florida

Run children, run!

A recent roadtrip to the pretty little south central Florida town of Lake Placid yielded us a two-fer: an abandoned, decaying roadside sign and business, and a wonder of nature. On top of the pineapple-shaped sign in front of a decommissioned citrus stand along busy Route 27 sits a large osprey nest with a rather angry mother protecting her young. At first we didn't notice the nest and thought this was just a cool, abandoned place, so beautifully melancholy Old Florida, but after getting out to walk around and get a closer look, a lot of loud squawking was heard. It was then we noticed a large hawk-like bird right in the top. The closer we got, the more distressed she acted until she flew off and began circling and crying. This was something I hadn't seen before, I thought to myself, and for a minute I wondered if I should be heading to a phone booth for protection, like Tippi Hedren in "The Birds". We would have lingered longer to get more pictures but moved on after a minute because the poor bird really did seem distressed. To stay any longer would have seemed, well, hawkward.