Gibsonton

Ten miles south, Gibsonton has some very strange inhabitants. Sideshow giant Al Tomaini and his midget wife Jeanie founded the town. It has long been the off-season home of traveling circuses and carnivals.

"Gibtown's" unique city ordinance allows for residents to store their road show right in their front yard. Driving around the town, dismantled carnival rides, food stands and exotic animals are a common sight.

Your chance to rub elbows with the local freaks (quite literally) is at the Showtown Bar (above). A large tree grows through the corner of the bar counter where midgets, fatmen and human blockheads come to forget the troubles of the open road. Karaoke nights are a must see.

Apollo Beach
You will know when you hit Apollo Beach by the towering smoke stacks of an electric plant. The warm waters the factory produces attract manatees in the winter months. The state built a viewing platform and transformed a trailer into a gift shop for the occasion. At times it is possible to witness up to 200 of the "sea cows."

Bradenton
On the way from Apollo Beach to Bradenton, the Tamiami becomes rather rural. Down-home farms and fruit stands find a home along side a large Tropicana plant. In Bradenton is Florida's most famous manatee, Snooty. The fifty plus years sea mammal can be viewed at the Parker Manatee Aquarium.

Bradenton offers traces of many classic style buildings and is home to the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training.

Sarasota
Its twin city is Sarasota. When it comes to classic signage and retro motels, Sarasota far outdoes its northern neighbor.

From tiki bars to quaint cottages, Sarasota is a drive through history. Santa (left) can also be spotted parking his sled atop a year round Christmas store. Back On Tack has submitted much of the classic signage, motels and eateries captured along this section of the Tamiami to Roadside Peek. Following this link and also this link will put you in the middle of the roadside.

There is plenty more to do in Sarasota besides just eating and sleeping. Many museums and parks can fill at least two days of a trip. The most well know attraction is the Ringling Brothers Museum. Just across the street is the Sarasota Classic Car Museum. The building exterior is sculpted like an old main street and Fred Flintstone's Bedrock mobile is parked by the front door (below left).

Sarasota Jungle Gardens is reminiscent of what true Florida roadside was once like. Several animal shows, a jungle trail to walk and a chance for flamingos to eat out of your hand are built around tropical landscaping. Christ and a shell museum are also tossed into the menagerie.

Just outside the entrance to Sarasota Jungle Gardens, Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf will not only let you putt around an 18 hole course, but also feed live gators off the end of a stick.

If you still hunker for more mother nature, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens offers a very serene environment to take in hundreds of plants and sometimes even ants. If you dive deeper into Sarasota attractions, you will discover the Mote Marine Aquarium which has been showcasing wonders of the sea since 1955.

Bishop Planetarium & Parker Manatee Aquarium bring sea and space together into one neat little package. Life-sized dioramas tell the story of Sarasota from cave man to carhop. Nearby Historic Spanish Point also offers a dash from the past with a pioneer homestead but if you have seen one old house, you have seen them all.

Venice, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda
South of Sarasota the road turns rural once again. This area was once occupied by the now debunked Floridaland roadside attraction. Venice, Port Charlotte, and Punta Gorda offer more signs of life. Although there is not a lot to see in Venice it should be noted as once being home to one of the world's most well known animal trainers, Gunther Gebel-Williams. Port Charlotte showcases a giant sundae. More south, Punta Gorda offers several parks and a decent place to die. The average age of the population here is 63. The town is expected to be baby booming in the near future.

Ft. Myers
In sharp contrast, Ft. Myers is a bustling, built up, and young at heart kind of town. Here, the Tamiami expands into six lanes, which does little to ease the congestion. Fast food and malls stand wall to wall.

Ft. Myers was once home to Thomas Edison during the winter months. As a result, everything from motels to Laundromats have seemed to inherit his name. Tours are given of his and adjacent Henry Ford's house. The two properties are separated by a fence, which came to be known by both as "The Friendship Gate." Good walls make good neighbors.

One place along the Tamiami not to be missed is the Ft. Myers Shell Factory (below). Several attractions and one huge kitsch gift shop share an 18-acre area where 41 and 41a merge at the north end of the city.

Ft. Myers Shell Factory boasts a stock of over 5,000,000 shells. The sea scraps are made into wind chimes, light up sculptures, religious items, curtains, jewelry and yes, even clothing!

Taxidermic animals gaze down from perches high above the isles. African exhibits and more dead animals are scattered about backscratchers and citrus perfumes. On site glass blowers make garish keep sakes. In a Christmas portion of the store, aviaries of live parakeets are built into the wall. The children's birthday area and video arcade shares itself with a pool of live alligators. This place is wicked!

Coastal Fort Myers is typical of the spring break towns of Florida like Panama City and Daytona. T-shirt and souvenir shops are the corner stones that hold everything else in place. Convertibles boom and traffic backs up on small streets and bridges that allow access to all the excess of college life.

Naples
About 40 miles south of Ft. Myers, Naples offers a much more pretentious approach to beach culture. The town is not so high brow to annex some furry tack in its midst. At the Teddy Bear Museum of Naples, 4,000 stuffed bears claw at the walls. The collection dates back as far as 1903. The bears are showcased in a parade of costumes and some are posed in dainty dioramas.

Everglades to Miami
South of Naples the Tamiami hooks a left as it heads east into the heart of the Everglades. The tiny two-lane trail gives ample opportunity to take in local wildlife and perhaps even see a gator or two. The swamp meets its abrupt end at the Miccosukee Casino and Hotel before connecting into Eight Street in Miami. The road ends much how it began - inside a Cuban community. This time it is Little Havana.

Miami's art deco architecture (above) is inspiring. The haughty culture and nightlife of South Beach brings only one word to mind - overrated.