Wildcat Claws to Gator Jaws: A Bluegrass Girl's Florida Field Notes

Florida is a place that defies easy explanation-part tropical paradise, part roadside attraction, part ecological wonder. Florida's culture is one that resists assimilation while simultaneously courting the masses. Written from the perspective of a transplant who has spent the better part of two years exploring over 90 of the state's treasures, this book marvels at Florida's natural beauty, ponders its contradictions, and celebrates its oddities and unexpected charms. Organized as a loosely structured travelogue, the book unfolds in three parts and focuses on lesser-known attractions and locations that embody retro Florida and roadside Americana. Appealing to both Floridians and non¿Floridians, this book offers a fresh, humorous, and insightful look at Central Florida as a place of both beauty and contradictions-one that embraces change in unexpected ways and pushes back in familiar ones. Natives will recognize their state's idiosyncrasies, while visitors and transplants will gain a clearer, more entertaining picture of a place too often reduced to stereotypes. Proving Florida is stranger, more beautiful, and far more layered than its stereotypes suggest.