For the past century or more, beginning prior to the War Between the States, the history of central Florida is that of cattle drives, open ranges, vast plains of native, untamed land. Not much has changed except the migration of cowpokes moving further from their connection to the ways of the past. The crackers have dwindled in numbers, the cattle are domesticated as opposed to herd of wildly running bovines, and drives have been foreshadowed by the trucking industry. But the land remains the same. Vast open ranges surround the journey from cities on opposite coasts. Get five miles outside any metropolis and you’re in cattle country. I found that Florida has now overtaken Texas as the number one state producing our nation’s beef. Where’s the beef? It’s in Florida, my friend. One would be reminiscent of the pancake pastures of the Midwest as you drive the three hour journey across the breadth of the state. Cattle don’t fear the alligators of the swamps for one swift leg whip would break the “gators’ ability to function. It’s nature’s “cold war.” So these thoughts and sights permeating our thinking processes as we traveled from the Gulf to the Atlantic this week.
