Coe Landing is a rather small campground on Talquin Lake just outside the city of Tallahassee. The campground is next to a boat launch popular with fishermen. Signs were posted just outside the parking area: “Warning. Buzzards may damage vehicle.” A flock of black vultures were hanging out, roosting on the fence rails and dancing the Texas two step on car roofs. We need to post a similar sign inside our van!
Facilities at the campground were a quite dated but functional. Good Verizon signal and extremely good Wi-Fi and not much on OTA TV.
We visited Mission San Luis de Apalachee. This is a recreation on the original 1656 site of a Spanish Mission. The Spanish buildings include a reconstructed church, convento (friary), fort, and 2-room house. In the 2-room house we came upon an interesting feature. The interpreter called it a rat rack. You place food up up on the shelf above the table to keep it out of reach of the rats. Interesting.
The most impressive structure at the site was an Apalachee council house. This cone shaped building, constructed of tree trunks with palm fronds for thatch, was 5 stories tall, 125 feet in diameter, and could hold between 2000 and 3000 people. It was built by making a mound of dirt and then laying the poles that make up the roof. Once the structure was complete, the mound of dirt was removed and the supports for the roof were placed.
Then we went to Alfred B Maclay Gardens State Park. This was the winter residence of Maclay and his wife Louise Fleischmann until donated to the state. Mr. Maclay was fond of camellias, magnolias and azaleas, all of which were in bloom at our visit. This was an informal garden, reminiscent of walking in the woods along a lakeshore. The scent of magnolias which permeated the garden was wonderful.