MY 50-STATE STRATEGY

SEVEN OF MANY: Here's sample of the larger pieces of artwork available for public viewing in Lake Placid, Fla.

BRUSH WITH MYSTERY

AFTER LOITERING FOR A FEW DAYS AROUND NAPLES, snacking on my sister BQ's lamb chops and stocking up at the big boxes around town, I hit the road northeast with a new set of railroad bunk-style curtains for the trailer.
Thanks BQ!
Smack dab in the middle of Florida's heartland, I encountered the artistic oasis of Lake Placid, Fla.
Located about 20 miles dead south of the Sebring International Speedway on the Rep. Claude Pepper Highway, this Lake Placid is not famous for hockey miracles, but instead claims to be "The Caladium Capital of the World."
Although those flowering bushes around this town of under 2,000 citizens are eye-catching, what really grabs your attention are the images.
All over the downtown area the warehouses, garages, business and municipal buildings that form the town's backbone are covered in murals. These murals, many painted by top Florida artists, feature local heroes and yokel everymen mixed in with historical, natural and industrial scenes. They are are painted with astonishing color, clarity and detail and range in size from several of birds on surfaces the size of dinner platters to a cattle drive which covers the side of the local Winn Dixie supermarket.
Images featured are as diverse as cavemen on the hunt to little girls having a teaparty, people watching birds with the birds watching back, bears and cubs, migrant orange pickers and a personal favorite (see above) of a fanboat racing through the Everglades and seemingly right off the side of the building. One, on the side of the local library, is a tribute to Melvil Dewey, "The Father of Modern Library Science," originator of the Dewey Decimal System and co-founder of the Lake Placid Club, a resort for one's social, cultural and spiritual enrichment, which ironically is located in Lake Placid, N.Y. - which is famous for hockey miracles.
The local Chamber of Commerce will issue you a guide and map to the 41 murals (with No. 42 currently being created). Many include hidden clues to a local mystery which will occupy the bored kids that may be in tow or the adult gumshoes among us.
I, unfortunately, arrived too late for Chamber office hours, so I couldn't try to solve the mystery. Nevertheless, I was startled to hear the bear growls, train whistles and cattle-drive calls which sound as you approach many of the artworks.
If you're in the neighborhood and appreciate art for art's sake, then Lake Placid is worth a peek.
(Though it only contains 36 of the images, for more on the murals check: http://www.lakeplacid-florida.com/.)