Tallahassee became the capital of Florida in 1824 for a reason that had nothing to do with beauty: it lay roughly halfway between the two old colonial towns of Pensacola and St. Augustine, which made it a fair meeting point for legislators travelling by horseback. The result is a capital that feels a world away from beach Florida. It sits among red clay hills and pine woods in the Panhandle, closer in spirit to Georgia than to Miami, and its population of nearly two hundred thousand is dominated by government workers and students from Florida State and Florida A&M universities.
The city's great gift to riders is its canopy roads. Several old routes leading out of town have been protected so that the live oaks on either side meet overhead, festooned with Spanish moss, forming long green tunnels. Roads such as Centerville, Miccosukee, Old St. Augustine and Meridian are narrow, gently curving and lovely, especially in the morning when the light filters through. Treat them gently, since there is little room for error and some sections are popular with cyclists.
In the centre, the old Capitol, a restored nineteenth-century building with striped awnings and a dome, stands in front of the modern twenty-two-storey tower that replaced it, a contrast that locals have plenty of opinions about. South of the city, Wakulla Springs is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world, where Tarzan films and Creature from the Black Lagoon were shot, and where you can still see manatees, alligators and herons from a river boat. Further on, the St. Marks lighthouse stands on the edge of the Gulf in a wildlife refuge famous for migrating monarch butterflies in autumn.
As the start of the Big Bend Scenic Byway, Tallahassee is the place to sort out everything: fuel, food, repairs, supplies. Once you head toward the coast, the towns become small and far apart. The climate is hot and humid from May to September, with almost daily afternoon thunderstorms, and winter can surprise visitors with frosty mornings. Spring, with azaleas blooming in March and April, is the nicest time to be here.