[[nid:3292]] Traditionally, my husband and I take turns celebrating the holidays with our various families. None of whom live in Nashville. Or Tennessee for that matter. Which, of course, means a road trip. This year we are spending our Thanksgiving in sunny Florida. Pretty tough to take, right? To celebrate, I offer you Dave Barry's hilarious mini-tome, Best. State. Ever.: a Florida Man Defends his Homeland. I've never officially read any Dave Barry books before, but I found this one to be seriously funny. Before I met my husband, who spent his formative years just south of Tampa, I never realized all the crazy things that Florida people do. Now that I live with a former Floridian, it seems like the crazies are everywhere.
Instead of taking us through the mainstream tourist traps of Disney or Boca, Barry gives us a front row seat at the more obscure sights to see in his home state. From seeing the mysterious Skunk Ape (which is supposedly the Flordida version of Big Foot) to Spongeorama (come see all things sponge!), he introduces us to the most interesting people. We get to meet mermaids and what would a book about Florida be without gator wrestlers? I also now know where I would like to retire some day. The Villages is a huge community of older adults who live together and like to line dance. Sounds fun, right?
My favorite part of the book is the recurring joke where Barry continually makes fun of my home state of Indiana for some reason. Ok, I will admit that no one knows what in the world a Hoosier actually is, but still. At least we don't wrestle gators for fun. (Although, as I think about this, it's probably more because of a lack of gators than because we're smarter than that. Hoosiers are fans of cow-tipping, after all.)
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. If you're road-tripping it up, like me and my husband, maybe you can take Mr. Barry with you for some laughs.
My next post will wrap up NaNoWriMo and discuss what to do after you finish your epic masterpiece. If you missed the first two installations, you can catch up here: #1: Be Inspired and #2: Write Good.
Happy Happy Turkey Day!
:) Amanda
