Work is done.

Last day at the show. I had back to back meetings -- 9 am, 10, 11, then the 12 noon one canceled which pleased me as it meant I could eat lunch, then 1, then 2, then I was finished. My rear was sore from sitting. Left the show around 4:45 and now I'm back at the hotel where it's raining hard.

Two photos today -- this is strawberry season in Florida, and I always wish I could take them home -- so cheap -- strawberries and tomatoes -- along with a roadside attaction that always gets my attention:

This is a quirky favorite thing of mine while I'm here. Look at the monument type structure. It's totally out of place amidst a modern landscape. It says Polk County, Citrus Center and 1930 on it. It fascinates me for some reason -- wondering what it means and why it is erected. I shouldn't be surprised, but when I googled Polk County Citrus Center, it has its own entry in a website called Roadside America. Here's what it says:

This 15-foot-tall concrete obelisk is perhaps not as forgotten as it was in 1991, when we last visited. Back then it was a spooky ghost, half overgrown by encroaching trees, covered with mold, draped with Spanish Moss. Now the vegetation has been cut back and the monument has been cleaned of its grime, making the "Citrus Center" engraving easy to see. But it's still obscure, metaphorically.

Erected in 1930, this monument, and at least two othes (which also still stand, in Loughman and Lakeland), were placed along what were then busy roads at the borders of Polk County -- which at the time thought of itself as the "citrus center" of something. Florida? The universe? This monument once supported a plaque that probably explained its purpose more thoroughly. But that plaque was long gone, even in 1991. We can't even guess now why Polk County spent money to build this thing during the Great Depression. And although it may have been surrounded by citrus groves then, it isn't now.

Plant City is a nearby town. I am not sure how much 1/2 flat is, but I think it's four pints. The tomatoes make my mouth water for a BLT. Didn't stop to buy any -- I am not sure 1/2 flat of strawberries and two baskets of tomatoes would fit into the overhead bin on Delta.