Best Backroads of Florida, Vol. 1 is an informative, laid-back tour through Florida's heartland, capturing its scenic beauty and Southern grace. The fast lane takes us where we want to go in less time, but it has replaced the carefree see-the-world fun of travel with a list of infuriating modern consequences, such as fast food, traffic jams, road rage, fast lanes with slow drivers, slow lanes with fast drivers, wide loads, toll roads, rest stops, and kids crying, Are we there yet?

In this first of a series, Douglas Waitley dishes up ten single-day back roads tours that will take you to a time when driving was actually considered part of a vacation. Instead of buzzing through congested highway traffic, why not cruise along a shaded country backroad, stopping periodically to enjoy the hospitality of a town you’ve never noticed on a map. After all, many treasured memories never appear on an itinerary.

Complete with directions, detailed maps, recommended stops, and photographs of interesting sights, the book offers more than just a glimpse into the past.

The area covered in the book extends from south of Jacksonville to north of Tampa. Sites included along the way are: Dade City, Clermont, Winter Garden, Longwood, Oviedo, Sanford, Palatka, Green Cove Springs, Penney Farms, Camp Blanding, Paynes Prairie, Ocala, Eustis, Dunnellon, Brooksville, and Pine Island.

Winner of the Horgan Award from the Florida Historical Society for a book of outstanding merit written primarily for the general reader.Paperback, 282 pages, 100 B&W photos, 11 maps

In Volume 1, Doug Waitley led readers through Florida's midland. He now takes you on a southern journey from coast to coast through aromatic orange groves, along white-sand beaches, and through sugar and cattle country. Starting in Melbourne on Florida's Atlantic Coast, skirting Lake Okeechobee, delving into the Everglades, creeping up the Gulf Coast, and ending in Haines City in the heart of citrus country, this volume contains nine one-day romps through some of Florida's least-known towns and countrysides.

Complete with directions, detailed maps, recommended stops, and photographs of interesting sights, the book offers more than just a glimpse into the past.

In the first two volumes of the series, Douglas Waitley guided readers through Florida's midland and southern tip. Now follow him along the beaches and over the hills of North Florida, watching rocket launches, meeting dolphins face to face, and trying your luck at the "World's Luckiest Fishing Village" along the way. Starting in Titusville on Florida's Atlantic Coast, traversing the Panhandle, and finally rambling down the Gulf Coast to Hernando Beach, this volume offers single-day tours to some of the most interesting and remote small towns along some of the most beautiful roads in the northern third of the state.

Complete with directions, detailed maps, recommended stops, and photographs of interesting sights, the book offers more than just a glimpse into the past.

In the first two volumes of the series, Douglas Waitley guided readers through Florida's midland and southern tip. Now follow him along the beaches and over the hills of North Florida, watching rocket launches, meeting dolphins face to face, and trying your luck at the "World's Luckiest Fishing Village" along the way. Starting in Titusville on Florida's Atlantic Coast, traversing the Panhandle, and finally rambling down the Gulf Coast to Hernando Beach, this volume offers single-day tours to some of the most interesting and remote small towns along some of the most beautiful roads in the northern third of the state.

Complete with directions, detailed maps, recommended stops, and photographs of interesting sights, the book offers more than just a glimpse into the past.

Haunting ancient cemeteries and primitive landmarks as well as modern apartment complexes and highway sides, ghosts and restless spirits abound. This volume of Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore offers a delightful-and somewhat spooky-look into the darker side of the south and central areas of the Sunshine State.

Explore fortress ruins in New Smyrna Beach, and keep an eye out for mysterious shadows and dark figures in the nearby forest; visit the island of Islamorada, where the ghostly remains of Flagler’s railway rumble over tracks destroyed in the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane; and, if you’re especially brave, walk through the eerie corridors of the mausoleum in Myrtle Hill Cemetery near Tampa, where you are sure to hear whispers from the dead or the muffled echoes of a music box.

Delve into the unknown with Greg Jenkins as he examines the history, legend, and paranormal rationale behind strange occurrences in many of south and central Florida's haunted locations. Get a fresh look at some of the state's most famous ghost stories and learn never-before-heard tales of the strange and the supernatural as you take a trip through Haunted Florida.

From ancient graveyards and monuments, to modern restaurants and hotels, this book offers a delightful collection of uncanny legends and eerie folklore about Florida's beautiful west coast.

Walk through the picturesque city of Pensacola in Florida's Panhandle, where the spirits of the dead are beckoned by an eerie lighthouse shining through the night, or stroll through Pensacola's Seville Quarter, where you may spot the specter of a long-dead bartender. Visit the Island Hotel and Restaurant in Cedar Key, where thirteen spirits are said to roam the building.

Venture again into the unknown with Greg Jenkins, who will guide you through some of Florida's most frightening haunted locations. Prepare yourself for the spine-chilling and uncanny tales of specters and ghosts that inhabit Haunted Florida.

"a quirky collection of folksy yarns and oral histories..."; --St Pete Times
Paperback, 256 pages, B&W photos

Here is a taste of Florida history with a flavor for everyone. Meet the state's mobsters and visionaries, two-buck bettors and millionaires, sportsmen and daredevils, warriors and storytellers, movie stars and binder boys. Sooner or later they all show up here, the dreamers, the schemers, and the scalawags who have made Florida a fascinating place to live and read about. In this first volume of a continuing series on the state's history, McIver tells the Florida story through the lives and loves, the deeds and misdeeds of the colorful and often outrageous characters who called Florida home.

"McIver's book... is a welcome addition. McIver has a flowing writing style that is a pleasure to read." -The Orlando Sentinel

"Blending the best aspects of journalism and fireside story swapping, the book is nicely illustrated with photos and sketches of the principals, many reproduced from local museums and galleries."-Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

"Entertaining... The author uses biography, journalism, and storytelling to portray dozens of history-making individuals in a lively and engaging fashion."-Florida Historical Quarterly

Paperback, 264 pages, 66 B&W photos

Virtually every month for fourteen years, Gene Burnett wrote a history piece under the title "Florida's Past" for Florida Trend, Florida's respected magazine of business and finance. The first volume of collected essays proved so popular among book readers that this second volume and a third have been published. Burnett's easygoing style and his sometimes surprising choice of topics make history good reading. Try a chapter and you'll find you've gone on to read more. Try this volume and you will find yourself looking for the other two.

"These free-wheeling narratives have life, and together they are compelling stories that form the fabric of early Florida." -Florida Historical Quarterly

"Burnett is a skillful storyteller and writer. Each of the individual stories stands on its own base, but taken together they present a mosaic of the real Florida of earlier years." -LeRoy Collins, former Governor of Florida

"Skillful writing, thorough research and a keen sense of what is of historical consequence. Whether discussing martyrs or murderers, tycoons or dolts, Burnett is thoughtful and fair-minded. What's more, he is also exceedingly entertaining." -Tampa Tribune

Paperbac, 272 pages, 26 B&W photos

Virtually every month for fourteen years, Gene Burnett wrote a history piece under the title "Florida's Past" for Florida Trend, Florida's respected magazine of business and finance. The first volume of collected essays proved so popular among book readers that this second volume and a third have been published. Burnett's easygoing style and his sometimes surprising choice of topics make history good reading. Try a chapter and you'll find you've gone on to read more. Try this volume and you will find yourself looking for the other two.

"These free-wheeling narratives have life, and together they are compelling stories that form the fabric of early Florida." -Florida Historical Quarterly

"Burnett is a skillful storyteller and writer. Each of the individual stories stands on its own base, but taken together they present a mosaic of the real Florida of earlier years." -LeRoy Collins, former Governor of Florida

"Skillful writing, thorough research and a keen sense of what is of historical consequence. Whether discussing martyrs or murderers, tycoons or dolts, Burnett is thoughtful and fair-minded. What's more, he is also exceedingly entertaining." -Tampa Tribune

Paperbac, 272 pages, 26 B&W photos