FLASH DEAL: Get 50% off a vehicle safari at Safari Wilderness Ranch. Must be FL resident.

Have you ever read a Travis McGee novel and thought — Man, McGee is living the life. I wish I could be free like him, not being tied down to a job and being able to travel the world or just being a FL beach bum. Well, it’s getting late…I better drag myself to another day of work, sigh. But, what if “Going McGee” was well within your reach? Because I think it is. Let’s explore.

Every 4th Friday of the month downtown Tampa has a party of free (or pay-as-you-will) admission to local museums, art galleries, and local attractions.

This year’s Smithsonian Museum Day on September 21 includes 88 FL museums.

It’s been said what gets measured gets managed. Well, I decided to keep myself accountable in my quest to explore everything Florida by conducting a monthly report of what I got done, what’s going on in Florida, and what needs to happen next.

Kevin McCarty is an English professor at the University of Florida and has written extensively about the history of Florida. The only book I have read of his is Hillsborough River Guidebook which I read years ago, at the time I didn’t realize the book was written by a prolific Florida author.

What does Earnest Hemingway and Jimmy Buffett have in common? Well, not only have they both lived in Key West, but they each have reached #1 on the New York Times Bestseller fiction list and non-fiction list. Maybe there’s something in the water over there.

I first met Travis McGee while I was working on one of those big cruise ships. I just finished a 12 hour shift and was looking for something to take back to my cabin to wind down with. I went to the crew library, a small room with a couple of bookshelves that contained old, beat-up books and board games that were missing pieces.

If I had to pick only one book to hold up as The Great Floridian Novel I would pick Rawlings’ The Yearling, which, incidentally, also won a Pulitzer for fiction in 1939. She made a career writing about the Florida Crackers and also penned South Moon Under and the autobiographical Cross Creek, both very good.

Zora Neale Hurston wrote one of the all-time great Florida books with Their Eyes Were Watching God, not just a Florida classic, but an unsung American classic that should be taught in the schools. The hurricane scene alone is some of the best writing I have ever come across.

Michael Gannon will always have a special place in my heart. When I started this blog in 2013 it was his books that I first absorbed in my quest to learn everything I possibly could about Florida.

Ah yes, Dave Barry. He is a humorist that wrote columns for the Miami Harold for many years and is still pumping out hilarious books and articles into his 70s. His humor fits well in Florida, which is probably why he chose Florida as his home long ago.

Carl Hiaasen is the OG pioneering author of the genre I like to call “Florida Weird.” Because there is no other way to describe it. If you live in Florida and read his tales of off-the-wall, ridiculous, turd-fondling characters (fiction and non-fiction) doing insane things, you will find yourself nodding along because, well…yup, that sure sounds like Florida.

Every year cardholders for Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust get free access to a selection of free museums on the first full weekend of every month. Just provide your credit or debit card along with a photo ID. Let’s take a look.

In one of those hidden chapters in Florida history that you won’t find in the brochure, in 1565, the Spanish hunted down and slaughtered 242 French citizens on our Florida soil.