> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://connortumbleson.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Travel Blog: Jacksonville - URL: https://connortumbleson.com/2023/04/24/travel-blog-jacksonville/ - Published: 2023-04-24T02:30:57.000Z - Updated: 2025-02-04T11:42:37.000Z - Description: Traveling to a Florida city on the other end of the state - this time Jacksonville. - Author: Connor Tumbleson - Tags: Travel ![Downtown Jacksonville at night](https://connortumbleson.com/content/images/2023/04/photo-1616982581572-d82165a40ad4-1.jpeg) Photo by [Trevor Neely](https://unsplash.com/@trevorneely?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=api-credit) / [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=api-credit) When the clock struck 6 in the morning on April 21, 2023 - it was time to pack the bags and prepare for a drive to Jacksonville. Since I had no flight to make and no perfect schedule to align with - this gave me a bit of time to clean up the house so I would arrive home to a clean space. So I jumped in my car - set the directions and set off on a 3\~ hour drive for Jacksonville from Tampa. Of course though only 1 hour into my trip I saw an opportunity to detour to visit an island that contained an Ingress portal. So commonly known in the scene as a water portal. ![](https://connortumbleson.com/content/images/2023/04/travel-to.png) Home to Jacksonville Looking back - I should not have done this detour as my 3 hour drive became a 4 hour and 55 minute drive. I added 2 hours of extra driving by cutting inland to Leesburg instead of going straight north. This drive had way more nature and interesting sights than a normal trip on a straight shot on I-75\. Once I arrived to Jacksonville I checked into my hotel and looked all the BBQ places in walking distance. ![](https://connortumbleson.com/content/images/2023/04/bbq.jpg) a sad bbq sandwich This landed me with a place known as [Jenkins Quality Barbecue](https://jenkinsqualitybarbecue.com/?ref=connortumbleson.com) which website looked promising, but in actuality it was pretty bland. It was a regular hamburger bun with a mess of sauce/beef around. I ate it and took the lemonade to go, but it was a pretty bad first meal in Jacksonville. After I had a chance to talk to some locals - they didn't even mention this place in their personal top 3 BBQ locations. So I guess I messed up in finding a place to eat BBQ. As I walked around it was pretty crazy to have 3 bridges within walking distance of each other and each one was built incredibly differently. ![](https://connortumbleson.com/content/images/2023/04/PXL_20230422_143542527.jpg) John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge On my way back to my hotel - this bridge above went up for a sail boat and that was a sight to see. An enormous bridge lifting into the air with huge slow moving steel wire is such an industrial feat of engineering. Unfortunately I was on the pedestrian bridge when this occurred so I couldn't get a good angle for a photo of the raised section. Saturday morning I went on a run over the bridge onto the river walk and that was a run with such an interesting view. However, had an odd interaction with a homeless individual that was incredibly upset at me for running on the river walk. I thought it was isolated to me, but then he started chasing some other random people who had just walked by. ![](https://connortumbleson.com/content/images/2023/04/running-map.png) Garmin Connect map recap of 4/22/2023 run. As I walked around downtown it blew my mind how many stores were closed in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday. I wanted to go to Quiznos and it was closed for the entire weekend, so I walked over to Jersey Mikes and it was closed for the day. So I walked into a 7-11 and bought an ice cream and a vitamin water for my lunch. As my event ended and Sunday came - I took a straight shot on I-75 back home. I got lucky because the construction signs said "*driver going wrong way on I-75 be cautious*" and that must have caused a terrible accident on the other direction. The north bound I-75 was stopped and blocked for what looked like miles. Police were stationed at all the emergency turnover points blocking cars from attempting to do a U turn on the highway. This seemed like a mega terrible situation for those trapped on a closed highway. We were in the middle of no where so there wasn't even an exit for folks to leave from. When I got home Twitter didn't have anything extra about this - so not sure exactly what happened. > Updated: Crash in Sumter County on I-75 North, beyond MM 326\. All lanes closed. > [https://twitter.com/fl511\_i75/status/1650137351040151553](https://twitter.com/fl511%5Fi75/status/1650137351040151553?ref=connortumbleson.com) So then I got home and another 3 day vacation weekend was over and my [travel blog tag](https://connortumbleson.com/tag/travel/) gained another post.