The Panhandle

Monday December 1 2008--Florida. We hit the road about 9am from Tallahassee, FL in order to find a bank and then a post office—the first being easier to find than the second. We wind our way out of Tallahassee and head toward the panhandle Gulf coast (Apalachicola, etc.) for what is going to be a long but more leisurely drive than taking interstates. Apalachicola is the “home port” to more than 90% of the oysters harvested from the Gulf and 10% of the US crop. We expected to find some good road food at a place called Killer Sea Food, only to find it closed on Mondays. So, we settled for a so-so lunch at another place. Needless to say, food was not the high point of the day. And that’s OK, because everything else was. After Apalachicola, we hit a long string of quaint little gulf coast towns that had only been lightly developed and still retained what I could guess of their local charm. By the time we got to Mexico Beach—where we expected to find Killer Sea Food—we had rounded the curve and were heading to our next stop: Grayton Beach State Park.


But I am getting a bit too far ahead. Personally, I (Mike) did not know what to expect in this part of Florida. What we found was not only true local charm, but also some incredible natural beauty. For one, the Gulf and beaches are totally different than in Sanibel. The beaches are bizarrely void of seashells and incredibly white and soft. There was quarter size chunks of asphalt dispersed on the beach, perhaps from the recent hurricanes tearing up the roads, who knows. Being further north, it is quite a bit colder (and windier when we were there)—and more desolate. Very relaxing and calming in a different way than Sanibel. We saw a Bald eagle early in the ride—around Panacea, FL, I believe—that prompted a game of naming every bird we saw that had a little black and white a Bald Eagle. The high point of the day was out visit to Grayton Beach. It had been advertised as Middle Earth-like (where the hobbits live), and it didn’t fail. I had never had a real desire to explore beach dunes, presuming them to be devoid of life and any real excitement. But Grayton Beach changed my perception. Not only was the little area near the Gulf very hilly with rolling dunes, but there was an incredible diversity of life growing on what appeared to be nothing more than white sand. One part of the park was a small “forest” on the leeward side of a large dune. There were twisted trees and shrubs of all types, yucca, grasses, and mushrooms all mixed with a fauna from the sea—crabs, birds, etc. The most impressive birds we saw were ospreys, brown pelicans, and a very photogenic blue heron (remember the bald eagle was much earlier in the day).


After Grayton Beach, we continued west, but hit mostly developed and over developed stretches of tourist hell. And finally, finally, finally after what seemed an eternity we were out of Florida and into Alabama. For a while at least.We were going to try and stay in Mobile, AL, but in the search for our hotel we found our way back onto I-10 and headed for Mississippi. Oh well. Luckily I picked up picked up some ‘bama pinecones as a reminder of our 15 minutes in the state.