Oysters and Friends

 Feb 12

After the four day test run to the Jacaranda I was ready for a bigger, longer adventure. So, Bill an I put together a five day trip starting at Larry's in Newberry, over to the Lodge at Wakulla Springs, to the Gibson in Apalachicola, back to Cedar Key and home. Weather is supposed to be good but chilly but we know how that goes. Weather guessers are often wrong.

I left early on Saturday. Today is friendship day. First stop is Hernando so see Jim and Grace. Jim was in his shed teaching his cousin Bob from Maine how to blacksmith. They were heating and beating a piece of metal into submission to be a chisel. Sounds easy, but it does take a talent. Jim has OCD, so perfection is the only possible out come.

Lunch was a great pasta and spinach dish made and sent down from the frozen north by Bob's sister, lasagna and meatballs, and a great salad created by Grace. Grace is always a joy and a great artist.

I can not get a real paper more than twice a week but in rural Pasco they
even still have a paper box in the middle of nowhere with daily paper

I stopped to get some religion at this church

from several relegions

Lunch with Grace, Jim and Bob

I got a tour of Jim's newly installed Tesla solar battery array. In theory he will need to buy no electricity to run his house. He has a great deal. He sells electricity to Duke for 02 cents and buys it back at 11. For some reason he doesn't think that is fair.

Back on the scooter I headed for Newberry via a new route that took me close to Ocala and the Top of the World. The Top of the World, is like the Villages, a large real estate development just for old people. Bad enough living with old people in my house much less a whole neighborhood of them.

Bill arrived shortly after me at Larry's and we set around the big fire having an adult beverage. Something about this place in the country just calms my soul. Continuing on the good friend ride theme, Larry and Dave threw some steaks on the fire, baked up a potato and some beans and served us all dinner with a little wine. Dave was kind enough to turn over Camp David to Bill and me. Bill got the bed and I got the couch. For years Dave and I tried to figure out how get the couch to fold out. It lacked about two inches of enough room to do so as it hit the island. Then, one day, it dawned on Dave if he just turned the couch a few inches it would miss the island. Since this is light weight furniture, he put sliders under feet of the couch and moved easily. It is not a luxury bed but comfortable enough for a night or two, even with a recovering shoulder.

Feb 13

About 7:30 we got a call and said breakfast was being served. Larry had cooked up omelets for all of us and his dog Ginger. Ginger likes eggs.

The evening fire with Dave the Fire Marshal

Bill and David discussing the morning news.

Lawyer Larry cooking omelletes

Despite promises by the weather guesser the weather would be great, it rained all night and was still raining. Around 10 the rain was now forecast to stop and it almost did. Bill was all saddled up waiting on me. It takes a bit to get all the gear on with a wounded wing. Good thing, as a sudden down burst of rain came but we were still under the pole barn. We sat for another half hour and then left with a misty rain. As we headed northwest the skies began to lighten and soon we were in full sunshine and blue skies.

At a rural intersection we came to a stop and Bill's faithful Rocket quit. He got it restarted and off we went. In Branford he pulled into a gas station as Rocket was not feeling well. It quit and would not start. I found some hoses disconnected on the engine but reconnecting them did not help.

Now what? Well, friends to the rescue of course. Bill called Larry and within 45 minutes he was there with Kim, the truck and a trailer. They threw Rocket on the trailer and they turned east and I headed west to the Wakulla Lodge.

Where's the chipmunk

A truck load of friends and a scooter

Bill, dropped Larry and Kim and Larry was kind enough to tell Bill just take the truck home to Jacksonville and bring it back someday, saving Bill several hours of road time.

Meanwhile I was checking into the Lodge about 4. The last hour had been sunny but cold. I had stopped to get Bill a beer and some Cheetos. He had taken the truck and dead scooter back to his house in Jacksonville and hopped on The Big Ugly, his Yamaha, and hit the interstate for the Lodge.

As there are no TV's in the Lodge, I had found the Superbowl on the internet but in Spanish. I was liking that much better than the English version.

The last seating for dinner was at 7:45 and I had made a reservation for both of us not knowing if Bill would make it. After three and a half hours of roaring down the interstate he walked into the dinning room freezing. It was cold out there. We had a fine dinner, he with beer and me with a martini and we adjourned to watch the last quarter of the Superbowl. It was a pretty good game. Game over and out of beer Bill went to his room to recover from a very busy rushed day.

Football, Cheetos and beer

Feb 14

The morning brought temperatures of 28 and a heavy coating of frost on the scooters. We had coffee and breakfast and killed time until it warmed up into the 50's around 10. Today's destination is Apalachicola and the Gibson Inn. I have had a boycott on of the Gibson after the new owners parked a Bentley out front and jacked up the prices a lot. The prices vary during the week from $300 (stupid) to $149. We chose the $149 day. The ride was colddddd but with lots of sun. We arrived around noon and had to wait a short time for our rooms. So far I was impressed with changes. They had built a new check-in counter, the restaurant was open for three meals a day and the staff was more professional. We liked the old staff but this was more friendly business type staff.

I was impressed with the up grades for the rooms when we got to ours. New big flat screen TV's with tablet type device to control it or play on the internet. The bathrooms have had a total make over. Bill, as an architect, was impressed with the make over but not the lack of hot water the next morning in his bathroom.

Bill's good friend Drew flew over from Jacksonville to have lunch with us. Drew owns restaurants in Jax and deemed our lunch as good. There were slim pickings as most restaurants are closed on Monday.

A chilly morning

The Gibson

As one of Florida's most historic cities, Apalachicola has a long and varied history of visionary women who helped create the foundation of this special place. Likewise, the Gibson Inn has no shortage of stories from the past, especially the legacy of women and the remarkable Gibson Sisters—Annie Gibson Hayes and Mary Ellen "Sunshine" Gibson.

Originally named the Franklin Hotel when it was built in 1907, Annie and Sunshine purchased the hotel in 1923, and renamed it the Gibson Inn. With Sunshine at the helm, the two sisters ran the hotel together for nearly 20 years, forever shaping the history of Old Florida's beloved Apalachicola. Folks remember the Gibson sisters as being true trailblazers, two smart businesswomen well ahead of their time. 

After Drew left we rode the coast over to Mexico Beach to see how the coast was recovering from hurricane Michael in 2018. Bill had ridden this same road, he negotiated his way through the roadblock, just days after the storm. There was massive destruction. If you had not been to this area before you think everything was normal but we knew it was not. Though most of the debris had been cleaned up you could see many lots with just and overgrown cement slab were a house used to be. All the new construction was not new at all. It was replacing what had been blown away. Most of Mexico beach had been flattened in the storm and four years later it was still not back.

We slowly made our way back to Apalachicola with pleasant temperatures and sunny skies.

After the storm

Today

There still many flat lots

The bar was very crowded at the Gibson for happy hour and we were thinking that the new owners had done something pick up business. But then we started to notice all the red roses in the hands of the females and it dawned us that today was Valentines Day and that explained all the activity.

Dinner was mediocre dozen oysters and something else that was so impressive that I don't even remember.

I do remember the couple that sat next to us. Bob and Diane owners of a restaurant in Maine. They have a pretty good gig. They are only open three months a year. It is very intensive with long hours and lots of work, but they get the rest of the year off and it funds their adventures. Diane could not help herself and kept busing tables for the staff.

Feb 15

Sunrise over Apalachicola

Another chilly morning so we delayed a little. That and we wanted to stop at Lynn's Oyster House for a breakfast of oysters. We walked around town. The waterfront of Apalachicola still has not recovered from the 2018 storm. There are stories and hope but no action.

Around Apalachicola

Lynn opens at 10 so at 10 we cranked up and headed over the bridge and were there at 10:10 only to be informed that they don't serve until 11. Not wanting to set around that long we were back on the road.

We stopped in Carrabelle to visit the little WWII museum. In WWII this area was described as desolate and the US used it for practicing beach landings. It was so remote that there was a problem with GI's going AWOL. So they started letting them ride the train for free to Tallahassee and as far north as Richland GA.

the main building

in front of one the museum buildings

After the museum we continued on our way to Cedar Key. Since, Lynn would not serve us oysters we were on the way to Posey's in Panacea an old oyster place that has been around a long time. I was not overly thrilled as the last time we were there. Bill was leading us but I passed him and led us into Tropical Trader Shrimp Company. It is in the middle of nowhere but they had large piles of oyster shells out front so I asked Bill if he wanted to give it a try. As always Bill was up for the task.

We are glad we stopped and it is now on the list of must stop places. The staff was very friendly. Our waiter explained they had 3 types of oyster. Local farm grown, good but small, Texas wild oysters or Virginia oysters. She recommend the Virginia ones as she had sampled them the day before. After a long long wait our oysters appeared. Sadly they were puny local oysters as they were out of Virginia oysters. It was also Taco Tuesday and for $2 we got two Oyster BLT's. They were fantastic and well with the stop again just for them. Then she brought us a plate of Texas oysters. "These are on me for you having to wait so long" she said. That set the hook for our return.

The local farm raised oysters

We rode on to Cedar Key. We had always stayed at the Dockside Motel and it was clean but a little shady, several ex-managers are doing time for selling pharmaceuticals, to we went to the Cedar Inn Motel. We had stayed here years ago. We were not impressed then and we are not impressed now. n

For dinner we chose Duncans on the Gulf. Though we both just had salads they were excellent and the added on fish on mine was superior, as was Bill's shrimp, The waitress was drinking Yogi tea and so we connected with her talking the benefits of yoga. She said we should come back in the morning for coffee and homemade sweet rolls. We informed her the only reason we come to Cedar Key was to have coffee with the "boys" at 1842 Daily Grind. She asked if we were going to see Terry and Martin the owners. We said absolutely. She then delivered the blow. "Sorry to tell you guys this but they sold it 6 months ago". We really liked them and them and have know them since they had come down from Atlanta and opened it. They had a rough time during the big covid times and challenged and/or threw out anyone that did not like the mask policy. I know this was hard with a large part of the rural population around here but they did not care and stuck to their guns.

Britney had not been back to 1842 as she missed Terry and Martin and was not to keen on the new owners who came into her bar at night.

sunset at Cedar Key

Feb 16

We did a walk around Cedar Key and then went to 1842. We met the knew owners, Tom and his assistant Josh and Tom's mother. Tom had owned several small franchise restaurants in the Orlando and decided that was not for him. He brought Josh along. Josh is a on line college student so this was great for him. Tom appears to be in his 30's and a nice enough guy. Tom's mother was very young looking. They live Wisconsin where they have a cattle ranch and winter in the Villages. We did not talk politics.

I think the new owners of 1842 will be alright but with Terry and Martin gone we can now try the new place Punky's  or to Annies for breakfast.

The bridge at Cedar Key. It is less than 300 yards and they have been building
on it for years.

Punky's is a new coffee shop to compete with 1842

Bill and I said our goodbyes and he roared off east bound for Jacksonville. I meanandered south make my way home in time for lunch. A very successful trip.