“…
not all days are the same length, not all time has the same weight.” Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rijka Brunt
Carol
writes: The
last of six stops in our Florida winter trek was in a tiny town named Eastpoint,
smack-dab on the northern Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This section of the Florida panhandle has
become known as “Florida’s Forgotten Coast.”
For residents of nearby small-town Apalachicola, “forgotten”
is a good thing because the simple old Florida way of life is just how they
like it. Here, the passage of time has
slowed… There are no multistory hotels
on the beach, no high-rise condos, just a simple southern way of life focused
pretty much around modest tourism and harvesting their century-old claim to
fame—those celebrated oysters found on the shallow sea floor of Apalachicola
Bay.
For us, this was a golden opportunity to
experience a superlative campsite with a view of the Gulf of Mexico spanning our
entire front windshield.
No two days out in the bay were ever exactly the
same with the exception of constant sea breezes blowing onshore. This campground provided us a great
opportunity to take advantage of our southern vantage point to view a flyby of
the International Space Station (ISS). With
only the nearly flat horizon of the offshore islands in the distance, just
after sunset three nights in a row we were able to catch a brief flyover of the
ISS. Moving in the same direction as the rotation
of the earth, the ISS appeared as a very bright sphere of light moving
silently, smoothly, and very fast (compared to airliner traffic) across our
unimpeded view of the sky.
On another day in camp, we were entertained by the
appearance of a pair of bald eagles that were fighting over a fish one had caught
and was refusing to share. The incessant
squawking brought campers scurrying with cameras in hand. For Al, his 50-zoom camera did a mighty fine
job of capturing one of the bald eagles sitting high up in a native Florida
pine.
Just down the road, we spent a few hours
at the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR), where we
gained a better understanding of the vast watershed that drains into
Apalachicola Bay. That’s quite an
impressive name but basically indicates that these folks are the stewards who
study this area’s local estuary—the place where the river meets the sea. The work at ANERR is essential because
maintaining the health of the waters that flow into shallow Apalachicola Bay is
vital to the local seafood industry.
Our visit to ANERR was a novel way to celebrate my
birthday. My birthday pic ended up being
one of me sitting in a rocker in front of an oyster boat… It was just one of
those unusual circumstances we find ourselves in on the road…
ST. GEORGE ISLAND
The barrier island of St. George
is one of the chief draws of the Forgotten Coast,
or what St. George Island bills itself as:
“Uncommon Florida.” There is star
quality on St. George Island for bikers, campers, fishermen,
and beach walkers.
The last 5 miles on the extreme eastern end of St.
George has permit-only access limited to 20 cars at a time in an effort to
protect bird and turtle nesting areas, while at the same time preserving the delicate
pristine landscape. It was our best
decision of the day to acquire one of those enviable permits.
Our beach and shell-hunting walk was outstanding,
and we were all by ourselves for much of it!
The western end of the island was an extensive
residential section, where the view on the beach was pristine old Florida
with stupendous rolling dunes fronting mini-mansions which clearly said 21st century millionaire.
WAKULLA SPRINGS
An article in a Family Motor Coaching magazine caught my eye one day when it
mentioned a place called Wakulla Springs.
Now part of a state park, Wakulla Springs is a very ancient geologic
feature that has numerous discoveries of mastodon bones in the deep part of one of
the world’s deepest fresh water springs, where the flow rate can be over
400,000 gallons of water a day.
The park boasts of an elegant Mediterranean-style
lodge that dates back to the late 1930s.
The painted beams of the lobby ceiling evoked similar
ceilings we have seen in Europe, except that the theme of this one was historic
Florida motifs.
From our point of view, there was no better way to
appreciate Wakulla Springs than a 3-mile boat ride downriver.
The wildlife in that short one-hour ride was
phenomenal, as was the sparkling clear water itself!
Mature adult alligators and their young were
plentiful.
Turtles and the very strange anhinga bird posed midstream
for us on a log.
Periodically, we have seen anhinga birds during
our travels in Florida. They are strange
birds indeed, with a black furry body and feathers for wings! Thus, they are often seen sunning themselves
with wings spread wide to dry fur and feathers.
It would seem like Nature’s adaptations have just not caught up with the
anhinga.
The vulture, common mud hen, blue heron, and a
snowy egret rounded out our best Wakulla Springs wildlife photos.
FLORIDA STATE CAPITOL IN TALLAHASSEE
Any state capital within easy driving distance always
lands that city on our must-visit list; therefore, Tallahassee made the
list. This time, however, we didn’t even
take a picture of Tallahassee’s relatively new 22-story State Capitol building
because, frankly, it wasn’t all that interesting or inspiring, and so I have
resorted to an Internet photo.
 |
| Internet photo |
Fortunately, the central portion of the Old State Capitol
has been preserved and sits right in front of its less appealing cousin. The historic red and white striped window
awnings
gave the Old Capitol building a southern curb-appeal
which was complimented by the plaster relief pediment featuring what was
clearly an all-Florida theme.
Inside the Old Capitol, restoration of the house chamber
had ho-hum appeal which was not helped at all by a
jarring set of televisions, but the restoration was probably historically
accurate and so likely didn’t have much of a wow factor even when completed in
1845.
The more intimate old Supreme Court chamber
was a little more “history cozy.”
Constructed in the 1970s, the best thing the
architects of the New Capitol did was to make a 22nd floor
observatory from which visitors could enjoy panoramic views of Tallahassee. Our destination for the afternoon was nicely laid
out for us in the north-facing view—the campus of Florida State University.
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
Not knowing much else about the Florida
Seminoles, we were aware that their athletic teams have long been powerhouses
in college sports, so we began our visit at awesome Doak Campbell Stadium, a
sporting complex that far outshined any other collegiate stadium we have ever
seen.
Naturally, the trophy room spotlighted FSU’s
three Heisman Trophy winners, a not-so-subtle accomplishment that validates the
success of its football program.
Since we prefer NFL games and are not college
football fans, the tradition of Oceola and Renegade was interesting to learn
about. At the start of every home football
game, a student portraying Seminole Chief Osceola gallops in on his horse Renegade
and plants a flaming spear midfield, undoubtedly one of the most spectacular
traditions in all of college sports.
Oceola and Renegade are indeed the 12th player on the team.
The campus was huge, and the Legacy Walk
loop that was recommended to us would likely have been about 5 miles of
walking. With temps in the high 80s, we
had to pace ourselves and ended up shortening the route a bit. With access to numerous air-conditioned
campus buildings, and eventually more treed areas, along with a cold lemonade, we
covered quite a bit of ground.
Campus-wide there was a pleasing unifying architectural
style using red brick that carried through even to newer buildings.
The hammocks on the green were a unique way to
study, and very southern...
The oldest building on campus, dating back to
1851, was a classic beauty.
Our overall impression of FSU was that it is a
university that takes its collegiate sports very seriously. From talking to some of the students, it was
obvious they were quite satisfied and excited about their education
choice. The university also seems to
turn out some pretty friendly and polite students. For two seniors who were determined to
complete much of the Legacy Walk, more than once we were offered help with
directions from students when we were trying to interpret our campus map.
Our visit to Florida’s “Forgotten Coast” completes
the sixth and final stop in our 3-month winter odyssey through Florida. The touristy, beachy areas were world-class
and quite gorgeous… much like we imagined.
However, for us it was…
the wildlife…
the unexpected, low-key
discoveries on the water…
in
the small towns…
and
in undeveloped natural areas of prairies and swamps
that fulfilled us the most. We felt very fortunate that we had the luxury
of time to appreciate what was beyond the shore.
“Unusual
travel suggestions are dancing lessons from the gods.” Kurt Vonnegut
