A town with a fun name called to us as we explored the Florida panhandle.

One of the benefits of our 5^th wheel configuration is that we have the flexibility to deposit the camper in an RV campsite, and then use the Beast (truck) to explore the surrounding area. So, we get to explore more than one town at any given stop. And this flexibility was especially helpful for our visit to Mexico Beach, FL.  The Beast allowed us to roam up and down the coast of the Florida panhandle. This is not the first stop in which we roamed the area. 

Some of the towns or cities we wander into have names that just seem to catch our attention. This is typically how it works. We are reviewing our current location at a new campsite using Google maps. We are in search of a restaurant, gas station, or grocery store. And that’s when we see it! See what? The name of a town that just piques some curiosity.  Example: Cheboygan, MI (the CH are pronounced sh.) We discovered Cheboygan in August of 2023 whilst visiting Mackinaw City. We were looking for a full-service supermarket, which just wasn’t available in the heavily tourist-oriented Mackinaw City. Cheboygan just made us chuckle, so we went. The next town which called to us was in Canada. Port Perry, Ontario, overlooking Lake Scugog. Scugog was just such an unusual sounding name for a lake. We went and found the best town fair we had ever visited. There was a lumberjack demonstration and tractor pull competition. The highlight was being in the grandstands for the BMX Motocross areal show (see blog “We have left the States to explore Canada visiting Uxbridge & Port Perry” dated Sept 24, 2023).  Port Perry on Lake Scugog. How could we not go?  

We drove through Apalachicola, on our way to Port St Joe, FL, and basically fell in love with the name, uttering it repeatedly as we passed each sign. Apalachicola. The name has a lot of syllables. Names with lots of syllables are fun to say and Apalachicola has six. Our campsite was in a place called Mexico Beach. West of our location was the sprawling Tyndall Air Force Base followed by Panama City.  East of our location was the small town of Port St. Joe, followed by Apalachicola. Nearly 60 miles of the Florida panhandle coastline to explore.  For obvious reasons we started in Apalachicola.

Originally, Apalachicola was a small settlement at the mouth of the Apalachicola River. In 1828, steamboats operated between Apalachicola and Columbus, Georgia, carrying manufactured goods to upriver towns and plantations and returning with cotton destined for mills in New England and Europe.  David G. Raney and his wife, Harriett, were Virginians who came to Apalachicola in 1834. Raney quickly established himself as a cotton trader. Raney built the two-story Federal Style colonial house in 1838, overlooking the bluff along Market Street. The Raney family continued to live in the house until 1914. The city purchased it in 1973 and today it serves as a museum. All of the artifacts in the house are original.  Original clothing, original rugs, furniture, and décor, as well as original paintings and pictures.  Apparently, Raney was also an investor in the Confederate States of America. There are dozens of Confederate war bonds, in picture frames around the house / museum, all of which were worth nothing when the Civil War ended.  We spent a very enjoyable couple of hours with historian Janyce as we learned about the local history and the Raney family.

Working our way west from Apalachicola found us on the St. Joseph Peninsula and in the T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.  A beautiful state park with miles of sugar-white sand. We walked along the beach, which has often been ranked among the best in the United States. We also walked the mile plus Bay View trail, amongst the high dunes and sand pin scrub along St. Joseph’s Bay.  As you can tell from the pictures below, I came home from this visit to the beach with a bit of a tan. Judy, on the other hand, dressed in anything but beachwear, and got a lot of sand in her hiking boots. Admittedly, it was not much of a beach day.  Although there was plenty of sun, there was also a brisk 20 mph breeze coming off the Atlantic, with temperatures in the low 60’s. A lovely day at a beautiful Florida state park.

Interesting beach attire!

Interesting tree!

And, of course, there was the obligatory visit to the local lighthouse. In this case, I’m talking about the Cape San Blas Lighthouse. Cape San Blas is a 750-acre section of land that juts out into the hurricane prone Gulf of Mexico from the crook of the narrow St. Joseph's peninsula. In 1847 Congress appropriated $8,000 for a lighthouse. Two years later a conical brick tower was completed. During a storm in 1851, this first structure was destroyed.  In 1857 a brick lighthouse was again erected, just prior to the beginning of the Civil War. The wooden parts of the tower and both keepers' houses were burned by Confederates. The lens, oil, and tools were hidden away in Apalachicola, preserved for future use. The lighthouse returned to operation on July 23, 1865. By 1882 beach erosion had all but destroyed lighthouse #2. In 1883, the Lighthouse Board approved the erection of a skeletal tower (view photo). The "skeletal" lighthouse has eight cast iron legs that support the "watch room" and lantern at the top of the tower. The legs are bolted into a concrete foundation. Beach erosion and storm activity necessitated the lighthouse and keepers’ quarters be moved a number of times before eventually being taken over by the City of Port St. Joe and moved to its current location in Port St. Joe. This lighthouse has a third order bi-valve lens made by Rarbier Benard and Ture and stands 101 feet above sea level. 

But I think what we will remember most about our stop in Port St. Joe was the sunsets from Mexico beach over the Gulf of Mexico. After a busy day of touring, we were fortunate enough to be back at the camper early in the afternoon. We pulled out our beach chairs, packed up a small cooler and walked a short way down the road to the beach. Sipping peanut butter infused whiskey, while spending the final hours of the day watching the sun slowly set, was a perfect way to end our visit to the Florida panhandle. 

Enough!  We have had enough of the beach (okay, not sure if that’s really possible).  We’re packing up this time and heading inland, due north to Montgomery, Alabama. The state capital and the birthplace of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. We have had four great stops in Florida, but we need to get back to learning about important American history. This will be both Judy and my first visit ever to Alabama, a state we know very little about. We will have lots to see and do in Montgomery as we tell…the Rest of the Story.