This summer, Cavin and I have had a chance to retreat from the normal routine of life. I’m thankful for some time to spend together away from the hustle and bustle of life. When we began pondering what we would do with a little time off, he said, ”Let’s take a road trip!
Since we are Sampling the South, we decided to head south through the state of Florida. We’ve both always wanted to go to Key West so we decided to set out in that direction. Cavin set the GPS to avoid highways and toll roads. We wanted to see places we had never seen before and we established the rule that if one of us wanted to stop somewhere to explore, all we had to do was speak up! Cavin didn’t mention at the time that I needed to tell him well in advance if I wanted to stop. I found out early on what the second rule was: There’s no turning around!
We live in South Alabama near the Florida state line so it didn’t take us long to enter the “Sunshine State”. The sun was shining bright and we were excited about what we would find. And most importantly, we were excited about shutting out the rest of the world for a few days and allowing ourselves to rest and de-stress.
We turned left in Berrydown and followed Highway 4 through Baker then on to Crestview and Defuniak Springs. We turned south and went through Inlet Beach. We contemplated stopping at The Donut Hole there, but I didn’t ask soon enough. By the time I said, “Let’s stop there!”, we had already passed the entrance, so Cavin just kept on driving.
We continued through Panama City Beach which just so happens to be where Cavin took me for our first date. We reminisced about “riding the strip” and summers spent there during our early years of marriage. Passing Thomas Donuts, we almost stopped again… but continued on. You guessed it… I didn’t make the request quite soon enough. We passed through Callaway, Parker, and on to Port St. Joe where we decided to stop for lunch.
Port St. Joe is a small fishing village on the Gulf of Mexico. The small town was alive with locals and tourists shopping and mingling in the locally-owned restaurants. Choosing a restaurant can be difficult when you are visiting a new area. We first chose Dagwood’s; but after embarrassing myself by accidentally walking in the kitchen door for employees only, we decided to make a different selection.
We wound up at Sisters’ Bistro. We were greeted promptly as we walked in the door. We looked over the menu, and the item that really got our attention was the dessert crepe. Who says you can’t have dessert for lunch? After all, we were on vacation! The server complimented our choice and when it arrived, we were not disappointed. The crepe was filled with cream cheese and topped with caramelized strawberries, drizzled with chocolate syrup, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. It was just what we needed for the first day of our vacation!
For the rest of the afternoon, we encountered one small seaside town after another. The west coast of Florida has the feel of yesteryear with small family-owned inns and mom-and-pop restaurants dotting the highways. Some of the towns we drove through included Apalachicola, Sopchoppy, Perry and Cross City.
We realized we were getting close to the little town of Chiefland and it just so happens that one of Cavin’s closest friends lives there and is the pastor of First Baptist Chiefland. We decided to give him a call. True to the life of a pastor, Kris was busy doing ministry and unable to connect with us, but we stopped in Chiefland just long enough to get a picture at First Baptist! We were disappointed that it didn’t work out to see Kris and his family. Kris probably didn’t know the second rule of the trip: There’s no turning around!
It was getting late and we were ready to call it a day! We ended up in Gainesville for the night and just got a quick bite at Chick-Fil-A before checking into the hotel.
We had taken our time driving down the coast of Florida. It was great getting to see some of the communities that we’ve only heard about from hurricane warnings! That’s what’s so awesome about a road trip. You are on your own schedule, so you are always right on time…. unless you are with Cavin and you’ve already passed the entrance… then you just have to keep going since there’s no turning around!
Lesson learned for the first day: Speak up fast if I see somewhere I want to stop!
Sampling the South….one restaurant and town at a time! Stay tuned to hear about day two of our Florida road trip!