March 4-5, 2009: Apalachicola, FL

Yesterday morning, we continued down the Gulf InterCoastal Waterway – a blue ribbon cutting through the pine forests, past an old railroad bridge like the one in New Bern. We passed an occasional fishing village and caught a brief glimpse of a porpoise. Later we crossed Wimico Lake on a narrow channel through the vast expanse of shallow water. Fishermen in tiny boats cruised the shore line where there were overhanging trees.


There were several huge bird nests in the top of trees and we spotted the silhouette of large lone hawk overlooking the water. The environ was different than NC water ways because the bare hardwoods and sparse pine trees are broken up by lush green palm fans along the way.
We passed the Apalachicola National Estuarian Research reserve which at low tide seemed to have some grassy ferns along the ground under the trees and lots of cypress trees.

As we neared Apalachicola we could smell our approach to salt water again, just a slight shift in the aroma of the air that we both noticed at the same time. As we pulled into the marina, we docked in front of a large trawler named Friar Tuck, and the folks came out to watch us tie up (protect the front of their boat!) What a small world - turns out that they are from Elizabeth City, NC and are also doing The Loop.

We spent the next couple of days in Apalachicola. This tiny fishing village had some interesting history. This was the home of Dr John Gorrie, a physician who lived from 1803-1855. He was a pioneer in the development of artificial creation of ice, refrigeration and air conditioning. Motivated by the severe yellow fever epidemic of 1841, he designed his machine believing the fever was caused by heat and humidity and built a cooled sick room for his patients. He received a patent in 1951 for his refrigeration design. There is a state park around his grave, and he has been honored with a statue in the hall of Washington, DC.


We rode our bikes around town to visit the small downtown. There was a Veteran’s Memorial to honor the valiant persons who served our country in Vietnam from 1959-1975. The outdoor park featured a large bronze monument of Three Soldiers. It is a detail cast from the original molds by Frederick Hart used to create the Three Soldiers Statute at the Washington DC Vietnam Memorial.

Apalachicola was also the home to the first sponge exchange which opened in 1831. There was a historical marker on the brick building where they were selling huge nature sea sponges in an eclectic little shop decorated with row boats. Thursday night we had dinner at the Market Street Grill. Their menu said that 1 million pounds of shrimp are landed in this tiny town each year and that is about 20% of Florida’s catch. Needless to say, we had Apalachicola fried shrimp – actually, the best shrimp we have had since we left home. The ceiling in the Grill was the narrow plank paneling common in the late 1800's when the building was built, and was accented by a huge pink wooden flamingo flying over the tables.


The small town was studded with old two story country homes with wrap around porches that reminded me of my Grandmother’s home in the low country of South Carolina. Once again I had fun taking pictures of huge live oak trees with branches intertwined with the wind, just like the one in my Grandma’s front yard.