FL Part 3

Wednesday, March 6, 2002: near West Bay, Florida

We stayed at the Laguna Beach Christian Retreat until the rain and the coldest of the cold weather passed. Yesterday, we set out for Panama City Beach on Front Beach Road. The Spring Breakers have arrived, and our walk along Front Beach Road was rather over-stimulating, filled with honks, comments from the passing motorists, and quite a few people just screaming at us as they drove by. It wasn't long before we had enough of that, and we made our way to Back Beach Road intending on moving into position to cross Hathaway Bridge into Panama City the following day.

However, this morning, after much mental deliberation and prayers to God for guidance, I believed that it was time to turn north and begin our ascent towards Georgia. We backtracked about five of the miles we had walked yesterday along Back Beach Road, said goodbye to the beach, the Gulf of Mexico and the Spring Breakers, and headed north on Highway 79.

The scenery changes abruptly about two miles off the coast in the panhandle of Florida. I haven't determined whether the paper companies own the land here, but it looks a lot like the countless acres of International Paper land that we walked through in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi. We walked up Highway 79 for about four miles before stopping for the day. Four miles without seeing a house, or a building, or structure of any kind-- just pine trees as far as you can see. Finding a place to camp was not a problem.

Thursday, March 7, 2002: near Ebro, Florida

We walked across the tall bridge that spans over the inter-coastal waterway this morning in a little town called West Bay. Brandi and I have crossed the waterway several times on our journey along the gulf, but we knew that this would most likely be the last time on this walk.

The town of West Bay is really just a small group of houses with a couple churches and a local convenience store. We were now seven miles from the gulf, and it felt like we had stepped a few years back in time as well. The local store had that "country feel" complete with tables and chairs where the locals could gather for coffee and conversation-- feels like Louisiana again. They even had a bin full of live crickets for sale in case we were in need of some bait. It was a sharp contrast from our walk yesterday in Panama City Beach.

We bought supplies for dinner and continued north for another eight miles to Pine Log State Park. The owner of the store back in West Bay said that there might be a bathhouse with showers at Pine Log State Park, and we were very grateful to find out that he was right. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying being clean.

Saturday, March 9, 2002: Vernon, FL

We continued our journey north on Highway 79 through the little towns of Ebro, Red Head, and New Hope. The towns all looked about the same: a few houses, one or two churches, and the local convenience store. I sure do miss the scenery along the gulf.

We had decided to find a place to camp before we reached Vernon today, so that we could walk into town tomorrow morning and attend one of the local churches. The only problem was that we found ourselves walking into Vernon before we could find a suitable spot to camp. Vernon was quite a bit larger than Ebro, Red Head, or New Hope.

It was a three-convenience-store town.

When you find yourself standing in a town the size of Vernon on a Saturday afternoon in need of a place to camp for the night, you have a few options. They all start with prayer and trusting God that things will be okay. Usually the best place to start after that is the local police department or the local convenience store. No one was home at the local police department, so we walked a few more blocks to the convenience store.

At the convenience store (the information hub of most every small town society,) we talked with the clerk named Donna about our situation. Donna introduced us to another woman named Annette who quickly took up our cause. A few moments later, a pastor named Randy pulled in to fill his truck with gas, and Annette introduced us to him. Randy invited us to stay in one of the cabins out at their church, where we could shower and attend church with them on Sunday. About fifteen minutes had passed since we arrived at the convenience store, and now Annette was driving us out to our cabin at God's Vineyard Worship Center.

Sunday, March 10, 2002: Vernon, FL

We met our neighbors David and Jennifer, and their three children: Nick, Cierra, and Simon Peter. They invited us in for coffee and conversation before church this morning. After church, they invited us back for lunch. This has been such a nice place to take our day of rest. David and Jennifer are nice people, and they have made us feel comfortable to just be a part of their family today. Jennifer fixed a Mexican feast tonight, and we all went to church again. It's been a fine Sunday.

Tonight at church, a woman named Effie invited us over to her house for lunch tomorrow. I had wanted to get out on the road in the morning, but I couldn't say, "no" to her when she asked. She's eighty-four years old.

Saturday, March 16, 2002: Marianna, FL

Our walk to Marianna was fairly uneventful. We spent most of our time walking along dirt roads looking at pine trees. The only town that we passed through for thirty-five miles was a little town with a population of 500 called Alford.

In Alford, we met a nice couple (Roy and Jean) who were cracking pecans on their porch. We asked them if we could fill up our water containers, and they invited us up to enjoy some diet grape soda and talk for a while. Roy had bought one of those fat jiggling machines at a yard sale for five dollars. He called it a "Jackie Gleason exercise machine," and I'm pretty sure that he just bought it as a novelty, a fun item. We enjoyed trying it out. It was well worth five dollars in laughs.

We made it to Marianna today, and tonight we are camping (but not swimming) at Florida Caverns State Park. The weather has been warm and rather humid, and I'm happy to be heading north towards the Appalachians before summer hits down here. We are still in alligator country, but only about twenty miles from the Georgia state line now.

Monday, April 1, 2002: near Two Egg, FL

We walked out of Marianna this morning on Blue Springs Road, and about six miles outside of town came upon a small county park at the springs. It provided a great spot to have lunch and rest for a while. The panhandle of Florida has quite a few of these natural springs where thousands of gallons of fresh water flow up from the ground. They are usually popular snorkeling and scuba diving spots. I didn't jump in the springs today, but I did enjoy taking pictures while Brandi fed the fish some Cheerios. After lunch at Blue Springs, we turned north on Sylvania Plantation Road, walked about five more miles and found a place to camp in the woods for the night.

Tuesday, April 2, 2002: Crusader's for Christ Refuge

We continued north on Sylvania Plantation Road headed towards Georgia this morning. I was excited about crossing the state line today, but about three miles into our estimated ten-mile walk to the state line, we met another couple (Al and Faye) out on their morning walk. Al invited us to their home for breakfast, and we of course gratefully accepted his invitation. On the way up their drive, I noticed a sign that said, "Crusaders for Christ Refuge." We had seen a sign for the refuge at the beginning of our walk this morning, and I was hoping that we would get to meet someone there.

Arriving at their house, Al introduced us to their two children, Alzaleah and Al jr., and then he proceeded to cook us a breakfast fit for a king --eggs, sausage, ham, biscuits, and cheese grits --yum. Over breakfast, Al invited us to spend the day with their family. We could help out with the kid's home schooling this afternoon, attend the church service in their home tonight, and sleep in a spare bedroom that they have tonight. We agreed to all of it.

Al and Faye open their home to folks like us and others who the Lord might put in their path. Some, like us, might stay a single night, and some may stay a month or more, depending on their needs. We were very blessed to spend the day with them.

Wednesday, April 3, 2002: Neal's Landing Park

Al fixed us another breakfast fit for a king this morning, and we set out on the road again headed for Georgia. Al and the kids walked out to the end of their drive with us, and then the kids followed us down the road for a little while on their bikes. The rest of the day, we walked on dirt roads through farm country.

It was a grueling day out there in farm country. We walked for miles through cow pastures without shade, and unfortunately the weather has warmed up to the precise temperature in which gnats seem to thrive. We finally made it to the Chattahoochee River (the state line) this afternoon, but we decided not to cross it yet, when we saw a sign for Neal's Landing Park on the Florida side of the river. The sign for Neal's Landing was offering five-dollar-a-night campsites, and so we walked into the campground to investigate.

The campground hosts, Frank and Helen, greeted us as we walked into the park, and they could tell that we had experienced a somewhat grueling day. They sought to comfort us with ice-cold sodas and peanut butter eggs. That helped. They also told us that the campground had showers, and that really helped. We are staying here tonight, and we might just take the day off tomorrow.

Thursday, April 4, 2002: Neal's Landing Park

We decided to take the day off from walking, and spend it here at Neal's Landing with Frank and Helen. We're the only campers in the park, and it has been a great place to rest for a day before we trudge through any more miles of cow pasture. Frank and I were talking today about our common fondness of all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets, and so tonight we drove into Marianna and ate at the Fortune Cookie Buffet. It has been a good day.