Monday, March 21, 2005

Quincy to Blountstown, FL

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Torreya State Park
We were up early to catch a quick continental breakfast at the motel before the 6:30 a.m. bus ride to Quincy. Our last stop before the school where our bikes were parked was to pick up riders who stayed at the Horseshoe Motor Lodge and liquore store. This was the run down dive just outside town with a drive through liquor store attached to one of the buildings. I remember one of the old southern gentlemen saying to his buddy as they first approached the motel the day before, "What have you gotten us into this time?" They had the right attitude for the trip. As they entered the bus they regaled us with tales of their misadventures at the motel.

Gregory House
Torreya State Park
Overlooking the
Apalachicola
The ride from Quincy to Blountstown was uneventful. The scenery was mostly tall, skinny pine trees adjacent to the roads with good shoulders. Torreya State Park, site of the second rest stop, contains many winding trails along a bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River. The Gregory House sits at the top of the bluff having been moved from the plantation along the rivers edge years ago. The park is named after a rare pine tree discovered in 1835.

Just before crossing the Apalachicola River and entering the Central Time Zone we passed through the town of Bristol on our way to Blountstown. We were approached by a local gentleman who was intrigued by our bike. We talked for a while "Yes, it's very comfortable and very expensive." When we told him we were going to be passing through Sopchoppy later in the week to see some worm gruntin' he was surprised. "There's nothin' in Sopchoppy. Even we don't ever go there." It sounded like we were in for an adventure.

The long bridge over the Apalachicola and the adjacent floodplain seemed to go on forever, although there was a good shoulder for most of the way. As I write this I struggle to remember anything about Blountstown, a very nondescript place. Most of the motels were all located well outside town, requiring another long bus ride to ours which was adjacent to I-10, 20 miles away.
PoFolks Restaurant
After the long ride the thought of going through the ordeal of catching buses back and forth to town for the local festivities wasn't very appealing. The food choices were far from ideal, although the salad, grilled whitefish, hush puppies, red beans and rice, peach cobbler and lemonade at the adjacent PoFolks restaurant turned out to be quite good.

For entertainment we walked to a nearby Walmart. I checked out the kids bikes for sale at cutrate prices. Every one of the bikes that I tested had loose handlebars and other problems. It's amazing that more people aren't hurt riding them, and another reason for buying at a local bike shop.

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