The biscuits and builders tour

February 2021

 

 

 

Looking back, I don’t remember what prompted us to take a road trip in the dead of winter. The weather must have been mild, or we had china virus lockdown induced cabin fever, or maybe we just wanted to get out in the new to us RV. It was probably a little bit of all that.

 Our plan was to travel to Andalusia Alabama, home of a woman Millie follows on Facebook. Not that there was any personal contact with her, she wasn’t going to invite us in for lunch or anything. We would just be drive by fans of the biscuit lady.

 Our next stop was going to be in laurel Mississippi, home of Ben and Erin and their HGTV show called Home Town. In addition to driving around and looking at houses we had seen them renovate of TV, Ben has a work shop/General store in town and maybe we would actually get to meet him.

 After Laurel Mississippi we planned on dropping down to the coast maybe  as far west as Biloxi and then following the shore back to the east of Florida before returning home to Myrtle Beach.

 It didn’t turn out exactly that way, but heck our travel plans practically never stay on our projected course or schedule.

 

February 7 2021 Sunday

 We drove about 400 miles from Myrtle Beach to Valdosta Georgia, arriving before dark but after the River Park RV park had closed. We followed their late check in instructions, picked a site and paid them in the morning. Not a bad little campground, it had a motel towering over one side of it, the other side backed to some woods. Full hookups, and old asphalt site if I remember correctly. It wasn’t exactly level but we perched the RV on the hump and leveled it the best we could while leaving the truck connected so we could quickly depart in the morning. I’d stay here again.

 

February 8 2021 Monday

 We continued our drive across this mostly rural part of Georgia. It was a 55 mph two lane road over flat terrain so it was easy going for the V-6 powered 2006 Dodge Ram. Our destination for the day was the Corp of Engineers Eastbank campground in the south western corner of the state, almost on top of the Florida/Georgia border. Today’s drive was 110 miles, an easy run.

 Like most all COE campgrounds Eastbank was very nice. Our full hookup site was right on the lake. About the only thing negative I can say is after we drove around the neighborhood we found the adjacent complex was a mental hospital and right across the river was a state prison. Crazy people and criminals locked up within a stones throw of our little RV, nothing to worry about, right! We stayed two nights just to have a day of rest after two days of driving.

 

February 10 2021 Wednesday

 We detoured 110 miles due south to Dr Julian Bruce State Park on the Florida gulf coast. While planning this trip I was able to score a two night reservation in this jewel of a campground on St George Island. We would definitely come back here again but vacancies on these coastal state parks are very hard to get.

 

February 12 2021 Friday

 Today we traveled 116 miles; we followed the coast to Panama City and then north to Falling Waters State Park (Florida). We only stayed one night for two reasons; we were setting up for our next days travel with time to stop at the Florida High Point. Second was there is not much in the area to see, the main claim to fame here is the waterfall into a sink hole. Only Florida could turn a sink hole into a tourist attraction!

 We enjoyed a mile walk thru the woods to the waterfall; the trail went by a small lake and then on an elevated walkway through some rugged terrain. Soon we paralleled a stream that led us to a series of steps down to a viewing platform. And there, sure enough was a small waterfall into a perfectly round sinkhole. It was probably 20 feet in diameter and about 60 feet deep. There was no pool at the bottom, the water quickly disappeared into a small opening on the side of the chasm and was gone. It was like a constantly flushing toilet, Oh the things we tourists will pay to see!

 An unexpected point of interest awaited us in this little state park in the middle of nowhere. Just off the walking trail was a capped off well. It seems in 1919 a man named Jose Mantanza convinced some apparently gullible people to invest in an oil well here. They drilled for two years to a depth of 4912 feet before giving up and capping the well. My question is, what the heck were these people thinking? This isn’t Texas, there is no history of oil here. There is not much here now and in 1919 I’m sure there was a lot less, what in the world possessed Jose to stumble through the woods to this spot and say this is where we will find oil. What convinced the investors to gamble on finding oil in this unlikely spot? Somebody must have been a really good salesman, I once bought a car that turned out to be a lemon, the salesman threw in an ownership share of the golden gate bridge to close the deal. I think he was related to Jose!

 

February 13 2021 Saturday

 First part of the drive today was 60 miles to Britton Hill which is the High Point of Florida. It is 345 feet above sea level. It is probably the easiest high Point to scale; you drive right up to it. The marker is about 25 feet from the parking lot. The only High Point easier would be Delaware, it’s in a trailer park, and you just drive thru it.

After recording our successful climb to the summit of Florida with photographs we continued on to our next destination.

 It was only a 30 mile drive from the top of Florida to Andalusia Alabama. This little town, while it is a nice place, it is not exactly a tourist magnet and if I remember The Oaks Campground was the only place to camp in the area. It appeared to have been an old campground that was in the process of being rebuilt or maybe new construction, it was hard to tell. Anyhow it was decent enough but it wasn’t anything to write home about, especially the site we were in. It was more of a gravel area with several of us smaller RV’s parked on it, no site perimeter, no ambiance of any kind, just parked on gravel in a field with several other people we didn’t know.

 The campground was a bit of a disappointment, but we weren’t here for the amenities of the park anyway, we were here to see Brenda Gantt! Well, not really, we’re more like tourists in Hollywood trying to get a glimpse of a star! So who is Brenda Gantt?

 Millie is a techno wizard and spends a portion of each day on her Samsung pad. I recently bought her a new one, thinking I would get the old one; no she uses both of them. Anyhow in addition to gaming as a bunny slayer or is it candy crusher, she also watches youtube and FB videos. Admit it, you get all your news from youtube too!

 One of Millie’s favorite FB channels is an unassuming little woman who is the quintessential southern homemaker. She is knowledgeable in the old ways of cooking good food with what you have on hand, all the while regaling you with southern folklore. She is born and bred in the south, she’s talks southern, dresses simply, dispenses southernisms, common sense and praises god, all from the kitchen of her home. This is Brenda Gantt.

 I’m sticking my story that we’re not stalkers but had Cabin fever and this was just an excuse to get out on the road, but we did ride by Ms Gantt’s house, stopped and took pictures of the Bethany Baptist Church and shopped in the Piggly Wiggly where Brenda buys her White Lilly flour? Hmmmmmm.

 

February 14 2021 Sunday

 Planning on continuing our journey west the next day we happened to check the news that evening. This is something we rarely do on the road, or at home for that matter. There was a winter storm barreling down from the north and it was forecast to coat Laurel Mississippi with ice the next day. We were supposed to be in Laurel tomorrow, uh-oh! We had a strategy meeting and quickly decided we were going to run to Florida and let this storm pass us there. On the gulf coast it would probably be windy and wet but not likely to be frozen.

 Promptly the next morning with stormy skies building overhead we left Alabama and returned to Florida. We’ll have to visit our TV friends Ben and Erin on a future trip, I’m sure they will understand. We made a beeline to Panama City because that’s where the main road south went and it’s a big place and we figured we could get in a campground there.

 When we arrived on the coast we stopped in a Public’s grocery store parking lot and started our search for a place to stay. We found space available at The Emerald Coast RV Resort and reserved a spot. A short time later we arrived, not really knowing what to expect. When a campground bills itself as a resort, more often than not it is something less than luxurious. Pleasantly surprised would be a good description of our impression of Emerald Coast. This place was indeed classy, our kind of place. lol We made the best of our time in Panama City, but the weather was overcast, rainy and chilly for the next 3 days.

 One of the highlights of our winter storm respite in Panama City was a restaurant we discovered called Big Mama’s on the Bayou, which served real country cooking. We ate there twice and it was just great, the tables didn’t match, the silverware wasn’t silver, the food was delicious, our kind of place!

 Unfortunately the winter weather just wouldn’t leave; the five day forecast was for the current gloomy conditions to stay over the coast. Once again we had a strategy huddle and decided rather than continue to pay the high priced resort to just sit inside and watch DVD’s we might as well just go home.

 

February 18 2021 Thursday

 Early in the morning we hitched up and headed north, we really didn’t have a plan other than to just drive until we felt like we had driven enough for one day. About halfway up the road the Beeline Syndrome kicked in and we decided to make a run for home. I don’t remember what time we got back to Myrtle Beach but we did the 600 mile trip in one day.

 The travel bug bite scratched for a while, it was good to be home.