Shortly after leaving St Marys I cross into Florida. My first stop is the Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery in Jacksonville. You may be asking ‘Why are you stopping at a cemetery?’. This is the location of Ronnie Van Zant’s grave site, along with other members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd. I grew up listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and they have always been my favorite band. I had the pleasure of seeing them in concert multiple times over the years, even though they weren’t the original band members (as the plane crash that killed multiple members occurred years before I was ever born). The song ‘Simple Man’ was always one of my favorites and a song I tried to live by.
“Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast.
Troubles will come and they will pass.
You’ll find a woman and you’ll find love.
And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above.
And be a simple kind of man.
Oh, be something you love and understand.”
– Lynyrd Skynyrd (Simple Man)
I can’t say that I have always followed this way of life, often chasing after a lot of things that don’t matter. As I have been on this trip, just living day to day with the basic necessities and what can fit on a motorcycle, I am starting to realize how often we tend to chase after things that are meaningless in the grand scheme of things (specifically eternity). Looking back on some of the things I used to worry about, it was all quite silly. I am sure this understanding will expand as I continue on with this journey.
After finding Ronnie Van Zant’s grave site, I take a few moments to pay respects as moments from my past fly through my head where Lynyrd Skynyrd music was playing. I do the same for the other band members who have grave sites nearby before hopping back on the bike.
I originally planned on heading down to see the Everglades National Park but it has been shut down. I didn’t want to travel any further south into Florida either in the case that they shut down the roads or something, as there is only really one direction to go. So I head west towards the Osceola WMA land where I can find a place to camp. Some of the campgrounds have been closed but Cobb Camp is open and there are quite a few people out here. It looks like some of these folks have been camping here for awhile as they have the nice tents set up with the mosquito nets. I find an open flat spot and set up my tent. It was getting close to dark by the time I arrived and to avoid getting eaten up by mosquitoes, I stayed in my tent until morning.
The next morning I find a nearby piece of pavement and do a little chain maintenance. I noticed that the chain was getting pretty slack, so I tightened it up and lubed it up before heading back down the road. My next stop was over to the panhandle. Driving across the northern part of Florida was a long stretch and was a bit boring for most of the journey. The landscape is very flat with the same scenery most of the drive, so you are basically just clicking off miles. Once getting near the panhandle, the scenery got much more enjoyable to me.
I picked up route 98 and headed into Wakulla Springs where I pull into a gas station to take a break and to figure out what I am going to do next. Soon after I pull in a Florida Parks Ranger pulls up and asks me about my bike. He recently bought a Honda CB500, so we chatted about bikes and motorcycle trips a bit. Being a park ranger, he filled me in on what places were open and some cool things in the area that I could check out. We chatted for a solid 20-30 minutes before he had to get back to work. So I thanked him for his insight before he pulled away. One place he said to check out was the St Mark’s Lighthouse which was open, so that is where I headed. The road that takes you to the lighthouse (Lighthouse Road) takes you through some Florida gulf swamp land that is very scenic and quite an enjoyable ride. The road leads you right up to the Gulf of Mexico, so I was able to see the gulf on this trip as well! The St Mark’s Lighthouse is the second oldest lighthouse in Florida and was originally built in 1831. Due to erosion, the lighthouse was dismantled and moved further inland in 1842 where it now sits. It has weathered many hurricanes and did receive damage from Union troops during the civil war (it was repaired in 1866). It is a very nice lighthouse with a lot of history and surrounded by beautiful wildlife.
After spending some time at St Mark’s Lighthouse, I made my way down the coastline via route 98. This is a very scenic drive along Florida’s ‘Forgotten Coast’. I make a quick detour to check out Harvey’s Ford Truck Collection that sits along Highway 319. These are all Ford trucks that were once used on the Harvey family farm and the owner Pat Harvey lined them up in chronological order to see what they looked like. They have been sitting here in their rustic form ever since and are quite neat to look at. When I pulled up there was a young guy in his newer Ford Mustang taking pictures of his car using these old Ford trucks as the backdrop.
I continue down route 98 until I reach the city of Carrabelle and make a stop at the Crooked River Lighthouse. This lighthouse was built in 1895 (restored in 2007) and is the tallest lighthouse, standing at 103 feet, along the Forgotten Coast. You can climb this lighthouse, via the 128 steps inside the structure, but it is closed until the virus fears ease. Still was quite neat to see it.
Next up for me was to find a place to camp. I rode north into the Apalachicola National Forest land to look for some camp grounds. The weather forecast showed some strong storms coming into the area starting tomorrow morning, so I wanted to make sure I planned ahead to get shelter before the storms hit. I ride through the national forest land but all the camp grounds are closed and the few that are open are way back on some dirt/sandy roads and overgrown. With the storms coming in the morning, I did not want to risk some heavy rains coming in and being stuck down a long muddy road that I may not be able to get out of. So I kept on riding to see what I could find. After riding completely through the national forest land, I look online and see a few private campgrounds nearby. I drive to one but find nothing but a closed gate. So I backtrack a bit and head to another campground. They are open and accept tent camping. The place was not very nice and they charged $20 a night but I didn’t really have any other options at this point. It was near dark and I was tired. They were the ones who were open so they won my business for the night.
After some shut eye, I pack up the bike and head out a little after sunrise. I head north to the town of Quincy. I found out Quincy was once the richest town per capita in the United States. This was thanks to a banker named Pat Munroe who urged his fellow townspeople to invest in Coca-Cola stock during the Great Depression after noticing people spending their last nickels to buy a bottle of the soda drink. Shares of Coca-Cola were very cheap at the time and many Quincy citizens followed his advice and invested. Shortly thereafter the shares rose and these investments helped save the farming town of Quincy during the Great Depression. These investments have also (reportedly) carried the town through other recessions and crop failures over the years. It is an interesting little town with some history to it.
After riding through Quincy, I make my way towards Midway to see if they have any hotels open. Upon entering Gadsden county, I see they have many restrictions and require face masks to be worn in public. I am not dealing with this nonsense, so I decide to head towards Marianna instead which puts me more where I want to be for my travels back north into Alabama anyway. I was able to reserve a room at a Residence Inn and they were very hospitable; letting me early check-in around 1100 at no charge and allowing me to park my bike next to the window to get it out of the weather. I arrived right before the rain started, only getting lightly rained on for the last few miles. I hunker down in the hotel room for the rest of the day which allowed me to get a workout in, a shower, and do some media editing. That evening some very heavy storms came through and actually knocked out power to the building for an hour or so. There were some tornadoes that touched down in the area as well. I was definitely glad I was in the motel at this point.
The next morning I eat a modified hotel breakfast (due to the virus, they had a smaller menu and the meal had to be eaten in your room) and then decide to head back into Georgia. I really enjoyed Georgia and wanted to see a bit of the western part of the state. So I did some backroad riding enjoying the sun filled sky and open roads. I found a state park called Providence Canyon which I rode to. This park contains multi-colored geological formations that were created by erosion after years of poor agricultural practices. It is a very neat park and I was able to do a bit of hiking around and down into the canyon.
After some hiking, I made my way to a free campground that I had found online. The road leading in is a bit on the sandy side but seems pretty hard packed, although there are some wet and muddy spots. I work my way down the the long sandy road until it turns to pavement and find nothing but a locked gate. This once again irritated me as it was not easy navigating that road and I wished they would have put signs up farther back up the road.
Since that campground is closed, I decided to head a bit further east into Georgia to a nearby camp on WMA land. The camp site turned out to be quite nice as it is set up on a hill with a good view towards the west to watch the sunset behind the trees. I decided to keep it simple tonight and just use my hammock. After setting up my hammock, I get a fire going and watch the sunset. I then cook up a can of soup I had bought earlier in the day and spend some time sitting around the fire and admiring the stars in clear night sky. Eventually I hop in my hammock and call it a night.
It has been almost two weeks since I started this trip. I have met some amazing people, rode some incredible roads, and had some great experiences. The shutdowns due to the virus have thrown a lot of my plans out the window though, so I have been trying to figure out where to go and what to do on a daily basis. It has not been easy adjusting to this type of living and I often have thoughts running through my head like ‘what am I doing out here?’. I don’t really have a ‘purpose’ or a ‘goal’ with a lot of the day to day, I am just kind of wandering around. I am learning a lot though and know I need to keep going, so onward I will go.