Pat’s Wildways: Big Bend area of Florida

Bucko and I drove across Florida to the Big Bend area, south of Tallahassee, where the panhandle starts, to enjoy the Sopchoppy Worm Grunting Festival, but as always, there were other sights to see along the way. To start with, the phlox flowers were in bloom on the roadways west of Interstate 75, especially U.S. Highway 27. These glorious flowers in various shades of pink, red and white are naturalized nonnative plants, but have been encouraged by the Florida Department of Transportation, and left alone to spread their joy to drivers passing by. I can never drive along these roads when phlox is blooming without asking Bucko to please stop the car so I can take photos. It turns out the videos taken from the car window are not so bad either.

We spent a couple of nights at the comfortable Sweet Magnolia B&B, in St. Marks, a small interesting town, if only for the remains of an old fort and the water views in the San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park — but not so much for the meal options. The main restaurant in the town, the Riverside Cafe, is still recovering from the last hurricane and hidden behind a temporary tarp — and the food is overpriced and less than ample — oh well.

Even if you are not going to the once-a-year Worm Grunting Festival, there are a lot of fun things to see in this area. A main attraction is the Gulf Specimen Aquarium where all kinds of fish and invertebrates are displayed in touch tanks and staffed by Americorp volunteers who are eager to show them off to you. You can learn more about this place from a previous column. And a far better place to stay in the area is the Wakulla Springs State Park. We have been to both places many times, but not this one. There was new territory for us to explore.

After the worm grunting event, we drove around back roads looking for bears that are abundant in this area, snakes sunbathing on the roads, and more wildflowers. We found the flowers but no bears or snakes, alas. We briefly explored the Ochlockonee State Park and relaxed at a picnic table on the riverbank. But then it was time to eat — my favorite part of any road trip. And this time we found the perfect place — the Tropical Trader Shrimp Company. This place did not pop up in my Google Maps app, but when we saw the parking lot full of cars when we passed it on highway 80, we made a U-turn. And I was soon in my version of heaven, feasting on a large mound of fresh-cooked crayfish, accompanied by cold beer. Perfect!

On the way home to Fernandina we took a little detour to revisit Steinhatchee, which, until the recent hurricanes, has been one of our favorite weekend escapes. Like St. Marks, Cedar Key and other communities on the Big Bend coast this town was devastated by not one, but two hurricanes a year apart. I previously wrote about the devastation in Cedar Key, and if anything, the devastation at Steinhatchee was even worse. Two places we frequented, Crabby Dad’s and Roy’s Restaurant, were demolished and reduced to food trucks. Across the water our favorite lodging place, the Good Times Motel is beginning to take guests again, but their old motel-style lodging got swept away and landed on top of their waterfront restaurant, both destroyed. However, resilience is the key word among these staunch locals. Now modular cabins have been brought in for lodging and the Who Dat Bar and Grill is being rebuilt but still serving its great and economical food from a food truck kitchen parked in the back.

I know we will be back sometime in the future to stay at the Steinhatchee Good Times Motel again and we will also revisit Cedar Key. The struggling businesses in the Big Bend area of Florida need our continued support. We can shore up their resilience by adding a bit of an economic driver to their community. But here’s hoping they don’t get slammed again as another hurricane season approaches ...

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com