Apalachicola 

Joan's View

Jonathan, Scott, Kendra & Consuela

During breakfast at the Coombs Inn I got a picture of the friends we met last night at the wine & cheese hour. Such great people who shared lots of interesting stories with us.
Scott & Kendra's family has a place in Mexico Beach and since they were helping with repairs, they knew lots about Hurricane Michael. Jonathan and Consuela checked in at the same time we did and Jonathan helped carry our bags in. He is a Harley-Davidson guy so he was asking about "our bike."

This one is for you, Meems!

Apalachicola is a bay town with much history. We walked to the Orman House and Chapman Botanical Garden, which is now part of the state park system. Thomas, our guide, gave us a fascinating historical tour of the house along with history of Apalachicola. At one point when many New Yorkers had come here to make their fortunes in the cotton and sugar cane industry, they hired civil engineers from Philadelphia & New York to lay out the town for growth. The streets are patterned after Philadelphia and the waterfront mimics New York's waterfront. It must be in Tony's schooling then to be a master at R & D (that stands for ripoff & duplicate in Tony language). At one point, they changed the name of the town to West Point, a more New Yorkish name, but the locals continued using Apalachicola and even the post office was getting confused. Eventually, the courts stepped in and Apalachicola got to keep its cool name. 

We visited the 3 soldiers statue which is a truncated replica of the one in DC, and then walked downtown.Most businesses are closed today since it's Sunday, but we checked out a few stores and I got a lightweight souvenir. We also stopped to say an enjoyable rosary on seats overlooking the bay.

Tony took a short nap then cleaned and oiled the tandem chains. As you can see, the rag he is using to clean the chains is black.

Ooo. Fried Oreos

While he was cleaning his bike one of the ladies from the Coombs Inn told us about an African-American festival that was going on at the end of our street and it was ending in an hour. Tony hustled to get the bike back inside and we went to the festival for food. Tony had his first ever Fried Oreos.
From there, we walked to the bay and spent some time on a long pier watching kids fish. Heading back to the inn, we followed a walking tour of the historical Chestnut cemetary across the street. 

We are enjoying the warm evening air on their veranda for the rest of the evening because beginning tomorrow we ride for the next 5 days until we arrive at the Winslow's house in The Villages. Oh, but, stay tuned because we plan to see a Winslow or two before we get there. 😍

Tony's Extras

Today was another day off to explore and work on the bicycle. We were hoping to do laundry but nothing at B&B and no laundry mat in town. Hoping to have something at our next stop for laundry. While walking around town we did see a place where they took old bicycle parts and made art. The one in the picture is a big ball of old tubes. They had ones made of old chains, gears and wheels. While watching Joan shop I ran into this sign that reminded me of Bud. Just have to share. I really enjoyed the festival, and besides the food, it was inspirational. There was a sign on one of the food stands that read, "Work your Dreams to Accomplish your Goals." Rain in the forecast tomorrow, going to do our best to dodge it.