42.5 mi / 13.5 mph / 23 ft. climbing
Home: Newport County Campground

The last couple days have taken us through the very-unpopulated Big Bend corner of Florida, but today we achieved a new level of East Coast emptiness. Once we got through Perry in our first four miles, and passed Rocky’s Campground four miles after that, it was 20 miles until the next building (JR’s Aucilla River Store), and another 14 miles to the one after that, and that was the bathhouse at our campground.

Big Bend is where the Florida peninsula meets the panhandle, and an unrenowned side street in Perry is where we also made our own big bend, a left turn that ended our roughly-northward progress and now set us on a westward path. Ever since we left Rett’s Dad’s in upstate New York nearly six months (and 4000 miles) ago, we’ve basically been heading “south”, with our recent northbound trek more just a rebound off the bottom than an actual change in direction. It’s not like we haven’t been moving west at all; we’re somehow already further west than Detroit! But that was just an unintentional slide; now we’ll be heading west with earnest intention, and hopefully tailwinds the whole way!

Despite the lack of anything out here, somehow the Newport Campground (a Wakulla County campground) was a perfect distance from our start. And at $17, it was a perfect price too, our cheapest Florida campground. But since it’s Florida, our site still had electric! (which we shared with our neighbors, a couple of guys with a boat here to fish).

Although the campground was the first thing ending the forest’s emptiness, it wasn’t the only thing here. Just on the opposite side of the St. Mark’s River was Ouzts’ Too Oyster Bar & Grill, which had excellent Google reviews, describing it as a true backwoods bar, but with much better food than such a place ought to have. So we took a walk over the highway bridge for dinner. It was surprisingly full at the early hour we arrived, but rather than locals who might have appreciated the Confederate flags, it seemed mostly like city folk doing a rural safari after reading the same reviews I did (including an Indian family). But, our hosts were as friendly as reported (at least to us white folks), giving Rett the remote to choose what she wanted on TV once most everyone else had left. And the seafood was excellent.