Monday 2/14/11

With Kim’s house bustling with preparations to get to school (Rachel is 8^th grade, and Kim is a teacher), Karen and I were able to slip out early for the 5 hour trip to Apalachicola which is famous for the abundance and quality of its oysters.  90% of Florida oysters come from this little community, and 10% of all the oysters in the USA – 2.3 million pounds/year.  Apalachicola is also my favorite area of Florida I have ever seen.  There is little evidence of commercial development, just a quaint town surrounded by trees and marshes and a natural, undeveloped coastline.  Our first stop was at Boss Oyster so Cam could sample the local harvest of a dozen oysters on the half-shell, and Karen treated herself to a salad with fresh grilled jumbo shrimp. 

I have to give a little history lesson. In the 1930’s, malaria was epidemic, especially in coastal areas. A young physician named John Gorrie moved to Apalachicola to open his practice, and took a particular interest in finding a way to treat malaria.  He noticed that the residents who slept underneath mosquito netting to avoid the hordes of biting pests in the area had a much lower incidence of illness.  At that time, malaria was thought to be an airborne illness resulting from the coastal humidity, thus Dr. Gorrie surmised that the mosquito netting must have filtered the air.  Additionally, it was noted that nobody got malaria during the cooler months of the year, so it was assumed that cooler air would result in less malaria as well.  Consequently, Dr. Gorrie set about finding a way to manufacture ice (rather than transporting ice from frozen lakes which were hard to find during the summer months) which could then be blown into the sleeping quarters, cooling the air, and thereby decreasing the susceptibility to malaria. This air cooling, combined with the “air filtering” effect of the guaze netting was expected to eradicate the disease.  As a result, Dr. Gorrie invented the first ice machine.  We now know that malaria is borne by mosquitos, which is why the netting was effective in preventing illness, and the association with cold and health was due to the fact that there were no mosquitos in winter.

Next, we drove to St. George Island State Park which is absolutely pristine.  One of the beauties of traveling in February is that there are virtually no other tourists.  This has been true throughout our trip so far (300 people/day at the Biltmore v. the usual 5,000-6,000; the Grove Park Inn and the Bent Creek Lodge totally to ourselves; empty miles of highway; no lines at restaurants; no need for advance reservations for accommodations).  St. George Island State Park remained true to form as Karen and I ran 4 lovely miles along the beach with no company other than the incoming tide nipping at our toes on one side, and the dunes chuckling at our wet sneakers on the other.

After collecting a few sand dollars and returning to our truck, we drove an additional 1.5 hours to see Marty and Cheryl near Panama City Beach.  They have a home with a “million dollar view” on a beautiful lake which treats them to a magnificent sunset every night directly out their back door.  Cam went to high school with Marty and Cheryl in England, and we all share a common affection for Barbara, our English teacher from Woodbridge High School (see previous post and photo).  Karen was generous in allowing Marty, Cheryl, and Cam to reminisce while we devoured a fried chicken dinner.  Then the four of us drove to the Calypso Condominium Resort in Panama City Beach where Marty and Cheryl had arranged for Karen and Cam to spend 2 days and nights overlooking the ocean from a luxury condo.  It just really doesn’t get any better than this!!!

433 miles today.