Today was filled with adventure and discovery. We left our campground around 9AM headed for the Panama City area. Rather than go the fast way, we took the extensive advice of Northern Florida/Alabama travel expert John Hubbard, who told us to take the coast road 98 and stop in Apalachicola around lunch.
Along the way, we saw a sign for the inaugural flipping of the switch on a new traffic light. It seemed like a lot of guys to flip one switch. We guess there were some dignitaries there for the ceremony.
We easily found the “Old” section of town, surveyed the two open restaurants, and had a nice lunch at “Up To No Good Tavern.” Scott couldn’t finish his fine grilled shrimp and took 4 home in a small box; Tom did the same with a few of his meatballs.
We had been dogged for several days on the last trip and this one with a nagging dashboard warning about the taillights of our “trailer” – the Jeep. We narrowed this down to a simple connection problem, or a complex problem with the diodes that allowed the same bulbs to be used by the jeep when driving and Khan when towing. When we got back to Khan/Polo, it became obvious that the problem was a connection problem. Scott worked diligently for 5-10 minutes installing a better solution with a stiffer wire he bought from home. No error – pretty sure we fixed that one.
On the way out of town we saw a sign for the John Gorrie State Museum – about the inventor of the ice machine and refrigeration pioneer. We backtracked a bit and found the tiny museum. As we passed Polo after docking the Khan/Polo rig, Tom found Scott’s shrimp on the bumper – only two left. Scott put those in the refrigerator.
The museum was very small, but the one Florida State Park Ranger was great. He explained a lot about the John Gorrie, Yellow Fever, and the first air conditioning. He also told us about other Florida State Parks and Museums. A great stop.
We then proceed to our “Boondockers Welcome” spot in Youngstown, FL – site of a deadly unsolved train derailment in 1978. A great stop – full hookups, and free. After Scott’s obligatory nap, we debated between trying to get the jeep dirty on an adventure, or get some exercise on our electric bikes. Jeep adventure won out.
After returning to Khan, we cooked a beef stew in our instant pot. It was delicious, but Scott Siskle and Tom Ebert submitted this critique. Siskle thought there wasn’t enough color, particularly green, and would have added corn and green beans or peas. Ebert would have left out the tomato sauce in favor of more beef stock or bullion cubes, and cooked it for a little less time (having vaporized everything except the meat and potatoes).
The recipe stated it was for four, but the two of us will get about 4 more meals from the leftovers.