Today started for me at 5.00, lying half awake knowing that there was a storm on the way, but I hadn’t put the awning away. Would it be a wet storm, or a windy storm? Forecast yesterday just said wet, but you never can tell with Florida weather. So I got up to find a forecast on the radio – which is impossible when you don’t know the stations or the time they read out the weather. By 6.40 I had found out that it was indeed going to be wet, not windy, so lay on the sofa to go back to sleep, tricky when the rain is thundering on the roof and there is almost constant lightning and constant thunder claps, though of differing volume from full rumblerama to ground wobbling. It’s a good job that we didn’t have TV or weather.com, because what I thought must be the middle of a storm was in fact only the edge. When I finally got onto the internet it showed that warm air from the Gulf was being sucked northerly on to the cooler south east US, but the centre missed us by about 50 miles. In some places (like Suwannee, where we will be tomorrow night) they have had 10 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. The tornado map showed at least 9 touch downs (no not as in football, think about it), with 4 houses being wrecked about 40 miles north east of us, across to Lake City and south to Ocala. The local stream rose by about 2 feet, but no, we didn’t get any wind, we were very fortunate.
Ocklocknee State Park is hidden behind the Forgotten Coast, just about in the middle of the Forest of Isolation. However, it is just 6 miles south of Heartland City of Nowhere, Sopchoppy. Sopchoppy has a 150 yard Main St, which once had a railroad running down the middle of it. The town has now been completely bypassed by a small curve in the road. It was once the railhead of a mule pulled tram, which ran on wooden boards, between wooden rails, to the mineral spring town of Panacea. Town activity centres on a four way stop junction where there is a general store, a flower and gift shop and what is either an antique Shop, or and Antique shop, because I am not sure if the items on display are for sale or just sittin’ there. It is in places such as this that you very often find absolutely nothing happening. However, Sopchoppy has a hidden jewel, small but perfectly formed, just off the main street. It is called the ‘Backwoods Bistro’. We now state that we discovered it, we may be the only people from out of Florida to have been there. It is not to be missed and is well worth the detour from the main road to eat there. We arrived on a Friday evening at about 6.00 and it was almost empty. It’s origin lies in a small dress shop and café built in 1911, which then became the drug store, chemist, soda fountain and clothes shop. More recently it had been a café. It was shut down and closed up for 10 years until a family took it over. It is a plain, fairly large room, with double fronted store windows. The back of the bistro is dominated by a long and high counter, of which the entire top is a 3D mosaic of an emerald green alligator. The food is cooked and served by a team of three brothers.
We ordered and sat back, we had some excellent chicken wings to start with. The bistro started to fill with people, mostly families. We had to wait quite a time for our main course as by now they were becoming quite busy. People were waiting for take out orders and just wandering round talking to folks, there was a friendly hubbub. We were able to take time to look at a local history book about Wakulla County. The main course was simple, but excellent. I had a small pizza, Sally had chicken alfredo. This we followed with really goo’ey banana and ice cream desert, with a walnut and rum sauce. We left sometime after 7.30 full and happy. This was one of the nicest meals we have had in Florida (Connie’s cooking excepted of course).
If ever you are within 20 miles of Sopchoppy, which is about how far it is from Wakulla Springs, you must visit The Backwoods Bistro. Tell them we sent you.
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