Franklin County, FL, population 11,598, sits on the Gulf of Mexico and refers to itself as The Forgotten Coast. This nickname stems from an early 1990s official tourism map of Florida that inadvertently left off Apalachicola, the
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| Franklin County is the red area. |
County Seat of Franklin County, as a tourist destination. Today, The Forgotten Coast is a tag line that people in this area tend to appreciate and relish.There's even a monthly newspaper entitled Chuck Spicer's Forgotten Coast Line. Having spent some time here and done some exploring and discovering, my personal opinion is this: the citizens of The Forgotten Coast just want to keep this little gem to themselves.
The drive to Carrabelle Beach RV Resort from St. Augustine was primarily via four lane roads (I95 then I10) and the scenery was the same kind of ho hum scenery you would see on any highway pretty much anywhere else in the world. At least that's the way it seemed.
The second we turned off Highway I10 onto Hwy. 98 West it appeared we had left civilization behind and it seemed difficult to relate to the buzz of the highways with this two-lane, windy road. On our left, the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico. Breathtaking. Homes were scattered here and there but mainly we were passing long leaf pine forests to our right and the odd tiny village. Because most of Florida is either at or below sea level the majority of the houses built along this coast are on stilts. Rather interesting looking.
We entered Carrabelle, the closest town to Carrabelle Beach and our site, and looked around for the essentials of life. We saw an IGA, a Dollar General, a small liquor store run by a woman named Mary Jo and a stunning marina in a magnificent setting. Five more minutes on Hwy. 98 and we had reached our destination. This campsite is the polar opposite of what we had been accustomed to and loved in St. Augustine. Where we had been ensconced in a very private site because of the canopy of trees in St. Augustine our site here was out in the open with a privacy factor of zero. We weren't sure how we would feel living in this fish bowl but there was a real bonus. The sun. When you are in northern Florida in December it's not necessarily warm even if the sun is shining brightly and there's not a cloud in the sky. Sure the sun shone in St. Augustine but not on us in our private site where the temperature in the shade was at least ten if not twenty degrees cooler. Here in Carrabelle Beach, we've had morning coffee, lunch and dinner out there. Nice!
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| Our set-up at Carrabelle Beach RV Resort. |
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Exploring this area opened our eyes to just what a little gem Franklin County is. With a population of just over 11,500 there is one school that houses all kids in the county from K-12. The town of Carrabelle, upon close inspection, didn't have anything more than we had already seen when we drove through but when the sun is shining and the scenery is pretty and calming, what else do you need?
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| Entrance to our RV Resort and the Gulf of Mexico across the street. |
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| Pedestrian walkway around the harbour in Carrabelle. A view of the marina. |
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| Fish cleaning stations are available for fishermen to clean their catch. The pelicans are waiting for left-overs. |
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| 2 Al's Restaurant.You know those places that you kind of don't want to go in but you're hungry so you do and are so glad you did because the food is just great? Yup. 2 Al's is like that. |
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Some footage I got while at the harbour in Carrabelle Beach of the pelicans. I tried to get them to pose for me but they wouldn't cooperate so I videoed them instead. They still didn't cooperate so it's the best I could do.
On the way to Apalachicola you drive through a small fishing village called Eastpoint. It's a sad little town that has seen better days; lots of abandoned and boarded up buildings and not a lot going on. There's a local supermarket and not much more except for a fish shop/raw oyster bar. Of course, we went in and purchased some oysters and shrimp to have for our New Year's Eve dinner. There are lots of fish shops in this area that sell the freshest oysters, shrimp, flounder, grouper, black drum and other local catches. This little place also has a raw bar and we watched a couple eating oysters on the half shell followed by Oysters Rockefeller but they were placing each oyster on a saltine cracker, something we had never seen before. We inquired about this and yes, it's the way they eat their oysters around here.
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill or BP oil spill of 2010 did not actually reach Franklin County. It did however impact the area financially and psychologically. Financially, fear of contaminated seafood from the Gulf impacted sales and local fisheries suffered as did subsidiary businesses such as transportation, food service and tourism. The psychological impact was the same as in areas that the oil spill reached. People were waiting for the oil to reach their shores, they were busy with measures that would quell the damage, and worrying about their futures. Possibly, this has been a contributor to the boarded up and abandoned business in both Carrabelle and Eastpoint.
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| On the bridge from Apalachicola toward Eastpoint (easterly). |
From Eastpoint you cross an almost six mile long bridge to reach Apalachicola, the town that was left off the tourism board's map in the early 1990s.
Next time Apalachicola.......a step back to the 1950s (or so it seems). A small little town that really does have it all.
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