Along the Florida Coast

The Florida coastline is covered in grasses and trees that are themselves covered in what they call sand spurs.  These little disasters are impossible for Olive to walk over without coming up in a limp and they're not nice for us to sit on either.  Meadow alone seems unaffected; that's because her hooves (insert onomatopoeia like "baBVVVV!") are rock solid, wild, mustang feet nowadays.

Aside from that one persistent problem... we finally made it to the beach!

Yes, it was illegal to be on Blue Mountain beach, but we just had to let the pony step in the Ocean once.

The locals call this whole area "30 A" after the name of the two lane road that leaves US 98 and runs along an eighteen mile stretch of the beach.  It's bike friendly, so we gave Meadow a long weekend at Gulf Side Trail Rides nearby, borrowed a bike from Big Daddy's Bike and trucked around to different busking locations on wheels.  Olive didn't know which bike to follow.  Meadow was happy to not do all that pavement.

FCF was around 30A for about 5 days, meeting cool people; mostly locals, but plenty who where there for the songwriters festival (which we found out about upon arrival).

"Ladies and gents," Harvey said to the crowd that had formed up to listen,
"here in lovely Seaside, we can't take tips... but the dog can!"

In addition to finding a stable for Meadow, we discovered a gourmet bakery with fresh gluten free muffins... which, looking back on it, could have been the sole reason that Hannah wanted to stay.  Truly tasty, non-glutenous breads are very rare indeed.  We found fellow musicians and the busking was excellent - no need to 'look back' on anything here - definitely the reason Harvey loved the area enough to stick around through the weekend.

We were invited indoors most of the time around 30A, which was a good thing... The Florida panhandle is very unlike the southern parts; think Orlando and Miami.  It's been cold! Think low twenties with 15 mph winds.  Two weeks ago, while Hannah was up north, the thermometer read 14 degrees at 6am.

This would be the time to assure everyone that we're always toasty warm in our Burrow Sleeping Quilts from hammockgear.com.  Hannah's quilt weighs just 18 ounces but with 3 inches of loft (thickness when the down has expanded) it keeps the cold out like nothing else.  Really, we can't say enough times that these lightweight, extra-warm bags are the reason our wintertime trek has been doable at all.  Weather is everything out on the road and it has certainly not been what we anticipated.  On the other hand, we learned that our beloved Asheville registered 4 degrees on one of those cold-snap mornings so we do feel lucky not to be at that latitude.

On our second day around 30A we ran into a fellow traveler, Robert.  Weeks ago in Panama City, Harvey met a couple on bicycle, but they were they going West-East across the US and had a pace to keep.  Robert... the dude with the solar-powered, front-wheel-drive, hub-motored bicycle pulling a 600 pound bike trailer with everything he cares to own in the world... said he was Texas bound just like yours truly.  We all thought it was way cool to run into one another so we decided to join forces for a while.  This officially graduated us to a "possy".

We are the strangest parade you'll ever break for, roll down the window for, snap a smartphone picture of.

And Robert is just as friendly and handy and funny as can be.  Meadow and Olive are thrilled to have another bike to follow and a different hand to seek treats from.

We especially want to thank Gulf Side Stables for their hospitality, for boarding Meadow with no notice and  for letting us camp on the property.

- FCF


Olive usually runs on the grass; now with the sand spurs everywhere, she runs on the pavement more often, which means her feet get sore from time to time... (sigh) the cost of cruising the beach, we suppose.
Meadow's hind hooves have taken a bit of a beating too, wearing in a unique way because of the deep sand... we may opt for a more northerly route after all.