Thursday, May 14, 2020

BIKERS STORM JAY

I was in Jay this week and stopped by Dura Med Soda Shop for one of Miss Laura's tasty tuna fish salad sandwiches. I was bearing down on it as orders were being delivered at a nearby table. Tables were open for the first time in a month but only a few tables could be occupied yet. Rona Rules -.

The folks at the table asked a few questions and someone asked "You not from around here, are you?"

This began a storm of conversation about their purpose in Jay as Bikers. It was soon discovered they were just cruising the outer limits of their range from Palm Coast, Florida, where they live. They were in search of real Americans. Some of the farmers up here are searching for the same thing - so there was common ground.



We learned that the big guy, Lou - was a veteran biker who has all of Route 66 and many other well worn trails under his Harley.

 Frank and Tiffany run a restaurant in Palm Coast called "386". They took this lull in economic activity to join Lou in their very first introduction to the biker life.

So far, they are liking it a lot. Meeting people. Learning new things. Maybe one day they will write a book like our friend who wrote "Ghosts in the Wind - The Footsteps of Lewis and Clark" . Most of the really interesting people in Chuck's book were long dead though. Even Clark is dead. And Clark's Newfie dog, named "Seaman". He is dead too.

The "386 Palm Coast" is a fine dining establishment.
 I think, next time we are over that way, it will be a destination.


All of the biker gang are originally from Salem County, NJ. That county is very similar to our own since it is a part of the geographical feature of the Coastal Plains. It is maybe 80 miles South of Philadelphia and sits in the New Jersey Pinelands. So riding through this part of Florida is a lot like home to them.

I invited them to take a quick tour of the Jay Museum. We have some interesting things in there, like high school pictures and  ancient digital books about the area, some rocks, rusty tools and a jar of buttons. People are fascinated by these things. (really!)

Lou got stuck on the high school pictures from my era and remarked the women were particularly good looking. I noted this is a feature of the county. It traps many a wanderer - as they pass this way. Some are found. Not all are lost.

They made a donation and and I gave them one of our cookbooks - "Tastes and Tales of the Great Pine Level" . I wonder if the recipe from Jim McCaskill will find its way to the feature menu at the 386 Palm Coast. Who knows?

These bikers had miles to go before they sleep and probably to a meal down in Navarre. But this road here ... is less travelled.




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CORONA TEE SHIRT


WELL NOW
THAT IS

12ponder.com


Lectures on History every month (outside of quarantines) at the Museum
Watch for dates. Richard Wood spoke recently of mystery murders.
He has a fascinating blog at judgingshaddows.blogspot.com
There is always a bet somewhere if or not I will mention FORT MIMS in any conversation about our area.  Well.. I did... FORTMIMS.org  - a key event in the history of the entire Southeast - because a gate left open led to a massacre and events that nobody imagined beforehand.
 And Andrew Jackson was here because of the massacre and ended up being in position to talk to the British in New Orleans in 1814-15.

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Chores in the time of CORONA

Dick Miller and I rode up to Jay to take care of some chores getting the cottage completed for sale. Steve Spray, who is a superb contractor, has put on a deck and sealed in the windows. Progress. But had to stop by Pittman Lumber too and do some bookkeeping. While there, we ran into Frank Lowry and Waylon Nowling. I explained to Dick that Frank is a peanut farmer and Waylon's daughter is the one with greenhouses that grows the Easter Lilies and the Poinsettias . (Wendt Farms) Dick likes that because he likes to propagate trees and shrubs. Greenhouses inspire him.

ON the way back South out of Jay, we saw the sign for Lowry Farms. I wanted to show Dick, where it was so he could find it for future boiled peanut supplies. We drove up to the barn and Ipointed out some of the equipment and then turned around to leave. A wisp of a girl ran out of the barn and told us to come back and Frank showed up and directed us to park under the barn. A wonderful visit ensued (See the ending discussion of fish at the end of this album).

I tried to encourage Presley to quit school and go into 12 hour days of cleaning fish at a factory. She would do it - regardless of a straight A record in the 6th grade. A friend dropped off these fresh fish earlier and was going back to the same spot on the Escambia River to get more for a benefit fish fry.

Presely has her own youtube channel for FISHING stories. Dick and I were impressed with her can-do attitude and with Frank's wide knowledge of the natural world. Presley is also a champion softball player. She mainly plays the position of catcher. Turns out Dick is "The Father" of the modern softball - baseball - and golf-ball. He had a career as a serial inventor with polymers - primarily rubber based polymers - and one of his early projects was to improve the softball - in the late 1950's - early 60's.

All this followed his near disastrous time with the Marines in Korea (google "Chosin Reservoir).

Dick has a grandson that has a popular youtube channel on fishing Presley has watched it. You can find it under youtube at FISHING WITH Yak Pack .

At the end, I delivered Dick back home, North of Milton and then came home to Karen and had a shower to wash off all the Corona from the day. Ate and napped and then got ready for a productive online ZOOM meeting with interesting military history buffs and writers who are exploring the possibility of taking reins of this "Military Magazine" that needs to find a new team.

 ZOOM is a fascinating and useful tool to hold meetings in the time of Corona but also anytime. This meeting had some brilliant people in it from a wide area of the USA. I'm amazed at the utility of this World Wide Web that I invented.