Saturday, June 13, 2015

Falling waters, two eggs, and a possum

June 13, 2015—Did you know there is a town in Florida called Two Egg? Actually, by its website’s own description, it is not a town, because it does not have a tax base, a government, a mayor, or anything else that would make it a town. It is actually a wide spot in the road in Jackson County, whose county seat is Marianna.

That wide spot in the road claims to have its own ghost and is near a ghost town called Parramore. (We didn’t see either one.) We did stop to take a picture of the town’s sign. (How many times do you find a town called Two Egg?)

Our main destination today was visiting Falling Water State Park. The park boasts the highest water falls in Florida. When water falls (only after rains), it cascades down the falls and drops into a 100-foot sink hole. Quite impressive—the hole more than the falls. The state park, which is not very big but does have camping and swimming in a sinkhole, spring-fed 2 acre lake, is located in Chipley, just outside of Marianna. This state park would be a great place to camp with kids.
Falling Waters 

Water fall and 100-foot sink hole


We had heard that this area had been home to many different Native American tribes for several hundred years. One of our neighboring campers, who lives about an hour from here, said he is constantly digging up arrowheads on his property. Given that knowledge, we thought we would like to find out more, so we hunted for a visitor’s center.

It is Saturday. Everything is closed. Don’t these townsfolk know that tourist actively tour on weekends? That’s when a visitor’s center should be open, not closed.

Although the region’s welcome center was closed, we decided to take a chance that the the visitor’s center in Marianna would be open. Although it was closed, perhaps it would have some brochures available.

We pulled up to the historic building in which the center is located...and discovered it was open! Not officially, however. It was hosting a birthday party. We “sort of” crashed the party by snooping around the various rooms of the old Victorian house. Very nice. Oh, and we picked up a few brochures.

Turns out the self-guided walking tour really only featured several old houses. Not really our cup of tea.

Another of the brochures was the Jackson County Visitors’ Guide. One of the highlights in Jackson County is Greenwood, a town featuring Pender’s Store, founded in 1869 and “remains the oldest operating store in Florida” (according to the brochure). We found the store. But it is no longer open. It must have closed sometime after 2014 when the Jackson County Visitor’s Guide was published. Bummer.

The guide also had pictures of Service Drug, a pharmacy established in 1906 in Graceville. Apparently this drugstore still has a real soda fountain. (I remember going to a Walgreen’s in Gary, Ind., that had a soda fountain.) We were on the opposite side of the county, so before heading out that way, I decided to call. No answer. Again, what’s with these small towns? If they want to attract tourists, they need to keep their tourist attractions open on weekends! At least the number I called did not reach a disconnected number.

As I was researching some of the areas attractions on my cell phone (aka my pocket computer) I found that the town of Wausau, not to far from Falling Waters State Park, boasts it is the possum kingdom of the world. The state legislature in 1982 proclaimed the benefits of the possum, a humble rat-like ugly but apparently very nutritious creature. The state erected an monument to the possum in Wausau. That’s about all there is in this small town. Oh, the town does have a possum festival the first weekend in August. Darn. We’ll be in Indiana then and will miss it. Darn!
Monument to the humble possum


All in all, it was a great day and a fun vacation. It was nice getting away. Tomorrow it is back home.

Until later,

Your Reluctant RoVer,


Linda

No comments:

Post a Comment

Back home again...

Rob and I hit the road about 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 15. The movers were incredible: They had everything loaded into the huge moving tru...