Ken Steinhoff suggested that since I am a map fan I should check out the Florida DOT maps. So I did that, letting myself get distracted from an article about an Ohio site that I was working on tonight.

Franklin County was what I picked to look at. That’s the only Florida county where my bicycle wheels have ever touched the ground. It’s also the only Florida county where I’ve ever stayed overnight, and one of very few I’ve visited.

Here’s how it came about. In 2005 I got the idea of doing a bicycle ride from Vincennes, Indiana to the Montgomery, Alabama area. I wanted to see the places that Ned Cobb/Nate Shaw of “All God’s Dangers” had told about. I especially wanted to go there when I came to realize that this is where Tecumseh had gone on his famous recruiting mission in 1811. And the story of Tecumseh is connected to the story of Black Hawk, as Patrick J. Jung has explained so well.

When I mentioned this idea to Myra, she pointed out that I still hadn’t ever taken her anyplace where there are palm trees. I had long said I had never committed any crime bad enough to be sent to Florida, but sometimes it’s necessary to make attitude adjustments. I spent some Google time verifying that we could find palm trees in the Florida panhandle, and suggested the Apalachicola area. We could extend our trip that far. Myra agreed with that idea.

As a bonus, there is a historic site nearby (in Franklin County) that is part of the story of the War of 1812 and the Creek Wars. It’s one end of a chain of events that was touched off by Tecumseh’s visit.

(I like to find connections to the Black Hawk story wherever I go. I still haven’t figured out exactly how to connect it to a future bicycle tour in Russia, but I’ve been working on it. My best bet would be something connected to the War of 1812 and Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. The problem is, most of the military conflicts took place south or southwest of Moscow, and the tours hosted by the Russian Cycle Touring Club are in the area to the northeast of Moscow. Like I say, I’m working on it.)

Back to Florida. We did the Alabama trip in late March/early April 2006. We didn’t have enough time for me to ride all the way to Florida, so I finished the tour after spending several days in Nate Shaw country, and then put the bike on the car for a trip to Florida.

Myra got to visit some palm trees just outside the place where we stayed. And I found that at least this part of Florida wasn’t bad at all. It was a good place to visit. It has somewhat of a quiet, small town flavor (though that is changing).

Here is a clue as to how the area will be changing. It is probably a lot different already, two years later.

The weather was cool, but we spent a good part of our one full day in Florida sitting on the beach on St. George Island. And I took a break from all the relaxation to ride my bike to the west end of the island and back to bring my mileage up to my goal of 720 for the two-week vacation.

I see I still haven’t gotten around to that Florida DOT map for Franklin County. But there are already about as many image files as I dare put in one blog entry, so I’ll save that for next time.