Sand and sun in Apalachicola, Florida

My next stop was in Apalachicola, Florida.  

This town is along the Gulf Coast.  I was greeted by a fantastic sunset as I approached. 

 

After I checked in, I searched out a restaurant........

New-old vibe in Milton, Georgia

 After reaching my hotel in Roswell, Georgia, I got my bike tucked in and then ventured out to eat dinner.

 There was a fabulous place across the street, kitty-cornered, from the hotel so I decided to walk.  

The restaurant atmosphere was fabulous, it looked like it had been there for a while, but was super-luxe. I ordered the tuna. The filets melted in my mouth.  The croissant was sweet, and the salad was good. 

In the morning I ventured to the local yarn store in Milton, Unwind.  It was in a strip mall.  I realized that it was not a "downtown" in this area, the neighborhood is not very walkable.  You really needed a car to get around.  

Inside, I found a group of ladies working on their projects.  Two of them were making a mosaic shawl, one in a dark-grey and off-white and the other in a light and dark green.  I told them about my trip and that I had come from Ohio. One of the ladies had lived in Crossville, Tennessee and she agreed with my characterizations of the town as having an old-fashioned real downtown, but also stretching out over several miles.   This yarn shop had been described on google as having a real "community" outreach and all the ladies agreed when I mentioned that.  I could tell they had been knitting together for years. 

I spoke with the shop owner and she pointed me toward some of her specialty yarns.  She imports yarn from Ireland and other places.  I ended up choosing five skeins of a merino-linen blend that were sale-priced. 

Next, I sought out a bike shop.  

The bike shop had a lot of customers who were taking coffee at the cafe bar.  There were bikes inside, but no one greeted me, and no one appeared to be looking at bikes.  The products on display were not marked with prices, which made me think that perhaps they had only recently opened. 

 The bike shop and the bookstore I was looking for were across the street from each other,  in a recently-constructed shopping mall that had apparently been planned to look old by the architects.  

I enjoyed the planter full of pansies outside the bookstore. 

 

The clerks in the bookshop were very friendly and kind.  They were interested in my trip.  One of them was from Sharon, Pennsylvania, originally, until her husband was transferred to Atlanta.  I asked them about the bike shop and they didn't seem to know much about it.  There were a few shelves of used books, but mostly everything in the bookshop seemed shiny and new.  There were several bookcases full of teen literature and several bookcases full of Christian literature.  I saw a shelf of classics and a shelf of gardening books.  It was getting toward lunchtime and they steered me to the "The Nest" cafe at the end of the street. 

It was a beautiful day, and there was a long line at the counter.  I decided to go to Lily's Sushi next door. 

All in all, the shopping experience in this simulated downtown area left me feeling like I had just visited a modern outdoor shopping mall.  It was walkable, but I didn't get that lived-in "neighborhood" vibe that make a town feel cozy.  

I retrieved my car from the parking lot and headed for the next stop. 

Relax in Crossville, Tennessee

I am in Crossville, Tennessee today on my way to Florida. 

It's a quaint little town east of Nashville with Highway 127 running right through it.  

It was quite an adventure driving here from Kentucky on the way to Florida. I was driving after dark on a narrow country road that was hilly and had hairpin turns, and no street lights. A large owl flew out of a tree and scared me.  I kept thinking about the movie "Deliverance".  I finally arrived.   I stayed at a chain hotel just off the I-40 interchange. 

Why didn't I look at the route Google had plotted for me in advance!

 I had selected Crossville because my online research said it had a yarn store, a bike shop, a bookstore or two, and a coffee shop.  

On arriving downtown, I found the town still has diagonal parking spots along the main square.   It is Presidents Day, and several of the businesses were closed.

It also has a locally-owned drugstore!

  That is a rarity these days as the big chain stores have most put competing drugstores on each corner, then folded, leaving residents with a CVS or the pharmacy in their big-box  grocery store. 

The Yarn Patch was just around the corner from the square.  The owner, Heather, was just opening up as I walked up.  She placed a couple of sandwich signs on the sidewalk advertising locally-sourced yarn.  

The yarn store was delightful.

Heather carries supplies and equipment for knitting, crochet, spinning and embroidery, including sashiko.

After looking over the yarn in the store, I took a walk downtown. There was a giant boot on the sidewalk next door. 

The bike shop was not what I expected. It was a power sports center with Motorbikes, but it appeared to be out of business.  

There was a fantastic mural along the side of one of the buildings downtown. There may be more, but I was on foot.  

I had a cup of coffee at the Grinder shop across the street from the yarn store.  

Heather had advised me about a new book store in town, and I drove out to see it, but it seemed that it was closed due to being President's Day.  

There was a Buc-ees along the way, I stopped. What a crazy place!!  Lots of kitchy-type stuff and barbecued food.  I skipped at went to The Cabin restaurant a few miles down the road, where I had hush puppies like my mom used to make and a fabulous salad. 

Then it was time to hit the road for the next stop on this tour.