Backwoods Florida

Jumping ahead now, because I've already typed up northeast Florida. St Augustine was perfection, but the rest of the day didn't pan out as well. A recommended local restaurant (Salt Water Cowboys) wasn't open for lunch so we went to a Chilis instead. We've been many times and it's usually a treat but on this particular occasion the service was slow, we could hardly find the food for all the cheese melted on top of it and the sports broadcasts were too overbearing.

We were behind schedule leaving St Augustine so had no time for the Palatka Ravine. Then, we arrived at Paynes Prairie right as the trailhead car parks were being shut for the evening, which meant we could only see the basin from the roadside boardwalk. So no chance of spotting any buffalo, wild horses or sandhill cranes that make this one of Florida's richest wildlife preserves.

To make up time we hopped on Interstate 75 and made tracks for Lake City. As you may have gathered by now, a lot of our itinerary revolves around food and chosing Lake City for an overnight stay was no accident. The town is home to a Texas Roadhouse and despite the restaurant being a national chain, we made a point of tracking one down because of their Unique Selling Points we had heard so much about.

First off, there are buckets of peanuts at every table, with mounds of shells scattered on the floor. You instantly think - Wild West saloon. Kick back and take it easy, y'all. It took us a few minutes to break the habit of thousands of years of civilisation before letting a shell fall to the floor though.

Next, they don't do lunch because they spend all morning baking bread, marinating meat and sweeping up peanut shells.

Finally, it's all about having the meal the way you like it, with a staggering array of sides. I ordered sweet potato with my steak, expecting a small mound of mash, but ended up with a whole enormous baked sweet potato. With three choices of topping. They even do different whipped butters, including the cinnamon option which comes with hot rolls which was... novel.

They serve plenty of tasteless American lagers by the score, but the waiter was able to recommend a Blue Moon ale when we asked for something different.

I was disappointed though with my filet medallions. The meat was gristly and the mushroom sauce far too salty, so much so I couldn't finish it. Christian had yet another chicken meal, but said he enjoyed his chicken breast, mashed potato and mixed veg with a gravy. It was all fairly cheap, the atmosphere was fun, the staff were delightful and we would go again to try something different.

The next morning we had breakfast at Lake City's downtown old-fashioned drugstore diner complete with bar stools occupied by the local old folks downing bottomless cups of coffee. We had scrambled eggs, toast and pancakes that tasted suspiciously of Bisquick.

The next state park on the map was the Suwannee River, an iconic name of the American South if there ever was. Unfortunately there had been a recent flood which rendered most of the trails impassable, plus it was an overcast day so I wasn't able to take any interesting photos. We had a look at 'that Suwannee shore' and strained our ears for the sound of banjos before hitting the road again.

Luckily things went far more swimmingly at our next stop of the day, where we boarded a boat for a wildlife safari. Stay tuned for photos of yet more alligators, plus a family of manatees!