Verse 6 - The Big Move to Apalachicola

This post is a continuation of The Bowery Station Story.

Well this verse should really be titled "The move to St. George Island, but good luck finding a long term rental on the Island, so why don't you get to know Apalach... and ultimately discover.... what's missing there!" But that is a long title for a Verse.. or Chapter or what have you.

So, after over a decade in the Keys, and with the reality of how time passes by so quickly, we were growing anxious for some more adventure.  While the weather and water of the Island chain of the American Caribbean can not be beat... we had this growing anxiety to do more with our lives as the sands of the hourglass of life were quickly showing more on the bottom half...along with our own growing bottom halves...or expanding guts...etc.

Lisa had a unique opportunity.  As a teacher who had worked for more than 10 years in Monroe County, she could leave her job for a year and be guaranteed a job upon return to the Keys.  Kind of like a sabbatical, but without pay.  After having left my job at the Office of the State Attorney on 12/12/12 (at 12:12PM) TRUE! ...and vowing never to work for the man again, I had found myself evolved into the tech world of the new concept of the cloud, and in most cases I could work from anywhere... for the most part.  So together we thought we could take off and travel for a year.  Yeah, just like when we moved back from Europe...right?  There it was, that old "travel for a year" concept again.

We thought St. George Island might be a good place to kind of hunker down on as a base station, and from there enjoy easy trips and exploration of the South East United States and beyond.  So we made a few exploratory trips and quickly found that it was very difficult to find a long term rental on SGI.  I remember speaking with Patrick and Jessica Sparks, who were at the time managing Eddie Teaches, a bar on SGI.  I remember handing Pat my card, suggesting if he heard of a rental to call me.  Looking back on it, I can only imagine what was going through his head as he was looking at these newbie Island wannabees... "Sure buddy, good luck with that!"

Soon however, we found a unique small houseboat in Apalach in a low key marina next to Up the Creek.  We had moved what few belongings we had to a storage bay in Eastpoint and settled in to do nothing.  Well, as it turns out, that is exactly what we did... for a short while.  It was nice at first... nothing to do, watching the backside of a sunset over
the river, fishing from our back porch, and biking and walking around this sleepy little hamlet that was Apalachicola in 2013.

There were a few bars, but nothing that really could match what we had become accustomed to in the Keys, and previously in Vermont.  We had run a lot of businesses in our day, and most of them were inspired by when we personally felt there was a need for something that did not currently exist.... and as we wondered around town, our yearning was clearly for a casual bar ...with some good live music.

We would ponder aloud... man this place would be awesome if there was a Schooner Wharf, or Green Parrot, or Nectar's!  Days turned to weeks, and we continually found ourselves wondering by a small building on the corner of Avenue F and Water St.  It was a portion of the historic Wefing's Marine building and had a For Rent sign in the window.  Way in the back was a patio, and an over grown lot with junk and debris piled high.  We began to envision perhaps a Tiki hut in the lot, maybe a singer/songwriter on a small stage... hey yeah, that'd be cool.  That would be real cool... this place needed something like that....yeah, that's the ticket.....

Stay tuned as The Bowery Station Story unfolds in it's next episode...As Boredom sets in...a void begs to be filled with BS!?