1260 April 12, 2025 Worm Gruntin’

I walked back and forth to Keaton Beach.

We are moving north and west again today.  We took the Nature Coast Big Bend Scenic Highway.  Our route took us through forest and wildlife refuges.  We arrived at Holiday Campground in Panacea, Florida just after noon.

By one o’clock, we were on our way to Sopchoppy.  Today the town was hosting the Worm Gruntin’ Festival…the what???  Excuse me???  The woman from the campground here told us all about it.  In 2009, Mike Rowe from the show Dirty Jobs did a segment on worm grunting.  A wooden stake is driven into the dirt.  A metal bow is used to grind against the top of the stake creating vibrations in the ground.  The worms sense the vibrations and flee to the surface of the soil.  The vibrations simulate the presence of a ground mole an earthworm predator.  The worms are harvested and used for fishing bait. Tim’s family had a similar method of drawing worms to the surface.  His father taught him to pound two screwdrivers into the ground a short distance from one another.  Next, they used a half of an extension cord.  One wire was wrapped around each screwdriver.  The cord was plugged into an outlet and the shockwaves caused the worms to come up.  At the festival, there was an area where children were practicing their skill.  Somewhere in the woods, adults were competing for prizes.

The festival definitely had a worm theme.  There were chocolate covered gummy worms and gummy worms “crawled” out of all the baked goods.

There were lots of craft vendors with very beautiful pieces.

We sat and talked with a local couple and listened to some live music. 

We got a big fresh lemonade to share and headed back to Panacea. We drove across the bridge and out to Bald Point.

We had omelets and fresh garlic bread for dinner.

After our meal, we hopped on our bikes and cycled on the very nice bike path the runs parallel to 98.

One last sunset over the Gulf.

Tomorrow we will drive north toward Montgomery, Alabama.