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The parking lot sign for Twister Air Boat Rides and Lone Cabbage Fish Camp lives up to their kitschy “Old Florida” heritage. Image by Tom Adkinson

COCOA, Fla. – When Dennis Inman cranks up his big-block Chevy, you need ear protection because that roaring engine isn’t under the hood of a giant pickup truck. Instead, it is at the back of an airboat powering a set of propellers that will send you skimming across the Saint Johns River in search of alligators, herons, egrets, and maybe bald eagles and wild hogs.

As exhilarating as a ride with Inman is, it may not even be the biggest attraction at the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp, where fried food and cold beer – and sometimes a live band – pull locals and tourists alike into an Old Florida time warp between Orlando and Cape Canaveral.

Dennis Inman scans the riverbank from one of his six airboats for alligators and other Florida wildlife. Image by Tom Adkinson

“Old Florida” doesn’t have a dictionary definition, but you generally recognize it when you see it. Old Florida projects memories of a largely rural Sunshine State from the middle of the last century – not many people, kitschy roadside attractions, mom-and-pop restaurants, and not a franchise business anywhere.

“This is the real Florida – before the spinning teacups,” said Orlando resident Rick Sylvain as he debated whether to have his fish sandwich grilled, fried, or blackened. An outline of an alligator next to the sandwich’s listing on the menu indicated it is one of the fish camp’s specialties.

More than a dozen alligators bask in the Florida sunshine on the banks of the Saint Johns River near the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp. Image by Tom Adkinson

Sylvain and a handful of others – a few tourists, drivers of dusty work trucks in the gravel parking lot, and a couple of Harley road trippers – relaxed at picnic tables dotting an open-air concrete pad. A blue sky, a bend in the Saint Johns River, and a couple of Inman’s six airboats were the scene out the back side of the patio.

A patron at the air-conditioned indoor portion of the Lone Cabbage dines just down the bar from the head of King, an 11-foot alligator that used to frequent the neighborhood. Image by Tom Adkinson

A subhead on the menu for “Lone Cabbage Samplers” had only one listing, so choosing the “Three Item Sampler” was easy, even if a hefty fish sandwich was on the way. This was the time and place to indulge in catfish morsels, gator bites, and frog legs, a selection that server Denise Davis has been recommending for almost three decades.

“You have to try the swamp food. The frog legs will keep you hopping,” she said, not even waiting for the almost-guaranteed laugh as she wrote down a table’s order.

Catfish, gator and frog legs on the left, fried okra on the right and a fish sandwich in the background. Image by Tom Adkinson

Swamp food, a beer or two, and an airboat ride combine nicely for an Old Florida experience.

Shaded picnic tables on a concrete patio provide a substantial portion of the Lone Cabbage’s seating. Image by Tom Adkinson

“A boat ride is educational, photographic, and thrilling all in one,” Inman said, noting that his Twister Airboat Rides operate all but three days a year – Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Easter.

His 6- to 12-passengers are out of sight from the fish camp in a matter of seconds. In a wet winter, the Saint Johns River spreads out for acres from its channel, and all of it is territory the shallow-draft boats can explore. When drier conditions settle in, cattle graze on scrub-covered ground, and cypress trees reach to the sky.

Inman said everyone wants to see alligators, and that’s no problem at all, especially when the river is in its channel. First, you may see one dozing on the riverbank or a snout with nose and eyes gliding through the water. Later, when you round a bend that shelters a sandy bank in full sunshine, is the mother lode. Gators of all sizes bask indolently in the warmth like so many tourists a few miles away on the Atlantic coast.

Most of the gators don’t react to a boatload of gawking tourists. Their lives are perpetually Old Florida. They don’t even know the new one exists.

Trip-planning resources:
Facebook.com/LoneCabbage, TwisterAirBoatRides.com and VisitSpaceCoast.com

(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at Amazon.com.