PORCH TALK

Most people drive through the Panhandle on the way to somewhere else. That's fine. More room for the rest of us. What's out here — between the interstate and the river — is the part of Florida that doesn't show up on travel blogs. Rolling pine forest. Back roads that go quiet in about a mile. The Choctawhatchee running clear and low in the fall. Public land in every direction. Towns where people still know each other's names. Bonifay's got one of the biggest rodeos in the Sou

If you're heading to the Choctawhatchee River, you picked a good spot. Florida's third largest river runs right through this part of the Panhandle, and the fishing here is as good as it gets. Largemouth bass, bream, shellcracker, catfish, sunshine bass — the river holds them all. Spring and fall are the best times to be out there, but a good fisherman finds a reason to go year-round. One thing worth knowing: the Choctaw Bass — a species found almost nowhere else in the world

People ask us why we decided to open a general store. Honest answer? Because it needed to exist. We've watched this area grow and change over the years, but one thing hasn't changed — if you live out here, you're still making long drives for basics. We wanted to fix that. Not with something fancy or out of place, but with something that fits. Something that feels like it belongs here, because it does. Everything at River Bend is guided by the same values we were raised on. Fa

Out here, life moves a little slower. And we think that's a good thing. River Bend General Store was built by Travis and Sherry French — born and raised right here in the Florida Panhandle. We know what it's like to need something simple and spend an hour in the car getting it. We know what it feels like when there's no good place to stop, no place that feels like it was built for the people who actually live here. So we built one. Two miles from the Choctawhatchee River, Riv