Biking On The Beach

Day 3 Navarre Beach Florida - Non Travel Day


Great weather again! We walked a mile at the campground for our health. Jim's knee started hurting, my hips were a little stiff. Then we headed over the causeway to Santa Rosa Island to ride our bikes. Rode 8 miles with a strong head-wind on the way back to the car. Why is the head-wind always on the return trip when your already tired? Now, my thighs and ankles hurt...his back. All this 'healthy' exercise is KILLING us! I've figured out that if you're over 50, if you get out of bed in the morning and nothing hurts...you probably died during the night and don't know it yet!







Seriously though, the ride was very pretty, but sad that so many ghosts of Hurricane Ivan are still around. This area saw much destruction. Abandoned beach houses are everywhere, some entire streets swept clean of homes. Ivan was almost FIVE years ago...


We came back for lunch and sat out on the beach, burned a little and the tops of my feet are red and itchy. While we were there we started talking to a very nice couple, close to our age from the St. Louis area. Really hit it off, our views are amazingly similar. We know a good seafood restaurant in Pensacola and we all went out to a very pleasant dinner. We love their signature dish *Shrimp and Grits a Ya Ya* .


It's a good thing we walked AND biked today because there are easily a half million calories in that dish!


The weather is supposed to continue to be great so we're going to hang around here for a few more days. The campground is extremely clean and quiet (except for the artillery being exploded nightly at the enormous base not far away) and we have shade trees. Beaches and shade trees are hard to find in the same place!


Have no idea what we'll be doing tomorrow...but that's how we do our trips.

Taking The Back Roads

Day 2 - Lake City, Fl to Navarre Beach Fl. - 315 miles

Woke up to another beautiful day, hope our luck holds out a little longer. We only drove a few miles on the Interstate then dropped down to rural roads out of Live Oak. Quite a pleasant surprise, a nice road with lovely pastoral views. Florida has a wildflower program and the roadside was carpeted with lovely shades of lilac and yellow.

We drove along Routes 51, 27, 30 and 98. All were in good condition, scenic and lightly traveled....until Destin and points west, of course.

We stopped at an intersection by a closed business and I looked up to see this sign. I love to take photos of funny signs.

Norman got hungry and made us stop for lunch at a sleepy little gulf town of Carrabelle, mostly a fishing village. We pulled over in a parking lot near a marina. This entire section of Florida from the Big Bend area east of Apalachicola all the way to Panama City is very, very depressed. Business after business is closed and so many houses for sale and abandoned real estate projects. Post Katrina insurance is so costly in these areas coupled with the downturn in the economy hasn't helped. Very sad.

*Norman* enjoying some time outdoors

This is what we have to look at while eating...damn beggers!


Going over the causway to Apalachicola

We decided to stay in Panama City Beach for tonight and the next couple of days, just kicking back and relaxing...soaking up the sun and enjoying the peace and quiet of the beautiful gulf beaches.

Then, while passing through a tiny town 20 miles east of Panama City Beach, we noticed a sign that read - *Welcome Bikers* Huh? Now, why would bikers be staying in the sleepy, one stoplight town? Unless... this was just a place that they'd be passing through...ON THEIR WAY TO PANAMA CITY BEACH! I called the resort that we'd chosen and asked if this weekend was 'bike week' and she confirmed that it indeed was, and they were fully booked. Nothing against the bikers, but I'm sure they want to party and we're more of the age that we like to sleep. Thin walls on RVs and some of those bikes are loud.

Well, so much for not making any plans...so we continued on to Navarre Beach where we stayed last May and loved the campground. In fact, the photo at the top of this page (header) is from that stay.

Our campground for the next three days

Tomorrow we'll go over to Santa Rosa Island, enjoy the ocean beach (this beach at the campground is on the sound) and/or bike around out there. Last time it was too hot.

Boring blog today, but honestly I am too tired to be creative. I promise it will get better as I get back into the routine of traveling and get faster on Blogger!

Off To A Slow Start

Day 1 - Summerville SC to Lake City Fl. - 300 miles

We left home right on schedule, which is a huge accomplishment for me...not Jim, he's always early. This time we did NOT forget our dogs like last year. You only do that once. Then again, they were watching us from the front door.

The weather was perfect, making traveling a pleasure. We were making great time..for a while.Just before noon we decided to pull into a WalMart for some groceries, lunch and gas, just north Savannah. As we got off the Interstate and crossed the overpass we noticed thick, black smoke just a little south of us. By the way, we were heading south.

Note to Self: In the future, when thick, black smoke is noticed between present location and future destination, get back in the RV and drive until the smoke is in the rear view mirror.

We shopped, ate and fueled for about 45 minutes then got back on the highway. The smoke was all gone. As we crested a small hill we saw a wall of traffic, stopped. Crap.

I did a crossword, a Numbrix puzzle, read a magazine, peed... (ha! you can DO that in a RV) and watched in disbelief as some fools drove north in the southbound breakdown lanes to get off the highway! Yikes!

Finally, 90 minutes and three miles later we were moving again. We drove by the accident scene, a semi had blown a tire, crossed from the middle to the left lane and into the guardrail, then rode atop of it, shredding his fuel tank and bursting in flames. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

Makes one think...we were only about five minutes behind this wreck. How many little chores did I do this morning that took me five minutes? We could have left a little earlier. I stopped to take a few pictures, I planted a perennial that I'd forgotten about, I vacuumed a floor that really didn't need it. Jim should have taken the front exit of the subdivision, but forgot and went out the back exit making our route several minutes longer. Any one of those things, not done, could have put us in a different location on that highway. We could have been right beside that semi when he careened off into the median...one never knows.

The rest of the day was uneventful, thank goodness, and we pulled off the road around five o'clock, exhausted. Not from the drive, but all the preparations. We are in the middle of nowhere, very rural and quiet, which is a good thing.

We must be getting old. The most important criteria for choosing this campground (other than it being well rated) was that it have CABLE TV so we could watch American Idol.

Now, I'd like everyone to meet *Norman*

He is our traveling mascot on the trip. Jim and I walked around the campground and spotted another 'Norman' We let our little mascot visit....the cat wasn't happy.

Tomorrow we head to Tallassee, get I10 and head south toward the gulf coast. We'll be spending a few days on the there at the beaches. Gotta get a tan before we head north and north and north...

Final Countdown

Down to the Wire

It's been a hectic week. Jim moved our departure date up (why am I NOT surprised?) and that has us squeezing three weeks of preparation into one. Fun, eh?

The RV is in the driveway getting packed, tomorrow the food and clothes will go in. The dogs have visited the vet and we have all the paperwork showing that we are not bringing rabid, mangy, worm infested critters across the border in to Canada. The parrot, huge cage, huge tree perch and all the assorted feed has been delivered to *the other son*.

Of course, we will forget something important...that's a given with SO much to remember. One thing is certain - it will NOT be our dogs like last year!

Departure - Day after tomorrow.