Monday, May 23 - We had kicked around the idea of going back down to the beach this morning and taking another dip, but Joe wanted to grease the RV, and we spent some time trying to figure out where we were going today. No conclusions were reached, so finally, we just went. We left about 10:00 but after about 10 miles we hit a traffic delay that took us 70 minutes to go three miles (road construction on the bridge). Traffic was heavy leaving the music fest, but we just waited it out. It's great not to have an agenda, especially since we didn't know where we were going anyhow. A van in front of us, full of kids probably from the music fest, finally got impatient and decided to turn around. He made a big U-turn and got off into the sand, and immediately sank both the front and back wheels. Some of his passengers got out to try to push, and as we watched through the rear view mirror as we inched ahead, it looked like someone pulled over to try to pull him out.
I had lots of time to take pictures; we passed the turnoff to the seashore and found a neat pelican sign in front of a business.
Finally, just as the traffic started to break at the bridge, we came upon the sign about delays (we had wondered if maybe there was a wreck). By now, it's 11:30 and Joe's thinking lunch, and we've only gone 14 miles.
Finally, we got to Pensacola and took the bridge over to the seashore and Pensacola Beach on Hwy. 399, which is a really neat-looking community. Even the sign makes you feel happy, and the water under the bridge was very pretty.
We saw work barges, boats and a parasail as we came over the bridge. I still can't believe Marilyn went parasailing in Hawaii. It looks fun but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try it.
When we got past the "town" stuff, the beaches, sand dunes and water were just too much to resist.
We pulled off and played in the water for an hour.
A wave just about took me out, though.
We soaked up a little sun and buried our feet in this great sand.
After about an hour, we thought we probably needed to make a little time. It was really cool to be able to just walk back up the beach to the RV, step into the shower to wash the sand off, and then fix lunch. Life is good.
I was pretty sure the day wouldn't go by without Joe needing to park alongside the road, just to show that guy this morning how a pro would pull off (and not get hung up), so sure enough, he found us a spot here at this beach. And like a pro, we pulled right out.
We drove on then, through Destin, which also looks like a really neat town -- lots of stuff for kids to do. Our nephew is bringing his family here next week, so we looked it over pretty good.
Another nephew just left Panama City Beach on Saturday, so we'll check that out tomorrow. The beaches in this area are wonderful, we are so lucky to be seeing all this. We got a little sunburned today but not too bad. Joe decided about 4:00, just as we were passing a state park, that he was tired, so we pulled into Grayton Beach State Park, about 30 miles from Panama City. We got in 105 miles today, but it took about 6 hours. We are only about 1/2 mile from the beach, but so far we haven't worked up the energy to either walk over to it, or unhook the car. I'm thinking Joe's down for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment