February 1, 2013

February 1, 2013

We are on the Florida Panhandle. We arrived and set up at St. Georges Island State Park, early yesterday afternoon, after a fantastic trip from Spring Hill. We travelled on no major highways, but with lots of stop lights and many small towns. It may not sound wonderful, but it really was. Our campground in Spring Hill, was a great park, and I would stay there again, as it was centrally located, but it was just off from a busy road, and you could hear the early morning traffic. Quiet is nice.

Tuesday night was our last evening there, and as we listened to the weather, it didn't sound like it was going to be a very good ride up along the coast to the Panhandle. The wind blew several times and had the camper swaying as if we were again in Port Aransas. Fortunately, did not last long. I had just looked at the directions to get where we are now, and found out that we would be travelling over a 4 mile, two laned bridge, so that made me a bit nervous. But, when we got up yesterday morning, the weather was beautiful, not quite the beach weather I want to find, but nice. So it was a great ride up routes 19, 319, and 98. The route we were on once we 'made the turn' to the Panhandle was GREAT. Picture driving along Long Sands at York Beach, with no sidewalk and the Atlantic Ocean lapping the shore at the foot of the steps. This is the road we travelled for the last twenty miles til we arrived at the bridge. It wasn't a high bridge, so I was okay. Once on the island, we took a left headed to the state park. The gate was another 5 miles or so, and then from the gate, it was another 4 miles to the camp sites. There are 60 campsites, with two bathroom/shower facilities. State parks are a little more rustic, as we have electricity and running water only. Get my drift?? What comes out doesn't go anywhere until we dump at the end of our stay, so its very nice that we have bathrooms close by. Russ has fixed it so that I can do dishes and take showers here, as that is clean water can go into a five gallon bucket which can be easily taken to the dumping station.

So, yesterday, we took a walk on the beach. We walked forever and saw one other couple. The other end of this island appears to be commercialized (we'll find that out later today), but this end is not. The water was not particularly warm-York Beach at the beginning of the summer, but the walking was great. There are shells galor and we were 'crunching' them as we were walking on the shore. This morning we are taking a left onto the beach, and that goes towards the intercoastal waterway. We are hoping to be able to find west, so that we can watch a sunset. We tried in the Spring Hill area, but the clouds got in the way.

Having a great time, wish you were here. I need company walking the the bathroom!

Hi, again. Its now Friday night. Tomorrow there is a campground breakfast get-together to discuss work on the bay. Time is 9:00AM, which is doable; coffee is provided, but I suspect we need to bring our own cups; and we have to bring a breakfast food to share. Yogurt, muesli, box of cereal, bread for toast, or what Russ wants to bring is one pop tart. It is a way to meet the neighbors. We'll let you know about that on a later post. Met Ted today. He has NAVY sweatsuit and Michigan hat and is retired Navy. He told us about camping at the National Seashore in Pensacola and stopped by later with a brochure. We haven't made plans for after Mobile, AL, so we are considering that. We'll see.

We took another walk. Took our left off the walkway to the beach and walked and walked and walked some more. Picked up a bunch of great shells, with lots of color. Even managed to find a few complete sand dollars. Yesterday we found pieces, but not the entire dollar. We found pieces that that made the dollar about 5 inches across. Today, we found littler ones but intact. Russ tells me there are dollars at York, but I have never seen them. It was a fun walk, and I think we saw a total of 8 people. It is just so beautiful here, and quiet. After our walk, we headed to the other end of the island. I thought that it was going to be more commercialized, but it wasn't really. We did find a 'grocery' store, a little larger than a corner store; a liquor store; and two restaurants. Oh, and a Subway. We ate at the Blue Parrot, which was on the beach. Russ had a cheese burger and I had a 'bay scallop po boy'. The scallops had a cornmeal batter on them, and it was funny to see them. They were round and about the size of a nickel. Ate a few, and they were good, but then took the batter off them, and they were very, very small......still good. Cole slaw was great, and so was the marquerita.

We then took a ride back onto the mainland (across the four mile bridge) onto another three mile bridge to Apalachicola, and I hope that is the correct spelling. We needed propane and the campground 'host' told us to go across the two bridges, through the town, past the Burger King, to the Ace Hardware, to find the propane. Most of this road, was along the water. It's just so beautiful. On the way back to the campground, we went through some of the neighborhoods. There are beautiful, huge, old homes that have been refurbished. The main, downtown area, was so nice. Russ said that of all the places we have been, this was one place he could move to. I don't think that will happen too soon, so the Christmas Gathering is still on!

Tomorrow another day, breakfast, walk, oh, and maybe another campfire. Oh, forgot to mention, we were having a small fire, while it was still light, and Russ saw two racoons roaming around just outside the camp sites. He missed one, there were three. They weren't interested in us, just kept on walking. Don't see that up at camp.

Hope you are all enjoying your winter... We are!