Awake before 8am and had a dogpile on the back bed. Quick breakfast of cereal and by 8:45am we were headed for Panama City Beach, Florida!! Got onto Hwy 98, managed to miss two turns (oops) but took the right onto the 267 to Hwy 20.
Within the hour we stopped for diesel... it was getting very low and we should have stopped and filled when we saw a station right at the start. Eek. Prices seemed expensive, so we only put a few gallons in to keep us going. Hooked up our little SoundFlare speaker with some Radio Nonsense for Meems to listen to.
10:15am we were at the Apalachicola River. Complex bridge system... read the sign, "Entering the Central Time Zone" as we drove over! only 2 hours ahead of Vancouver time now! Drove through Blounstown, which appeared to be more of a low income community with abandoned homes and lots of gas stations. A stark contrast to the expanses of equestrian lands we drove through before.
Through Youngstown, we reached Panama City (past the post office!) and diesel was a better price, so we filled up. At 11:20am we saw a Publix Foods... we had heard about these and were curious to check them out. It turned out to be more of a Whole Foods type of store and pricier than we needed for our main groceries. We bought some salmon filets and necessities for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's breakfast/lunch. Jonathan asked some young workers about boiled peanuts (we had been told we could get some from Publix) and they said it's better from a roadside stand because you'd have to heat up the canned ones yourself.
Oliver got compliments on his Micheal Myers hoody when the young cashier asked him if he went to the Halloween Fright Night at Orlandao. He was very happy to receive a compliment... had challenged himself (or us, haha) that he wouldn't stop wearing it until he received his first compliment.
Back on the road to the beach to get to our campground, we saw sooooooo many harley's leaving town. We figured something must have been going on this weekend. Crazy number of motorcycles. Saw a large sign that said Thunderbeach Rally... we had just missed a massive motorcycle rally... whew! haha
12:30pm we arrived at St. Andrew's State Park... I had found it online and it appeared to have some spots available but I couldn't book them because it required two nights. The lady at the front desk was like a cartoon. There was a line up of people (not many) but it was moving sooooo slowly. Jonathan came in to see what was happening. She was very particular and very slow talking. She would NOT let anyone enter the campground until their check in time and would NOT give out site maps until you checked in. Very strict. In the line up was a very interesting old biker dude in his leathers and patches, with a prosthetic arm. He had attended the Thunderbeach Rally. He had some interesting attitudes about partying at the beach.
When I finally got to the front, she found me a tent/rv site for one night but I had to come back at 1:30 to get my pass and site info, but could park by the pier and wait. Back in the rig, I explained our situation and we drove to the pier to look at the beach. We had heard about the beautiful white sand beaches, but were still surprised by how beautiful they were... white sands like sugar, and stunning blue water. Someone had made the most incredible sandcastle there as well. It looked fake!
After waiting our due time, we went back to check in and get our tag. A long line up again. Kids came in with me to look at the the displays in the visitor centre. They were quite hyper... borderline behaviour... having fun and just maintaining themselves. The lady behind me asked how old they were and she was very sweet. She has 7 children all grown up now. She and her husband travel around in their converted bus visiting the kids and grandkids, and have a marriage counselling practice that provides income on the road.
Got to site 33 on the lagoon... gravel pad with full service. We heard later that we got the last site available and the place is usually booked 6mo or more in advance. Feeling lucky!!!
Kids were wound up and not getting along well by this point, so Jonathan took Amelia for a bike ride to explore the campground and left a grumpy Oliver with me. I set him up to help do dishes with me out on the picnic table. He was not cooperative despite polite asking, then cajoling, then sternness. He ran and hid on me so I just started washing up without him. When I went in for more dishes, he was inside sulking. "Not fair that Amelia gets to go on the bike ride, she doesn't even like biking"... anyhow, he came out and finished the dishes with me.
Jonathan and Meems returned with intel on the place... a great snorkel area by the jetty, saw some deer, and the news on how lucky we were to get a night here.
Drove the rig to the beach at 3:30pm by the jetty and protected area for a swim and sandcastle building. Oliver loved snorkelling and looking at all the fish. The kids and I built an alligator out of sand, and Amelia worked hard on digging a giant hole. Jonathan and I swam out towards the rocks in hopes of seeing some more interesting fish, but by the time we got almost all the way across, I had been looking under the water with my goggles on and saw a flotilla of jellyfish and kinda panicked, haha! Turns out they were not stinging kinds, but I was NOT sticking around to find out... we swam back to the shore with me sneaking behind jonathan so he'd take the brunt of any jellyfish in the way!
Back to the rig for our salmon dinner cooked outside. Set up our halloween decorations. Oliver sketched an amazing picture of himself snorkelling with a manatee. Proudly posted up on our cupboard doors. Super cool.
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