January 15, 2015. Not a Nice Day in Florida - Grayton Beach State Park.

 

January 15, 2015.  Not a Nice Day in Florida - Grayton Beach State Park.  We had lunch at Bud and Alley's in Seaside, Florida, today.  According to the Internet, the Bud of Bud and Alley's was a dachshund who belonged to one of the town's founders.  Bud's belly was the only thing about him that ever laid low.  The most famous dog in Seaside, owned by founders Robert and Daryl Davis, was ubiquitous.  He accompanied  Robert to work every day, either scampering alongside him or catching a ride in his bicycle basket.  When Daryl and Robert got married, Bud exchanged vows with Guinness, a sweet little dachshund gal.  He lent his name (along with a lovable cat) to the town's first fine dining restaurant, Bud and Alley's.

As Bud made his rounds in the town of Seaside, He helped connect the community.  Everyone knew Bud.  Everyone loved Bud.  When he died at age 21, after a full life, everyone mourned Bud.  Bud was Seaside.  Nurtured by a steady diet of chicken soup, he passed away at 21 years of age.

The photograph of the kid's hoodie displays a likeness of Bud.  Annie liked the hoodie so much, she bought a tee shirt with the same iconic image on it.

The other pictures are displayed solely to show you the weather conditions here today.  It has not been pleasant.  Tomorrow will be a better day.  It has to be.

January 14, 2015. Last Day in St. Andrews.

January 14, 2015.  Last Day in St. Andrews.  I mentioned previously that we were rethinking our stay here at St. Andrews State Park.  Tonight, we decided to move on to Grayton Beach State Park, midway between Panama City and Destin.

Today was much like the other days here, except our exercise was a one-hour walk.  The bikes got the day off.  We also did some reading outside.  It wasn't terribly comfortable though.  The air got no warmer that the high 50s.

We had a blue heron visit our campsite.  If you look closely enough, the heron appears to have a tattoo of a mallard drake on his chest.

We also visited the nature center here at the state park.  The fish are real, including the jellyfish.  The rattlesnake is not, at least not now.  It was real at one time, but a trip to the taxidermist changed that for the better.

I am as puzzled by the sunken sail boat as you are.  It was there when we were here two years ago.  It looks like it housed a fire and its owner just left it where it burned.  The kayaks are unremarkable except for the bright colors.

So, tomorrow we will be about 40 miles east of here.  Grayton Beach is really just a jumping off place for Seaside and its colorful houses and architecture.  The pictures from there were my favorite two years ago.  If you want to preview the photographs I will take in two days, you can look at the blog dated January 20, 2013.

January 13, 2015. Another Day at St. Andrews State Park.

 

January 13, 2015.  Another Day at St. Andrews State Park.  I have no story today.  We slept later than usual, did some reading, watched three more photography lectures, biked and took some pictures.  Annie is talking about cutting our stay here short.  She likes Gulf State Park better than St. Andrews.  I don't disagree.  Gulf State is about three times larger than St. Andrews and the trails are more extensive and longer.  The modest difference in weather isn't so significant to offset the other advantages of Gulf State Park.

So, we will look into cancelling our reservation here and returning to Alabama.  There is no rush.  But, it is something we'll give thought to over the next few days.

January 12, 2015. Fog at St. Andrews State Park.

January 12, 2015.  Fog at St. Andrews State Park.  Most of this day has been shrouded in fog.  There have been times when we couldn't see fifty yards.  As the day wore on, the fog lifted some, but it was with us all day long.

We biked around the park and stopped at the beach.  There were two or three surfers using long paddles.  The waves weren't large, no more than three feet or so.  The water temperature was in the fifties and they were wearing wet suits.  The air temperature was in the mid-sixties.  We walked a couple of miles in the sand.

We met a couple from Quebec.  She works for a family-owned plumbing business.  He is a civil engineer.  They checked in right in front of me yesterday.  They have been on the road for a week and a half.  Before coming here, they were in Texas.  I noticed them because their RV is about the same size as T-Harvey.   I asked him who made the RV.  He didn't know.  He said his RV experience was ten days.  They rented this one just before starting the trip.  They were impressed that we have driven from Vancouver to Nova Scotia.  Now that I think about it, so am I.

January 11, 2015. Gulf Shores to Panama City - St. Andrews State Park.

 

 

January 11, 2015.  Gulf Shores to Panama City - St. Andrews State Park.  Four hours and 160 miles along the coastal highway brought us into Florida and warmer weather.  Why is that?  We are at nearly the same latitude.  So, why is it warmer here?  I don't know the answer to that question.  Maybe it just seems warmer because Florida is the Sunshine State.

We will be here seven days, then we will start the slow walk home.  We may retrace the same roads we were on today.  We will stop along the way at Grayton Beach and Seaside.  In fact, some of today's colorful pictures were taken as we drove through Seaside.  There will be more of those next week.

What will we do here for seven days?  We don't know.  Maybe we will just do more nothing.  We are getting pretty good at that.

January 10, 2015. Laundry, Dogs and Alligator Attack, Again.

 

January 10, 2015.  Laundry, Dogs and Alligator Attack, Again.  Chores don't necessarily stop just because we are 1000 miles from home.  That means clothes have to be washed somewhere along the way.  Today was wash-day.

It seems that every other RV here, and there are over 300 of them, has one or more dogs.  We passed four dogs out walking their people.  Most of the dogs are small breeds, but not all.  We have also seen some big dogs, Labs, German Shepherds, Mastiffs, Doberman Pinschers, for example.

We biked for the last time here this afternoon.  We were out for an hour-and-one-half.  Somewhere along the way Annie was attacked by a gator, she said, again.  You may the recall the gator attack of 2013.  Actually her foot slipped off the pedal and she scraped the skin of her calf on the teeth of the pedal.  I really think that's what happened again this time, but she is holding fast to the story of the alligator attack.

Tomorrow is a travel day.  I'll talk to you again from St. Andrews State Park, just outside of Panama City, Florida.  St. Andrews is the location of the last alligator attack.  That's the place where Annie scurried back to Harvey thinking the gators might smell the blood on the street.  I still don't think alligators smell blood.

January 9, 2015. Stew, Steps, Shells and Nothing.

January 9, 2015.  Stew, Steps, Shells and Nothing.  Seinfeld was a television show about nothing.  Today was a day pretty much about nothing.

The first thing this morning, Annie used her little crock pot to whip up a stew that would stew all day.  We watched three lectures on the Fundamentals of Travel Photography published by The Teaching Company.  Then, we took a walk.  We walked from the campsite to the Gulf of Mexico.  It is about two miles each way.  Annie is proud the she exceeded 10,000 steps on the walk.  I figure I took about 5000 steps.  She has short legs, you know.

The weather continues to be unpleasant.  Today's high temperature was in the low 40s.  That did enable us to test the heat pump and it works.  Hurrah!

Tomorrow will be our last full day here.  Sunday we will drive over to Panama Beach, FL.  We will spend a week at St. Andrews State Park.  The weather forecasts are better for next week.  I hope that augurs true.  I have had enough of these unseasonably cool temperatures.

I told you earlier that if I had nothing to say on a particular day, I would say it.  I think you thought I meant I would not publish on that day.  What I meant was that I would say nothing.  As I've established today, you can do that without being silent.

Oh, Annie wanted me to tell you that sandals are not a good footwear to walk in the sand.  I guess that's something.