Settled into Florida
We arrived at the Ho-Hum RV Park just east of Carrabelle, FL yesterday afternoon after a rainy drive from Destin, Fl. We decided to take the coastal route instead of the Interstate and I'm glad we did. The road was indeed scenic and in very good shape. The roads in Florida are much better than those in Louisiana. We passed through Alabama and Mississippi on the way. In Alabama we toured the battle ship USS Alabama and the submarine Drum.
Leaving Mississippi was so heart breaking that I turned around and went back just so I could leave it again. Peg was reading at the time, so she didn't watch me go West when I should have gone East. Every time I want to criticize her for back seat driving I do something stupid that reminds me, and her, of why she does it. This is called teamwork.
They call this area "The Forgotten Coast" and we really like that it has been forgotten. There are many little coastal towns along the way here and they all look stranded in some long ago beach town time. Except for Destin no big condos line the sand, just beach bungalows, one after the other, all sort of ramshackle the way beach bungalows should be. There are a few restaurants and bars along the main drag and maybe a small grocery. Fresh seafood is advertised everywhere and this is one area where you can really believe the word "fresh". Our favorite town was Mexico Beach, just west of Panama City. They have a lovely web site http://www.mexicobeach.com/ but don't be fooled, the town doesn't really look this nice, and that's a good thing, I think.
We picked Ho-Hum RV Park partly because of the name and partly because it is a small park right on the beach and at a reasonable price. Tomorrow we need to do chores: laundry, wash 2000 miles of dirt off the car, grocery shop. So we'll explore the nearby town of Carrabelle, and seek out their claim to fame: the smallest police station. That claim is vague. I don't know if it's supposed to be worldwide, the U.S. or just Florida. It's a phone booth. Picture to follow.
Every town seems to need a claim to fame and a festival of some sort. It's as though some PR consultants came through and sold each Chamber of Commerce on the need to boost tourism. The way to do that was to promote your town's peculiar attraction then promote the hell out of it with a festival. Port St. Joe has the annual Scallop Festival, Mexico Beach has a Gumbo Cookoff, Navarre Beach has the Festival of the Trees, and Panama City Beach calls itself the Spring Break Capital of the U.S.
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