Florida Epilogue

We got home from Florida last evening around 7:30 pm. All was well at home considering the horrible storms that had happened while we were gone. My rain gauges said we got about 4 inches of rain over the week we were gone. According to David, our intrepid house sitter, it all came in one big whoosh. Only damage we had was a ditch washed in front of the garage, and some dampness downstairs in a couple places. A far cry from the past when the down stairs used to flood. All the improvements to water management over the years have finally paid off. We also came home to everything outdoors grown by about 300% (including the grass). Today I will be baling the lawn after it dries out in the afternoon.

Our trip home from Southern Georgia was somewhat eventful. We continued to exercise Jerry’s GPS and stuck to the back roads. Coming up through central Georgia, we came through an area where the tornado damage was quite severe. There were trees and power lines down everywhere, along with damaged houses and outbuildings. It had all happened just the day before. We commented to ourselves, if we hadn’t spent a day exploring the Gulf Coast, we’d have been right in the middle of it coming home. We were very fortunate. As we were leaving the damaged area we saw two black limousines heading the other way. We guessed this must be the governor coming to inspect the damage. Then along around lunchtime we stopped at a Hardee’s for some food. It worked out great cause Vickie had her coupons with her, and we did the coupon and senior drink thing, s aving a lot of money. As we were getting ready to leave (I was driving) and got all buckled in ready to go, I started backing out when Jerry said, “You’d better wait for Vickie”. Somehow I saw her and Brenda sitting in the back of the car when I came out, and I even was talking to Vickie I thought. I almost left her at the Hardee’s somewhere in Georgia. Vickie got in the car and couldn’t figure out why we were doubled over in laughter. Seems she was detained by an old woman in the restroom who had to slowly tell her life’s story. We continued our trip again until we came upon a semi serious wreck in some small town in South Carolina. It was like it was the height of entertainment for their day. They had 3 fire trucks, 20 firemen, hordes of town folk, and every policeperson for miles around in attendance. I determined it must have been semi serious cause they were marking the pavement all around the cars with orange paint and diagrams.

After those two events, we continued home uneventfully, and were glad to arrive safely. We ended up traveling 1750 miles and averaged about 16+ MPG on the Tahoe with 4 adults and nearly everything we owned except major appliances. Most of the time we paid between $3.55 and $3.70 for regular gas. Doing the math, it cost us around $400 for gas for the trip. If you looked at 4 plane tickets say $275 ea plus parking at the airport, a rental car and gas while there, we still saved a bunch of money even with gas at the current prices. AND, we had a great time doing it on the back roads of America. I still say “See the USA in your Chevrolet” even if the gas is high. So with that I’m signing off till next time.

More later,

Wes

Florida #4

Sunday morning, we rounded up everything, packed up the Tahoe, and set off in the general direction of home. Check out was painless, and we were on our way. We had decided to head East toward Apalachicola for a couple of reasons. First was I wanted some oysters from the home of Apalachicola Oysters, and second was this was where the “Old Florida” was supposed to be. The drive was great, and over around St. Joe we took a side trip out onto a barrier spit and St. Joseph’s Peninsula State Park. All along the way after we left Panama City was truly a different Florida than we had seen before. There were no high rises, and mostly older one story Florida homes, intermixed with some newer ones, mostly all on stilts for hurricane survival. Considering the number of times I have heard about the huge storm surge in Apalachicola Bay, this is understandable. Also along the way, we found a l ot of pretty cool beach areas. The sand is white and the beaches very pretty. It is mostly very low key and laid back. On the drive out to St. Joseph’s Peninsula State Park, we found a killer area that we think we’ll come back to visit. There are rental houses all along this peninsula that face the gulf and are very private. The mainland in this area also has great houses. (Cape San Blas Rd.) Vickie did some checking on the Internet, and the prices are not outrageous. It sort of reminds me of Kitty Hawk or Nags Head NC. Before they got all built up.

We continued our drive and ended up for lunch in Apalachicola. It is a very quaint old town, and very friendly. We found a little waterside restaurant (Boss Oyster House, slogan “Shut up and Shuck” also known as “The Boss”) for lunch, and scored an outdoor table right on the railing complete with ceiling fan. The dock was right there and the pelicans were entertaining the whole time. The restaurant specialized in oysters, any way you wanted them, but also had a complete menu to go along. It also had a display just inside the door where it had been featured in “Southern Living Magazine”. Brenda got a chicken finger basket, Jerry got some Lemmon Pepper Grouper, Vickie got some Smoked Mahi Mahi, and I got a dozen oysters steamed on the half shell with butter, and red beans and rice to go with them. I also got a bloody oyster shooter for an appetizer. We were talking with our very n ice waiter about hurricanes, and he said the water of the last one was up to the roof and the kitchen ended up full of mud. The owners thought about not reopening, but salvaged the place again. Glad they did, it just doesn’t get any better, and the food was supreme.

After lunch we followed Brenda across the street to this incredible nautical antique store called The Tin Shed. It was literally a tin shed, but it was full of the most interesting stuff. We picked up a couple of souvenirs, and had a great time looking around. After that we headed back out on the road. A ways after that, the road turned North and we said farewell to The Gulf. A good time had been had by all. Jerry took over the driving duties for about half the afternoon when I got sleepy, and we ended up in Tifton GA for the night. We did our usual parking lot Internet search and ended up with a Quality Inn, sort of in the mid price range, with king beds, high speed internet, a microwave/refrigerator, and free hot breakfast. It is the old style motel with outdoor walkways, probably was a Holiday Inn some time in it’s life. The rooms were large, clean and reasonable. We were abl e to park 8 steps from our rooms and had an adjoining door between the rooms. We ordered a pizza from a local delivery service, and conked out watching “The Most Dangerous Catch” on Discovery. Found out this morning that Brenda closed and locked our door, closed our curtains, turned out the lights, turned off our TV and shut the adjoining door for the night. We were both asleep and never knew she put us to bed.

The hot breakfast was one of the best complimentary breakfasts we’ve had. Numerous types of pastry, waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage links and grits were on the menu. Well done by a friendly courteous Hispanic lady. All in all this Quality Inn was a good choice. Now we’re off possibly to home tonight.

More later.

Wes

Florida #3

Thursday morning, we loaded up and headed for Destin Fl. There was supposed to be an art festival in that direction, and Jerry remembered some beautiful beaches. We drove the local costal route going there to see what there was to see and avoid the traffic on route 98. What we saw was 1. They don’t seem to learn much from hurricanes on the gulf coast, and 2. There isn’t a square inch of Florida coastline that doesn’t have something on it or someone getting ready to build something on it. All along the beautiful white sand beaches between here and Destin (about 50 miles away to the West) was development after development, and high-rise after high-rise. We also saw some of the older original cottage style homes, but most of those appeared to be ready to be offered soon to the gods of profit and development. We saw houses on the roadside of the road (as opposed to the beach side) w ith banners on them proclaiming “For Sale only $895,000”. We saw signs for coming developments “Reserve yours now, starting at 1.5 million”. But what we also saw was literally thousands of for sale signs. It appears the real-estate downturn and credit crunch have caught many of the speculators and flippers holding the bag. It is for sure a buyers market. As to my # 1 and 2 above: 1. Jerry was telling me much of this coastline has been devastated by hurricanes over the years. Destin gets hit or brushed by a hurricane on an average of once every three years. Yet they still continue to build palatial high rises all along the coast. #2, Jerry remembered Destin as having pretty white sand dunes and beaches. The only way we found them was driving past Destin onto the Air Force base that prevented any development for about 5-7 miles along the coast. As soon as the base ended, the development started again non-stop. He was very depressed to see his memories covered by chain restaurants, Wa lly Marts, high rises, and water slides. We did find a Public Beach Access that allowed us to thread our way through the houses to the admittedly beautiful white sand beaches. We never did find the art festival but had an interesting day exploring the gulf coast.

On the way back, we stopped for dinner at Sonny’s Barbeque, which is a Florida institution. They have good food reasonably priced, and predictable barbeque. After dinner we headed home via the Winn Dixie to land for the evening.

Friday morning, we got up, and made reservations for a cruise to Shell Island. The girls were really excited about finding shells there. While we waited for cruise time to arrive, we drank Bloody Marys and played 9 holes of Wii golf while watching real golf from the screened in porch. Vickie and I both scored our personal best rounds. Around noon we headed out for the Ashley Gorman where we were to get lunch, a cruise to Shell Island, and dolphin watching. We were greeted by Captain Larry, Mate Randy, and another Mate in preparation for our cruise. I couldn’t stop singing the Gilligan’s Island Theme. We had a succulent lunch of ham sandwich on a bun with chips and a drink, and headed out. Along the way we saw the shore sights, and enjoyed the perfect weather on the water. (Oops…Jerry lost his hat less than a mile out right after he said, “Might be a day to hold onto your hats”). Vickie was hoping that I WOULD lose my dork hat but I had my hat string securely tightened under my chin so I was safe. We arrived at Shell Island in about an hour, and docked with instructions to be back on the boat in an hour. We hiked across the island on an elevated wooden walkway to the beautiful beach. Shell Island was part of St. Andrews State Park (physically) until a hurricane washed a new inlet between it and the park. The locals liked the new quick access to the Gulf, so they petitioned to have the new inlet dredged; it was approved, and became permanent. The island is still part of the park, but not attached. Vickie headed off to look for shells, Brenda and Jerry opted for lying in the sun, and I went swimming in the Gulf. I love swimming in salt water and take advantage of it every chance I get. It feels like something therapeutic. The water was not intolerably cold, and Jerry joined me for a stint before we left. When our hour was up, we hiked back to the boat, and h eaded around the end of the island out into the gulf to see dolphins. Because of the high winds the waves were pretty big in the gulf. Since the captain was circling to keep the dolphins in sight the waves, combined with our own wake, threw us around requiring a death grip on something metal to keep from being thrown overboard. Not to mention trying to keep our lunches at bay. We were rewarded with a family of 7-10 dolphins hanging around the point of the island feeding. After dolphin viewing, we headed back to port.

I wore my Blues Brothers sunglasses on the boat. When I got home I couldn’t find my real glasses at the condo and put out an APB to search for them. Vickie was completely tearing our bedroom apart and I searched everywhere else. The ones lying by the computer were not mine as they were black. I asked Jerry if he had picked up the wrong glasses, and no he had his. I was very upset; I told Jerry he would have to drive home since I had no glasses. After I insisted the ones by the computer were not mine, I tried them on and ooops they worked pretty well. I can’t seem to live this one down.

We stopped at the Winn Dixie on the way home and picked up hamburgers and shrimp for the grill for dinner. The shrimp were truly colossal jumbos, already split and de veined in the shell. WD had them on sale for $8.99/lb. and they were too pretty to resist. We marinated them in some olive oil, limejuice, and Lowry’s Garlic and Parsley Salt for grilling. We had some corn on the cob left from the other night, and fresh veggies from the produce stand the other day. We made a great dinner from all the above, and enjoyed great wine (white Chilean chardonnay), great food with great company. After dinner between the sun, touring, and food, we all conked out for a good nights sleep. (after seeing an incredible sunset that made the sun look like Jupiter landing on the high rises to the East of us)

More later.

Wes

Florida #2

Well we played Wii yesterday afternoon after getting out of the pool. I learned to play tennis, even though I’ve never been on a tennis court. After some Wiiing, we decided to take a walk over to the marina. This is a huge marina, and has literally $100’s of millions of $$ in boats moored there. We walked around and marveled at the magnitude of the investments sitting idly in the water at the docks. With marine diesel selling for $4.28/gal. and many of these boats requiring 500-700 gallons for a fill up, you are talking $2500, just to go out fishing. I believe the boating industry is going to be one of the early casualties of the monstrous fuel prices we are seeing. According to my friend Neil who is a boater, the boat sales market is in the process of collapsing. As the evening began, we proceeded with our dinner that had been postponed from yesterday. We prepared salad, got the corn ready for the microwave, and loaded the steaks on a tray for their trip down to the grill by the pool. Miss Vickie, as usual, was “The Grill Queen” and assisted by Brenda (lying in a lounge chair looking relaxed) She created a giant smoke cloud, and cooked our steaks on an unfamiliar gas grill. They were cooked perfectly. An interesting aside, she was riding up the elevator with 4 large sizzling T-bones, and everyone wanted to come home with her. We sat down to our dinner accompanied by a good bottle of Chilean red Jerry and Brenda brought from home. We all of a sudden discovered that our postponement had really made the steaks something else. Yesterday when we were planning on cooking them, I rubbed them with olive oil, pierced them a little with a fork, an d sprinkled both sides liberally with Lowry’s Garlic and Parsley Salt, and regular black pepper. This combination sitting on them for over 24 hrs in the refrigerator made some good steaks really great. Between “The Grill Queen” cooking them perfectly, the seasoning working, and being at the top floor of a resort overlooking St. Andrews Bay, it was some of the best meat we had ever eaten. People were gnawing the bones. Needless to say it was a great dinner, good food with great friends overlooking paradise. (oh and we got the T-bones for $4.98 per pound on sale at Winn Dixie) Jerry and I were just lamenting how good Winn Dixie’s beef always was and how we miss them in Martinsville.

After dinner, Jerry and I headed down to play real (as opposed to Wii) shuffleboard. Vickie scored us the equipment earlier from the fun squad. We didn’t exactly know the rules, so we played “games” Jerry whipped me 11 to 9 “games”. We had to quit cause it got so dark we couldn’t see the pucks. (no lights on the shuffleboard court) Afterward we retired back to the room for some serious Wii. All tolled, we probably played 36 holes of golf, bowled 35 games, played 20 sets of tennis, and half a dozen games of baseball. This Wii stuff is great. I actually had sore muscles from playing. I especially like the tennis; you can really get a work out playing it. After a serious Wii evening, all the Mii’s headed for the bed and some rest. (oh and my Mii has Blues Brother’s sunglasses like I love to wear and Miss Vickie’s of course is dressed in red with a red hat accessory)

This morning, everyone was moving a little slow. I decided to check out the “Scenic Golf Cart Tour, bring your cameras”. They had one spot left on the tour, and I jumped on it. I told everyone else to think about what they wanted to do, and I’d be back. Turned out the “Tour” was pretty cool. I learned a lot about Marriot Legends at Bay Point. The guide was this cool girl who was completely a local. Generations of her family had lived here. Since I was the odd man on the tour (capacity 7), the rest was all one family; I grabbed the front seat on the cart beside her. It was quite informative. Seems the Panama City area was really quite rural until all the inevitable development happened. This place is actually one of the smallest of the Marriot time-shares. Around it is the only Arnold Palmer designed golf course in North West Florida. Originally it was planned as a course that would attract the pros, and was supposed to be a big condo development. It ended up with the small Marriott time-share and a large number of private residences. It is a pretty little community and there is no telling what all these places are worth. Some of the residences overlook the bay, and some overlook a huge marina. The golf course is still here, and judging by the holes we’ve seen it as one tough (as in water/swamps) course. An interesting aside: below us on the edge of the golf course are a couple of swampy areas. At night the chorus that sings from these swamps is unbelievable. I mean boy is it loud. We are on the 6th floor, and when you sit on our screened porch, it is tough to talk over it. It is the coolest sound I’ve ever heard.

After I got back from the tour this morning, we got our act together and headed out to St. Andrews Bay State Park. When we checked in the very courteous lady told us if we were going to the park, they usually had some beach chairs available that folks left for others to use. We stopped by the front desk to see about some chairs. Well the current resident of the front desk turned out to be a discourteous cow. She was so busy stuffing her face that she had little time to be snotty and tell us the courteous “new girl” didn’t know anything. “They didn’t have any chairs and please don’t interrupt my grazing to make me check on it.” So with Jerry soundly p_ssed, we headed out for the Park. The entrance fee to the park was $5.00 and they had ample parking and a snack bar where we were able to pick up some Warm Dogs. (just like Hot Dogs only cooler) The beach at S t. Andrews is very nice. The sand is bright white, and the bay has a nice sandy bottom. Lacking chairs (Jerry growls here), we found a spot and spread out our towels. Greased with SPF 30 we settled down to enjoy the beach. I tried the water, it was cold by Myrtle Beach standards, but didn’t make you numb. We spent several hours enjoying the sun, sand and water. After a while, we decided to head back to the condo. On the way we hit the local produce stand and scored some reasonably priced fruit and veggies. The girls had some “shopping” to do, and Jerry and I took a shower and unlaxed. (Jerry read, I typed) We are planning on going to Captain Anderson’s Restaurant this evening for some seafood.

Named among America’s Top 50 restaurants, recipient of the "Best Seafood Restaurant" award from Southern Living and Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence," Capt. Anderson’s won Florida Trend’s Golden Spoon Award for 15 years before being inducted into the Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2005. The Hall of Fame is the highest honor Florida Trend can bestow upon a Florida restaurant.

They have a charcoal grill where they grill whole fish that have been caught that day. I’ll report on that tomorrow. Tonight is Karaoke night at the activities center. I usually can’t resist Karaoke, so we’ll have to see what happens.

Well we had a fabulous dinner at Captain Andersons. It lived up to its reputation, and the wait and prices were not outrageous. Jerry had grilled grouper, Brenda had a whole fried flounder, Vickie had shrimp in lemon garlic sauce, and I had grilled amberjack. We opted for the Greek salads for starters, but Brenda got the broccoli cheese soup. (turns out Captain Anderson is Greek and his whole family plus many other Greek folks run the place) The salads were great and were garnished one of the best pepperoncini I have ever tasted. A basket of obviously restaurant-baked bread came along as well and was superb. Our entries arrived in perfect time, and did not disappoint us. The grilled fish was topped with thinly sliced scallions and a lemon butter parsley sauce. Brenda’s flounder was perfectly cooked, and Vickie’s meal was one of the original restaurant recipes. The shrimp was peel and eat, but arrived in a brownish lemony garlic wine sauce. The side dishes were au gratin potatoes and grilled vegetables. They had a desert cart to die for, but we had reached our limit. On the way out we enjoyed scanning all the celebrity signed photos on the walls along with the above-mentioned awards proudly displayed. All in all this is one of those restaurants that is on the A list. We are glad we ventured there. It is big and busy, and probably in prime season difficult to get into but worth the effort. Never made it to Karaoke but came home and collapsed into a well-sated coma.

Tomorrow we are headed to Destin where there is an art festival that is supposed to be like a street scene. We also want to see the beach at Destin as it is supposed to be a fine one.

More later.Wes

Florida #1

Well here we are in Panama City Fl.

Uneventful day. (Saturday) Drove about 400 miles and ended up in Milledgeville GA. Exercised Jerry’s Lowrance GPS and our new 2008 atlas keeping Interstate percentage below 1%. Stopped for lunch at a nice Sonic, and used the outdoor picnic table. Vickie entertained herself by finding 62 cents in change lying around in various places. Stopped at a reasonably priced Days Inn after using the WiFi in the Holiday Inn Express parking lot to find out it and the Hampton Inn were over priced for the area. Days Inn was a good value for the price. Rooms were large with king sized beds, refrigerators, and microwaves. Free WiFi. Watched Kentucky Derby, and Jerry’s horse broke both legs after running second and had to be put down. Headed out to dinner to Pig In A Pit, after scoping out it’s menu in the phone book and on the web site. Surprise to us-----it wasn’t there. Must have moved or closed. Headed on down the street considering possibili ties, and I decided we’d try Judy’s Country Kitchen that advertised a $6.00 buffet on the big sign. Turned out to be the buy of the century. All they had was the buffet, but it was good well prepared food, hot and tasty. Oh and it was all presided over by the owners. Judy turned out to be Mr. and Mrs. Kim. Great staff, good food, and an incredible value.

After a good night at the Day’s Inn, we partook of the all carb all the time “Continental Breakfast”, and loaded up ready to leave. Stopped on the way out of town and fed the Tahoe its $93.00 ration of liquid fuel. We continued down across Georgia, and into Alabama. Scenery was uninspiring, but familiar. One point we did find a good photo op however where the road construction guys sort of missed it a little when painting the lines. Seems like one crew started from one end and one from the other. When they met in the middle, the double yellow line was off by about 2 feet of matching. Otherwise the back roads of Alabama offered the usual fare of huge old satellite dishes, icicle lights, and rusting cars. As we got closer to Panama City, the motorcycles coming the other way got thick. (we found out later the previous week had been bike week in Panama City with about 60,000 participants)

We arrived at the Marriott Legends Bay Point, and received a courteous check in assigning us to our Villa on the top floor with a view overlooking the bay, pool, and golf course. The Villa is very nice with most of the standard (for Marriott) amenities. A neat addition for this place since it’s in Florida is a screened in porch over looking the bay complete with ceiling fan. This time of the year in Florida is great for the porch since temperatures are not the burning high 90’s of later in the spring. From the porch we were able to hear Al the one-man band at the pool doing weird covers of beachy sounding songs, complete with trumpet at times. We unpacked our stuff, mixed a drink and headed down to the pool. We got a pleasant surprise in that the pool was heated, and very comfortable. (oh and Al mercifully quit before we got there) We lounged in the pool watching the sun go down, until we were sufficiently waterlogged.

After soaking, we headed for the room, cleaned up and went out for a light dinner. The place we were headed for closed about 15 minutes before we got there, so we ended up eating in a little café in the main building with a limited menu. We were able to find suitable (if over priced) fare, and had an enjoyable end to our day of traveling/arriving. Tomorrow morning, we have an “owners” reception and orientation breakfast. (this is where they try and set you up for appointments to sell you more time-shares, and sell you activities) After that we will hit the grocery store, and probably don sunscreen adjourning to the pool for the afternoon.

(Mon. morning)Turns out this time share is all sold out so the breakfast was just a “welcome to here” and told us about all the activities available in the area. We went to the breakfast where Vickie won a designer tee shirt (one of the door prizes) and then hit the grocery store as planned. After the grocery store, we had a light lunch and hit the pool for poolside bingo. Jerry won a pack of cream cheese that he donated to charity, and Brenda won a complimentary Marriott picture frame. We all spent the afternoon lounging in the pool, reading, and unlaxing. The girls signed up for jewelry making and had fun doing that. Both Jerry and I had been having some abdominal distress that seemed to be related to the fish sandwiches we had Sunday night. We both suffered this morning and on into the afternoon. He finally improved early in the evening. I didn’t feel a lot better till this morning. (Tues) We had planned a big diner of T-bones, lo cal corn, salad etc for last night, but it got postponed.

Last night Jerry and Brenda introduced us to Wii. They had bought a game a while back and brought the stuff with them. We played tennis, baseball, bowling, and golf. What a cool intuitive video game. For anyone who has been living under a video game rock (like me), Wii is a new type of video game that uses accelerometers inside the game controllers to control the action on the screen. You actually make the game work by swinging the controller like a tennis racket, or baseball bat etc. I, for one, have never been very good at video games, but I really like this one. Also for us chunky 60ish kind of folks, it actually gives you some exercise while playing a video game. (you can work up a sweat playing virtual tennis) I’ve heard they have a steering wheel that you put the controller in to pilot a racing game. If that works as good as what I tried last night—I’ve got to have one.

We just had a cool event; a giant Navy hovercraft just came up the bay—what a sight that was. Also we had a helicopter looping around back and forth over the bay and golf course just in front of our porch. We decided the term “stealth helicopter” is an oxymoron. Today, we are off to check out the State Park near here on St. Andrews Bay. It is supposed to have one of the prettiest white sand beaches anywhere. More later.

Wes