Chilling in NW Florida

The last few weeks have settled into a regular routine for us. A mix of “vacation time” along with regular living obligations fill up each week. There is laundry, grocery shopping, maintenance and cleaning Lola (and with two shedding dogs, the floor cleaning never ends!), getting our hair cut, and doctor/dentist appointments.

One of the expectations for our journey is to seek out and explore little areas of the country to learn about local culture, history and nature. One thing to point out is that here in Navarre, things move at a much slower pace. Spring Break has come and gone and there really wasn’t a lot of crowds involved (only one Saturday really saw any heavy traffic). That’s because we are in between Destin and Pensacola and their respective beaches which pull in tons of visitors. Navarre and Navarre Beach are somewhat unknown and have very little in the way of hotels or attractions other than the Santa Rosa Sound and the beaches of Navarre and the Gulf Islands National Seashore. We have really been lucky to have landed in such a quiet peaceful place while Jill fully recovers.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t things to see and do. We’ve posted previously of some of the attractions but here are some other things we’ve seen and done over the last few weeks.

Naval Live Oaks

This is an area near Gulf Breeze (about 20 minutes from our campground) that is also part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This area was the country’s first designated National Tree Farm. It was specifically set up to grow Live Oaks which were used for building the early US Navy’s ships. Today, it’s a peaceful place with paths and boardwalks to admire the natural landscape.

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Jill’s Aunt Peggy was not doing well so at one point, Jill flew back to Atlanta to visit with her and also celebrate her BFF’s retirement/60th birthday, leaving Dan behind to tend to the dogs and RV. That left him with an opportunity to visit a few major landmarks of the area which Jill had no interest in visiting.

Naval Air Museum

If ever in the area, I would strongly recommend a visit to this museum. It is chock full of history and planes related to naval aviation from the very start in the early 1900’s up to the present. It is also the home of the Blue Angels so if you time it right, you can catch them doing some practice maneuvers. You could spend a quick hour or a half day at this museum, depending on your level of interest. I spent about 2 1/2 hours there and enjoyed it very much.

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In addition to the Air Museum, just across the street you can transport yourself back in time to when lighthouses guided ships into port and visit the Pensacola Lighthouse. I didn’t go up into this one but enjoyed the view from outside.

Fort Pickens

A few days later I made the trip over to the end of Santa Rosa Island, past the beaches of Pensacola to Fort Pickens. This fort was established in the mid-1800’s, did see some action during the civil war and then was updated for WW I and WW II support (although it never saw action in those wars!). A beautifully preserved fort along with some wonderful nature was the reward for traveling out this far.

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Radio Live

As mentioned earlier, the journey is also about learning about and enjoying local culture. Thanks to an idea first planted in us by friends Guy & Pam Wyche and then later followed up with by Blair & Anita Powell, we were introduced to a local public radio program called Radio Live. This is a live program that happens the first Thursday of every month in Pensacola. We decided to join Blair and Anita for the April show. The program is held in the intimate atmosphere of the Pensacola Commerce Museum in downtown Pensacola and usually features several folk artists, both local and national. The show runs about 2 hours and we had a BLAST.

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Beach time

Of course, we are on the coast so we have to take some time to enjoy the sea breezes and wonderful beaches of the area. This area is known as the Emerald Coast and we can tell you we have seen that color among others in the waters of the bays, sounds and gulf. In addition to enjoying the beach and pier at our campground, we have also ventured over to Okaloosa Island and Santa Rosa Island to visit stretches of almost empty beaches, even in the April/Spring Break season.

Hats off to Okaloosa county which provides free to the public wonderful beach wheelchairs. Jill took advantage of this one day and we really had fun giving her the mobility to travel along the sugar/flour soft sand of the gulf beach (with the help of Dan’s pushing!). We also are enjoying the easy access via the Gulf National Seashore on Santa Rosa Island next to Navarre Beach.

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As we wrap up this blog, we are only two weeks out from pulling up stakes and starting on our journey again. May 1st we head to Orange Beach, Alabama and after that we turn our wheels north with plans to visit the following locations (friends make note!):

• Andalusia, AL
• Fort Gaines, GA
• Atlanta, GA
• Chattanooga, TN
• Nashville, TN
• Louisville, KY
• Indianapolis, IN
• Elkhart, IN
• Holland, MI
• Traverse City, MI
• Mackinaw City, MI
• Saginaw, MI

Thanks for all the good wishes for Jill, she is really doing well and working hard! Looking forward to getting this show on the road!

Dan & Jill