Long drive through Florida

Another travel day - for whatever reason, we spent most of the beginning of the trip doing small travel days paired with big visits, whereas now we are having BIG travel days with little to no visiting, but we are managing to squeeze little stops in here and there, just to break up the monotony of driving all day. It's all Florida now.

In our campervan, I make pancakes while overlooking the lake, which in this case is a runoff reservoir in the parking lots of the Love's we stayed at. I guess it's all just a matter of perspective, right? We fill up the propane for the last time, enjoy a piece or two of King's Cake, while strategically avoiding the baby, which we brought from New Orleans. Then we get off the Interstate and onto the scenic byway along the Gulf coast. The drive will be twice as long but 3 times as interesting, and shorter in miles, which is good because we are officially over now. Every mile we can cut counts, without penalizing ourselves, either. But it was interesting to find out that the scenic road was actually short in distance than the Interstate highway.

Stop one is at Princess Beach near Eglin A.F.B., near Destin, Florida, where the sand calls us and we run out barefoot to feel the sun on our skin. There are very few people on this beach in the middle of an airbase - a sign mentions permits, but no one is here to check, and anyways, we don't stay long. In one directions, the water is clear, the sky is blue and the sun shining, but turn around and we are facing the black clouds of an imminent storm. We hurry back to the van and cut another piece of King's Cake.

Check out the dunes!
	Blue sky on one side...
...and incoming storms on the other.	Full-sized drone from the Air Force Base

We drive along coast byways and causeways, island-hopping our way along the Gulf coast. So much of it is sand, I wonder how the massive resort hotels, towering 10 and 15 storeys tall, don't fall over into the ocean on such an unsturdy base. Each is tethered to a parking garage on the other side of the roadway, so maybe that's why. The beach is gated and closed and signs everywhere tell us DO NOT ENTER,  and PRIVATE, and I find it all a little sad to have such beauty and not share it. 

Even further along, in Santa Monica and Laguna Beach, where it's no longer towers but private homes, the sand is still hidden, all the way until then end of Laguna where we finally, FINALLY find a spot to pull over. I throw open the the sliding door, letting the sea air fill my lungs, and Mario runs out to the water. I make sandwiches, and we sit in the doorway of our little sanctuary and admire the views while eating lunch and drinking sweet tea.

Yet another stop at Starbucks for one of their new pistachio beverages and that curiously questionable drip black coffee for Mario and we continue on. It's been funny watching the different reactions from the baristas when ordering a plain drip coffee and not some cocktail of syrups and sauces and non-milks and whips that everyone gets. It has ranged from shock to confusion to sheer joy at the ease of preparation - one girl even had to ask a manager what a "drip coffee" was! But the opposite is fun to observe, too. We've seen and heard so many concoctions being ordered and the baristas don't even blink an eye - one guy's order was so complicated, he couldn't even remember the whole thing himself, and had to read it off his phone! 

The rest of the drive was nice, heading through historic Apalachicola in Franklin county - which would perhaps warrant a return to enjoy more, while listening to suitably appropriate public radio stations as a soundtrack. We learn that Florida has their own breed of black bears, and that we should watch out for them, and that there is a hidden IGA grocery store in Carabelle, but we still can't figure out why. 

We head far into the islands of Ozello, along a narrow road that snakes in between water and swamp,  to the boat launch, where we find free camping spots for the night. Surprisingly, as remote as this place seemed on the map driving in, we pass by a number of houses all along the route, and a total of 3 restaurants! Even the very end of the road where the boat launch is has a couple of houses, and the park is equipped with picnic tables, garbage cans and a pot-o-potty, so this is a perfectly suitable and quiet place to spend the night. So much for out in the middle of nowhere! At least the stars are still beautiful.