The next day we wake to showers but breaks of sun and the promise of better weather as we headed east to Florida. I had made reservations at two beachfront places for our last two stops way back in May before the multiple Hurricanes that hit Florida this year. Pensacola didn’t have a great deal of damage so we headed there having confirmed they were open and ready for us. Initially I had a waterfront site but I changed dates and lost that which as it turns out wasn’t a bad thing. Our trip to Pensacola took us through Mobile Alabama where we drove by a huge battleship. Coincidentally my friend we stayed with in Houston had just mentioned he wanted to go on a battleship someday but we couldn’t stop as we needed to get to Pensacola but another place I would like to visit in the future maybe on the way to New Orleans.
I cant begin to imagine the noise when those guns were firing or what it would have been on the receiving end of the volleys. The USS Alabama was the fourth battleship of four fast battleships in the South Dakota class per Wikipedia.689 feet long with a 108 foot beam (width). She had a top speed of 31.6 mph (incredibly fast for its size) a range of 17,000 miles, a crew of 2500 officers and men in wartime and 70 guns. She saw battle in the pacific during WW2. She was given to Mobile for display with the caveat she could be reactivated if she was ever needed!
We arrived in Pensacola and easily found our campsite after traversing a couple of beautiful bridges to get to the gulf waters. Our checkin was easy with some very excited to see us staff that welcomed us and drove us to our campsite where I was complimented on my backing skills by the person directing us. I immediately loved the campground as a result lol.
The storms we had experienced in New Orleans left Pensacola with some amazingly strong wind. We were one row off the water but enjoyed the Class A busses and trailers that gave us a bit of a windbreak. Walking around the grounds and the beach (which allowed dogs!) we discovered something called camel burrs that attached themselves to poor Mocha’s feet, legs and belly. That was the only downside to the campground with only a few places Mocha could sniff and go to the bathroom that didn’t qualify as hazardous “doody” (it has been a while since I did the pun thing so don’t groan).
We headed into town to see the sites and we were impressed that unlike much of Florida this town seemed to have a very young adult population out for lunch and walking the streets. Maybe a good place to have a General Surgery practice for my son Zach?? Close to family. No snow and so on.
This was a quick two night stay that was supposed to have been followed by another two night stay in Perry Florida on the water before arriving home. I had been speaking with the campground owner for weeks as Perry was where one of the big Hurricanes Helene made landfall. And the campground was on the water. The very nice campground owner who kept things simple…”I don’t like the internet, don’t accept credit cards only checks or cash etc etc”, kept hoping power would be on and sewer and water up and running but that didn’t happen so despite my wanting to support her we had to make other plans booking two one night stays each closer to Naples rather than the one two night stay in Perry. Those two sites were unremarkable aside from massive debris still present in Georgia and as planned (Thank you God) we made it home November 18 as scheduled. I plan to write a brief summary of the trip in a bit but for now thank you to everyone that wasn’t bored by my (Looonnnnng according to Jo) ramblings. I am so blessed to have a non camping girl that agreed to let me take at least two cross country trips despite her not being a traveler at heart. Blessed in so many ways.
Bill and Jo’s Road Trip 