Tallahassee is located in Leon County and has been the capital city of Florida since 1824. It’s oak canopied roads and southern style homes are picturesque. Being a large city, it has a Costco, which we were looking forward to stocking up at. From Panama City Beach, Florida it was about a 2.5 hour drive to Tallahassee.
Fort Pickens is in the Gulf Islands National Seashore of Florida. We’ve stayed here before and love the miles of white sand beaches that don’t have beach crowds or rows of high-rise buildings like other parts of the Florida coastline. Our favorite kind of travel day; about an hour and a half of a sunny scenic coastal drive from Santa Rosa Beach to Fort Pickens Campground.
Santa Rosa Beach is where Topsail Hill Preserve State Park is located. It’s a favorite because it has an incredible beach, plenty of roads and trails to walk for hours, and is close to Destin and Grayton Beach. Even though Topsail is pricey and sites are more crowded for a state park, the sites and roads are paved and they offer full service, other than WIFI. It’s our second stay here, third in the area. We love the beaches and all the great amenities that Destin has to offer.
Carrabelle is a small coastal city located in the eastern Florida Panhandle about 70 miles south of Georgia. This is our third stay. Its appeal can probably be summarized by the expression for the area, “the forgotten coast”. It’s relatively undeveloped, has a low population, and minimal commercialization. But it has just enough of the sugar white sand beaches, sights, amenities and restaurants for our needs. The beaches are not only dog friendly, but it’s rare for us to even see another person on one. We were here for a couple of weeks in mid December, so the weather was cold, overcast, and wet.
Somewhere is frequently a rest stop. We’ve grown to appreciate rest stops, sometimes for the view or history, but usually to pee and change drivers. Many states do an amazing job at creating a little highway oasis. We rarely drive more than a few hours to get from one place to another as we look for something interesting along the way. If it isn’t rest stops it’s gas stations with food like Flying J’s, Pilots or Loves truck stops. When we were kids, it was Stuckey’s. Even though we pass Stuckey’s along the way, we won’t stop at one, worrying it will change a fond childhood memory of pecan rolls, key chains, geodes, and scorpions embedded in resin. This time, we just needed to get to Tampa, Florida.
The Sonoran Desert is located in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. So much of life is task oriented and making efficient use of each minute. One place to slow down to 3/4 time is when walking through parts of the Sonoran Desert. There is so much to see, but often best seen when slowed down. Of course, we have to slow it down when cactus thorns and rattlesnakes are the reminder to pay attention.
