St Andrews to Pensacola

January 12, 2016

Beautiful sunrise this morning over the lagoon. Took lots of pics from the bedroom window. We packed a backpack with sandwiches and headed to Falling Waters State Park to see Florida’s tallest waterfall (73 feet). It was about an hour drive and definitely worth the trip! The waterfall was beautiful! We hiked every trail and learned that two industries operated near the waterfall. A gristmill, powered by the waterfall, ground corn into grits and cornmeal during the Civil War period. And in 1919, one of the first oil wells in Florida was drilled there. No oil was ever found so the well was capped in 1921. Got back to the campground at around 4 and grilled some fish for dinner and then sat around the campfire. Some new folks arrived while we were sitting by the campfire – Linda, Kit and their cute dog, Jezebel. When they set up camp, they joined us by the fire.

Sunrise

One of many sinkholes in the park

January 13, 2016

Drove to Seaside this morning since a few people recommended that we see it. Seaside is a privately owned town that was the main filming location for the movie The Truman Show. We walked up and down the streets, had lunch in the town center, and had a drink at Bud and Alley’s rooftop deck while watching the sunset. Then we met up with Terry and Keith and Kit and Linda. Had a few drinks and a great dinner at the Red Bar. The jazz band in the dining room was awesome! Fun night!!

Seaside Post Office

Airstream Row (food trucks)

Lunch at the Melt Down food truck

Streets of Seaside

The Red Bar (hence the red photo) with Terry, Keith, Linda & Kit

January 14, 2016

So, today was the day we were supposed to move on to Pensacola, but when Dave went to the dump station, he noticed that something was off. He could feel every bump and when he took a look the back right side of the coach was riding low and he could hear a hissing sound. The sound of the airbag over the tire deflating. We made a few calls and we got an 8:30 appointment at Camping World tomorrow morning. Hopefully it’s an easy fix and we can move on. We’re anxious to get to Pensacola…but if we had to have a problem with the rv, it’s nice that we’re at a beautiful campground to wait it out.

January 15, 2016

Got to Camping World at 8:30 and explained our two situations…the important one – the deflated airbag – and the less important one (I guess ;)) – the “check antenna” issue with satellite radio. We went to Dunkin Donuts and the library to kill time and then we got the call that they fixed the satellite radio (Yeah!) but the warranty work on the airbag had to be done by a Freightliner facility. They said the airbag had a hole on the top and bottom. The folks at Camping World found a dealer in Pensacola (since that’s where we were headed) and at 11:00 we drove our droopy RV very carefully to Empire Truck ~two hours away. The guys at Empire Truck found the bag just needed to be reseated and had it done in about an hour. Everything was under warranty so all we lost was time (which we seem to have plenty of these days). So we’re back in business and we arrived at our new home base at Five Flags RV Park in Pensacola at 5:30. It was a long day, but everything worked out. 

January 16, 2016

Left to go kayaking at Blackwater River State Park at noon. Got on the river at around 1 pm. Decided to paddle upriver since we don’t have two vehicles like we did in NJ. It was a really good workout…we paddled for two hours against the current; stopping once in a while for a breather on the beaches along the way. At 3:00 we turned around to take the leisurely float back…that lasted 40 minutes. It was a fun time! The river was crystal clear tea and the little (actually big) beaches were fun to explore. Saw lots of bobcat tracks.

Blackwater River has a paddle trail over 25 miles long.  Blackwater River Paddle Trail

The Blackwater is a meandering stream and therefore has some very steep banks and some very large beaches (Great for camping along the way!)

Bobcat tracks in the forefront of this photo

Heading to Fort Pickens tomorrow, look for our next post on the 24th. We always have to wait until we have wi-fi access.