Homeward Bound. *END* of Florida trip

Our only picture of the way home

 We're just heading north today and for the next couple of days. It was a lovely drive today, up through Alabama and Tennessee, and on into Kentucky. We were able to mostly stay on good secondary roads until we reached I65 northbound. A lot of rolling wooded hills and farms, well cared for places. Downtown Birmingham looked lovely from I65, with a nice waterfront. I65 was quite rough through there though.

We got to Nashville about 4pm EST, and just stayed on I65 right through town, and ended up camped at Cave Country RV Park, near Cave City KY, exit 53 off I65. This was a good park for overnights, just good level gravel sites with full hookups and wifi, $28 with Good Sam discount. They had good washrooms too, except for the auto-off lights even when the washroom gets very dark! I think they are open year round.

 Thursday March 5

We wimped out and stayed in a motel tonight. We couldn't find an open campground except a KOA, and the modest motel discount rate was likely no more than a KOA. The room was $47 with a coupon from the accommodation booklets. Clean enough, TV, Wifi, newspaper and breakfast. We don't really remember the motel name, but it was only 1/2 hour from the Canadian border.

Friday March 6

And we're off to Canada, only about 1/2 hour to the border at Port Huron/Sarnia. An easy border crossing at 7:30 am.

We stopped in at a Costco in London for an expensive restocking of home supplies, and at an M&M for a thank-you gift certificate for our doggy care friends when we picked up our fur kid.

Home at 3pm, 11C and sunny. 

 

St Andrews to Rocky Bayou park

 

We weren't sure where we were going today, except starting to head north. My cousin Ken had recommended Henderson Beach state park, so we looked for that but didn't find it. It looks from the maps later that we didn't go far enough west before heading north. 

We had a good stop at a Bass Pro shop near Destin. It's a very builtup area right from Panama City west all along the Panhandle, and most places looked like they'd be expensive.

We had an early stop at Rocky Bayou. By arriving there at 11 am we got 1 of the two remaining sites available for tonight, and only tonight. This was well away from the main salt water areas, so we thought it wouldn't be too busy. Maybe the large sandy sites with water/electric for $12.50 have something to do with the popularity. 

In the afternoon we had a hike on the Rocky Bayou nature trail:

We saw several deer

The white clumps are Deer Moss

A closeup of the moss

  

 

4 days at St Andrews park, near Panama City FL

Typically windy at the Gulf shore, sometimes calmer than this

 We spent some time the first day touring Panama City and learning our way around. We found that our GPS doesn't like Panama City at all, which contributed to our navigation problems yesterday. However we did have some good stops in town, lunch at a Chick Filet, good groceries at a Publix store.

On the way back in to the park we found a seafood market, and picked up a piece of grouper, a BIG piece of salmon, and a piece of key lime pie, all very good. 

While Cathie had some quiet time at the site, I biked around the campground. We had an optimistically large supper with the whole piece of salmon (steamed) along with potato and salad. Boy were we full! Then we sat around enjoying the soft evening air.

The next day we stayed around the campground. We had our breakfast outside, then a good bike ride around the park. We toured the turpentine and saw mill exhibits, then walked some of the long white sand beach.

After lunch we drove to the beach, after donning our swim togs. No swimming today though, it became very windy, and red flags were flying indicating dangerous surf conditions. The para-boarders and surfers were out in force though:

 

Back at the site we took our chairs over to an empty waterfront site across from us. The beach was stony here, but on a more protected bay. Then we rode our bikes over to a nearby pier to see some fishermen, birds and passing dolphins.

The next day, Sunday, it was very windy. There were tornado warnings for north of here. It's only supposed to get up to 12C today but actually only made it to 8C (46F). We're really glad we're not camped at one of those lovely sandspits we saw on the way here the other day, and that our site here is nestled in a protected area.

Since it wasn't a nice beach day, we drove into Panama City for breakfast and some more shopping, then back to the trailer for reading, naps, then a good long walk. 

The next day, Monday, was cool again. We walked around the park and out to a fishing pier:

The birds kept trying to eat little bait fish from the fisherman's jugs

Later we drove into the City again, it's kind of nice after ll to have a city nearby. On our way out of the park we saw smoke, and drove through some of it, a "prescribed burn" day.

The burns keep the vegetation at bay.

Lunch was Jimmy Dean sausage and eggs today:

We'll be leaving St Andrews tomorrow morning, starting to head home. This was an unexpectedly nice park to visit.