Off to the Emerald Coast of Florida

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It was a quick 2 night stay in Hattiesburg Mississippi and while I suspect there were lots of other things to see and do in the area, we needed to move on. Our next stop was a 10 night stay at Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park in the town of Niceville Florida. It’s about 8 miles from the Emerald Coast of Florida near Destin. It isn’t on the Gulf Coast but it’s close and is on water from the Gulf. Even though we booked the site over two months ago, we weren’t able to get one site for the full duration of our stay. So we will be in one site for 6 nights and another for 4. There are a couple other state parks right on the coast, but availability there was even tougher so Gannon it was. Our general experience with Florida State Parks it wonderful but crowded so planning ahead for anything more than a night or two is required. The drive from Hattiesburg is about 220 miles and a fairly easy trip.

The park isn’t very large with only about 40 sites around a half mile loop but the sites are rather spacious and fairly wooded. Our first site is nice with a view of Rocky Bayou less than 200 feet from our front window. It’s a fairly large body of water with the opposite shore a half mile away.

Rocky Bayou

Our First Site at Gannon

When we making our travel plans, we were drawn to this area because there seemed to be a large number of hiking and biking trails and plenty of geocaches as well. Plus we were close enough to the beach if we wanted a lazy day of sitting on the sand with the Gulf of Mexico at our feet. Once we got here and started to make plans as to what we would do first, we quickly discovered that we were smack dab in the middle of Eglin Air Force Base. Not so much that there are barracks and airstrips right next door, but the base comprises 460,000 acres of land. It’s a hard number to wrap your head around - think about 55 miles wide and 12 miles tall.

Most of this land is forest area and that is where many of the hiking and biking areas we were hoping to visit are located. To legally access the recreation areas of the base, one must purchase a permit. While not prohibitively expensive at $20 per person for an annual pass, we probably would have purchased passes but for one big problem. The base is divided up into dozens of different regions or sectors and before heading out to a region, one must check a website that would list what areas were open for recreation and which ones were closed for that day. We tried to check the site multiple times to see how it worked but each time the message said to check back later. Given we would often hear bombing runs nearby to the campground we realized going out there without the right information could be dangerous. Of course that meant the bulk of our intended plans would need to change.

The state park does have several hiking trails and a large day use area. We take advantage of what is within walking distance of the rig. One of the first things we discover is how acclimated we had become to the dry weather in Arizona. After spending 9 plus months in the dry desert southwest, having Florida style humidity is challenging to adapt to. There are three trails within the park: 1.0, 0.75 and 0.5 mile loops. They are all nice walks and not very strenuous given the flatness in this part of Florida. The shortest trail does pass by the Bayou and we can see all sorts of birds feeding and people out enjoying the water. We also rediscovered some of the huge spiders that call Florida home. The golden silk orb weaver is menacing looking. With a body the size of my thumb and large webs, we need to keep an eye open for these especially when venturing off trail in search of a geocache. Along one trail is a 500 pound concrete bomb used during training exercises from Eglin Air Base during World War II.

Kayakers on Bayou

Eeeek!!!

Practice Bomb

The day use area includes several picnic shelters and benches along the shoreline. There is also a boat ramp and based on the parking area being nearly full with trucks and empty boat trailers, I suspect this is a popular spot to come launch your boat or jet ski.

Beautiful Water View

Gannon Boat Ramp

We did a day trip east of Niceville to try out a bike ride. The Longleaf Pine Greenway Trail is just over 7 miles one way and the plan was to take that out to County Road 395 just outside Seagrove Beach and find a bite to eat then either come back the same trail, or head towards the beach and follow the paved bike path that seemed to follow next to Highway 30A that runs along all the small beach towns. The trail started out quite nice. There were a few others out for a walk but it wasn’t too crowded. It is generally a singletrack that winds thru the pines with lots of palmettos in the understory. There are some sandy sections but for the most part the trail was firm enough to bike through. There was one section under water but from the looks of things this is a frequent occurrence and a side trail has developed to get around it.

Longleaf Pine Trail Markers

Singletrack Thru Pines

Submerged Trail

After 5 miles, we crossed County Road 283 intending to continue on the trail for another 2 miles. Unfortunately there was caution tape and a sign at the trailhead stating it was closed east of here. We momentarily considered crossing the tape and seeing whether it was closed due to flooding or some storm damage but we decided to head south to 30A and follow the bike path along the road. We passed by a large parking area and headed back to look for a geocache hidden nearby. We discovered a very long boardwalk that winded thru the canopy of trees with lots of standing water below. It was a very secluded spot and made for a good place for a snack before continuing back to the road. This bike path along 30A turned out to be a very popular route and made for a challenging ride to avoid pedestrians and other bicyclists. We didn’t find a food joint that piqued our interest so we headed to a grocery store up from the beach for subs. It wasn’t the most scenic spot but met our goal and kept us out of the large crowds.

Dead End Boardwalk

For the return trip, we saw there was a way to avoid some of the large crowds in Seagrove Beach by taking residential roads thru a community called WaterColor. Slowly pedaling thru the side roads, it wasn’t exactly clear what this place was. There were plenty of small homes lining the streets spaced close enough to be able to pass the salt and pepper to your neighbors during dinner. There also seemed to be some sort of inn and communal areas. Not exactly our style of living but quaint nonetheless. Once back on the bike path, we continue west with a short detour to Grayton Beach. The last tenth of a mile was so sandy we needed to simply push the bikes to get to the shoreline. From the looks of things, this area of beach is accessible to motor vehicles and lots of people were out enjoying the water. We eventually made it back to the parking lot and our Jeep. Not exactly our planned route but it was a nice 19 mile bike ride.

Grayton Beach

19 Mile Bike Track

The next day we head back in the same general direction but about 15 miles further east to the Panama City Beach Conservation Park. What attracted us to this place were over 40 geocaches hidden along the dozens of miles of trails in the 2900 acre park. We figured we could handle another biking day and cover most of the park in one day via bike rather than hiking on multiple days. From the looks of things, it is a reasonably new park. A former pine plantation has been turned into the final stage of the town’s wastewater treatment process. The trails are actually wide hard-packed roads so there aren’t issues with running into deep sand sections.

Trail at Conservation Park

Upon finding one of the first geocaches along our route, I noticed a recent finder was a fellow geocacher from our old home in western New York. We are continually amazed to find logs from people we know in far off and sometimes remote locations. Turns out he was here caching just before the pandemic hit. It was a pretty park and easy riding on flat terrain. The caching went pretty well with one exception near a bit of a stream where I heard an unidentifiable splash and decided I might want to take the alligator warning sign seriously. Along the ride I spotted a family of ducks in a marshy area that I wasn’t able to identify until getting back home. Now I know what a black-bellied whistling duck looks like.

Location of Unidentified Splash

Whistling Duck Family

At one trail intersection, there was a road flooded sign. As there were a couple of geocaches along this trail, I opted to see if I could reach them before I hit water and had Chris continue on the other trail agreeing on where we would meet up again. After a quarter mile I came to the flooded section of road still having another quarter mile to reach the cache. Not being able to see dry land on the far end and having no way of knowing how deep the water was, I decided to backtrack and catch up with Chris along her route. It turned out this route wasn’t completely dry either with a low area about 100 feet long having a couple inches of water. We both made it across safely although Chris let out an apprehensive scream along the way.

End of the Road

Chris Approaches Water Crossing

After over 11 miles of biking, we stopped back at the car to grab our lunch and take a spot in the large pavilion to eat. Chris had brought her Kindle and was willing to sit and read if I wanted to head back out. So I headed back out and hit most of the trails we had missed in the morning. I came across some of the long boardwalk sections of the interior trails and a very pretty pond. I also managed to head up the closed road from the opposite end to find the caches I couldn’t reach in the morning. Turned out the flooded section of road was about 750 feet long - probably a wise choice in not trying to bike thru it. After 8.5 more miles in the afternoon, we ended up finding 25 of the caches in the park. This was a very good park for a bike ride even if you aren’t into geocaching.

Boardwalk

Reflecting Pond

Morning 11 Mile Track

8.5 Mile Afternoon Track

We saw a geocache was hidden at the start of a boardwalk in Niceville. We decided to go check it out one morning. After signing in at the cache, we start to walk the boardwalk. We hadn’t investigated anything about this place and was expecting just a short walk out along the boardwalk. But it kept going and going. It follows along the path of Turkey Creek. From the looks of things, the water level is quite high and flowing rather quickly. It was a pretty walk with some fall colors in the trees.

Turkey Creek

We stopped and enjoyed the views quite frequently. One of the partially submerged plants has very water repellent leaves and was mesmerizing to watch as the current pushed water onto the end of the mostly floating leaf creating a wavelike pattern. Apparently this is a popular place for tubing or just taking a dip in the water. The one dock area was nearly a foot under water which explains the sign we saw earlier about tubing not being recommended although we did see a couple kids in bathing suits with large tubes heading out on our way back. The other end of the boardwalk is a full mile from where we started so it turned into more of a walk than we anticipated.

Turtle Basking in Sun

Water Repellent Leaf

Flooded Dock

As luck would have it, even though we had been having nice weather during our stay, on the morning that we would need to move from one site in the park to the other site, it was pouring. We had confirmed with the ranger we could move as soon as the current camper moves from our next site. They left fairly early so we had a couple hour window to make the move, but the radar showed the prognosis for dry weather was bleak. We finally just bit the bullet and put on the rain gear and moved the quarter mile around the loop. It did allow me to dump the holding tanks so we would have plenty of capacity for the next 4 nights. I don’t recall ever getting so wet during a pack up or set up of the rig in all our years of traveling.

A couple days days later the rain had passed by and the weather was quite pleasant again. We knew there was hurricane out in the Gulf of Mexico and was possibly heading our way before we were scheduled to leave. I had promised Chris a day at the beach, so we headed to Henderson Beach State Park while we had the chance. It’s just across the Mid-Bay Bridge in Destin Florida. Our camping pass for Gannon will allow us access into this park for free. Henderson is fairly large with over a mile of sandy beach. Of course there are miles of beach to walk along this part of the Emerald Coast if you’re so inclined.

View at Henderson Beach

We went mid-morning and it wasn’t very crowded. We spread out our blanket and towels and headed into the water. It’s been nearly 2 years since we’ve been to a beach.  I suspect some of the reason for that is we (I?) tend to not do well just sitting or laying on the beach. I much prefer hiking or biking so our beach time tends to be limited. Near our spot, some creative person had created a man’s face peeking out of the sand. It wasn’t super detailed but much better than my capabilities.

Sand Sculpture

Searching for Lunch

At lunch we headed back towards the parking area and used the shaded picnic pavilion to enjoy our lunch and people watch as they came and went to the beach. There is a 3/4 mile nature trail within the park that we walked around to find a geocache as well as to just see the sights. It was okay but so close to the main road that there is a lot of road noise. It was a fun day but time to leave to investigate the progress of Hurricane Zeta to determine our plans.

Our original reservation had us leaving Gannon on Wednesday morning October 28. This left us with 4 nights to travel the ~400 miles to Brooksville Florida where we intend to spend the winter. Over the past couple weeks, we would check the Florida State Parks along the general route to see if we could make a reservation that would fill the gap but we weren’t having much luck. It didn’t help that part of that time would be a weekend and Halloween as well. We expanded our search to include southern Georgia and found a Corps of Engineers park on Lake Seminole only half a mile in from the Florida/Georgia line. We had booked 3 nights there and then planned on staying at an Elks Lodge in Perry Florida before driving into Brooksville on November 1.

The predicted path of Hurricane Zeta was starting to narrow and while we were just on the eastern edge of the cone, we were thinking sticking around for our last night here on the coast might not be the wisest decision. Our home is mobile. We have evacuated before due to wildfires being too close for comfort, a Category 2 hurricane should be respected as well. Plus even if it skirted by us, we would likely have a miserably rainy and windy driving day. So we checked the Eastbank COE campground site we were heading to and discovered it was available for an additional night so we added that night and planned to leave a day early to miss the possible storm impact.

We're the Blue Dot on Far Right at Edge of Warnings/Watches

The next morning as we were packing up to leave, a local sheriff came by and handed us an evacuation order. I guess that made our pre-planning a good thing. We were talking with one of the campground hosts and they were also being forced to evacuate. He hadn’t made any plans but would just head east and hope to find someplace to ride it out until he could come back. I suppose the evacuation was warranted since we are at an elevation of 6 feet above sea level and the storm surge was expected to be 2 to 3 feet. The good thing was the rest of the Niceville area seemed to be staying put so there wasn’t a huge traffic jam heading out of the area. We did run into a few showers from some outer bands of the storm but nothing too bad.

It's Official - We're Out of Here

Since we had two reservations in the system at Eastbank Campground, it took a bit longer to check in and clarify we have the site for 4 nights. We had the morning hours of Wednesday to walk around the campground area and check things out. This is a very nice place. We usually find COE campgrounds to be good places to stay. It is just north of the Florida border by half a mile and the opposite side of Lake Seminole to the west is also Florida. The bad part of this location is we are also just into the eastern time zone so our phones and tablets will often switch cell towers confusing us as to what time it is. We have actually stayed in the vicinity before - 4 years ago. Three Rivers State Park is less than five miles away in Florida. Since we likely won’t have much opportunity to sightsee during this stay, hopefully we explored everything during that first stop. There is a path from this campground to the Jim Woodruff Dam but it turns out that visitors are no longer permitted due to Covid so the gate along the path is locked.

View of Lake Seminole

Woodruff Dam Across Lake

Wednesday night and early Thursday morning were when Zeta was passing by the area. Our weather radio was constantly sounding alarms throughout the night usually with tornado watches. The good news is they only ever extended to the Florida country just to our west but it would take some effort to check other sources to convince ourselves of that fact. By lunchtime, the skies cleared up and it was another nice day in southern Georgia. We walked around the campground some more and checked out the lake and boat dock.

Sunny Afternoon at EastBank

On Halloween day, we pack up and drive the 100 miles or so to Perry Florida Elks Lodge. This is a fairly nice camping setup. There are 14 sites with water and electric and a dump station next to the lodge. We got in fairly early before the lodge was open but they have a drop box with envelopes to pay your fees to spend the night. We headed out to drive around the area a bit to find some geocaches in Florida counties we haven’t been to before. When we returned, there was a flurry of activity in the large field in front of the lodge. We eventually determined it was a Halloween candy drive thru for the local kids. I guess that’s a better way to socially distance.

The next morning we had a 190 mile drive to Brooksville. We took a slight longer and less direct route by heading over towards Gainesville and I-75. Why bother heading a bit further than required? We wanted to fill up the rig with diesel before pulling into our campground for the winter. This way we will be sure to have plenty fuel in case we need to run the heater - yes we have a diesel burner for our hydronic heating system. It can run on electricity as well and that works fine above freezing but if we hit real cold conditions, we will need the burner going.

One other thing I should mention. We had signed up for and gotten our TSD fueling card back in the spring. You can read more about the details here (TSD Card Explained). We haven’t traveled a lot since March but made made good use of it as we repositioned from Arizona to Florida. We have filled up 10 times since getting the card. The least amount we saved per gallon (after fees) was 29 cents, the most was 91 cents. In total we saved just under $280 in 485 gallons of fuel for an average of 57 cents per gallon. Admittedly the posted prices at some of our stops were 5 to 10 cents more than we might have found elsewhere. Plus we used to use our credit card that has 2% cash back so that would have been an additional 5 cents per gallon. But the bottom line is this program works out well for us and hopefully we will get back to some more serious traveling in the future.