Day 13 - Panhandle Continued and Fort Pickins, FL

We packed up the campsite and continued our journey along the Panhandle. First stop was Panama City Beach.

What we hadn't realised until we reached Panama City Beach was that we crossed a timezone, going from Eastern to Central. We gained an hour but we lost some respect when we tried to get a drink from a bar that hadn't opened yet as it was too early.... oops!

Whilst we waited for the bar to open, we walked down the beach which was amazing. Lovely soft sand, clear water that was tinted green and not too busy although maybe that's because we were early.

When the bar finally opened, we had a lovely cooling drink in Sharky's. Mine was a frozen mudslide, which was like a pudding rather than a drink and Lee had a beer (of course!).

We drove down the road that runs alongside the beach which was full of bars, restaurants, amusements, hotels and shops.

It seemed that the 'cool' thing to do in Panama City Beach was to drive down this road in a jeep with no windows or doors, one arm and one leg handing out, all your 'mates' cramped in the back and generally look like you're the coolest 'kid' in the city. Poor Fin tried to look cool but he was just too sensible.

Next stop along the Panhandle was Destin which was very similar to Panama City Beach only it seemed that on the main strip, a lot of hotels owned parts of the beaches so the public areas were full of people. We had a little walk down the beach again and then sat on the beach outside a bar called Back Porch and enjoyed the sunshine.

Heading out of Destin, we crossed a bridge over a lagoon. There were hundreds of boats on the lagoon and some crazy parties going on. Some of the boats were bars or activities (such as slides and trampolines). It looked like you needed to either pull up your boat next to these boats or swim over to them. Shame we didn't have a boat handy as we would have loved to join in.

The drive over to Fort Pickens was very picturesque with sand dunes, beaches and the sea either side of the road. Fort Pickens is part of the National Parks system but luckily we had our National Parks pass at the ready and got in for free. Usually it would have cost $20 on top of the camping fee!

Lee did a lot of research on pitches and for this one, he had done a fine job. We had B4 which was by far the biggest, most private and nicest pitch in the entire park. I think there were a few jealous people around who were stuck in small pitches on top of their neighbours with no privacy.

With the tent pitched, we were so hot we walked to the beach to have a swim in the sea. It was lovely right up until I spotted a jelly fish. That was the end of going in the sea for me, I was out of the water quicker than Mo Farah on the home straight! Lee didn't mind the jelly fish, mainly because he had smelly armpits and they needed something drastic to kick the smell. He's just lucky one didn't sting him under the armpits as I bet that is very painful!

After the beach, we went to see Fort Pickens itself which was a short 10 minute drive away, along to the end of the peninsula. There is not just 1 fort but 3, all build in different eras for different uses from the Civil War to WW2. When we arrived, the tourist information was closed but you could walk around the forts until sun down. It was interesting to see how the peninsula had changed over the years and where the fort used to sit on the sea line, its now in the middle of the island. Good thing the gun there could shoot 17 miles out of sea!

We were sitting around the campfire after having a lovely dinner (steak, corn on the cob and pepper cooked on the fire with a tomato salad) when Lee heard a noise behind him. It was an armadillo having a nose in the rubbish bag. He was sooooo cute but by the time I had reached for the camera, he had run off. Hopefully we'll see another Arnie soon and this time I can get a snap, unfortunately, we have seen a number of his cousins at the roadside who haven't made it.

The fly was off the tent again, and it was lovely going to sleep seeing the stars in the sky and waking up seeing blue sky and the sun. It feels like you're sleeping outside but without any bugs harassing you.

We lost 3 soles today - 1 flipfop, 1 sandal and 1 water shoe. Lee's sandals were over-used, the flip flop couldn't cope with camp life and the water shoe melted when I tried to dry it on the fire. We should have bought more shoes, now we're going to have to buy some more!