April 30, Wednesday Blue Water

It was 5:35 a.m. and I couldn’t back to sleep so I said “So long” to my semi droning berth mate “Wiley Sanders Truck Lines” from Troy, Alabama and hit the highway. My early start enabled me to avoid the morning traffic in Pensacola and soon I was tooling down Highway 98 heading for Panama City Beach. I head whipped when I caught view of the Florida Gulf waters. They were not like anything I saw in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi – the beaches were white and the waters were a tropical blue. Picture Time!!
After consulting all three of my Florida maps, I decided that I wanted to spend a couple of nights at St Joseph Peninsula State Park. Better call for a reservation. “Sorry, we don’t take reservations for the same day.” Fine, I’ll drive the 20 miles out to the end of the peninsula and see if they have a spot for the night. They did. I selected my place of moorage but when I tried to fire up the land dinghy, not a click, not a groan. What gives? The VW had a totally dead battery. But how can you have a dead battery if you’re pulled all day? After finding a pair of campground cable jumpers, I was back in the business of motoring around at 34 miles to the gallon rather than 8 miles to the gallon. But the question still goes begging as to why the battery got drained. I have my suspicions and will check it out tomorrow. Meanwhile I got to meet my Australian and North Carolina neighbors. However the “no see-ums” where driving us humans crazy. Even seeking the shelter of inside your RV didn’t provide any relief from their biting ways because they were small enough to find their way through the screens!! (As I write this, I have no lights on in the RV so the little nasty bitters are drawn to the light of the computer screen where I do them in with a light finger touch to the screen. Tomorrow I’ll have to spend time cleaning the carnage off the screen.) When I went back to the park gate to register my campsite, I got a big Welcome To Florida greeting. When I requested a senior discount on my park fee, she said, “Of course”. When she saw that I was from Washington, she said, “I’m sorry but senior discounts are only available to Florida residents.” Hello!! Florida is known as a Mecca for seniors from out of state. What a way to sock it to them by taking away a discount that every other state offers. (Isn’t there a member of the Bush family involved in politics here??) I shall inform my Washington legislators that I want a law past stating that if you are from Florida and in our fair state, you will get a senior discount to show you how much we appreciate you – if you are over 90………..