PATRICIA RAINS ON OUR PARADE

Sunday, October 25 – It was a cloudy day, but we still wanted to see the beach. The beaches around Destin, Florida, are known for their pure white sand with its powdery consistency. Santa Rosa beach is just a mile down the road from our campground and about five miles east of Destin. It is beautiful and would sure have been nice on a sunny day.

We did have an interesting encounter while walking the boardwalk across the sand dunes to the beach. We noticed a peculiar smell in the air, and noticed we along with the other people walking to the beach began to cough. It was a dry cough much like a smoker may experience. It continued off and on the entire time we visited the beach. Marsha questioned a life guard about the cough and was told it's a bacteria in the water, and it occurs once every few years or so. He said it will go away upon leaving the beach which we found true. Strange.

Very rough waves from Patricia.

We then met up with our friends for a late lunch or early dinner at Goat Feathers, a recommended seafood restaurant. Man was it delicious. The seafood was fresh, tasted scrumptious, and the serving were plentiful. We all ended up carrying leftovers home for lunch tomorrow.

We then took a ride down the coastal highway to Seaside, FL. A small trendy town several miles down the coast. What a nice little “village” type community.

Small quaint shops, a row of food vendors in Air Stream trailers, neat little restaurants, small but expensive cottage style homes, and a beautiful beach

No idea who these three Amigas are.

Jeri asking who wants to go in the water. She had no takers.

The waves were really nasty big.

We strolled all the streets in the downtown area and drove through many of the residential streets. On a nice day this would be a place to spend a few hours.

With rain drops were beginning to fall (remnants of hurricane Patricia), so we decided to call it a day and return to the campground. We've all decided to extend our stays here at Arnett's Gulf Stables & Campground an additional day hoping the rains from Patricia will pass and driving conditions will improve. Jeri/Terry and Jan/Jerry will be heading either east or south. We are on the road west to Houston.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day.

A WONDERFUL TIME WITH WONDERFUL FRIENDS!

Saturday, October 24 – We had friends to meet today in Santa Rosa Beach, FL. Santa Rosa Beach is about 18 miles east of Destin, FL. We are staying at Arnette's Gulfside Stables and Campground. What a neat campground. The streets and sites are gravel with 50 amp full-hook-ups. There is a horse stable, so rides are available if you want to saddle-up. Thanks Jeri for finding this gem!

Looking right.

Looking left.

We met up with old RVer friends Jeri and Terry and Jan and Jerry. Not to hard to mess up those names :-) We saw Jeri and Terry last year at the Quartzsite gathering but haven't seen Jan and Jerry since 2010 at a previous Q gathering. Everyone looks young, beautiful and skinny! We are on our way West. The other two couples are heading down into the Florida peninsula.

The stables are having a Halloween party for the local kids this weekend. What fun! They have hayrides, pumpkin painting, bouncy areas, and of course lunch. Looks like these young families are having a blast. A beautiful day for the kids to pick out their pumpkin too!

After getting everything set-up, we told our friends we would be back for happy hour and headed to the Destin boardwalk to see the tourist area. It looks like the boardwalk area doesn't really start rockin' until evening. There were some people out strolling the boardwalk but things certainly weren't very busy. The only busy area was an outdoor patio bar. They had a ban and about 250 motorcycle riders enjoying a buffet and a few beers.

This Magnolia tree was part of Destin before Destin existed. Estimated at approximately 170 years old, this once 4-story tree outlived other magnolias by some 90 years.

A local and nationally recognized artist and sculptor, Marlin Miller, and son, Preston, donated their time and talents to memorialize the coastal life of Destin.

The biggest big screen TV we have ever seen. The band is in the front.

Now this ice cream/sorbet sound very interesting.

After a couple hours on the boardwalk, we returned to the campground to enjoy happy hour with our friends and to catch-up on each others lives.

What a happy hour.

Paul, Marsha, Jerry, Jan, Terry, Jeri.

From our last post, a reader named Judy asked...”What app do you use for counting steps/miles walked? iPhone or Android app? I have an Apple 5. thanks.” We are sorry but we don’t have your email address in order to answer your question. But, hope this helps. We have an Apple 6. It is the Health app that comes with that phone. If you go to the App Store and do a search for health apps there are tons of them there.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!