Georgia and Florida.

Georgia

Saturday morning we left at 11:35 en route to Georgia and shortly thereafter we came to a sign that read "We're glad you've got Georgia on your mind".

A few hours later, there being no sign of a rest area or picnic stop on the highway we pulled off into a Lowe's (hardware store) parking lot for our lunch break and doggy walk.

Pushing on we made one more stop at a rest area on the I-75, and at 6:50 PM we called it a day at the Walmart Parking lot in Tifton Georgia.

The inverter was called up for active duty and we had the satellite TV up and running just in time for the 5 o'clock news from home. A bottle of wine and a good dinner soon had us ready for bed--the dogs had beaten us to it.



10:15 next morning, breakfast done, dogs walked we fired up the rig and drove across the street to take on some fuel. Taking the current rate of exchange into consideration, less than 75 cents per litre!

We were enroute to Florida. This was a state that we thought we might happily miss but we discovered in Ottawa that our friends son, a Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces, was working with a NATO group in Panama City, Florida. Geoffrey and Art had been best buddies many years ago in Victoria when he and his parents lived across the street. Geoff's dad was in the navy and Art frequently took on the part of honorary uncle and would often take Geoff off to the local donut house when shopping for materials for our home renos. Art was in his 30's, Geoff was 3. They had met once since then when Geoff was in his early teens and Art was keen to see how he had turned out as an adult.



A couple of hours later we stopped for lunch at a rest area on the I-10 in Florida then pushed on to the campground we had selected. It was a good feeling to reach the Gulf Coast though we were greeted by a torrential downpour. By 3:00 PM we had arrived at the Rustic Sands Campground in Mexico Beach, which turned out to be a good hour's drive from where Geoff was living! In retrospect we should have carried on--there was an RV park just a few minutes from his condo!




Once we got settled we called Geoff and arranged to meet him later. First Gillian had to go for a walk with the dogs and Art had to have a nap!


The weather remained cloudy and a bit of rain was falling on and off but he cloudbursts had been left behind when we set off in the car for Panama City Beach about an hour away.

The grey seas and grey skies didn't offer much in the way of photogenic scenery so we took a few pictures of some of the nicer homes along the way then the camera battery went dead. We have a spare, but it was back in the motorhome!




Geoff met us at the door and ushered us into the private parking garage. He told us to bring the dogs along, so we all followed him into the elevator and up to his suite. Situated near the top of the tower he had an excellent view of the bay on one side and overlooked the street on the other.

After relaxing and chatting for a while we went out for dinner one of his favourite seafood restaurants for dinner where we continued to catch up on almost 30 years of history. We were very annoyed about the camera batteries as we would have liked a group picture but Geoff came to the rescue with his cell phone and the aid of the waiter. Looking at the photo we can see how much he resembles his dad at the same age.


We returned home by a slightly different route and soon saw why Geoff had recommended the highway 98 business loop rather than the main route. The business loop had a lower speed limit but only a couple of stop lights while the 98 proper seemed to stop at every major intersection.


At least we would know the road for the first hour or so when we left for Alabama in the morning.