Country Inn & Suites By Carlson Panama City

Beautiful beaches.

Too bad they are flanked by zealots and bikers. Been a long time since I had seen such racism co-existing with constant praise to the almighty (I know, usually go hand-in-hand).

If you are looking for a confederate flag boogie board, they have plenty to choose from.

White sand, clear aqua water...and lots of country families compliments of Alabama. If you can ...

My assignment at Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida brought me to the white sand beaches, white fluffy clouds, blue skies, sunshine and 80 degree weather after we were through with the high winds, heavy rains and tornado warnings the first 2 weeks. The palm trees, water and wide streets lined with many of the same mega stores and restaurants that I remember in California give way to my feelings of missing that ...

Because of a job interview in Tallahassee, FL, Larry and I decided to use the weekend prior to the interview to visit the surrounding area.  We'd been to Florida lots of times, but never to Tallahassee or the Panhandle.We left early Saturday morning.  It rained all the way down to Florida.  I had packed a picnic lunch from Zoe's--chicken salad, pimento cheese, fruit, and cookies.  We ate this in the car while driving. Our only stops were for gas and to buy ...

... It is clean, has room for transients and even had an oil dumping station where we got rid of the old oil that we changed out in Apalachicola. We then walked downtown to buy groceries. I guess we got carried away buying "junk" because even the checkout lady commented on how much junk we were buying. Being Sunday, all the downtown area was pretty deserted, but I can see where it would be fun to wander through the many ...

... the boat and sailing it to the pier at the condo. Then it's a calm fishing day. Except, the first boat's motor catches on fire, out in the water. The only replacement is a pontoon, which isn't the best for casting. But nothing stops dedicated fishermen/women. There's enough fish for dinner! No suprise.

... to fish. Lew gave me my first rod...a Wright & McGill. And he tried to teach me how to cast. At the age of 6 I was practicing in his yard. I think my brother Skip was hooked at birth. My younger brother Scott also became addicted. So addicted that he now lives on a trout stream, the Sinnemahoning Creek in Driftwood, PA. Skip taught ...

... so he bought it and drove it back to PJ's. We took almost another month to install, change, add-on or do whatever else was needed to suit our needs. PJ's son Billy came down from Indiana for a visit and he did a lot of the work, like installing all the satellite, TV, and electrical stuff. It's a 35' Tiffin Allegro Bus (3 feet shorter than the Dynasty) and has less storage room, however ...

When we left Brownsville, we headed back east to Perry, GA for a big FMCA RV Rally. Along the way, we connected with our friends Bev and Wynn in Styx River for a couple of days. The FMCA rally was very good and had a lot of worthwhile information and entertainment. After the rally, we worked our way back to our friend PJ's 'farm' in Vernon, FL just north of Panama City in the Florida Panhandle. PJ had bought a reservations service from me, on the island of Maui, several years ago ...

Brandon and I decided to take a day trip down to the Gulf coast to go to the beach. We ended up going to Panama City Beach. It was nice, certainly different than West Coast beaches. The water had a bit of algae and it was super salty (where if you don't rinse off you can brush the salt off), and there wasn't anywhere to rinse off... but I thought the weather and water were nice. I may have even gotten a little bit of sun!!

After a pleasant week on the Gulf Shore, we headed for Florida. Then a few miles later, just after we crossed the border into Florida, we barely escaped having a bad accident with a cement truck! We don't know if the truck driver dropped something, or what, but he crossed about 5'-6' over the double yellow line into our lane right in front of us! Terry leaned on the horn and pulled over as far to the right as he could (it was a narrow road with no shoulder due to ...