It was under cloudy warm skies we began our travels this morning heading ourselves in a Southwesterly direction. We have begun our slow slide down the westside of the Georgia towards Alabama. Shortly after getting ourselves on the road we entered into the central time zone. Now we need to adjust our inner body clocks.
We were both glad to be moving on again. We are on our way to Pensacola. It’s a two day trip for us, stopping half way in Montgomery at Gunter Hill Park, an Army Corp of Engineers Recreation campground. We had full hookups, a long concrete site pad that put us in a private setting viewing Catoma Creek. Using my senior National Park Pass, the overnight stay only cost us $13.
With today’s cloudy overcast it turned out to be a rainy driving day so no need for sun visors. Must say I am impressed with these smooth Florida highways. Nice compared to some of the roads we were on a week or two ago. We booked three days at Pensacola RV Park just off I-10 and yes Florida I did notice how smooth your I-10 stretch of highway is. Overnight prices for some these places are huge along Florida’s panhandle coast and of course site availability is virtually non existent at this time of year with all the snowbirds. We had to move to an expensive KOA park for the weekend, we didn’t know this was a long week-end (Presidents Day) so the campground was booked up.
We have been very fortunate with the nice weather (70’s) these past few days. Figured we had better get all our outside ventures under our belts before we are once again driven inside by cold cloudy skies. Pensacola is a hidden jewel. There is much to see and do and we took every opportunity to wander and explore.
Our first stop was to Pensacola Navy Air Station to visit free the National Naval Air Museum. This is an on-base free museum. We have to say, we have visited many air museums, including the Smithsonian, this by far is the best ever! We planned for a two hour tour and we ended up spending almost four hours. It’s that good.
After crossing a couple of bridges toward the gulf, we entered the Gulf Islands National Seashores. The ranger at the park gate just wave us on as I showed him my senior National Park pass. There we visited Fort Pickens. We have seen many mid 1800’s forts on the west coast that has the same layout as this one but Pickens is unique. It was completed in 1834 and it only took 5 years. It’s design use the complex brick and mortar to create structurally sound arches.
We kept hearing about Pensacola “off-the-boat” fresh seafood and while we were at the campground laundromat, two ladies told us that the most interesting place to visit in Pensacola was Joe Patti’s Seafood Market. By George, they were right. While we were there in the middle of the afternoon, there must have been a hundred people coming in and out shopping. It was amazing just to watch. We were told it is like this all day, every day. For us, we bought a freshly baked baguette and a pound of boiled seasoned shrimp. Took it back to our campsite, sat outside in my shorts with a glass of wine, broke off some bread and ate fresh shrimp. Life is good!
Where are we staying
While we were traveling through Alabama, we stayed at Gunter Hill Recreation Park in Montgomery. My review is HERE (by Land Wanderer)
In Pensacola, we stayed at Pensacola RV Park. My review is HERE (by land wanderer)
And also we stayed at Milton / Gulf Pines KOA. My review is HERE (by land wanderer
