After being in Ocala Sunday evening through this morning we said goodbye to Bel and headed west across northern Florida. I had a hard time deciding where to stay this evening, because I had too many things planned for the time we really had to do what we want to do. I decided to let go of Indian Pass and Manatee springs and tried to get into Panama City Beach, but then decided instead to go to St Joseph State Park because it would be on the white sugar sand beach with clear water without all the people and it was closer and we could settle in by evening.
Tomorrow will be a long day trying to get to New Orleans, and we may have some weather to deal with, but we need to get a bit more west if we are going to get home as I planned on Jan 2. Mo wants to look at a new motorhome in San Antonio, and we both want to spend a couple of days in New Orleans, so we need to get moving along. Sigh. This part of Florida lends itself to lazy beach days and dark starry nights, it’s really quiet and there’s lots to see and do that is part of the nature coast, especially the springs and rivers and beaches. 
I really hope that when I am retired we can come back here and spend the time it takes to really relax into this place and enjoy the water and the quietness and lack of people. I do hope that by the time we do get back here it will still have as few people as it does now. This is the Florida that I know and love that isn’t anything like the Florida that is in everyone’s mind. It is still quiet and empty with long stretches of roads through the forest that are even and straight and sometimes you see a car now and then and sometimes not. After all the hustle of living in California I just can’t get enough of these long quiet empty forested roads with no traffic. People don’t really get it when I talk about Florida this way, and sometimes I even think I am making it up, but today I was reminded that it’s real.
Quiet dark night on the beach on a narrow spit of land between the gulf and the bay, listening to the low sound of gentle waves.
Tomorrow will be a long day trying to get to New Orleans, and we may have some weather to deal with, but we need to get a bit more west if we are going to get home as I planned on Jan 2. Mo wants to look at a new motorhome in San Antonio, and we both want to spend a couple of days in New Orleans, so we need to get moving along. Sigh. This part of Florida lends itself to lazy beach days and dark starry nights, it’s really quiet and there’s lots to see and do that is part of the nature coast, especially the springs and rivers and beaches. 
I really hope that when I am retired we can come back here and spend the time it takes to really relax into this place and enjoy the water and the quietness and lack of people. I do hope that by the time we do get back here it will still have as few people as it does now. This is the Florida that I know and love that isn’t anything like the Florida that is in everyone’s mind. It is still quiet and empty with long stretches of roads through the forest that are even and straight and sometimes you see a car now and then and sometimes not. After all the hustle of living in California I just can’t get enough of these long quiet empty forested roads with no traffic. People don’t really get it when I talk about Florida this way, and sometimes I even think I am making it up, but today I was reminded that it’s real.Quiet dark night on the beach on a narrow spit of land between the gulf and the bay, listening to the low sound of gentle waves.
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