Putting on My Beach Shoes

Driving south from Pensacola is an exercise in city driving. Slow, plagued by stop lights, commercial, developed, it takes a good part of the day to reach a little peninsula jutting out from the coast just outside the small town of Port St. Joe. Our main stop for the day was a fortuitous one at an appealing Goodwill. Now I am an expert on Goodwills and this was one of the most unique ones ever. The building was originally an Italian restaurant. Where else will you see a Goodwill with a fireplace? Our finds for the day were beach hats for Jim and beach shoes for me. My shoes are labeled K-Swiss Recovery Shoes but they are sand shoes to me.

We finally found our destination for the night, St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, after driving 20 miles out of the little town of Port St. Joe. I wish we could stay here longer because this is really a spectacular, out-of-the-way place. Our camping site is secluded and surrounded by tropical vegetation. Only a few steps away are the boardwalks that carry you over the well-entrenched sand dunes to the pristine, shell-littered beach. Tonight I took some photos of a mild but beautiful sunset over the Gulf. It is chilly enough here to make you believe you are in Oregon, but I expect to see warmer weather as we make our way south in the next few days. Meanwhile, we bless our little electric heater and the electric hookup here. No cable or wi-fi but we'll get by. Downton Abbey will just have to wait. No spoilers, now!