Santa Rosa Island, Pensacola

Feb 19-21

We finally had our water tank replaced in the RV.  I had been dreading this repair, but with a bit of advance work we were back on the road in just a couple of hours.  Since our appointment was so early in the morning, we had no choice but to stay at the repair facility the night before. There was a security guard on the premises but we were unsure if he had his shotgun that night :)

The kids had fun going on and out of at least 40 new motorhomes, fifth wheels and dreaming about an upgrade! These are panoramas from my cell phone.  The kids like to move quick from one spot to the other for the "double exposure".

We got to go to the beach one day. In fact, we were at an RV Park at the beach!  There was plenty of wildlife there too.  We saw some blue herons in their nest.  The people here are nice, and they saw some armadillos.  I hope we can find some.  There was a fort nearby and we biked over there to check it out.  It wasn’t as cool as the other fort though.  We headed back and my Mom and I went to the beach.  Tyler and my Dad didn’t go because Tyler’s back was sore.  My Dad’s always the one to take the fall.  We walked along the beach, and it was too slanted to skim board.  We headed back, and watched some Me TV after that.  The next day, we biked around, went to the beach, and just hung out.  When it was getting late, I found a nature trail.  We all got on our bikes and started biking around on it.  There was a plank go across a creek.  My Dad got daring and tried to bike over it.  A vine caught his handle, and he fell into some plants.  So I tried it.  My Mom didn’t want me to, but she couldn’t stop me!  I was a man on a mission, mission impossible!  I made it though.  I just did it across and back.  There was nothing to it.  We ended up on another campground and by that time, the weather totally changed.  We weaved through the grounds and found the exit finally.  I biked pretty fast trying to beat the weather.  When we made it back inside, got in our beds and watched TV, the National Weather Alert came on.  It was pretty creepy.  It said a storm was coming for us and there was a chance of a tornado or even a flood!  We couldn’t sleep due to worry until the storm settled down.  My Dad stayed up for a while, on his computer watching the storm.  Tyler got lucky; he slept through most of it.  We woke up the next day, safe and sound.

~Jack

We are currently enjoying Santa Rosa Island which is a 40 mile barrier island 30 miles East of the Alabama line.  Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay, Florida, and its navy yard. The fort was begun in 1829, completed in 1834.

Fort Pickens was as important as Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. during the crisis between Abraham Lincoln's election in November, 1860 and the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12. 1861. The fort was reinforced the day after Fort Sumter surrendered, preventing the Confederates from controlling Pensacola Bay and using the Pensacola Navy Yard.

my mad dash on my bike to get to the sunrise!

We did lots of biking and bird watching.  There are a ton of GBH nests right out our window.  This island, has probably the most beautiful beaches I have seen so far.  Everything is pure white.  When you walk across the sand, it squeaks  like sneakers on a clean basketball court!

Scott was back at making his bread.  This time 2 loaves of honey wheat bread, one for us and one to share with our neighbors.

Our last night here, had some bad weather passing thru.  Lots of rain, thunder, lightening and then the winds started to howl.  There were tornado warnings north of us.  We weathered the storm fine, but, it was still a sleepless night!

 

We woke up to a bright, crispy, windy and cool morning.   But first, one quick family shot on the beach.  Scout was not allowed on the beaches so we grabbed this one on the edge :) breaking the law...

And now we are off to Ft Walton Beach to go see some family!

~Linda