We left Breaux Bridge, LA early in the morning hoping to beat the weather heading to Panama City Beach, Florida which was a longer drive than we normally like. It did not work out like we had hoped. We drove for eight hours is the pouring rain with very little visibility. It was horrendous, between the rain and the traffic we didn't think we would ever make it. The one fun part of the drive was crossing so many state lines; we left Louisiana, drove thru Mississippi then Alabama and finally into Florida. One of my favorite things is to read all of the new laws that are posted when you cross state lines - crazy I know. We finally did pull into Rustic Sands RV Park in Mexico Beach(just outside of Panama City Beach) right before dark in time to set up camp. We chose a fairly large back-in site and had way too much help from the other guests, but we finally settled in. It is a very nice campground with lots of trees and very nice " snowbirds."
We drove into Panama City Beach to visit the stores owned by my cousins and have a mini family reunion lunch. We started at Big Willy's the largest of their three stores where we saw my cousin Mark and his daughter Melissa. They are very busy getting ready for Spring Break season, but the stores looked great to us - so many fun t-shirts, souvenirs and beachwear. We then went to the second store where we met my cousin Terri. She had managed to get all of the family members to come to lunch on very short notice; my aunt Linda and three of her four kids; Mark, Terri and Valerie; Mark's wife Julie and newly engaged daughter Melissa (congratulations); Terri's husband David and son Andrew. It was so great to see everyone. It had been way too long. Mark gave us lots of great tips on what to see on our future travels.
We spent the rest of our visit walking the beaches and running some much needed errands. The Florida beaches are gorgeous! Beautiful white sand and clear water. We spent two lovely days walking the beach and letting the dogs run wild chasing birds. Calcite actually believes she can fly. On our second day a pod of dolphins swam along the shoreline accompanying us on our walk.
Coming soon.... Inverness, Florida with Mom and JT... woo hoo!
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