Last night we had quite a storm come through the area around 8:00 PM. It was still raining hard at 10:00 with lots of thunder. Auggie was not happy about it and when we finally went to bed, he had to start out in bed with us. After the storm let up a little, he was content to sleep in his bed at the foot of our bed. I had Bob wake me up at 7:30 this morning to have enough time to get ready to depart at 9:30. We finally got a call back from Panama City Beach RV Resort about cancelling our reservation tonight and tomorrow night. They gave us a refund after we tried calling them for 3 days. That was good to finally get that resolved. We got ready and left around 9:30 this morning. We have a drive of 240 miles to our campground near Tallahassee tonight. It was a mostly sunny day, 77 degrees, with light winds. We listened to the hurricane forecast before we left and not much has changed since yesterday. We’ll check again when another update becomes available. Even if the storm weakens, it would have been ill-advised to stay in the Panhandle for the next 5 days and possibly drive home in the rain and/or winds. We picked up Highway 231 out of Montgomery which would take us to Dothan and the Florida border. It is a well-maintained boulevard with light traffic which we’ve traveled on a few times before. It takes you through a few small towns, but it’s a pleasant drive. In Ozark, AL, we stopped for fuel ($3.09 diesel) with an easy in-easy out stop. We passed a campground we’ve stayed at a few times near Dothan, Dothan RV Park, and noticed they had made some nice renovations to the campground.
We crossed the border into Florida about 1:00.
Once we got on I-10, we had 94 miles to go to get to the campground. We ran into a rain shower or two as we headed east on I-10 and crossed the Apalachicola River.
After crossing the river, the terrain became more hilly and we saw areas that looked like they were hit by the last hurricane. Dark clouds were looming to the southeast, but we hoped the storm wouldn’t catch us.
Eventually, it did and we drove in light rain for a short distance. After awhile, we encountered thunder, lightning, and much stronger thunderstorms. By this time, we changed time zones about 20 miles west of Tallahassee and lost an hour going into Eastern time. The wind picked up and made driving very interesting. The trees along the roadside helped block the wind, but in the open areas, we could feel gusts of wind pushing us around.
We arrived at our destination for the evening, A Stone’s Throw Campground, at 2:50. We were given site #20, a 90′ pull-thru site so we wouldn’t have to disconnect.
Bob went to check us in and came out with a free beer. You can’t beat that!
There were only a few of us here, but as the afternoon wore on, a few more arrived.
By the time we got to the campground, the temp had risen to 91 with a “feels like” temp of 101. The sun came out and it was hot. We rested a little after hooking up and giving Auggie a walk to stretch his legs. Bob had some Co-op business to take care of and I started to pack things up in the bus, so we had a later dinner. We took our walk before the sun set and after the rain, it felt a little cooler outside. We relaxed with some TV. Tomorrow would be our last day on the road with about 288 miles to go as we head for home.