May 30, 2020 Carrabelle to Panama City Beach, FL

It was a sunny day as we made our preparations to leave. Getting out of the campsite took some planning as to how to back out and where to hook-up the Jeep. The campground was full last night. so things were a little crowded and tight. Bob did a great job of backing out. The location of our site on the end of the row really made it easy. We found a space by the office to hook-up the Jeep. so we weren’t in anyone’s way. We finally pulled out of the campground at 10:40. We had 92 miles to go to get to Panama City Beach today. Highway 98 would take us all the way there along the coast. The ocean looked very serene today–very few ripples on the water.

We were reminded that there are bears in this area as seen by this sign along the road.

Our route today took us through the city of Appalachicola again which was pretty quiet for a Saturday morning. A good portion of Highway 98 travels through uninhabited wooded areas with a few cities mixed in along the way.

Bpb spotted the Cape San Blas Lighthouse as we approached the town of Port St. Joe.

Apparently, Port St. Joe also sustained some damage from Hurricane Michael which devastated Mexico Beach almost 2 years ago as seen in these pictures.

We crossed the bridge over St. Andrews Bay and the entrance to the bay where the ships were docked.

Mexico Beach was just 16 miles down the road and even after almost two years, there were still many signs left over from Hurricane Michael’s presence here. Here we crossed into the Central Time Zone and turned our clocks back an hour.

As the road passed near the beach, we could see that people were practicing social distancing. We were happy to see that.

Many buildings that sat right on the beach before Hurricane Michael were no longer there.

Sections of forested areas were stripped of trees and foliage.

The highway took us past Tyndall Air Force Base where more damage could be seen.

We arrived in Panama City and there were constant reminders that they had been affected too.

The drive of 92 miles today was mostly on a 2-lane highway that had lots to see, but it also created some stressful driving. We arrived in Panama City Beach around 12:00 which was our check-in time. Our campground is the Pineglen Motorcoach and RV Park–a hidden gem right in town. The sign was small, but thankfully our GPS let us know exactly where to find it.

The grounds are beautifully landscaped with flowers and the property contains 3 ponds in a pine forest.

We were assigned site #39, a large pull-thru site on the end of the row. We had lots of room and our own little “park” area. It was awesome.

Auggie had lots of space to scout out geckos and squirrels, maybe even a rabbit or two. Across from our campsite is a large grassy area for Auggie to stretch his legs. We got all set up and then took a short ride into town to the Camping World store to pick up the new Brake Buddy system that we had them set aside for us.

As we returned to the campground, we saw these people bring a turtle to the owners to put in their pond. I guess they wanted to find a good home for it. It was a big one.

We got back in time to watch the launch of the Falcon 9 Crew Dragon. It was an awesome sight to see on TV! The space program has come so far since we first watched NASA launch the first man into space. I remember sitting in front of our TV as kids in the 60’s. It’s still gives me goosebumps and is exciting to watch.

Afterwards, we sat with Auggie and watched a little TV outside before dinner. It was a warm afternoon and we could tell there were storms in the area by the thunder we heard and the thunderheads we saw forming in the sky in the distance. As we headed indoors to start dinner, I spotted 3 deer crossing the grassy area across from us.

How cool was that? It reminded me of being in the woods of northern Wisconsin, not in Florida in Panama City Beach. We took our evening walk to check out the campground. We are enjoying our little piece of woods here at the end of the row.