A little rain, a local feast and a little oooopsie…

Our last day in Panama City, Florida brought us a little bit of rain as cold fronts are starting to make their way further and further south finally affecting the weather here in the panhandle of Florida. We stowed all our gear the evening before the light rains began so we wouldn’t have to pack away any wet gear.  Luckily by Saturday noon the rain subsided.

That afternoon we were able to take one more 3 mile walk before heading over to our favorite little beach bar called Patches. It just couldn’t be any more convenient as this little bar is less than a 1/4 mile from the state park entrance. This bar hosts food events a few times a year and today was one of those days as locals had filled the parking lot for the big food fest at the bar. We were invited by several of the locals on a previous visit so we found a spot at the outside bar where we ordered a bucket of beer and watched some college football.
As we were at the bar a local decked out in his finest LSU gear (including his LSU cook apron) had just added about 25 pounds of shrimp along with some sausage and mushrooms to a huge boiling pot of water and spices. Other locals had their fryers going and were whipping up some fried locally caught fish as well as some locally caught alligator. The bar provided the sides of potato salad and baked beans so the feast was set. Best of all all this food was free!!! One of the locals told us they do this once or twice a year when everyone's freezers get too full. What impeccable timing!

We had a great time at the feast on Saturday but alas Sunday came and it was time for us to leave this little gem of a place. It is definitely one we will return to if we can score a spot there when we come back through next spring. We rolled out of the park around 11:30 for the 45 minute drive of about 39 miles east to Rustic Sands RV Park in Mexico Beach Florida. As we pulled in we could tell this park was not going to be as nice as the one we just left. We pulled into a site nestled in the sparse pine trees next to a cute little pink remodeled travel trailer.

As we were setting up we met Judy, the owner of the remodeled rig.  It turns out she told us she and her husband always wanted to RV full time but he passed away before they could realize their dream.  Since her kids are spaced between Georgia and Florida she decided to purchase a vintage camper and make it her own unique girly travel trailer.  Not only is it pink but it also has a state of the art kitchen as she is a retired executive chef.  She is one of those happy souls who makes you smile just being around her.  She invited us to a shindig happening at a local restaurant/tavern about 20 miles away. We were real interested in going to it until I couldn’t seem to find my glasses… Sigh….

As we retraced our steps trying to locate the glasses we realized they were on the picnic table at our last camp site at St Andrews State Park. Sharon called only to have the ranger tell us no one had turned in any glasses and that he had no way to get in touch of the camp hosts that clean up the sites once patrons depart. Having no choice but to drive back the 39 miles we made our way back to the park. As we pulled up to our site someone had just recently pulled in and were setting up. We looked at the picnic table and lo and behold there were my glasses! Lucky me!!! So we drove back to Mexico Beach and after stopping to get some gas and groceries we decided that we would go ahead over to the shindig our neighbor told us about… more on this shindig in the next blog…