Santa Rosa Island | Navarre Beach

Friday - 8 November 2002: Navarre, Florida- And, oh, did I mention we are near a missile test-firing ground? Boom. Boom. Boom. Luckily, Fearful Fido didn't seem to notice, as it is quite far off. Also, there is a Navy Air Base here, so we are well protected, with frequent fly-bys. (They are probably patrolling for errant dogs on the beach. Beagle at 7 o'clock. That's a Roger.) Sorry - must be the cold medicine typing! Also, Pensacola is the home base of the Blue Angels, and they are coming home tomorrow. There will be Air Shows tomorrow and Sunday - and we have beach-front seats... except that we will be in a sports bar watching the Ducks v. Wazzu.

I also have not mentioned that I am in Jimmy Buffett Land. So many of the places we have been visiting have been mentioned in his songs and books. Interesting to me only. Guess that's why it's my journal.

We had a lazy day. We walked/ran in the morning and then took a drive out to the beach on Santa Rosa Island, a key off the coast. (If you look at the photo of the pier yesterday, you can make out the key on the horizon. The sun is setting behind the fifty-cent toll bridge to Santa Rosa Island.) I have never seen such white, fine, sand - even in the Caribbean - than I saw today on Santa Rosa Island. Just beautiful. Of course, DoodleDawg is not welcome on the beach, so we had to walk on the wooden walk-ways along the beach. Most of the island is a National Sea Shore, and some of it is managed by the University of Florida. The rest is hotels, resorts, condos, luxury homes, beach shanties, restaurants and shops. It is a very pretty area. On the west end of the island, there is another bridge to Pensacola, so we did the loop.

On the way home, I decided the only way I was going to feel better was to have chicken soup. And not soup from a can. I was going to have to make it myself. So we stopped at the Winn-Dixie for ingredients. Winn-Dixie is not a good supermarket. I am officially becoming a Member of every supermarket that will offer me a card. It is just ridiculous that they make you get the cards, but again today we wanted to buy bottled water and it was $3.99/case with the card and $4,000 without. We keep the cards in the ashtray of the Honda and whip them out when required. Luckily, we didn't need anything fancy to make a pot of soup, and I spent the late afternoon boiling and chopping. I also baked a loaf of Challah - which I shared with our neighbors. We have met the nicest couple and we are on the "same trip". It is very interesting - they are from Denver, have been gone the same amount of time, and are about our age. They went up around Lake Michigan and came down the Eastern Shore. We even stayed in many of the same campgrounds - just not at the same time.

Dog tired: Navarre Beach Bum Beagle

Again, the Navarre Beach Campground campers gathered at the end of the pier for cocktails - cameras in hand. The sunset was not very pretty tonight - clouds blocked the view. It is much warmer this evening though, so the crowd was larger. We will stay in again tonight.

RV Park: Navarre Beach Campground