Day 126: Navarre to Orlando, FL

We were up early this morning to get as much of the lengthy drive to Orlando done as we could during daylight hours. The sky was glowing peach as we said farewell to our AirBnB and continued on our adventure.

We hit fully stopped traffic almost immediately and were forced to do a huge detour in the opposite direction to where we wanted to go in order to get off the peninsula. We suppose that there must be a price to pay to be surrounded by sandy beaches and endless ocean. 45 minutes later we were off the peninsula, actually moving, and on our way.

We drove and drove and drove some more. We briefly considered the possibility of scallop fishing in Panacea but it was rainy with white capped waves when we passed through so we vetoed this and kept on driving. 

Finally, we stopped at Fanning Springs State Park for a stretch, swim and snack. The spring fed pool was crystal clear and refreshing. We snorkelled around in awe of the incredible algae columns growing on the sandy bottom. It looked like an underwater skyscraper city. Angel food cake with fruit salad and whipped cream was our afternoon snack. You are supposed to eat dessert before dinner when on vacation, right?!

This was an enormous bug! Easily the length of Liam’s middle finger. Grasshopper? Locust?

Turns out Ali is an excellent whipped cream sprayer. Why are cans of whipped cream so magical when you’re seven?

We drove past tons of jungle today. Long gone are the desert mesas and red rock formations. Today was trees, trees and more trees. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to bushwhack through this - it was dense!

We rolled into Orlando around dinner time during a major wind and thunderstorm. We are camped out at a rest area where we ate shrimp quesadillas and will fall asleep to the sound of traffic combined with the splatter of pouring rain.

Day 125: Navarre, FL

On what would have been the first day of school for the boys, we had the quietest day of the trip so far - full of rest and relaxation. We drank coffee and made a big, delicious breakfast. We baked (me bread and pizza dough, Liam cinnamon buns and brownies). We read our books.

We did a ton of laundry, washing every article of clothing and all our sheets and towels. We cleaned and vacuumed the truck and trailer.

 

The boys kayaked and tried to fly a kite. It was more a fight with a kite until the string broke and the kite sank to the bottom on the ocean. Given that outcome, I am not sure who won.

We fished off the private pier out back of our AirBnB. I almost caught a tiny sardine. I think Ali and I saw a manatee but it is hard to say for sure what exactly it was as it was mostly a snout with the rest underwater. Ian found an abandoned broken crab trap and fixed it up.

We ate homemade pizza and watched a family movie (Rookie of the Year) and honestly didn’t do much else. We mostly reveled in the luxury of living in a real house for a day, lol.

Day 124: Mobile, AL to Navarre, FL

Ahoy mate! We spent our morning pretending to be sailors on the USS Alabama warship. This ship was huge! It was actually shocking how big it was inside. It housed 2,500 people! Wow. It was like its own city with numerous “classes” of citizens (crew, officers, marines, elite officers, etc.). There were multiple kitchens, butcher shop, common and dining rooms, dishwasher room, laundry facilities, bathrooms, a dark room, film room, barbershop, eye doctor, dentist, physician, surgery, isolation rooms and sickroom bathrooms, laboratory, a soda and ice cream fountain, lost and found, store, uniform office, cobbler, blacksmith, and SO much more!

See how thick the door to the Bridge is for security purposes?

The Captain slept right near the Bridge while at sea. At least he didn’t have to share a room.

Charting and navigation room.

Officer dining room.

Operating room.

Pharmacy.

Communications room.

Post office.

Officer sleeping quarters.

Butcher.

Store. Did you know that pipe cleaners were actually used to clean smoking pipes? I actually had no idea. I thought they were just craft supplies.

Bathroom.

Not much privacy in these toilets. And poop goes in the trough below. Stinky!

Barbershop.

Brig (ship jail).

Crew sleeping quarters.

Galley (kitchen).

Machinery room. They fixed everything on the ship themselves!

Enormous mixer.

Many, many bread baking ovens. Bread for 2,500 hungry sailors would be a lot of loaves.

We also had a chance to explore the USS Drum, a WW2 submarine. In contrast to the spacious ship, the submarine was tight quarters. We had to squeeze through the bulkhead doorways and the space felt much more claustrophobic . There were few extras here, just the necessities - galley, toilets, and torpedoes.

Torpedo bay.

The torpedoes are enormous.

Dining room.

Officer’s quarters.

Parascope.

Crew sleeping quarters.

Engine room.

Torpedo loaded in the bay.

When we were warshipped out, we climbed back in the truck and headed to Florida. We stopped at the Welcome Centre to sample free fresh Florida orange and grapefruit juice, before driving to Pensacola Beach. 

On the recommendation of Captain Jack, our fishing guide from yesterday, we had lunch at Sidelines Diner in Pensacola Beach. He said that the fresh fish sandwiches were a must try so we did! We shared both the fried fish and blackened fish sandwiches and they were delicious. We then hit the beach for some shell hunting, hole digging, and frolicking in the warm waves.

Later in the afternoon we grabbed some groceries and checked in to our waterfront stilt house. I have always wanted to stay at a stilt house on the ocean. We have booked two nights at an AirBnB in Navarre to catch our breath before a whirlwind week at Disney/Universal. We are looking forward to sleeping in, washing our mounds of dirty laundry, taking many clean, hot showers and cooking food the requires an oven. It is going to be fantastic.

Liam prepared nachos for supper (yay oven!) and we celebrated with Blue Bell ice cream for dessert because we have access to a big freezer - woot! woot! We had family movie night - go Netflix! And are looking forward to sleeping in beds with fresh sheets. We are living a life of luxury (at least for today and tomorrow) until we return to the nomadic lifestyle for another month before we return home.