We must be getting used to this itinerant lifestyle because we were packed and rolling out of the campground before 8 am. First stop, though, was McDonald's for an Internet breakfast and to sort out some iPhone access for Mrs T. It took a tad longer than we'd thought but by 9 am we were back on the road and heading for the I75, northwards this time.
The trip over to Grayton Beach was quite uneventful, thank goodness. North to the I10 then west past Tallahassee (State capital Florida, you know) and then south to the coast. The roads were good, if a little switchback in nature, which was surprising because I though this State was flat. Two stops for gas, awful consumption figures (not sure why) and frequent stops because it was so hot, the car showing 36 and 37 degrees Celsius for most of the trip. We did run into a little rain, well we had to, but as we arrived at Grayton Beach State Park it was still dry, albeit that there were big black clouds to the right and to the left of us.
We'd crossed over into the Central time zone and gained ourselves an hour, which was handy, so we were looking forward to getting onto the white sand and swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. The camp site was small but neat and it didn't take us long to get set up and ready to head the mile or so to the beach. The heat by now was amazing but, given the big storms that looked to be raging on the coast either side of us, we decided not to get the awning out.
The beach was lovely, white sand as far as the eye could see and this part of the coast at least, not spoiled at all. The sea, though, was a curious shade of green, the weed hereabouts having been stirred up by quite rough sea. The water itself, though, was warm; much warmer than the pool at home and considerably warmer than any sea I'd ever been in before. OK, so the pockets on my swim shorts filled up with fine green weed, but it was just great all the same. What was noticeable was that we were in a little oasis of unspoiled coastline, with major development on both sides of the State Park but this little bit remarkably free of anything but sand dunes.
Back at the camp site it was hot and humid, the inside of of air conditioned toad palace being a much better place to be than the steamy outdoors. I'd had visions of sitting out under the awning in the evenings, beer in hand, winding down the day. The heat and humidity, though, make sitting outside a real pain as you break into a sweat just sitting still. I appreciate that this is not a really hot place as we're still far from the equator, however, having never been south of Florida my poor northern tuned body is struggling a bit!
Supper that evening was at Angelina's Pizza and Pasta, a nice if chaotic restaurant on the beach road. On the way there we passed through some really cheesy beach side development, which put me in mind of some of the slightly better places on the Spanish Costas. There's very little public access to the beaches here because the bit between the road and the beach is solid housing; not my thing at all. Anyway, we found Angelina's on the second pass, enjoyed the frenetic activity in there as well as the food (all home made), before heading back to Towed Haul for the night.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a wind down day although I note that we are slated for an early run to the supermarket to stock up on supplies. Mrs T has some cleaning up on her mind whilst I am to be lifeguard at the beach. Let's hope the weather holds!
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