This day was set to mostly a drive day. After all it is along way up the inside Gulf side of Florida. We started our morning in Spring Hill, Florida. While I was checking out I asked the concierge where the closest beach was to where we were staying. Given the oil spill I wanted just one last chance to see a clean beach. We either got the directions wrong or were just gifted and only found this little water side city park. This doesn't quite measure to a sandy beach. We were pleased with the view just not what we were expecting.
We headed north up I-98. Which is pretty much what we expected little bit of scenery and a whole lot of road. One eventful thing did happen. We were in some small town and the road came to a standstill. Next thing we know we police helicopters flying overhead as well as police going the wrong way on the other side of the median. Not sure what was going on I chose to start scanning for local radio stations and see if by chance we could learn anything. We got lucky on about the 3rd station. Turns out that at the next stop light in front of us (about 1/3 mile) there had been a shooting. Scary! We were just stuck there. The DJ said that he had been in his booth about 10 minutes when this all went down. Get this the radio station was at this intersection. Bless his heart he was so excited. About every 45 seconds he would mention that the north bound traffic was stopped but the south bound was still moving (yeah we kind of got that). I guess the angels were watching out for us because on the radio the local police stated live that this was a random shooting. Some guy just walked up to a car at the red light and shot. Did I point out that we were only about 1/3 a mile from this. That was a little to close for comfort. Anyway the police kept the north bound lanes at a stand still until they did their investigation. We sat there maybe 30 - 45 minutes before they let the traffic move. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful and long.
Finally we were able to start heading west. We made one of our stops at Panama City Beach. This did turn out to be our last chance to see clean Gulf waters. Look at that picture of hubs doesn't he look good. We took the opportunity to let the kids try and spend the last of their vacation money at Ron Jon's Surf shop. It was funny to watch them. They ended up getting nothing with their money. They were disappointed when mom and dad would not use our money for their stuff. The best part is less petty junk at home and they really haven't missed it.
Out side of Panama City Beach we saw many beach front properties. I thought these two little cuties encompass what I think of when I think beach front home.
This was a long driving day with a few well placed rest stops. I was sad to see the end was coming. I think we were all starting to feel like it was time to get back home.
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