Waking up in a very quiet campsite in the middle of a pristine forest, a time when few people are out and about, is a feeling we will long remember.  Though we spent only one day at Hillsborough River State Park, we left with a great appreciation for what the Florida forest service has accomplished in making room for people to camp and live in harmony with this protected reserve.

Today we drove 6 ½ hours, 332 miles, in order to get to our next destination, but it was not as tedious as it sounds.  In fact, not tedious at all.  Rather than taking the interstate highway, we chose to take the longer route and drove through the Florida Panhandle on two-lane forested secondary roads, a much more relaxing ride – talking, listening to music (the best of the ‘60s), and marveling at the scenery.

Around 3:00 pm we arrived at the T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park on the Gulf of Mexico, across the bay from Port St. Joe – a new experience to add to the many new experiences we have had on this trip.  On a very narrow piece of land, with the Gulf on one side and the St. Joseph Bay on the other, sits 9.5 miles of a white sand beach and sand dunes.  We walked the beach on boardwalks spanning the sand dunes; there were few people on the walk, to the point where at times we felt we had the beach to ourselves.  We examined sea shells, walked the nearby wilderness boardwalk (a different boardwalk) that is also on the peninsula, and took photos.

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But the most exciting experience was the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico.  We will never get tired, or even used to the emotion, of watching a beautiful setting of the sun, providing an artistic picture of the sky.  And a bonus:  in addition to the sunset, the advantage of being on a narrow peninsula was that we also had an exceptional sunrise on the bay side the next morning.  These will be some of the cherished memories of a lifetime.

Sunset:

Sunrise:

After a morning of enjoying the symphonic sounds of an almost empty beach, we continued on our journey.  This was a slow but mostly lovely drive along the Emerald Coast, named because the color of the Gulf water which appears green.  We called the Chabad of the Emerald Coast and were directed by the rabbi to a supermarket that sold fresh challot.  We also double-checked Shabbat time, confirming that this part of Florida (the part south of Alabama in the Florida Panhandle) is on Central time, and thus we needed to set our watches back.  We then continued to Walmart to shop for other needed essentials and explored a section of Fort Walton Beach where we meet a very knowledgeable city manager who was happy to fill us in about the history and development of his area.

Next we continued to a Milton, Florida KOA where we set up camp for Shabbat.  This RV park was nice, friendly, fairly well-developed, and large enough for some good Shabbat walks.  Interestingly enough, they serve a continental breakfast that we were able to enjoy: coffee and milk from a carafe, paper cups and bowls, plastic silverware, and separate packages of cereal, Danish, and jams with a hashgacha;  even the bags of bagels (which we did not take) had an OU certification.

It was a nice relaxing Shabbat.

We are now back in Lawrenceville, Georgia, where we will get our RV ready for storage and prepare for our trip home.