Saturday October 1st 2016

It was another really nice fall day. The temperatures were in the mid 80s with low humidity. All in all it was a very good day to checkout the area.

I went south from the RV park to the Gulf of Mexico. It was about 20 miles to reach the edge of the mainland area. I was particularly interested in checking out the communities of Fort Walton Beach and Destin. I’ve heard lots of people talk about these towns in a positive light.

View from park in Fort Walton Beach

Fort Walton Beach turned out to be an interesting town that was a mixture of tourist areas and the typical military base town. Eglin Airforce base and several outlying airfields surround the town on three sides. I stopped for awhile at a downtown park on the shore of the waterway that separates the mainland from the barrier island. Judging by the number of empty boat trailers in the parking lot, there should have been lots of boats out in the water. I could only see a couple. My guess is I saw them later down in the Destin area.

From Fort Walton Beach I crossed onto Okaloosa Island, the barrier island and drove east toward Destin. I really liked this area with a mixture of business, condos and National Seashore. The sand dunes that reminded me of Cape Cod. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before I caught up with stop and go traffic all the way into Destin.

Destin was holding a seafood festival. It seemed to be a very popular event. There were boats of all kinds in the inlet just west of the town. I think some of these came from the boat launch in Fort Walton Beach. Cars were parked in every spot imaginable and people were everywhere. Any thoughts I had of stopping went away with the congestion.

My drive through showed a typical coastal area. Hotels, condos and apartments were on the water side of the road and businesses lined the shore side. The traffic was getting to me so I was in search of a way home. The bridge and road I found was a toll road. Thankfully, my SunPass transponder account still had enough money loaded after last winter to cover my tolls getting back to the Interstate. I wasn’t sure until I got home and checked my account online.

My tour served to tickle my curiosity. I need to plan a longer stay near the beach sometime in the future. The few RV parks that I passed looked old and crowded. I will need to do some research on campgrounds in the area. I suspect I’ll be passing through this area coming from and going to the west from Florida.