On the Road

I didn't sleep well - couldn't get situated correctly - but Bonnie said she did so all was not lost. I did get some sleep though, the rumbling of the idling semis around you metaphorically rocks you to sleep.

7:30 a.m. and as Willie Nelson sang, "Hello Walls" I mean "On the Road Again". We stopped in Ocala for fuel and doughnuts. It was the typical gas station, weak coffee and old (or stale) Krispy Kream doughnuts.

I had two thoughts, yes Bonnie 2, what happened to the Service Station where the attendant filled your tank AND washed your windows and where the heck are all of these poor fools heading in such a hurry at 8 a.m.?

The answers are simple. It's all about money. The Service Station used to be individually owned and customer service was how you grew your business. Now the oil companies own the "Convenience" Stores and we pay a whole lot more for gas, pump it ourselves, pay higher prices for beer, cigarettes, bait and bacon all to simplify our day.

And people are rushing all the time to make money to do all the things that simplify our lives. Drive through fast food, drive up ATMs, drive through "no touch" car washes and even drive through package stores (and I'm not talking about sending packages to loved ones). Thankfully, we're retired now and maybe we can slow down for awhile. Wait - we're writing these blogs to relieve us of the chore of writing letters, phone calls or even mass emails blurbs. My God - I've been drug into the 21st Century and I'm not sure I like it. But as Doris Day once said "Roly Poly" I mean "Que Sera, Sera".

Back to the theme though. Northern Florida is much prettier or more scenic than Southwest Florida. There are more trees, more pine trees especially, and more rolling hills.

Thank God for "Ike" and the Interstate Highway System. By the time we reach Pensacola we will have traveled about 500 miles. In the old days we would have taken US Hwys 41, 19, 90 and 98. They are all good roads but they pass through all the small towns along the west coast of Florida and the Panhandle. This journey would have taken close to 24 hours to complete. Instead we will make the same trip in about 11 hours on I-75 and I-10.

We stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. Bonnie was afraid we would snack too much if we didn't have lunch. As usual she is right.

Blah! The customers were bad, the workers were bad and my burger's bun was not too fresh.Why do I eat there? I don't like the food - oh yeah - cheap!

So we're back on the road, 120 miles from Pensacola, into Central Time and and and it's starting to rain. We call that liquid sunshine here in the Sunshine State. But it is not fun setting up the camper in the rain. I hope it stops and the change occurs.

The directions we had to the Oak Grove Campground here on Pensacola Naval Air Station were not that good but we found it anyway. The Camp Host got us a real good campsite "on the water". Her idea of on the water and mine are different. We are about 100 yards from the bay but there are no campers to hamper our view. It's a 20' by 40' level slab with electric, water, cable and sewer hookups. SWEET!

I saw some things on the way to the main gate that reminded me of Norfolk Naval Base and Charleston Naval Base in the mid to late 70's. The ubiquitous tattoo parlors, bars with nautical themed names, fast food joints and churches.

We set up camp and then hit the showers. What a second day. Now we can relax for 8 days. We hit the Mini-Mart for some snacks and other supplies, hot footed it back to base camp for a few quick games of Cribbage and then, as they used to say in the Navy, hit the skid. We did manage to make it to 8:15PM before we figured it was bedtime.