30A

The  spousal unit and I hit the road this morning south bound, destination, the sugar sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle.


Road trips never cease to amaze me.  We barely get started, and we come across a line of traffic on hwy 471.  Its a group of cars lined up behind a tractor with a bush hog attachment.  The dude has his left arm fully extended, which to me, alerts you that he is about to make a left turn.  This is a hand signal, used by bike riders and anybody else that does not have a turn signal.  The drivers behind him begin to PASS him!  Either they are too impatient to wait, or they didn't have a clue about the rules of the road!

Since we are headed through Mobile, the spousal unit used her iPhone app to confirm the congestion at the tunnel.  We have learned to avoid it by using the Bay Bridge route.  We usually travel Hwy 98, then take Hwy 63 to Moss Point to get on I10 then go north on I65 to the I165 exit.  Since it was Saturday, I figured I would just stay on Hwy 98 all the way to Mobile.  Figured I would miss all the busy work day traffic that clogs this route from experiences from years past.  Wrong!  Seems everyboby from that area was out and about.

The Bay Bridge route makes it a piece of cake.  Yoiu reach I10 at the first exit past the tunnel exit.  I was in the wrong lane and missed the on ramp.  No biggie, there is an entrance to I10 just three miles up the road.  Whoops!  That entrance was blocked by what looked like fire damage of all things!  Now what?  On to Spanish Fort via Hwy 98!  Guess what,  there are several restaurants on that stretch of road!  We will be checking them out on future trips for sure.  As we entered I10, the road ahead of us was free and clear.  All that road congestion was behind us.  The traffic heading west was not so lucky, as it was still bumper to bumper!

We made the trip in six hours, with only one gravity stop for the spousal unit.  That my friends is a record!  Got checked in to the condo and we were now ready for our next adventure.

Since road trip days don't leave you much time at the end of the day for beaching, we had decided to do a road trip down 30A.  This is a stretch of road that follows the coastline from Sandestin to Panama City.  We haven't been down that stretch of road in years, which was a side trip to Seaside.  I'd seen pictures of Rosemary Beach and that was our ultimate destination.

Rosemary Beach is easy to get to if you just travel Hwy 98 to the west entrance of 30A.  We took the scenic route.  Went through Grayton Beach, Watercolor, and Seaside, reaching our final destination of Rosemary Beach.

Lots of folks have abandoned the Destin area for these stretches of beach.  Destin was once known as a sleepy little fishing village.  Not anymore.  Condos are everywhere!  If you are a beach goer, you have to stake out your stretch of sand early because of all the overcrowding.  In some spots you can't see any sand because its wall to wall umbrellas!

The thing that struck me as we journeyed down 30A, man, this area is a bit overbuild too!  For the most part these are "planned communities" with building height restrictions, nice brick lined pathways, some wonderful eateries, and less congestion on the beaches.  All this comes with a price.  Lots of money being paid to enjoy a much slower pace, almost a throwback to the beach house lifestyle of the 50's and 60's.

Seaside was one of the first communities built.  There is a green space in the community center where they put on a variety of activities. The road side of the green space is lined with "truck kitchens" working out of old airstream trailers.  We may return later in the week for an open air movie and truck food!

As we made our way down the rest of 30A, the kick in the head moment was the realization that, don't forget, there are two sides of the road, beach side and across the street.  All this money being spent by people staying "across the street" with no immediate access to the beach!  These folks that drive all these fancy cars are having to walk or bicycle down the road a bit to find the public access to the beach.  Those that are spending even more money are paying it for private access to the beach.

We passed a few waiters standing around, passing the time till the dinner crowd got active. So,  where do these guys last be?  Certainly not in the community that they were working!

We looked around a bit from the comfort of my KIA Sorento, a distant cousin to the Lexus and Mercedes crowd.  Decided to head back to Condo on the back bay of Sandestin, with a stop at Wally world and a bite to eat.

We ended up at Captain Dave's.  It was still daylight and all the parking in the area was still occupied by the beach goers.  Captain Dave's has a parking lot across the street and the have a tunnel that you can take to avoid the traffic.  We chose to dodge the cars.  I asked the waiter, "so, where do all the waiters live"?  He cracked me up, with a reply that he lives just 3 blocks away and usually rides his skate board to work!  Most live in communities inland, like Niceville, and commute to work.

Day one is in the books!