Our rule is that each day of the trip must include two hours or so of sightseeing. Yesterday it was the Florida capitol complex in Tallahassee. Judy’s going to provide some more detail about that excursion further on in this blog post.

Today we took a leisurely drive along the Gulf of Mexico coast from our hotel in Panama City Beach toward Pensacola. We left the shoreline drive about halfway to Pensacola due to a detour and decided enough was enough and hit the main roads on toward Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. What we did fulfilled the two-hour sightseeing requirement, so all was well, schedule wise. And being traveling Ricks, schedule is everything. We schedule our goofing off time!

It turned out to be an interesting drive, mostly because the level of development is incredible. One high rise condo/hotel edifice after another. The hotels are built on a narrow strip of land between the coastal highway and the Gulf. Parking is provided, in many cases, in a two or three-level garage on the other side of the highway, accessed via a second-story pedestrian bridge. Our Hampton Inn was one of this sort: a very nice room with great ocean views.

We also passed through several interesting smaller developments, one with a quaint downtown and tree-lined avenues and another with tall structures marking the entrances to the development. The main drag is lined with royal palms; everything is painted white. Very classy, very pricey looking. The edifices looked to us like Hindu stupas so we named the place Stupaville. Who was it who said, “Stupa is as stupa does.” A movie line, perhaps?

We happened across a very nice little state park, Grayton Beach by name. It sports a smallish campground that even now, in 50-degree weather, was three fourths full of mostly hard-sided RVs full of, I’m sure, bargain hunting old retired folks just like us. There’s a good-sized lake with kayaking and canoeing. Lots of interesting hiking trails. The big draw is, of course, the shoreline. Pure white sand, shallow looking water and very interesting sand dunes blown up by winds from the Gulf. The wind was brisk leading to a chilly walk down to the beach.

Our overarching thought: What must this place be like next month and the rest of the Spring-time season when all these beds are filled with fun-seeking sun worshipers? Someone told us a 15-minute drive takes two hours in season. Just the rack after rack of rental bikes gives one pause.

From there it was pretty much I10 westbound with a detour to the north of New Orleans on I12 passing on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. Baton Rouge was an hour or so further on (it took us a day by ship last November) and then on to Lafayette for our $60 Microtel hotel. We rolled out of the Supercharger in Panama City at 8:30 and arrived here at 6 PM so that’s 9:30 elapsed time, including charging. Take away two hours of goofing off along the coast and our actual travel time was about seven hours, exactly per plan.

Yesterday I complained about lack of human conveniences at Supercharger sites. Well, I had great experiences at two of our three stops. Sorta. The third turned out to be an exercise in, well, exercising.

This morning we charged up at the Busy Bee Supercharger in Panama City. Nirvana! The Busy Bee is a regular gas station with a collocated 8-bay Supercharger. The convenience store is to die for. Tee shirts, boogie boards plus every fattening foodstuff known to modern man. Pee without guilt – they expect Supercharger folks to come in just like gas pump types.

Judy took the edge off, however, purchasing a couple of doo-dads that ran up a $50 tab. Pee-for-free lost its luster.

Next was Crest View FL. Another 8-bay arrangement with a co-located Panera and Starbucks. I snuck into the Panera and did my thing without raising the alarm. Judy chose the Starbucks for her creature comfort. She succumbed to pangs of guilt and left with a $6 pistachio latte (“I know you love pistachio, Jon, so we can share.”) We cleaned up the mess when one-fourth of the latte spilled on the center console but, Hey, a $6 guilt trip is better than $50.

Our third stop near Biloxi also sported a number of walkable establishments but none that seemed ideal. I instead opted for a discount gas joint across the street but, they must have seen me coming, no toilet facilities. Instead, we opted for the Lowes  just before the I10 entrance ramp. “I know right where they put the restrooms in these Lowes, right up front. We’ll park on this end to minimize the walking.” Apparently, I was remembering a Home Depot. We got in our daily 10,000 steps searching for the darned toilets.

The charging stations have been fairly busy with cars coming and going and representing many different states, including one car from Hawaii.

No real surprises on the Full Self Driving front although I’m starting to lose my patience with its lane changing habits. It loves the left-hand lane, even with no cars in sight. I turn on the blinker and force it to its rightful spot in the universe. Late in the day I got too tired to put up with its antics and sent it straight to bed and did the driving myself.

Tomorrow it’s off to Austin with some sightseeing TBD. Tune in tomorrow for the details.

Here’s Judy’s write-up about Tallahassee:

During my childhood we had guests visit in Cincinnati who were visiting state capitols with the goal of vising all 50.  I thought that sounded like fun and so I have been visiting as many as I can even though I do not plan on doing all 50.  So here we were in Tallahassee, and it is even “our” state capital since we live in Florida.

This capitol building is very interesting.  First, we visited the Old Capital Building that is the Florida Historic Capital Museum.  This building was built in 1845 and enlarged several times.  The current building is the 1902 version with a central rotunda and north and south corridors. The first floor housed the governor’s offices and the Supreme Court.  The House of Representative and Senate chambers are on the second floor.  It is a beautiful old building with awning on the windows. I had fun taking pictures and walking the corridors.  The various rooms now house historical displays and portraits of past Florida politicians.

My love for these old buildings probably started in Augusta, Maine where my Great Uncle Bill Silsby was Speaker of the House and then in the Senate.  I must have been 4 years old when I watched him “spank the table” and was very impressed. Both my mother and grandmother worked for the Maine legislature so that is where my interest started. 

We walked out of the West Portico of the Old Capitol and were facing this extremely tall building that is the new capitol building This building was completed in 1978 and is 22 stories high. The top floor is an Observatory Deck which we visited.  The view was of the very flat terrain that is much of Florida.  As we toured the House and Senate on the 5^th floor, we realized that the legislative session would be starting tomorrow.  People were working on getting everything ready for the big day. The Governor’s Suite was on the Plaza level with the Rotunda. This building was very pretty with its oval Rotunda with a beautiful brass Great Seal of Florida in the center.

Just another aside, while visiting in the Governor’s office I learned that Florida has Boys and Girls State that is similar to the Youth in Government program we had in Minnesota.  Both Jeff and Rebecca participated, and I was a volunteer.  Jon joined me for a few years during Rebecca’s last year in YIG. These programs give the youth the opportunity to experience some of how government works especially the bills. Both Jeff and Rebeeca learned a great deal.

As we were leaving the governor’s office a woman came in and asked the receptionist if by any chance, she could have a few minutes to say Hi to Governor DeSantis. She said that they had worked together in Palm Beach government years ago. The receptionist, a true pro at her job, politely deflected the request, given that the governor was busy planning for the up-coming legislative session and running for President and who-knows-what.