Days in Destin

We have enjoyed our time here in Destin.  It is a very nice area and one place we come back and visit again and again.  Even though it is a bit cool, it is a great place to be.

A highlight at the Destin Army Recreation Center Campground is that it is located right on Choctawhatchee Bay in the Emerald Coast Region of Florida's Panhandle.  The campground is tight but we have a 42' pad and at $21/night, it works.

We found out the solenoid came in to Fleet Maintenance in Fort Walton Beach, so we packed up and drove over there early yesterday.

Brad jumped right on it and had it installed before 9:00 a.m.  I paid the $310.44 bill and the good news is that have no more random amperage draw or 'Low Voltage' light.  Meanwhile Pam made a quick commissary run in to Hurlburt Field.  Then we headed back to the campground in Destin.

One of the great joys of this life style is meeting new friends! Ron contacted me earlier in the week and we had lunch with him and Jana at the Shrimp Basket in Fort Walton Beach.  They are from Oklahoma and at one time had a motorhome and started following the Roadrunner Chronicles.

They felt like they knew us and brought up a lot of different episodes that we have encountered in the last four years.  It was a great time of getting to know them and hearing about how they relocated here to be near their daughter and son-in-law and grandkids.  Thanks Ron it was great meeting you two!

It was a beautiful day so we went over to Gator Lakes Golf Course on Hurlburt and played 9 holes.  We hit some good shots but then…  yeah, not enough good shots.

It was slow going for some reason.  On one hole we practiced some putting (why don't the putts drop the first time when they count?)  and had time to catch a photo of a gaggle of turtles catching some sun.

Back at the campground, I took some photos of the evening sun going down.

And caught on of Jonathan's seagull. (OK it was really a pelican but it reminded me of one.)

Another beautiful evening on the bay.

We had pork chops for dinner and watched some TV before we called it a night.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us.  Until next time...

Down the Road in Destin

We are back at the Destin Army Recreation Center Campground in a few miles east of Fort Walton Beach.  I think this is our third time here.  We didn't plan on being here but got into a jam and decided to take a campsite for the week.

We left Pensacola on Saturday morning on a beautiful day.  It was also a beautiful day for a 5K fun run and we ran into McGuires 5K.  We could have risked a detour but we saw a motorhome have to do a U-turn Sunday evening because there was a low bridge that was in the way.

So we watched the race and enjoyed the 40 minute delay.  It was fine.  

Then we moved on to the Air Force FamCamp that is right across from the main gate at Hurlburt Field. It has no reservation system and one gets a spot on a first-come basis.  We arrived about 10:30 and had a hard time finding a spot.  The campground is run down and not well taken care of.  A new one is being built but will not be open until June.  

The supervisor from the Services Flight (who runs the campground) saw us looking for a spot and offered to move a temporary trailer off a campsite for us to use.  

It worked great and we were very appreciative.  He could have just said 'We're Full'.  Instead he took another drive around the park then had two guys come over and hook up the trailer and move it to another place.  I took his card and send a note to his commander.  That is customer service!

We wanted to be near Hurlburt for a couple of reasons.  We were married her in 1979 and spent a couple of great years in Fort Walton Beach.  We also wanted to get the Roadrunner into the Freightliner shop at Fleet Maintenance in FWB.  We had a 7:00 a.m. appointment on Monday.

We were there on time at Fleet Maintenance and asked them to check out the "Low Voltage" light that has been coming on after we are parked for a while.  We dropped off the coach, then went over to Panera Bread for coffee.

I was able to check into work for an hour then we went back over to the garage.  They had a commercial vehicle come in and we got pushed back.  They didn't even start checking things out until about 11:00.  

The batteries were fine but they questioned if they were all hooked up correctly.  We got a residential refrigerator installed 18 months ago by Brannon Hutcheson at Custom RV near Red Bay.  I called him and left a message.  He called back in about five minutes and discussed things with the mechanics.  

Then we sent him some photos.  They determined it was  a bad solenoid, not faulty hookups.

This part is now on order and hopefully will be here in a couple of days.  Meanwhile we are in close quarters at Destin.

We made a rookie error in moving on the weekend.  We could have stayed in Pensacola a few more days.  But we made an appointment at the Freightliner place for Monday a.m.   We could have made it for Tuesday.

Then we stayed at a place where we could lose our spot when we moved over to the repair facility.  Our other option was that we could have stayed at the repair facility with power but no water or sewer. So we opted to make the reservation at Destin.

That's it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Please join us again...

Destin to Knoxville

The trip from Destin, FL to Maynardville, TN on Saturday looked like one of those "too much driving for one day trips".   Google maps indicated it was 533 miles and over 9 hours.  We learned our lesson last time ~ we don't want to arrive late at night again.

We started out about 9:00 AM and drove to Georgia, the northwestern most part of Georgia, just outside of Chattanoga, TN.  By late afternoon, it had turned into a rainy-slow-driving kind of day.  After about 8 hours, we stopped at the KOA a couple of miles off the highway outside of Chattanooga .  We decided we wanted hookups for the night so we could run the air conditioner instead of firing up the generator.

We ended up at Trenton, GA about an hour outside of Chattagnooga and the drive was uneventful except for some of the back roads that Pam was navigating us through.  

Yikes!  We like seeing the country...but I thought these narrow country roads were a little scary...they didn't even have a visible line down the middle of the road.  And they were narrow roads!  Good thing this stretch only lasted 6 or 7 miles until we got to the interstate.

Once we got to Joan and Mike's place in Maynardville, we saw the guys were working on the new barn that Justin (next door neighbor) will use for his car repair business.  He is an expert mechanic and decided he needed a good workshop.  The building is going us piece by piece.  

They have been making good progress from when they started a few weeks ago.

Last time we were in town, we went to the local furniture store in Halls, TN and bought a new recliner.  The one we had (on the right) I never really got used to so we decided to replace it.  The new Lazy Boy (Pinnacle model) is great and a little smaller.

In some ways, you could say we 'downsized' a bit.  The darker recliner is a little bigger than the new Lazy Boy. You can see the old dining table behind the dark recliner.  While we were in Red Bay we had the table removed and we put the table in the foreground (in the right corner of the picture) back were the corian table was.  Now we have more room and like the way things are.

Yesterday we made the rounds:  we drove out to see Pam and Joan's dad, then we decided to go by and see their brother Steve who works at Fox Toyota in Clinton, and then we went to Norris to see their mom.  

After that we got started on a couple of upgrade projects at home.  Pam painted some shelves we built and then we cleaned out a large closet where were we build more shelves.  

That is about it for this edition.  Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Followers always welcome--and thanks so much for your many comments.  Keep them coming!

Sun Sand Swimming etc

We are feeling like we have been on vacation here in Florida.
We are enjoying the beautiful weather and getting plenty of sunshine.
Every evening we have been able to pull up lounge chairs and watch  the sun set on the bay where our campground is located.

On Monday, we drove down to Panama City to check out the campground at the Naval Support Activity.  We wanted to go for a drive, plus that was a good excuse to see that and nearby Tyndall AFB.  Only had one problem.  I left my wallet at home.  Oops.  Military bases require 100% ID check.  No ID, no entrance to the base.  

On the way back to the Roadrunner we stopped at a fish store on the street corner and got a pound of shrimp.

We cooked it on the grill and it was fantastic!

Years ago, Pam learned how to play golf at Hurlburt Field.  On Tuesday we played a round at the same Gator Lakes golf course  It was hot!

But it was a nice day and we had fun. She shot a 97 which is great since she hasn't played since February.  I struggled with a 90.

Then on Wednesday Tim his wife Mary came out to see us at the campground. We met at church earlier in the week.  They are considering RVing and serving opportunities as empty-nesters.

We talked about the different things we have done including Care-A-Vanners and NOMADS projects.

One of the best things about our time here has been time at the beach.  And those beaches...oh man!  They are great!

We love sitting on the beach!  White sands, sunny weather, balmy breezes, crashing waves~ I just love it.  I dreamed of doing this for a long long time before we started full-timing.  Time in Florida on the beach---
And we spent hours on the beach this past week enjoying the day and reading our paperbacks.

Hope you had a good week too! Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles ~ we always appreciate your comments.

ReStore ing in Fort Walton Beach

First a big welcome to our latest Follower:

Nantucketbreezes

Thanks for joining us on the adventures of the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Pam and I looked forward to our stint at the ReStore of Fort Walton Beach.  We stopped by a few days ago, introduced ourselves and asked if we could volunteer.  We asked if they needed help on Saturday and they told us to be there at 9:00 AM.

The facility is at a great location in town.

The one in Fort Walton Beach is 8,000 square feet of furniture, supplies and construction materials.

Inside, it looks like a furniture store/warehouse type of arrangement.

Habitat has a number of ReStores in communities or counties where they have established Habitat for Humanity chapters.  The purpose of the ReStore is to raise significant funds to help pay the costs of building homes.  The ReStore is a great concept.

Many of the materials are donated to ReStore.  Often the same material can be found at Home Depot or Furniture or thrift stores.  The merchandise in the ReStore is priced to move~they want to sell this stuff and it really is a win-win.  People who want a bargain can get what they need, the ReStore can make some funds to defray operating costs and generate capitol for construction materials for new homes.

On Saturday, our job was to paint the shelving that had been donated.  The shelving was the heavy duty home depot like shelving and we spent our day covering them in green.  A different group of volunteers had started the previous week painting both blue and green on the shelves.  We were able to finish up for them.

We got quite a workout.  The temperature outside was 95 degrees inside we had a couple of large fans going but we were sweating like we were in the sauna.  There was a breeze and the guys were very appreciative so we had a good day.

Have you been to a ReStore?  You might want to check it out next time you get a chance.  There may be one near you...just Google "Restore" along with "your town".

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Red Bay then Destin

First we want to say Welcome! to our latest Follower:

La Louvre

Thanks for joining us!

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We waited until after noon to get into the Service Bay to check out our sagging tanks.  We were willing to stay a couple of days more to get them fixed if they needed it.  The basement floorboard under the tanks is starting to bulge a little.  We were concerned that the wood was rotting and wanted to be sure we were ok.

Pete, David and Craig all agreed they were in good shape and we were in no danger.  There was no evidence of leaking or any wet plywood.  We have a 6 year warranty on them so we can check them again next time we are in Red Bay.

That was a 15 minute check and it was approaching 1:00PM.  We decided leave Red Bay for Destin FL where we had reservations at the Destin Army Recreation Area.  It was a long but good drive and fun until about 9:00 PM.  We called ahead and let them know it would be after 8:00 PM before we arrived.  They said it was no problem - they were open until 10:00 PM.

We debated whether or not to stop at the state line/Florida Visitor's Center and go in first thing on Thursday morning.  But we decided to continue on and passed a lot of deer along the highway.  That was a bit unnerving as we got into the Niceville/Eglin AFB area off I-10.

So after 16 months on the road~ we became 'one of those guys'.  I always wondered what the big deal was that would make someone travel late at night and why they would want to arrive in the dark and set up in the dark?  
We have seen it many times and commented, "Not for us!"...  Ha!
But I doubt we will do it again.  We'll see.

We got to Destin and missed our turn onto Benning Drive.  We turned around, went back and arrived at the gate at 10:20 PM.  Pressing to get there and seeing lots of deer by the roadside ~ that was the no fun part.  We were very glad to see someone in the registration office!  She could not have been nicer and more helpful!

We are pretty excited to be here.  This is one of the best kept secrets in the Army/Navy/Air Force/Marine MWR (Morale, Recreation, Welfare) system!

We had not heard of it but it has been here for 30+ years.  It is open to active duty military, military retirees and DoD civilians.  Our site is costing $19/night.

Thursday was a day of exploring.  Pam and I met down the road at Fort Walton Beach in 1978.  We were both in the USAF stationed at Hurlburt Field.  We came back and visited with our kids in the early 1990's and haven't been back since then.  We were anxious to drive around to see what's changed.

Wow!  Fort Walton Beach and Hurlburt Field have changed a LOT since we were last here 16 or 17 years ago.  The base has grown to be a huge place now.  It is the home of the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC).  In the late 1970's it seemed the base was a sleep hollow type of place. Now it is booming!  We did not recognize most of the buildings on base.  It has really come of age.

Later, in FWB, we went by our first apartment.  It is now a condominium and it was nice to see it is still well maintained.

We also went to the beach on Santa Rosa Island.  This area has the arguably the whitest beaches in the world.  We have never seen anything like them.  We would come here often.

After living her in the late 1970's these beaches became the standard by which we have measured all others.  Nothing like them!  There is absolutely no evidence of oil or remnants of the tragic oil spill in the Gulf.  None.  Nada.

Before the end of the day, we had time to go back to the campground pool and enjoy that for a while.

After dinner, we went down by the water again and watched the birds and water and the stars in the sky.

The campground is about 2 miles from the gulf side of the beach and located on the water of the Choctawhatchee Bay on the Florida Panhandle and the Emerald Coast.  We are off to a great start here in Destin and loving the high 80 degree temps.  The soft balmy breezes are what we have been looking forward to.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today.  We are glad you stopped by!