On St. Joseph’s Peninsula Darla noticed a shack with a pirate flag called Skully’s Low Country Boil. We had to go find out what low country boil is. When we got there the only person there was the owner. He was really nice. He sells only gumbo and low country boil. He told us low country boil is a southern tradition. Shellfish ( shrimp in Florida, crab some places, Crawfish in Louisiana and Mississippi — I guess whatever is available) corn on the cob, potatoes, sausage and low country boil seasoning all thrown in a pot and you boil it all 🤣. The seasoning is sold everywhere — old bay…

Hurricane Michael was a very powerful and destructive tropical cyclonethat became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. Additionally, it was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States in terms of pressure, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricaneand Hurricane Camille in 1969. It was the first Category 5 hurricane on record to impact the Florida Panhandle, the fourth-strongest landfalling hurricane in the contiguous United States, in terms of wind speed, and the most intense hurricane on record to strike the United States in the month of October. I copied that from Wikipedia. Hurricane Michael was a tropical storm up until 9 pm on October 9, 2018. It intensified into a hurricane in 6 hours. It was only…

Sunsets on the Gulf are really nice …..

Not far from Port St Joe is a barrier island St George’s Island. Beaches and more beaches…. Lots of bridges to get there. I think it is 28 miles long and a mile wide.

11/30/21. For the last day of November we went to Mexico Beach. The sand is so white and nice — just like sugar. Darla and I ran around and barked on the beach. The water was calm and warm. Darla is still afraid of sharks, so she did not go in the water. 🤷‍♀️ Darla needs to stop watching Jaws 🦈🦈. Mexico Beach was flattened by hurricane 🌀 Michael in 2018. Lots of empty places on the beach where the houses blew down and have not been rebuilt yet. I took Darla to dinner. There is a beach bar out on the St. Joseph peninsula. It was great. The peninsula…

Darla wanted to go back to Mexico Beach today. Our last day on the forgotten coast of Florida. Darla just couldn’t get enough of the white sand. Turns out the white sand is special. Most sand has 20 different materials. The white sand is only one material — quartz. The Apalachacola River picks up the quartz in the Appalachian mountains and deposits it on the beach 800 miles away. Apparently each grain of the white sand is exactly the same size. Because the area lacks silt bearing rivers the sand remains pure. The pictures don’t really show how white it is and the texture is a little different, like sugar.…

As we drove the back roads away from civilization Toward the forgotten coast and the Gulf of Mexico, I started noticing things. Everything is different in Florida. They have lots and lots and lots of trees. Then we saw areas which once had trees but they were gone. It was odd. Like a forest fire but nothing was charred. Turns out that the timber industry is huge business in Florida. Who knew? 50% of Florida’s total land is forest land. Mostly pine forests. But the pine trees are not like in NY — they are very tall and skinny. Nothing like Christmas trees. They are swamp pines also are called…

It was sad to leave Myrtle Beach. We made some friends and there were people there we knew. But after a month it was time for new adventures. I really wanted to walk in the Gulf of Mexico. Darla was not interested in walking in any water. So we packed up again. The magic happened again and the Basset bus became skinny and off we went. Spent 1 night in a parking lot. Drove the major highways across Florida. Then we got off the highway and for a few hours drove the only road into Port St. Joe — a 2 lane highway. It is called the Forgotten Coast for…

We stayed Myrtle Beach about a month. We left the end of November. it was getting colder — it was time to head south.

We are learning about the beach, the oceans and tides. 3 or 4 times a year at the new moon or full moon the tides are higher than normal. We arrived in Myrtle Beach just in time for a king tide. This king tide was the 6 th highest on record. The tides were over 8 feet and caused widespread coastal flooding. I guess hurricanes can produce tides this high. We couldn’t really go to the beach that day because there was no beach — just ocean. The next day the beach was back.