bama_ed
It's kind of fun to do the impossible-Walt Disney
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2004
DW and I are in the midst of a fall beach trip. Early November can ("CAN" is the key word) be a wonderful weather time down on the northern Gulf Coast and this week is true to that. We left on Monday for a few days in a Florida State Park during the week and our plans are to rotate over to our favorite Alabama State Park for the weekend.
Our destination yesterday (Monday) was St. George Island State Park which is a SP on a barrier island in the northern Gulf Coast of FL. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography, move from the FL/AL line from west-to-east: you have Pensacola, Ft Walton Beach, Destin, Panama City, Port St Joe, Apalachicola, and off the coast of Apalachicola is St George Island and the SP is on the far eastern end. Temps are to be in the low 80s this week and nights in the high 50s/low 60s with sunny blue skies. The SP is basically on the Gulf (the campground is a 2-minute bike ride away) and it feels like it's on the end of nowhere.
This was the first trip we used our new-to-us front hitch on the Yukon XL with the bike rack on front. We love taking bikes with us when we camp.
Running down the highway, the handlebars and seats in front of me are off to the side and not directly in the line-of-sight. @Teamubr warned me about front bounce and sway and I will admit my ratchets controlled sway, the bounce was still there at times at high speeds with wind gusts (tight tolerances and all precautions can't prevent ALL movement). But after a few early stops to check and tighten stuff, the front bike rack worked very well.
St George SP is in the town of Eastpoint on St George Island and is off the fattest part of the Florida peninsula on the north Gulf Coast. The first 75% of our drive was identical to a trip to WDW. Tuscaloosa to Montgomery to Dothan south to I10 and east on I10 for about 45 minutes. There it gets off the WDW track and you make your way on 2-lane roads and little towns down to the coast. So it took 7.5 hours plus the hour moving to Eastern time zone. We got in about 330pm with sunset about 545pm. Like most FL SP campsites, the sites are NOT paved but mostly sand with rock and old oyster shells.
Florida SP's, especially those with beach access like ours, are notorious for filling up early at the 11-month booking mark especially on weekends in like weather like now. I was able to book these weekdays not long after the 11-month window opened but could not get a weekend.
After doing the major unloading and setup, I'd worked up an appetite and we headed out for dinner. That's my MO most times is to NOT cook at the campsite on the arrival day. Now our drive out from the campground to the SP office is 4 miles of slow speed limits through empty landscapes of sand and sea oats. There are several beach road pull-over parking lots with about 6 parking spots each and two big parking lots with bathrooms and pavilions along the SP beach road. Once out of the SP, it's another 4 miles at 35 mph on the 2-lane through the beach houses (no high rise condos here). Then we get turn right and head over the 6-mile bridge across the sound to the mainland. The St George Lighthouse is there right at the turn in the center of town (more on the LH later). And then another mile or two to our selected restaurant. Point is, it takes about 25 minutes to get off the island to get ANYWHERE.
At least our dinner choice knew how to make a proper Oyster Po Boy sammich. My compliments to the chef.
I am writing this update on Tuesday and have already found the little Piggly Wiggly grocery store on the island to be a life-saver. Best of all, it has the big PW pig out front!
This morning after finishing the unload and setup, we looked like this.
We rode our bikes 2 minutes to the beach and checked it out. Yellow flag but very gentle swells, peaceful, and clear water.
I will continue today in the next post tomorrow.
Bama Ed
Our destination yesterday (Monday) was St. George Island State Park which is a SP on a barrier island in the northern Gulf Coast of FL. For those of you unfamiliar with the geography, move from the FL/AL line from west-to-east: you have Pensacola, Ft Walton Beach, Destin, Panama City, Port St Joe, Apalachicola, and off the coast of Apalachicola is St George Island and the SP is on the far eastern end. Temps are to be in the low 80s this week and nights in the high 50s/low 60s with sunny blue skies. The SP is basically on the Gulf (the campground is a 2-minute bike ride away) and it feels like it's on the end of nowhere.
This was the first trip we used our new-to-us front hitch on the Yukon XL with the bike rack on front. We love taking bikes with us when we camp.
Running down the highway, the handlebars and seats in front of me are off to the side and not directly in the line-of-sight. @Teamubr warned me about front bounce and sway and I will admit my ratchets controlled sway, the bounce was still there at times at high speeds with wind gusts (tight tolerances and all precautions can't prevent ALL movement). But after a few early stops to check and tighten stuff, the front bike rack worked very well.
St George SP is in the town of Eastpoint on St George Island and is off the fattest part of the Florida peninsula on the north Gulf Coast. The first 75% of our drive was identical to a trip to WDW. Tuscaloosa to Montgomery to Dothan south to I10 and east on I10 for about 45 minutes. There it gets off the WDW track and you make your way on 2-lane roads and little towns down to the coast. So it took 7.5 hours plus the hour moving to Eastern time zone. We got in about 330pm with sunset about 545pm. Like most FL SP campsites, the sites are NOT paved but mostly sand with rock and old oyster shells.
Florida SP's, especially those with beach access like ours, are notorious for filling up early at the 11-month booking mark especially on weekends in like weather like now. I was able to book these weekdays not long after the 11-month window opened but could not get a weekend.
After doing the major unloading and setup, I'd worked up an appetite and we headed out for dinner. That's my MO most times is to NOT cook at the campsite on the arrival day. Now our drive out from the campground to the SP office is 4 miles of slow speed limits through empty landscapes of sand and sea oats. There are several beach road pull-over parking lots with about 6 parking spots each and two big parking lots with bathrooms and pavilions along the SP beach road. Once out of the SP, it's another 4 miles at 35 mph on the 2-lane through the beach houses (no high rise condos here). Then we get turn right and head over the 6-mile bridge across the sound to the mainland. The St George Lighthouse is there right at the turn in the center of town (more on the LH later). And then another mile or two to our selected restaurant. Point is, it takes about 25 minutes to get off the island to get ANYWHERE.
At least our dinner choice knew how to make a proper Oyster Po Boy sammich. My compliments to the chef.
I am writing this update on Tuesday and have already found the little Piggly Wiggly grocery store on the island to be a life-saver. Best of all, it has the big PW pig out front!
This morning after finishing the unload and setup, we looked like this.
We rode our bikes 2 minutes to the beach and checked it out. Yellow flag but very gentle swells, peaceful, and clear water.
I will continue today in the next post tomorrow.
Bama Ed
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