Exploring the Florida Panhandle (Part 1)

We stayed docked in Fairhope, AL for a week as we needed to rent a car and drive back up to Demopolis, pick up our truck and drive it to Kevin's home in SC.  We were going to leave it with him until we felt that we would be staying in one place long enough to bring it to wherever we would dock for an extended time.  We enjoyed spending time with Kevin in Chapin and we were also able to visit with his girls and our friends, the Strubles, in Charleston.  On our way back to Fairhope we stopped overnight at my cousin, Linda Corzine's, house in Mary Esther, FL.  They have a beautiful home on the Santa Rosa sound, which borders the Gulf of Mexico.  We left their home the next morning and headed to Pensacola, FL to see the the Blue Angels' Homecoming Show before we headed back to the boat.  It was awesome!     

We met Roy and Elvie aboard RoyEl when we returned from SC and made arrangements to travel to the Panhandle with them.  We were going to leave at first light the next morning so we were getting ourselves ready to cruise again.  Flint was out doing some errands with our rental car and I noticed that our water hose had sprung a leak.  I proceeded to step off the boat to turn off the water at the faucet and my toe caught the spring line holding the boat to the dock.  It threw me to the dock and I hit my forehead just above my right eye with full force.  My head bounced off the dock and, although I wasn't knocked out, I was kind of woozy.  I got up and turned the water off and stepped (gingerly) back onto the boat to get a bag of ice.  The lump on my head was huge and getting bigger so I called Flint and told him what happened.  We went to the emergency room and they took a full set of facial xrays but nothing was broken.  The doctor was amazed that the skin didn't split.  It took about a week for the bruising to spread to it's fullest and here is the picture of me in all my black and blue glory!!!

We left the next morning and had a beautiful cruise to an anchorage at Ingram's Bayou.  It was our first time rafting with another boat, which means that we tie onto a boat that is anchored rather than dropping our own anchor.  It was enjoyable the next morning to just drop the lines between the two boats and take off.  We traveled the next day to Fort Walton Beach where we were able to use the free docks that are offered by the town.  There is no electric hookup but we have a generator to use for all our electric needs.  The weather was supposed to turn bad overnight so we were grateful for the safety of the dock.  We were two blocks away from a food store and we were able to reprovision some items that we needed.  We invited my cousin and her husband to dinner the next night and we had a great time showing them our boat and sharing our lives after being apart for so many years.  We took a picture of their home as we passed by along the Santa Rosa Sound.

Once the weather subsided we took off for Bay Point Marina in Panama City.  They are very good to "loopers" at this marina, but there is no shopping close by and there is no courtesy car.  We have our bikes, but the route to the shopping area has no bike lane and is very dangerous.  Our Garmin quit (again) and we shipped it to Garmin for repair.  We will need to stay here until it is returned, so we have spent our time doing projects on the boat and enjoying the company of loopers as they come through here before they head East to their Gulf crossing.  We have rented an Enterprise car for a three-day weekend for only $40 so we are going to church service in the morning and then to a southern gospel concert by the Perrys in Panama City tomorrow evening.  We miss the regular worship times, but we listen to sermons on our I-Tunes podcast from both our Chapin and Annapolis churches.  Well until our Garmin returns we will be enjoying this beautiful marina surrounded by beautiful homes and yachts.  We will be back with you again when we can resume our travels.