Foggy Start, Wheels Rolling Again, Teamwork, Last Cracker Barrel This Route

Cracker Barrel, Pensacola, Florida

On Thursday, Nov. 7^th I was awake and up at 6 am after a good sleep. I vaguely remember them but dreams filled my slumber. I hopped in the shower right away and when I finished Bill took my place. With those taken care of, we had our tea, coffee, toast, muffin and yogourt. I made our sandwiches for today and set yogourt and drinks out for the cooler. Bill packs that for me as the cooler remains in Black Beauty.

A foggy start

It is pretty white ahead of us
but we were just fine

I emptied the dishwasher from supper dishes, closed cupboards up, and did breakfast dishes from this morning. You’d think we were attached physically to J & B as we saw Bob out packing things up outside just as we were. We had mentioned ‘around 8’ for our morning departure but nothing was in stone. It was very damp outside, as if it had rained, but it hadn’t. The thick fog had to be the early culprit but it didn’t deter us.

And it soon cleared

 In sync, we were both ready by 8 and pulling out at 8:02 am. Good teamwork! The temperature was a warm 60F so the guys wore shorts and us gals wore capris, taking a jacket along, j.i.c. We know there is a cool front coming our way, thanks to our home country, but not until tomorrow. Looks like everywhere down south will feel the effects for a week. Still …. No complaints here. Donna says they have 4” of the wet 'settle on the tree branch’ snow.

Lake Blackshear

We hopped on I-75S for 21 miles before taking Exit 99 for GA-300 towards Florida. Driving on a 2-lane highway is a whole different perspective. Of course, since we were in Georgia, I was looking for plantations. The one really nice one that I saw was set back from the road and I couldn’t get a decent picture but at least saw it. Lovely house, entrance gate and acres c/w trees on the property. Besides less traffic and less stress from nutsy drivers, there are no large fuel stations or rest areas. You just have to be prepared for that.

I tried real hard to get the moss hanging from the trees but it
just doesn't show up well

Now, I love water towers but took this picture because of the
birds flocking around it

Memorials like this always touch  my heart

 We did pull off at Donalson (no ‘d’) at an education/school building to open up slides and use the facilities. Bill and I also made a coffee in our hot drink mugs before we pulled back out onto GA-91S. It seemed like a funny way to go but with a few jigs and jogs, we were merging onto I-10W. Smooth sailing and good roads; those are the good things. No bad things today and isn’t that always a treat? We took Exit 85 to a 76 fuel station when Bob indicated he was between ½ and ¼.

This looks like a 2-lane but I it was the interstate

The diesel was expensive, well, all fuel was, we were in Florida, but we topped up and were soon on our way. With just a bit under an hour to travel, we decided to eat lunch in the truck on the highway. Neither of us enjoyed the sandwich on the rye bread we’d picked up. I almost brought our hard-boiled eggs but at 7:30 when I was thinking of lunch, it didn’t appeal to me so they went back in the fridge. At noon they would have been nicer for me.

In case you think I'm fooling about the warm temperatures
check this out

The temperature reached 81F and then dropped to 77f when a few teeny drops of rain hit the windshield. I called Cracker Barrel on Lavelle Way in Pensacola to get approval for overnight parking. Yes, he said, so we’ll aim for that lot and see what it is like early afternoon on a Thursday. There are always surprises and it would be nice if the surprise was favourable. By the time we were close, we'd had more rain and we were down to 72F. Oh, poor us! It sure warmed up again though!

At a Rest Area where we didn't need to stop

So, it was around 2:30 Central time, we gained an hour at noon somewhere in Florida, that we took Exit 7 towards our Cracker Barrel. No surprise, the place was full for the lunch hour traffic but we were smarter today and were able to park along the quiet street until a couple of spots opened up. By 3:30, we were parked and after sitting in the shade outside our unit to plan tomorrow’s destination, we agreed to meet at 4:30 for supper. It would be 5:30 at home after all which explains why we were hungry.

Rain dampened our spirits only briefly
It had stopped by the time we set up

Florida views, I don't even remember where this was but close to our stopping point

Had to look this up but it is us crossing Escambia Bay

Bob was happy, he finally got his order of fried chicken fulfilled (after previous nights being told they were 'out'), Jo-Anne had the fried turkey dinner, Bill had a cheeseburger (and cold fries ☹) and I had fried shrimp, a few hush puppies with sweet potato casserole, fresh fruit and green beans. Yum. No shortage of food here. Mine was delicious and yet I wasn’t overstuffed. I left a couple of shrimp on my plate but ate everything else. No dessert necessary.

A nice overpass showing the Blue Angels

When we walked out around 5:30, Bill told Bob that the space closer to us was completely void of cars so they pulled in the slides and moved over. This will put them a bit further from the Interstate traffic even though it is still noisy. These C.B.’s always seem to be right along the freeways. We said goodnight and moved inside for the evening. Bob pointed out how dark it was now at 5:30 with the time change on top of changing to standard time.

This is when we were parked along the street, waiting
for spots to open up
This is a Southern Magnolia tree
with pretty shiny leaves

The sky would light up periodically with sheet lightning so maybe we would get a thunderstorm overnight after all. Bill and I are amazed at how humid it is here after what we experience in Arizona. 

Sitting in the coolest spot we could find
We weren't actually in sunshine and were getting a beautiful breeze

Bob and Jo-Anne were parked over there - temporarily

And we are here for the night

We just can’t understand why Florida is so appealing to some. There have been ants, we were invaded from Southern Trails park, flies and bugs around us. Jo and I both have bites from something. Jo-Anne opened our fridge door last night after supper and I should have taken a picture of the teeny ants that were between the freezer drawer and upper doors.

After Bob moved, we were right close together
No snoring! I said

Bill had some ant killer that we wiped on and this morning it had worked. I still need to do a thorough cleaning when we stop for a period of time as something must have spilled and created stickiness. Bill and I settled in for the evening and I finished this post. The cool down arrives tomorrow so that is what the storms are all about, I guess. We’ve had a great travel day and an even shorter one tomorrow to New Orleans area. I hope you aren’t snowed in and if you are, I hope that you like that kind of weather.

Going in for supper
Jo-Anne is getting used to my camera

My wonderful meal
Good night everyone from Pensacola!

Thank you for popping by! I truly appreciate my readers/Blurkers and if you’d like and are able to leave a comment, I thank you for that too.