The Ray Adventures: Pensacola, Fl. 2/26

We are still in Pensacola, we decided to stay here until we leave for Indiana. We've enjoyed the Recreation area, so many trails to walk, we are able to let Luci off leash to run some of the stuffing out of her. The roads wind through pine forests, disc golf courses, paintball field, a WWII airstrip and  along the beach of Perdido Bay.

Thursday, Feb. 26th. I had a bunch of errands to run, thank goodness for GPS, since I don't drive much and have such a lousy sense of direction, I'd never made it back to camp. I ended up at the Mall to get my glasses adjusted, the traffic was worse, if you can imagine, than Lancaster Drive in Salem. I saw the funniest thing when we got home, Gary was talking to our neighbor, he had a Patriot hat on and Gary had his Super Bowl Seahawk hat on. No comments were made not even a "thank you". Best of all, we had re-runs for dinner.

Friday, Feb. 27th, We headed off to Tarkiln Bayou State Preserve, essentially right next to Blue Angel Recreation Area, 4,200 acres of rare and endangered plants and wetlands bordering Perdido Bay. There was a string of 11 geo caches in the park we wanted to "find". We took the 7.9 Tarkiln Bayou trail, traversing ponds of water in what should have been the trail. Since we were the only people in the parking lot we broke a couple of rules, we let Luci off leash and let her play on the beach. It seems like all the beaches in Florida do not allow dogs. While we out on the beach Gary ran across a weather balloon at the edge of the forest. The balloon part was in shreds, inside the instrument was a plastic bag for you to return it to NOAA National Weather Service in Kansas City, Missouri. The trails took us to the point of the park with beautiful views of the bay and Blue Recreation area. We weren't smart enough to take snacks or water, we were beat after 4 hours of hiking. Towards the end of the hike Gary asked me how I was doing, I told him I kept hearing a scraping noise, turned out it was just my behind dragging the ground. We took Luci back to the coach, Gary was hankering for pizza and beer, after missteps by Miss Sally (GPS) we found Bella Luna on Perdido Key. Pretty tasty especially since we were so hungry and thirsty. Since it was 3 o'clock when we ate we skipped dinner.

Saturday Feb. 28th, We wanted to tour Pensacola's historic downtown village, Gary thought Saturday would be a good day, less traffic and better parking. Wrong. Pensacom and the Color Run were happening. Pensacom, from what I understand, is a convention where people come in costumes of comic book characters or sci fi. It was especially well attended, Leonard Nimoy's death was just announced. The Color 5 K Run/ Walk is a Pensacola tradition, the participates dress in crazy costumes, several men were wearing tu-tu's, the crowd throws colored powder at them. Anyway it was pretty crazy downtown but we were able to find a parking spot near the village. We took a guided walking tour of two houses and Old Christ Church ,built in 1832  that continues to hold events and meetings, a wedding was scheduled at 4:00. The oldest home was built in 1805 while most of them were built in the mid to late 1800's. After the tour we had lunch at Carmen's Lunch bar, more like "linner" it was about 3:00.

Sunday, Feb. 28th, Big day we cleaned and did laundry. After the coach was clean from stem to stern we took Luci on a 3 1/2 mile walk. After dinner she started reverse sneezing, we thought she might have snorted something up her nose, being the hysterical pet parents we are we almost took her to the emergency vet, thankfully she stopped before we spent big $$$$'s.

Monday, Mar. 1st, Woke up to Luci "sneezing" again. We took her to a close by vet we really like, she didn't try to run up the bill with expensive tests and x-rays, she thought it might be an upper respiratory infection. Luckily Luci had some sneezing fits while we were there. She seems a bit lethargic but of course still wants to go walking. It looks like the drugs are starting to help.

Tuesday, Mar. 2nd. I took Gary out to the National Naval Aviation Museum while I had a facial. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM it was wonderful I look years younger! Then I joined Gary at the museum for lunch, the restaurant and bar are a replica of WWII bars in the Philippines. Gary had been wandering all over the museum getting coordinates for a multi-cache. After lunch we took in the Pensacola lighthouse, established in 1824 it is still a working lighthouse. Gary climbed the 177 steps to the top.  He couldn't see much it was quite foggy that day. Gary took Luci on a long walk with our "neighbor" Dan, a very chatty character, and his dog, later we enjoyed adult beverages by the campfire.

Wednesday, Mar. 3rd,the weather has been lovely all week, tomorrow the forecast is for another cold front to arrive. In the afternoon we decided to do some geo caching, since Gary had the coordinates for the second part of the multi we were able to pick that one up. We visited Fort Barrancas on the bluff overlooking Pensacola Bay, work on the site began around 1719, enlarged several times over the years under 5 different nationalities, Spanish, French, British, Confederacy and now the US.

That's it for this week, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN

Gary and Pam