Day 52 - Escape — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 0, fuel purchased $0, dingy fuel purchased $0, slip fee TBD, daily high temperature 70*F

We began the cloudy day learning there was no new information about when the new transmission will be shipped to Port St. Joe. It now appears we won’t be able to have the repairs completed until sometime next week. After receiving that “good news” we took a taxi to Enterprise Car Rental in Panama City, FL. Both the Arnold’s and Simons’ need to escape Port St. Joe for a while. The Simons traveled to see their friends Dick and Candy Smith in Mount Dora, FL for a few days. From there they will fly to Chicago to visit their new grand-daughter Eleanor Simons and her proud parents Rachel and JP.

Andy and I began a series of day trips planning to visit several cities in the Florida Panhandle. We began our adventure traveling to Panama City Beach where we stumbled upon a variety of interesting adventures. First we traveled to Pier Park where we visited a variety of businesses. Including the obligatory visit to Margaritaville.

We also stopped at the “As Seen On TV” store. It was a huge place with items I remember seeing on TV a decade ago. They were still running videos with Billy Mills the pitchman who died years ago. From there we visited the huge Emerald Coast Cruizin’ classic and custom car show. Thousands of classic cars, hot rods, custom cars and trucks make way to beautiful Panama City Beach, Florida for this week long festival. Panama City Beach’s breathe taking emerald green coastline and the famous Miracle Strip gleam with chrome, hot colors, and the deep rumble of power. Aaron Bessant Park will host over 3000 hot rods, and cool classics. There will be over 125 + top name automotive vendors on hand, as well as a huge swap meet and auto car corral. A ladies area with crafts, jewelry, kids will love the activities as well. There is much for all to enjoy! Each night is full of activities from cruising, great bands, and special shows.

We then took advantage of Veteran’s Day specials and I had a free lunch on the deck of a nice restaurant overlooking the Gulf. The Gulf was beautiful and calm which gave us mixed emotions knowing this would have been a good day to cross the Gulf from Apalachicola to Tarpon Springs.

We then took a walk on the beach where we met Brent Johnson from Mississippi, accomplished sand castle builder and retired cat fish farmer. He had been working on his masterpiece for four hours and hoped to finish before the tide came in three hours later.

We finished the day watching a beautiful sunset over the cloudless Gulf then moved aboard to plan our next adventure.

John and Priscilla on New Smyrna Beach on the Florida Atlantic coast.

Anhingas bird drying its wings. If they do not dry their wings after diving they will drown. They swim underwater to catch fish.

When you are wandering around Mt. Dora, Florida watch you step.

Gator is some good eatin’ on the St. John’s River. Marinate it and soften it up.

Carl ( Chef ) Wooden – quote for the day.

[Lost in a heavy storm]
Captain Ron: The boss is right. We should be okay. ‘Cause I know we’re near land.
Martin Harvey: Great, Cap. Great. Ya hear that? We’re almost there. Explain to the kids how you know that, Captain Ron. Someone translate for General Armando.
Captain Ron: Alright, now stay with me: When we left, we had just enough fuel to make it to San Juan. And now… we are out of fuel!