~Tuesday, January 5, 2021~
Day 205 (Travel Day)
Up and adam, and on the road by 10:00 a.m…...well it was more like 10:30. I became a bit delayed when getting our coffees and breakfast sandwiches at Kith & Kin, to sustain us on the 6-hour drive to Old Town, FL. We’ve had Suwannee River Hideaway on the books for months now, which in hindsight was not that necessary since most tourists are not in the middle of northern Florida at this time of year. It’s the one place we could find that had a 2 week chunk availability in Florida. Was that a good or a bad thing? In our research way back, we liked the vibe of the place…...rustic and funky and per its namesake….a hideaway. Social distancing will not be a problem here. Hopefully being there for 2 weeks will be the perfect spot for us to rest our rushed heads, get some much needed work done on the trailer, and to simply chill and reboot before heading down to The Keys area.
As I mentioned yesterday, we decided to take the more scenic Hwy. 98 route instead of 10. At first we thought we’d made a mistake since the first hour to 1-½ hour of the drive is more inland with an abundance of stop lights, gas stations and stores, not ocean. Then, the highway finally morphs into a more desirable, scenic portion of highway, right around the Mexico Beach area.
Yesterday, the local guy from the Santa Rosa Beach neighborhood had told us about what a hit Mexico Beach sustained after Hurricane Michael came roaring through over 2 years ago. I can’t imagine what it looked like back in 2018 as 75% of its structures were lost to this Category 5 hurricane, even as far inland as 50 miles. In some sections you could see slivers of what had succumbed. Much of the landscape is void of trees and shrubbery leaving what’s still standing, permanently bent or completely snapped in half. It was a bit sobering to see what was once utterly leveled into a zone of rebuilding and new builds. So many of these homes are literally on the beach, feet from the water. The resiliency of this town is really something. There’s an amazing video you have to check out at https://weather.com/news/news/2018-10-16-mexico-beach-home-survives-hurricane-michael
of an interview with homeowner Dr. Lackey, whose home was the last one standing. In this interview he talks about how his forward thinking prevented his home from being taken by the storm. If you scroll to the bottom of the link page, you can also see the before and after photos of what altered this beautiful region.
We also drove through Apalachicola, a cute historic, old-maritime community that begs to be visited. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to check out this quaint town, so will have to swing on back another time.
As we arrived at Suwannee River Hideaway, we were greeted by a sandy, mile-long, tree-lined, driveway to the property where you spot the rustic general store/office, clubhouse and pool. Christin welcomed us as her husband, Gypsy led the way to our site W7, which is on more of the outskirts of the park. Love the trees, the width of the sites and the quaint, small lake that’s only feet from our place. Alligators have been known to call this little lake ‘home” on occasion, but there are none at the moment (Whew!). Our site in particular, is perfect, especially for Sadie with there being a large open grass area that backs right up to the forest. Perfect for her run time. We were warned that the 30A power might trip on occasion if we were to use too many things simultaneously like the microwave, heaters, etc. But we know how to flip a breaker. Not a big deal. And 30A has always been plenty of power during the winter months. Now if we were having to run 2 A/C’s, 30A might be a problem.