USA Road Trip: Florida Style

Well, we have packed it all in and made our first stop in not-so-sunny Florida! We spent 15 hours packing Wednesday, until 3AM, and were finally ready to lock up the house and set off for our adventure! In case you're wondering what to pack to live out of your car for 2 months here is our packing list:

 

Somehow we crammed all that stuff in our car, with barely enough room for the two of us.

And this was at a safe stage, by the end of the week as we were living out of all the bags, it looked like, as Terrell described, "the squirrel man lived there".

We made it to Perdido Key around 6pm and were ready for our hike. We had planned on hiking over 2 miles to get to the beach where you can camp, but thankfully the guy who had told us about this spot didnt realized that he went after a big storm and they had cleared the road and we only ended up hiking about 1/2 a mile. We were amazed at how beautiful and empty the beach was! We were literally the only people there and so we found a great campsite on the inlet. From our tent you could see the Bay on one side and the ocean on the other.

We had such a beautiful campsite! We used our small 2 man tent for this trip since it would easier to carry and set up on the beach.

We used Terrell's single burner camp stove and mess kit (it is quite nifty, it is 3 pots/plates and they collapse into themselves) to cook dinner. We had burgers and green beans. Delicious! The only problem we found was that it was incredibly windy. The first night we had to dig a hole to cook in so the wind wouldnt blow out the stove. The rest of the trip, it got so windy we had to cook inside the tent (not recommended or safe).

That night we had some pretty stormy weather and woke up tp a leaky tent and were all wet and in a bad mood. But we decided to stick it out for the day and the sun came out and we had such a fun day playing in the water,  laying out and exploring the inlet.

And we picked up some sweet seashells to go in our travel time capsule for the trip! You can see our other time capsules here.

By the time we finished our fun day the wind had picked up so much that the tent wouldn't stay on the ground and we were attempting to cook dinner and realized that a storm was coming and was going to blow us away. We had such a wonderful day and it was definitely a dream come true to be hippies and sleep out on the beach, but we knew it was time for the dream to come to an end. It was a really good decision that we packed up and headed out as quick as we could because they were evacuating people from the beach due to flooding. Pensacola got a record of 14 inches of rain over the next 2 days, so our instincts were on target. We had reservations for the next day at another campsite, but nothing arranged for that night, so we did some quick googling (god bless our iPhones) and found a campsite that was close and seemed pretty awesome. This is how we intend to spend most of our tip, planning as we go with no permanent plans. So we headed over to Black River, which has the most pure sandy bottom river. We set up in the rain, took the most glorious warm, indoor showers and went to bed. Our plan was to spend the day playing the river, but as fate would have it, it was raining. Again.

Know that this will be the theme of this florida trip, Rain.

We packed all our gear in again and headed to Waffle House, the savior of college students and campers on rainy days. Since we had the next 3 nights booked at our next campsite we just needed to kill some time and stay dry. Thankfully Terrell called the campsite to confirm our reservations and we found out the campsite was also closed due to flooding and we would be refunded, but were again, literally, up the creek without a paddle. I used all my storm chasing skills and realized that the storm was staying in the Pensacola area and Panama city was pretty dry.

This was the what the weather forecast was the whole time! That is us where that little pin is. Jeez.

We decided on a campsite halfway between Panama and Pensacola and ended up saving money! We camped at Rocky Bayou state park for 16$ a night. The park was nice, nothing too exciting, but had nice showers(with air conditioning) it was also on the Bay (which was pretty), but there wasnt anything to do there, so went spent our days exploring Destin and outrunning the storm in Panama. It still rained off and on every day, so my superhero husband built us a shelter so we could cook and eat even when it was raining. As my husband stated, "I think we are the perfect blend of redneck and hippy. I think this picture confirms it.

Needless to say, it stayed pretty wet most of the time, so we were constantly trying to dry out clothes and towels and gear.

My dad gave us a really awesome camp stove and Terrell added a grill top to it, so pots and pans don't burn and we cooked some delicious meals on it! We had spaghetti, grilled chicken, pasta salad, eggs for breakfast and ramen or sandwiches for lunch.

Here is how we spent our days flitting around Florida.

We did some shopping, ate at a great little place in Panama called Dusty's Oyster Bar. Where they literally shucked Oysters in front of us - nonstop. We have a theory that restaurants aren't good unless none of the furniture matches and the duct work is showing. We are never disappointed.

We ended this leg of the trip on a very sunny beach day and headed to see friends in Alabama and have had a great few days relaxing, sleeping indoors and eating-A lot. If you missed the first post explaining our trip and our route catch up here! Our next stop is New Orleans. We can't wait for some good ole' Creole Cajun food, some New Orleans carnies and the beauty of the last southern town we will see for a while.

We decided to set a weekly budget, that cut our total budget down a bit so we have a little wiggle room. We figured if we can spend around 250$ a week, we will spend a little less than 2000$ for the whole summer. We spent this first week for lodging, food, travel and all our start-up costs like an extra tarp, toiletries, a Thermacell (were very anti-mosquito), etc which ending up being around 400$. We're keeping a good record of what we're spending and will update you along the way of how it goes and any tips! So far, the best tip we received was from my mom: take tin foil and ziplock bags.

Let us know if you have any suggestions on what we should do while in New Orleans!

Ill leave you with this sweet pin from Pinterest: