FL Part 2

Friday, February 22, 2001: Fort Walton Beach, FL

We parked our 84 Honda Accord at a storage facility in Gulf Breeze yesterday, and our friend Clark drove us back to Fort Walton Beach where we had stopped walking last December. After walking around Fort Walton for a while to find the post office and have lunch, we crossed the bridge onto Okaloosa Island (thinking that we would try to put in about five miles and move into position to reach Destin the following day.)

We stopped for a moment to have a look at the map (in hopes of finding a beach road that might be more scenic and have less traffic) when a couple on a motorcycle pulled up next to us and the woman on the back said, "Do you have a place to stay yet?" We laughed and said, "No, not yet. We just got here." She said that they would be home in about an hour, invited us to stay with them, and gave us directions to their house. Many people have offered to let us stay with them along the way, but I can honestly say that it has never happened quite like that. Although we had only walked about two miles after taking a two-month break from our walk, we decided that this should not be refused. We went to the beach for a while and then followed the directions to their house.

It turns out that Colby and Mary (the couple we met on the motorcycle) invite injured animals as well as walkers into their home here in Fort Walton. Upon arriving at their house we found Mary, Colby and their friend Lee, busy dissecting a pelican in their garage. Mary explained that the pelican had just died, and they needed to send a blood and liver sample to the lab as quickly as possible. There have been quite a few pelicans dying in this area lately. No one knows exactly why, but they believe that it is some sort of toxin in the water.

After the samples were successfully taken, we were welcomed to move into their daughter's room. She is going to be at a debate tournament for a few days, and Colby and Mary have made us feel very welcome to stay with them until she returns.

Sunday, February 24, 2002: Fort Walton Beach

Mary's volunteer work for the Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge certainly makes life around their house quite fascinating. This is a picture of Mary and a pelican they've named Mohammad (after Mohammad Ali). Mary was calming him down so that they could check the progress on his stitches. The bad news is Mohammad had to have his left wing amputated. The good news is that they found him a safe home at a nearby sanctuary.

We have had such a nice time here in Fort Walton Beach with Colby, Mary, their son Gordon, and their daughter Baily. Their oldest daughter, Melanie, came home from her debate tournament today, and she offered to let us have her room for another night. We've really enjoyed being a part of their family for the past few days, but the road is calling and we will be walking towards Destin tomorrow.

We received an email today from two twin brothers (Mark and Paul) from Belfast, Ireland. They have been following our journey on the internet for the past two years, and came to America for a few months to "get a feel for the real USA 'walkingtom style,'" they said. They've been in Destin the past few days watching the Destin Bridge and waiting to see us walking across it. We came to the conclusion that if they were some type of psychotic stalkers, they probably wouldn't have sent us an email-- they would have just waited for us to cross the bridge, right? So, we plan to walk into Destin tomorrow to meet them.

Monday, February 25, 2002: Destin, Florida

Brandi and I walked across the Destin Bridge today and shortly therafter saw Mark and Paul crossing the road to meet us. We walked with them to the campground where they were staying while talking, laughing, and exchanging stories from the road the whole way. They have had some exciting adventures during their past few months in America. I felt kind of bad when I found out that they had been watching that bridge for five days and calling home to see if I had updated the website. I asked them why they hadn't sent us an email sooner, and they explained that they didn't want us to think that they were some type of psychotic stalkers. That was funny.

We dropped our packs off at the campground and walked about a mile to the beach to watch the sunset. Mark and Paul told me that they needed a mission for their tour of America, so finding us along the road became their mission. When I took this picture of them for the website, they smiled and said, "Mission Accomplished!"

Tuesday, February 26, 2002: near Miramar Beach

Mark and Paul walked about seven miles with us today along the beach and on the bike path along Highway 98. Unfortunately, they had to catch a bus from Ft. Walton Beach tomorrow morning to begin their journey home, so before sunset they called a taxi to take them to a motel near the bus station, and Brandi and I walked on to find a spot to camp in the woods. I wish they could have stayed longer. We really enjoyed their company.

Before we said goodbye there on the beach, we sat and looked at some of the pictures they had developed from their trip. They had met so many kind people here on their journey, and they really did experience the country "walkingtom style." I have a feeling that we will see them again someday. I don't know where yet, but I am confident that we will meet again.

Wednesday, February 27, 2002: near Dune Allen Beach, Florida

We walked through the community of Miramar Beach and back out onto the white sand this morning. (The white sand by the way is actually made up of tiny granules of quartz from the Appalachian Mountains that have been brought down by the rivers and deposited along the gulf coast.) Now, all the locals will tell you that no one owns the beach, but all along the beach today were posted signs that said, "Private Beach, No sunbathing or other beach activities except for residents of: such-and-such condo or sub-division." The nerve! We, of course, ignored the signs since walking would certainly be considered a beach activity, but I couldn't help feel a little disgusted with the people who posted them.

Except for the private beach signs, our scenery today was about the same as it was yesterday-- the gulf to our right and high-rise condos to our left. We reached an area called Topsail, where three miles of beach has been preserved. It was pretty cold today, and so for almost three miles, the beach was all ours-- no condos, no people, and no signs. It was a pleasure.

We walked through the Topsail R.V. park to fill up our water containers, and then out of the Topsail R.V. park and across the road to camp in a patch of woods. The temperature has been dropping rapidly all afternoon, and we are expecting a very cold night. It's supposed to get down to 25 degrees tonight.

Thursday, February 28, 2002: near Grayton Beach State Park

Although Florida's coast is obviously developing at an alarming rate, we have managed to find a patch of undeveloped woods in which to set up our tent the past two nights. That has been a blessing, since most of the campgrounds down here do not allow tent camping (only R.V.'s,) and we really can't afford to pay $16 to $20 every night for a place to set up our tent anyway. Last night, we found a nice flat spot in the middle of a patch of saw palmettos that are common in the pine forests around here.

Our legs were feeling kind of tired from all the beach walking the past couple of days, so we decided to stay on the highway this morning. We walked through a beach community called Dune Allen and another few miles to a community called Blue Mountain Beach.

In Blue Mountain Beach, we came to house that had a lawn covered with American flags, which had been painted on that wavy sort of tin that you usually see on top of barns. I was interested in meeting whoever had painted them, so we decided to take a break from the walk to investigate. There was an "Open" sign on the window. We walked inside.

A man named Justin was inside working on a painting, and as we were visiting with him about his paintings and our walking, his wife Billie came in. Justin and Billie are both self-taught artists who got the tin flag idea back in September when they wanted to put a flag in their yard, but couldn't find one. We stayed and talked with them for a little while, but then we decided to let them get back to their painting, and we returned to the business of walking. We saw more of Justin and Billies art work all day today after we met them, on signs and storefronts for about the next six miles down the road. We even saw an entire car that we could tell had been painted in their unique style.

Friday, March 1, 2002: near Sea Grove Beach

Today we woke up very cold again. The freezing temperatures at night are taking their toll. It's hard to hit a deep R.E.M. sleep when you're waking up all night from being all tensed-up from the cold. The weatherman promised warmer weather tonight, but he also promised that when the cold front passed it would bring rain. He was dead on. As I'm writing this, it's probably about 50 degrees, and I'm listening to rain fall on our tent.

Our first stop today was Grayton Beach State Park. We decided to turn off the bike path along Highway 30A and walk the half-mile to the park's entrance station to inquire about a hot shower in their campground. It was going to cost $10.70 for both of us to shower, so we decided to pass. The cold weather has been keeping our sweat to a minimum, and to be honest, we're just not stinky enough to fork out $10.70 to be clean. Anyway, the park ranger was very nice and recommended that instead of returning back to the bike path along 30A, we should walk thought the park and then along the beach for about a mile until we reach Seaside. It was an excellent recommendation. The beach at Grayton was gorgeous, and the gulf had a most pleasing hue this morning.

We arrived in Seaside around lunchtime. Seaside is that perfect-looking little beach community where they filmed, "The Truman Show." It looked like the set from "The Truman Show," except in the movie all the people in town were friendly. I had been excited about walking around town and taking pictures, but after getting stared at a few times with that disgusting, "What are you dirty backpackers doing in our pretentious paradise?" look, I suddenly didn't feel like sticking around Seaside very long. Maybe we should have taken that $10.70 shower after all.

We continued walking a couple more miles to the town of Sea Grove, but the vibe in Sea Grove was kind of strange as well. So, we walked down to the beach and sat in the sun for a while, and then walked out of town and found a patch of woods to camp in. We did meet a nice guy walking on the bike path named John, who was vacationing from Canada. He was the only friendly person we interacted with all day, and he probably had no idea just how much we appreciated meeting him.

Saturday, March 2, 2002: Laguna Beach, Florida

It was still raining when we woke up this morning, but around 8:00 am it slowed to a drizzle and then stopped. We quickly packed our gear and got out on the road. I knew that more rain was coming.

We walked through a few more beach communities and past about 10,000 reality signs until we reached Highway 98. The scenery along the coast of Florida is beautiful, but the volume of "For Sale" signs on every inch of available land is somewhat over-stimulating to walk past day after day and mile after mile. This part of the country is being developed out of control. I don't know if a guy could walk this route in about five years and find any place to camp. New condos and beach housed are going up everywhere and unfortunately the "For Sale" signs are being replaced with "Keep Out," "No Trespassing," "Private Beach" signs.

Shelter tonight was a huge concern, and after inquiring about an affordable motel within ten miles, we realized that an affordable motel in this area would not be an option. A nice lady at the EZ-Mart recommended that we look into the Christian Retreat in Laguna Beach. She said that they sometimes help travelers out with a room. That sounded exactly our speed.

We walked to Laguna Beach and found, "The Laguna Beach Christian Retreat." Sure enough, after I briefly explained our journey to a nice guy named David who worked in the retreat's office, he said, "I think we could help you guys out with a room." It's still raining out there-- sometimes very hard. Although it's almost midnight now, and there are still high-school-age kids running around the Christian Retreat screaming and having fun in the rain, we're very thankful to be inside tonight. The Weather Channel is preaching that the rain will move out tomorrow, but we have another cold week ahead. If I had to choose between being cold or wet, I'd have to choose cold.