Wow, I need to get better at updating the travel diary. It’s been 6 days.
Life on the road is different, and that’s the point of this time
To get out of bad habits, to realize what really matters, and to keep those habits going.
Writing is meaningful to me, it helps clear my mind and although I haven’t been posting travel diaries consistently, I have been writing in my journal about each day.
I want to write about the travel days more on here vs the daily snippets that I’m used to writing.
So here’s to travel diaries for the passed 6 days. To set the scene, six days ago we were in st Andrew’s state park, we got there later in the day, 7 days ago so we spent the night and woke up with a marina view, less then a mile from the gulf; coming off a 7 (!) day bender visiting family in Clearwater.
Decompression is good, and was much need after the week in Clearwater.
Not regretting it, it’s just different – a lot – something that I’m not used to, being in close proximity to others for days on end. lol dealing with other people’s emotions, temptations, and baggage.
A 3 days trip probably suffices in general when tripping with others.
And here Corie, champ, and me are doing a 2 month road trip around southeastern America; but that’s different.
The mornings and night at st Andrew’s are perfect temperature. The day? HOT.
Thankful we brought the canopy because we went back and fourth about if it’s worth it, Corie was for it; I was against it. We settled with strapping the canopy on the roof just in case and I’m so grateful we did. Without the canopy and how hot it was, it could’ve ruined the time in Panama City beach. It’s hard to enjoy life when you’re so damn uncomfortable. Maybe that’s the point.
Laying in bed after the first full day there, it was daunting. My mind was racing; trying to find a solution. Can I go through another day like today?
I brought up the idea maybe a hotel is the move this week or heading north – or home – early
C made a great point; let’s do something during peak heat like drive around and find cool local shit. We love it here, the heat is just killing us so let’s figure that out.
Just what I needed to hear. Cafe and cava for lunch tomorrow, with some stops at pet smart, crocs; and the pier.
What a fun day that ended up being. Exploring downtown Panama city, having some of the best coffee ever, walking the streets, hit cava for the first time (the hype is worth it), got champy a dog tag (his broke) and got new slides because I started to develop sores on my feet from the rubbing😩
Corie found this dope pier area to walk in Panama City with stores all along it and Champ even went to build a bear and picked out his own voodoo doll
We cruised back home to our site at st Andrew’s – the long way – and got back around 4:30 pm , flowed into a workout and enjoyed the sunset with its pinks, oranges, and red. The sunsets were amazing there. Planning on doing something similar tomorrow.
Abort st Andrew’s. The bugs ate us alive last night. I woke up with my legs on fire at 12:34 am and didn’t get back to sleep until 3:21 am. I ended up pasting my legs with this homemade baking powder paste.
Corie ended up getting baking powder at one of our grocery shops because my shoes smelled so bad they would’ve knocked you out if you got too close. (Baking powder kills the smell)
With my legs on fire I scrambled to find a solution:
- Rubbing Alcohol? Bad idea
- Calamine lotion? Don’t have
- Baking powder mixed with water so it turns into a paste? That I can do.
I was on the web trying to figure this out, thankfully we had service or I would’ve packed the car and drove somewhere. Anywhere but where we were. The bugs had an agenda and they were hitting hard.
They even bit through the layers we had on, causing a second issue. We were drenched with sweat from wearing long sleeves and pants.
Corie brought up a new idea: if we’re gonna drive around to kill time today why not just head up north closer to our next spot? We already got to experience Panama City; what else would we do? this was around 7 am
Say no fuckin more. And I got the site broken down and packed in record time, less than an hour and we were gone.
It’s funny, I was looking at state parks to go to and found this one park that was on our way to our next rendezvous, Chewacla state park in Auburn Alabama.
Leaving two nights early from st Andrew’s didn’t sound sexy, we didn’t get to experience the are; but one night early? That just sounded way better; especially after the bug war, not even mentioning the heat.
It’s funny too, Corie even suggested the same state park – chewacla – without us even talking about it.
From st Andrew’s to chewacla was about a 4 hour journey with some fun stops along the way. Dolath Alabama was a let down becuase we couldn’t find any peanuts, the house of Thai made up for it though with some of the best Thai food we ever had. They even made a rice and egg platter for champy.
We got to chewacla around 5 pm, without a reservation just walked up, thankfully it wasn’t the weekend because that place gets crazy booked up.
A perfect site, primitive, a gorgeous tree canopy covering us, cooler night temperatures by about 7 degrees, and minimal bugs. This was perfect. Just what we needed.
A deep, enjoyable, dark sleep followed.
Joe DiAndrea 