The early days of our 2014 expedition are much different than previous trips. Rather that laying down as many miles as possible each day, zooming along interstate highways,  we’ve taken our time to enjoy parts of Florida that we never have visited in the past. We checked out one of the spring-fed rivers with its crystal clear water and then proceeded up Rt. 98 to more or less follow the coastline all the way into the Central Time Zone near Pensacola and then onward to Alabama.

As I write this initial 2014 entry we are drying out from several inches of rain at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park near Destin, FL. Before the deluge we had several sunny and breezy days here to explore the beach and other parts of the park. (You can click on pictures to enlarge them)

Before our 5-day stop at Topsail, we visited St. George Island for three days of sunny and hot weather.

We’ll next camp at Ft. Pickens in the Gulf Islands National Seashore with the Gulf of Mexico lapping at the south edge of the campground and Pensacola Bay on the north side. We should have plenty of opportunities for swimming, shelling, kayaking and fishing before we charge off across Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico for our next major stop, Utah.