The Florida Panhandle and her surprises
We finally arrived in Pensacola, or more specifically at Big Lagoon State Park on Perdido Key in late afternoon. We heard the ranger mention that they were forecasting rain for the weekend, but the evening was clear and breezy. We woke up early Saturday morning to a downpour, luckily we were camping on sand and on a slight incline so the water didn’t pool around the tent. After a quick hot shower, we were treated to another small storm so we decided to go to IHOP (the International House of Pancakes) for breakfast. For the non-Americans who are following the blog, IHOP is a restaurant that serves enormous breakfasts 24 hours a day. We dined on eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and blueberry pancakes.
Since the forecast didn’t look good for the day, we planned to spend the morning in Pensacola’s historical center and and the afternoon at the Naval Air Museum. We got to the Historical Village (a restored area of historic homes and museums) around 9:30. The area was deserted except for a few people in costumes for a Mardi Gras parade and the lady collecting money for the public parking. We asked her if the Historical Village and museums would be open (or closed due to the Parade.) She didn’t know but she told us that there was a BBQ cook-off taking place in the park so we could go to that instead. Sure enough, there was a BBQ contest with contestants and their enormous motorhomes and trailers from all over the south cooking up BBQ at 9 o’clock in the morning with live country music of course. (I suddenly regretted my big IHOP breakfast.) Turns out the historical village did open; we did a marvelous tour through some of the old homes (including a freed-slave home) with a guide who used to live in France. We learned about the importance of fishing and logging in the area, as well as Pensacola’s past under French, Spanish, British and Confederate rule. After the tour, we had some pulled pork sandwiches, bought some award-winning BBQ sauce and sampled some beers from the local brewery before staking out our spots for Pensacola’s Mardi Gras parade.
It’s seems that the locals like to put on a good party like their Louisiana neighbors. Most of the floats were sponsored by companies or local associations, and they were well-stocked with beer and booze. We left covered with beads and various other souvenirs. In the midst of the party, I got a phone call from my mom warning us of bad weather. By the time we got back to the campground, it was storming buckets. From about 5pm onwards we spent the evening in the tent, reading by lantern light and eating turkey sandwiches. I also had a visitor, a tick that latched it self on my back. Fabien pulled it out with tweezers. We’re keeping it in a box until I make sure he didn’t give me any dirty diseases. We managed to stay dry, but the following morning we had to dry out our tent and gear before getting on the road to the Big Easy, New Orleans.
Tags: BIG TRIP 2011, Florida, In English 2005-2006
Administrator
Leave a Reply