11-13JAN09 - Perry & Navarre, FL

About halfway to our next camping site, Navarre, FL, we stopped at a KOA campground in Perry, FL. After the Camp Host explained to Dan how to hook up the utilities, Dan surprised him by asking what part of Canada the host was from? Dan pointed out that the host had called the electrical connection the “hydro” (as in hydro electric). Turns out the host was born in Winnipeg and now lived in Ottawa except for the winters when he and his wife work in Florida.

Monday after another short drive we pulled into the RV park in Navarre, FL, where our good friends, Chuck & Anneke Guldenschuh, were encamped. See our BLOG below from New Years 2008 for more about the Guldenschuhs. They have finally sold their house in Toledo, OH, and have become fulltime RV’ers like us. After setting up camp, we headed over to their RV for good conversation and beverages, while Anneke cooked a delicious meal.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2008/01/30-31dec07-navarre-fl-happy-new-year.html

The next day the Guldenschuhs joined us on a driving tour of scenic highway 30A along the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. But first as always Dan had a few stops off the beaten track. The first stop was an appliance store that was supposed to have a giant Maytag repair man statue on the roof. We found the store but no statue? Dan went inside and was told that the statue had been damaged by a hurricane and had been removed, probably never to return. As we got back into the car a man came out of the store and invited into the back lot to view the remains of the Maytag Repair Man statue. It was obvious from the statue’s condition that an entirely new one was needed.

Next up was the oldest Goofy Golf putt-putt course that just turned 50. It birthday was celebrated with the return of “Hammy,” its freshly-restored mint-green T-rex, which had collapsed in 1993 and had lain in pieces in a local boatyard ever since. This Goofy Golf (and a sister course in Pensacola) served as working laboratories for the elaborate statue concepts that were later built — and still stand — at the Panama City Beach Goofy Golf around 50 miles east.

We then continued our sightseeing down highway 30A to the town of Seaside, FL. If the pictures of this town look familiar, then you probably saw the movie “The Truman Show” starring Jim Carey. Seaside is an award winning master-planned community often sited as the first “new urbanist” development. The community was started in the late 70s and pretty much finished by the mid 80s. Everything is within walking distance, in fact there are numerous pathways between houses and buildings to use as shortcuts. There are many small cottage mixed in with larger houses and condos. The houses are painted a mix of pastels and tropical colors, and we found it a very pleasant setting. Unfortunately as can be seen by the housing prices on the below website, this piece of paradise is out of our league.

http://www.seasidefl.com/default.asp

Further down highway 30A is another planned community called Rosemary Beach that was built in the early 90s. To us this was a poor imitation Seaside. The architecture of the cottages and housing is not as cohesive as Seaside, and it appears that they made more concessions to the auto (ie things are further apart and some distances are not walk able).

To check out the Guldenschuh’s perspective, and pictures, of our sightseeing trip, see their BLOG:

http://goldenshoervtrip.blogspot.com/2009/01/rv-buddies.html

We made it back to the RV in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset, before being joined by their daughter, Heather Baxter, for dinner at a local BBQ place. Although our time together was too short, it was a good time, good conversation, good meals, and a great sunset with good friends.