A nice start to the day.
[Carrabelle Day #16 2025-03-13 (Thu)] In all our times staying in Carrabelle we’ve never driven farther up the coast than Port St. Joe. So today we drove to Panama City about 80 miles west up the coast. Just a little past Port St. Joe is Mexico Beach where Hurricane Michael made landfall in October 2018 as a category 5 storm. At Tyndall Air Force Base outside of Panama City wind speeds of 139 mph were measured before sensors failed. As we drove through this area there were still signs of destruction everywhere. Construction was also everywhere, especially at Tyndall AF Base. The beach itself had reconstruction and reinforcement in progress using heavy equipment. Steel pipe was being placed, apparently for forming a breakwater.
We’ve only eaten one meal out since leaving WI 18 days ago, so when we saw there was a Culver’s in the Panama City area Lyn was *very* excited. The one we ate at was newly built/opened a couple months ago. There was a photo on the wall with some Packers players, and it felt just like being at home.
One of the reasons for driving up this way was to see if we might want to stay in the Panama City area next winter. But it’s a lot busier and built up than the Carrabelle area, and no easy access to dog friendly beaches. We came to the conclusion that we had it about as good as we could get right where we are, and have reserved a site here at Carrabelle Beach for the month of Feb next winter.
After dinner today we went into Carrabelle City to walk around and do a little photography. I was hoping for nice light near sunset, but a few minutes after we arrived cloud cover moved in. I did get one nice marina photo before the light disappeared.
Small marina on the Carrabelle River. Nicely lit by the sun behind us, just before the clouds moved in.
The sun struggles to break through at Carrabelle City this evening.