Sunday Best ~ Reminiscing First Retirement Trip

      Mr. G & I love unplanned trips.  However, my first retirement trip was supposed to be planned & down Route 66.  I'd bought travel books and we both had spent time on the Internet looking for places not to miss. During the couple of days before we departed, I started having a yearning for the beach.  Sure enough, when the day came, we dumped our plans and headed toward Myrtle Beach, spending the first night in Gatlinburg.
       The second day when we got to Spartanburg, SC we discussed that Myrtle Beach was too much "old school" since we'd both been there multiple times, and ultimately decided to take our original Route 66 trip! So we headed across the south via Georgia and Alabama with that sense of adventure that we love.
       Once we got to Meridian, instead of heading north to Route 66, I started yearning for the beach again.
       That night we stayed in Pensacola.  We decided to spend the rest of the week driving the coast of Florida. and we did.
       Above is our own "private" beach about an hour after we left Pensacola. 

 St. George Island, FL

King's Bay Lodge, Crystal River, FL

  We drove the coast to Tampa where we then headed east to Vero Beach and then north. 

Vero Beach, FL   4:00 pm on a Friday.  Never knew why no one was on the beach.  Just folks like us walking around.

         A year ago the 17th of September was on Saturday.  We were visiting a good friend at New Smyrna Beach.  While waiting we drove over to the public beach.  SO crowded.

    I just had to take the picture of this gentleman's "personalized" RV.  The beach was in hollering distance behind him.

    We had planned to take the Route 66 trip along with another trip to Florida this fall until I broke my arm.  We are on stand-by now.