THIRD TO FIRST COAST

Where to next?

After our beautiful stay in NOLA, we didn’t know what to do.

We had decided when starting this road trip pretty much every location we wanted to see in the first half of our trip, but after New Orleans, we had decisions to make.

There were a few routes that we could travel, so we asked our friends on Instagram to decide where we should go next.

It was either

A: Up through the Tennessee and the Midwest

B: Travel along the coasts

Our friends decided we should opt to stay near the ocean (and I’m happy they did).

There have been huge storms ripping up the Midwest. Flooding and tornadoes had been reported from Michigan to Nashville so the coastline actually truly seemed safer.

Flooding reported in Nashville

Our first stop after Louisiana was in a town called Mobile Alabama.

It was home to three universities and seemed quaint and down to earth. The downtown was a small center strip and there were two larger buildings like this one:

One thing I noticed immediately was the many people not staring at a phone screen at dinner.

I counted two people on their phones and one of them was sitting alone.

Everyone seemed happy to be talking to their friends about subjects they had covered in class or places they have traveled before. It was very refreshing!

Our hotel though, was atrocious.

We had found a deal on Super.com while we stayed in NOLA that cut our price in half and were certain Super was the best way to travel.

We booked a La Quinta Inn room that night and were excited to rest and unwind.

Jack was up editing footage while Danny rested when all of a sudden a COCKROACH pulled up and joined her!

Jack is incredibly afraid of roaches.

She used the only weapon the had: her boot.

That night, she had to kill TWO OTHER ROACHES while Danny lay fast asleep.

Needless to say Jack did not sleep that night. (And yes I am writing in the third person because it helps me cope. Like maybe this happened to someone else.)

In the morning, dreary eyed and exhausted, we started our trek to Florida.

The Florida coast is absolutely gorgeous. The sand is a shade of white I have never seen. It was cloudy as we trekked through the panhandle and that only added to the alien allure of the coast.

That night we ended up staying at a seriously live area of Florida.

Jack had found a town on the water that was a couple hundred miles from where we were named Panama City Beach.

I guess it must have been spring break because everybody and their mother seemed to be there.

And that’s when we found out that Panama City Beach is a top tourist destination for spring break in Florida!

That night we stayed at a St. James golf and pickleball resort outside of Tallahassee

(It was DEFINITELY roach free and very pretty!)

We went ahead and got some resort food and fell asleep like babies.

In the morning we hit the road east. The Florida panhandle is a beautiful and jungly place. A lot of old abandoned cars and buildings directly next to the beach and surrounded by forest and swamps.

We quickly took some drone shots and kept moving up through the mainland of Florida.

We then stopped for the night in Neptune Beach Florida.

It was a beautiful beach!

Next up: Georgia