THE RUN TO SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE

I was late getting underway, I had resolved that nothing would delay me further. So in the last week of January 2007, I headed out between storms. An ice storm had just swept across much of the area I would have to run through and another storm system was threatening. My target was a part of the country that I had never explored, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

I had sworn not to drive more than six hours and to rest overnight after that. But once on the road I found it hard to stop. At first it seemed too early in the day to stop, I felt that I could keep going. Scott Air Force Base was over 600 miles from Minneapolis and I kept putting off rest stops until I was tantalizing close. I kept going.

After 13 hours I pulled onto old highway 66 for a stop at an old gas station with only tight pump access. I figured that I could make it in and out ok. I couldn't and I didn't. I ended up crushing my rv steps against gas stations and popping the bottom bolts on my awning support.

I finally made it to Scott Air Force Base as the sun set. By the time I got to the camp ground it was dark. Figuring I had best park on the side of the road until morning, rather than park in the dark, I promptly dropped the trailer off a culvert and into a ditch. I tried backing out, and when that didn't work, I tried going forward. I was stuck with the trailer at a tilt in the ditch. I put it in four wheel low and the Ford pulled the rig out of the ditch as neatly as if it were a wrecker. I found a safer spot and parked for the night. By this time I had been on the road for 14 hours. Dumb, dumb Dumb!

The next morning I discovered that I had torn off the front and back leveling jacks on the passenger side of the trailer. Well, I had mostly, the back one was still dangling so I parked the rig and got to work removing it the rest of the way. No big deal, they are manual and can be replaced with scissor jacks.

AND ON TO FLORIDA

I laid over at Scott for five days recovering from the attempt to save time. Finally I hit the road again, rejoining Interstate 57 which took me south on I-24 through Nashville and all the way south to Mobile on 64. This time I laid over after about 300 miles at the Redstone Armory outside of Huntsville, AL, leaving the next morning for Pensacola, FL. The ability to stay at military camp grounds is a life saver but it can often take up to an hour to find the camp ground once you are on base. Not that I am complaining.

Once at Pensacola Air Station, I was informed that I could only stay one night, and that I should instead go to the Blue Angel camp ground a few miles away. The next morning I found my way to Blue Angel, and what a find it was. It is an abandoned sea plane base that has been converted to a campground. It sits right on Perdido Bay and unlike most bases, is quiet and isolated. Wifi costs $20 a month and I can do my morning and evening walks along the old landing strip. Throw in perfect sunsets and you see why I like it. Although they call the 55 to 70 degree weather cold, it is pretty much summer weather in northern Minnesota where I grew up.

Blue Angel Recreation Area

sunset on Perdido Beach

Looking across Perdido Bay the opposite shore is Alabama. We are barely in Florida. The nearest Post Office is in Alabama. After a few years of wandering the country I have finally found a place that I could see coming back to regularly.