Hello from Niceville.

We picked up the rental car at 0645 Wednesday, just a few minutes early.  Definitely a good deal.  The Hertz Florida drive away program is a good deal as-is, but with the free upgrade it’s even better.  $79 a week for two weeks, no drop-off charge, and we have the comfort of a brand new Mercury Marquis.  When I saw it my first thought was that it was going to eat our wallets in gas, but not so.  On the road at 75mph it runs between 24.4 and 24.8 MPG.  That’s what our Hyundai Elantra gets with not nearly as much comfort or space!  And the VERY powerful engine is turning under 2,000 RPM at 75 MPH, which surprised me.  It doesn’t reach 2000 RPM until 80 MPH.  Overdrive can be a good thing.  The only negative is that the CD player won’t play MP3 files, a clear indication of the vehicle’s target group.

I found that an interesting aspect to consider.

Both of the front seats have fully electrical positioning adjustment.  There is even a button that electrically moves the brake pedal and accelerator forward and back, so there isn’t much adjustment one could ask for that isn’t already there.

However, air conditioning, while temperature controlled by digital selection, is single zone – no separate controls for driver and passenger, which I’ve always found to be a degree of BS anyway.   

And in terms of target consumer group, the steering wheel has controls only for cruise control – no control of the radio or CD player.  That is in the same vein as the no MP3 capability.

It took us just under 7 hours to reach Niceville and we went directly to the hotel to check in.  After we unloaded we hit the road to look around and find lunch.

On the way in we recognized virtually nothing locally.  It was as if we had never been here before except for just a handful of landmarks.  I left here in February of 1993 and the rest of the family left in June.  I am amazed at how little I remember of the place.

We went by our first place on Cinco Terrace in Ft. Walton Beach (found it ONLY because we had the GPS!) and my first thought was of when we had to cut a hole in the garage wall to find that frozen pipe.  We also looked at the other place we lived, on Oak in Niceville, and again it took the GPS to guide us there.  I made the correct turn off highway 20, but beyond that we were a blind couple feeling their way without the GPS.  As we were turning around in the cul-de-sac in front of the house on Oak, Ruth commented that they had a very large bush (looks more like a tree to me) growing on top of the septic tank.  They’ll regret that sooner or later.  We already had our experience with the thing.  She also mentioned that both places had looked a lot better when we were living there.  I agree.  Beyond the added years, we took better care of both places than the present occupants have been doing, by a long shot.  Somehow I suspect that is true of most places we lived.  In fact, I remember a landlord telling us, I think in Riverside California, that he had never seen a renter put so much into a place while living there or one who left the place in such good condition.  Seemed to me at the time just the thing to do and it seems that way now, too.  Just a matter of personal pride.

For our first meal I wondered if “that seafood place on the bay still existed.”  After all, there have been several hurricanes through here in the intervening years.  Couldn’t remember the name.  Ruth said, “It started with a ‘g’”, so I looked in the hotel restaurant guide and sure enough, there it was, “Giuseppi’s Wharf.  My retirement party was there and we had eaten there frequently; I’d also been there for countless office luncheons.  So, we headed in that direction.

When we arrived we couldn’t believe the place.  In the years since 1993 the place was destroyed and they moved to a building in Shalimar.  Word is that things didn’t go well there.  What we saw on arrival, TOTALLY different, has been open only 3 months and is the third place, the second on that “home” location.  The whole place is oriented 90 degrees from the original and is set on pilings and it is about 12 or 15 feet off the ground.  Tidal surge will have a hell of a time wiping it out the next time.  It is also much larger, and they bought a lot of property across the street for parking.

We drove by the church in Niceville and by all three of the four schools he boys attended while we lived at both locations, and went to the base, of course.  Word is that there has been a tremendous increase in personnel at the base and we saw quite a bit of new construction there.  Eglin will never run out of space, for sure.

The airport, which shares runways with Eglin AFB, has expanded considerably, but what surprised me most was the large number of cars sitting in the parking lot there.  It’s hard to believe the number of people who have parked there while they are on trips elsewhere.  I spent a lot of time in that airport and it was never really that busy, much less a place where long term parking was so prevalent.  

Then we went down into Ft. Walton Beach, out to Okaloosa Island and across to Destin.  Destin has virtually exploded with condos over the years.  Then we took the Mid Bay Bridge back to Blue Water.  That’s the first time on the bridge for us (it didn’t exist when we were here), and Blue Water has grown considerably, too.

Lunch today was at a small family owned sandwich shop on the bay just down the road from Giuseppi’s.  A person at the hotel recommended it and she was right.  It’s hard to get excited by sandwiches, after all, but I had the largest and best tuna melt ever.  I spoke with the owner and he told me that he buys only the best Albacore he can find.  It shows.  Ruth’s chicken salad, specifically recommended, was also very good and the owner said they sell a lot of it by the pound.  All in all, a hell of a lunch, and “just” sandwiches.

Feeling rather tired, and my leg giving me a bit of trouble, we headed back to the hotel late in the afternoon and were napping into the evening when the thought of ice cream hit me.  It seems to go well with pain pills, after all.  So, we dressed and headed out.

We headed to Blue Water, closest to our hotel, and son of a gun if there wasn’t a Hershey’s Ice Cream place there.  Hah!  Anita would be interested in watching the 2 college student girls working there.  They’ve never heard of “Muddy Sneakers” flavor.  Oh no!  They did have “Fuzzy Navel,” but I didn’t try it.             

So, tomorrow morning we’ll pack up and leave at a leisurely pace, going through Ft. Walton Beach and hopefully finding the church there, St. Mary’s, then to the road that runs along the coast to Pensacola, connecting with I-10 only when we have to at Pensacola.  It will take only about 4 hours to get to Biloxi, our next stop for 2 nights, so there is no hurry.  In fact, we’ll probably not go directly to Biloxi, rather, heading for Ocean Springs, location of Shed BBQ.  If we time it right we can eat lunch there inbound to Biloxi and have the option of a second visit the following day.

We haven’t made a decision on the “side trip” to Austin.  My cold was more of a problem coming here than my back was.  One pain pill was all it took, and I’m not so sure it was the driving that caused that.  I’ve got to get in 4 hours wearing that bone growth stimulator each day so I wore it for 4 hours of the trip.  No matter how comfy the vehicle seat may be, that stimulator is another matter, so the jury is still out regarding Austin.  I am wondering, however, if just one day there is worth two days of driving — maybe we need to consider adding a second day in Austin…  

We are also considering shortening our Biloxi stay to only 1 night.  If we do that we will arrive New Orleans on Saturday rather than Sunday.