Part 3 ?

2012 Mar 18

My last post was all about the headache we encountered via Dish Network. But it had a happy ending, in that we met a great guy, Rich Williams, who works for Dan's Satellites of Pace Florida.

Pensacola Lighthouse from Ft Pickens

When we left Ft Pickens, because there was no campsite available on Saturday morning, we decided to hang out in the area and see the sights. We toured the Fort itself, walked along the pier and Pensacola Bay, saw the Pensacola Lighthouse from a distance, watched shorebirds for awhile, and generally had a good time. We decided that at some point in the future we will definitely return and spend the maximum allotted time camping at Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Great Blue Heron

We also decided to go to a campground in Milton, FL. We had been moving around quite a bit and needed someplace to chill while we worked out the next leg of our trip. We have reservations for Crater of Diamonds State Park, in Arkansas, but are not due to arrive there till March 21. We left Ft Pickens on March 10. 

Our site at Cedar Pines in Milton, FL

We stayed at Cedar Pines RV campground, which turned out to be a Good Sam park, so we saved 10%. The campground owners were former Pennsylvanians, from Hershey. It was very reasonably priced, considering that it included about 150 cable channels (Ray had his ESPN!) and wifi, which had four different accounts to choose from, so that most of the time, it was faster than the 3G connection through our phone. One of the only drawbacks was the campground's proximity to the local fire and ambulance service. We seemed to hear an awful lot of sirens in the six nights we were there. It was very close to a Tom Thumb store, though, which worked out well for Raymond and his need for a "real" newspaper.

On Sunday afternoon, Ray called Rich. After Nascar, Rich came over to the RV park with the Tailgater and showed R everything he needed to know. Since we had ESPN available on cable, and because the campground was full of very old live oaks, which would make satellite reception iffy, we didn't actually use Raymond's new toy until Mississippi. By the way, if you know anyone who wants to buy a portable Winegard satellite dish, let me know.