The vehicle we own is a 2005 Dodge RAM diesel truck - has only 57,000 miles on the clock, tows well - however we had been contemplating trading it in on a newer model - I mean, a bloke can never have enough truck right? After some research and talking to our neighbour Patrick at the campsite in Galveston, we decided to install a 'Banks Chip' and new oil air filter into the truck instead, which would give us that extra power we needed - or was that the extra power we wanted? As it turned out Patrick owned the same model truck as we do and had the Banks system already installed - a few more discussions over a couple of beers and I was sold! So Merry Christmas to me - the Banks IQ and Econo Chip were ordered that night and were to be delivered to Gullf Shores within the week.
Unfortunately things don't always run to plan - we received the aircleaner within the advised timeframe, which I installed the next day, however as the IQ Chip had been dispatched a couple of days later we had to extend our stay at Gulf Shores for an extra couple of days. Yes, only a couple of days however as any other camper will understand, when you are ready to hit the road you just want to go.
Two days later, IQ Chip received, we were all smiles as we drove out of the park heading east towards Mexico Beach, Florida. Our good friends Jon and Eileen had suggested that we stay at Mexico Beach if we wanted a quieter, little more laid back location so Rustic Sands RV park was our destination.
After a foggy drive along the Gulf of Mexico we were greeted and directed to our designted site by Richard, the park's caretaker. He provided us with information on what to do and where to go while in the area and warned us of a bear that roams through the park at night looking for food scraps in the large industrial rubbish bin. The warning not to dispose of or leave any rubbish out after dark was heard loud and clear!!! A more welcome bit of information though was that the park had its own Tiki bar which was open every Saturday and Tuesday nights. Lucky for us it was Saturday night - a bit of live music, a couple of drinks and dinner from the grill - we were there!
All set for "Glamping"
As we found out the Tiki bar is a popular place for the local Mexico Beach residents as well as the visiting campers. Before long we were happily chatting with some of the locals resulting in phone numbers and face book addresses being exchanged at the end of the night. One couple, Ron and Letticia were true to their word and gave us a call the following day, offering to show us the sights and popular drinking spots in Mexico Beach. Unnfortunately it was a rainy day so we missed the sunset at the beach bar at the El Governor Hotel but the cheap happy hour drinks helped us wash away our disappointment. Final drinks were had at the Lookout Lounge bar which is located on the coastal time line so depending on where you stand you can loose an hour quite quickly! As well as seriously cheap drink prices the Lookout Lounge also provides its patrons with a free dinner - we helped ourselves to fried chicken, a variety of salads and vegetables and spaghetti, folllowed by a key lime and chocolate pie. To thank Ron and Letticia for showing us around we invited them over to our camp site for dinner the following night. They invited another of their friends over as well - John who owns an apolostery business in Nashville. Ron and Letticia are an amazingly interesting couple. One of their many past times is making solid timber cutting boards which they sell through various outlets at Mexico Beach. They source the timber for these boards from all our the world - the most unusual and prettiest in our opinion was the 'purple heart' timber which is grown in South America. We were pleasantly surprised when they arrived that night and gave us a hand made cheese board, home made banana bread and fudge. Such generous, lovely people. Thank you Ron and Lettica for your hospitality, wonderful gifts and friendship.
We are constantly amazed at the different accents thorughout the USA. We met a lady named Susan at the Tiki Bar who was from Georgia. The more she drank ( or maybe it was the more WE drank) her southern drawl accent became harder and harder to understand. And they tell us we have the accent!!
Beach erosion happens everywhere - the Gold Coast in Australia and also Mexico Beach Florida
We had been told that the little fishing village of Apalachacola produces the best oysters in the USA. As we are both quite partial to these delicasies we were happy to drive the 40 miles down the highway to establish if th this was a true statement! We cruised the streets stopping at the Up The Creek Raw Bar - we found out later that this was one of the best places in town.
We sat down and ordered a dozen oysters each - I ordered Parmesan and Rose ordered the Classic Fella. We both agreed that they were pretty good but decided to order another dozen just to make sure. As we made our way down the stairs we more than happy to confirm - yes oysters from Apalochocola are in fact some of the best in the world.
Great oysters
Sunsets over Mexico Beach
As we pulled out of Mexico Beach we decided we had to go and say one final farewell to our new friends Letticia and Ron - unfortunately Ron had left early for work at the local grocery store so we only managed to get a photo of the beautiful Letticia.
Another great friendship made
We headed off keeping to our original plan to follow the coast road around the Gulf of Mexico - an amazingly beautiful drive. One of our stops along the was at Carrabella Beach which was used for the US Army as a training beach prior to troops shipping to England for the D Day invasion.
The plaque commemorating the many young men that trained at Carrabella Beach
If Mexico Beach was an example of what Florida had to offer we were going to be loving this state.
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