Entering Florida

Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Carrabelle Beach RV Park
222 Highway 33, Pelham, Alabama 35124
Cost $261.55 for 7 days.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

We left Birmingham for the Florida Panhandle on Tuesday morning. We made several stops throughout the day, including an hour at a McDonalds’ in the morning, where we were sweating whether or not Dan’s pension check was going to arrive into our bank account or not, and down to our last $7, once we got online confirmation that the money was there, then we felt confident to move on.  We wanted to avoid the freeway spider’s nest  in the Pensacola area, so drove on interstate 10 east to Quincy, where we decided to camp for the night.  It was dinner time and dark so we were lucky to find a Flying J Truck Stop there which was very nice and even had pull-through RV parking—that was a first.  In the morning we used baby wipes to give ourselves a ‘spit bath’, because the truck stop charged $20 for a team shower—double what we were used to paying.

Our destination was Carrabelle on the Panhandle, but we had to take a south highway to reach highway 98 and then back-track about 30 miles or so to reach it.  The highways in Florida are often marked by street or road names so if you don’t know that, you’ll miss your turn-off looking for a highway number that may not even be there.  That’s what happened to us but we wised up the second time.

So we arrived in Carrabelle and found our RV park to be quite lovely—the nicest park we’ve been in so far.  It’s not crowded and we had no trouble getting a site.  We have full-hookups, good internet, cable tv and all the amenities including nice, clean showers, a pool and even a clubhouse.  No complaints from us, even though it’s the most expensive park we been in, I think.  We spent the rest of the first day doing 2 loads of laundry, setting up camp and getting proper showers.

Thursday, February. 2, 2012

We can see the sea from our campsite and we only had to walk across the road to reach the beach.  It’s very pretty and we were the only ones there.  The sand is very white and the water looks shallow and virtually without waves.  We can see the island chain just across from us—Dog Island and St. George Island.  The beach is long and perfect for walking.

We drove around town today just to check things out and take pictures.  Carrabelle has a population of about 1100 so it’s very small and charming.  We stopped for afternoon coffee and dessert at Hog Wild, a local restaurant.  Dan had their home-made banana pudding and he loved it.  It had a thin layer of white cake on the bottom, and was topped with whipped cream.  Looking at it, I thought how easy it would be to make this for him.  I’m not a big banana-flavor lover myself, but he loves all things banana.  Plus, it would give me a way to use up all the extra eggs that were given to me and the very ripe bananas on the counter.  And Dan is in favor of it!

At lunch time we stopped at a little restaurant in town called The Fisherman’s Wife.  We had fish, cheese grits, fried potatoes, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes, Yum to all of it!  We had never had grits, hush puppies and fried green tomatoes before, although I did see the movie years ago.  Hush puppies are fried dough balls made of cornmeal and they reminded me of apleskiver without the sugar.

There is so much water here and it’s a very boating-fishing-beachy town.  Probably all of Florida has this ambiance about it.  The seagulls and pelicans are smaller than the seabirds back home, and have slightly different coloring.  I love seeing them.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Today we took a morning walk on the beach and got to talking to a man and his dog.  I think he said his name was Wallace and his dog is Ubu.  Then we yakked to a couple from Iowa—very nice people.  She is a retired teacher.  Wallace was very interesting to talk to.  He and his wife were biking and hiking through Florida and are now heading home to Michigan.  He had some sort of a “practice” but was forced to retire years ago due to a brain injury.  I assumed he meant a brain aneurysm, and his “practice” perhaps meant he is a retired doctor or dentist of some sort.  He told us he uses biking and hiking and physical exercise as a way to combat alcoholism and that he’s been sober for several years, although he emphasized that it is a day-to-day sobriety.  I could so relate to that because I have eating and obesity issues, and I know from long-term experience that it is a day-to-day struggle and that there is no cure for some types of addictions and that one must substitute healthy practices as a way to battle it.  I also admired how he handled having a health issue that forced his retirement.  Instead of giving up, he found a way through it.

I just love meeting people on the road.  I find their stories uplifting, delightful and sometimes heart-breaking, and I feel closer to the human race as a result.  People are the same, and yet different in ways.

We drove to Appalachicola in the afternoon.  It is about 20 miles west of us.  I love that town.  I could live there.  It’s a town of 11,000 and just the perfect size.  It’s an old town with antique buildings in good repair, just the kind of architecture and town I love.  We stopped at a chocolate shop and bought a few chocolates to take home, and we had a 1-scoop dish of gelato, something I had always wanted to try but never had.  I thought it would be like sherbet but it was really more like home-made ice cream, yet different.  It was wonderful, and now I will have another favorite food to haunt me.  Like I needed that.  We skipped lunch and ended up having a latté in a café with a piece of Key Lime Pie and we played our beloved cribbage at the table.  That pie was delicious but different from the Key Lime back home.  It was yellow, for one thing, not green like the pies at home.

We came home in a bit of a sugar haze from all the sweets but ate a light dinner and then puttered at home.  It gets dark at 6:00 p.m. so it’s not like the afternoon lasts all that long.

Since I was jacked up on sugar anyway, I decided to try making banana pudding tonight with a cake bottom.  And it turned out great—at least Dan thought so.  I use real cream for my coffee so I used a little of that to whip for the topping.  I thought, just for fun, that I would share the recipe here:

For 1 layer of plain cake:

1 ⅓ c. flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ c. butter
¾ c. sugar
¾ tsp vanilla
1 egg
⅔ c. milk
Grease and flour baking pan (although I just lined a small oblong pan with wax paper).  Combine dry ingredients; set aside.  In mixer bowl, blend softened butter with sugar, then add vanilla and egg  Add milk and dry ingredients alternately and beat well.  Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350°F 30-35 mins or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool 10 mins, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before serving.  Cut square pieces or wedges and top with pudding and then top with whipped cream.

Banana Pudding

2 cups whole or 2% milk
⅓c. cornstarch
¼ c. flour
1 c. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 mashed bananas
1 sliced banana

Scald the milk (but don’t over scald) in the top of a double-boiler.  In a separate bowl, mix together the cornstarch, flour, sugar and salt and gradually add the scalded milk, using a small mixer or whip to blend well.  Now transfer mixture back to the top of the double-boiler and cook over boiling water with frequent stirring until smooth and thick.  In a bowl, separate the eggs and discard the whites.  Beat the yolks a little.  Add a little of the hot pudding mixture to the yolks and mix together.  Now add the yolk mixture to the rest of the pudding mix in the double-boiler and cook about 2 minutes longer, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add the butter, vanilla, and mashed bananas and stir well to blend.  Add the sliced banana and stir carefully to mix and still keep the slices intact. Pour pudding into a bowl, let cool, cover and store in refrigerator.  When cold, scoop a couple of large spoonfuls over a slice of cake and top with whipped cream.  If you like cinnamon or nutmeg, sprinkle just a little over the top of the dessert.  Enjoy!