To go to Florida or the Caribbean in late September is a crapshoot in any year. But to go in 1998 proved to be somewhat of a sure thing: we were almost sure to get hit by one hurricane or another. We actually did wind up getting lucky; we managed to wedge our vacation between a tropical storm and (most) of Hurricane Georges.
There was a funny incident at the Memphis airport. We were changing planes on the way south and Debbie almost knocked a man over at a pedestrian intersection between concourses. I looked at the guy and there was no mistake in my mind: he was Shelby Foote. He was the historian who was repeatedly interviewed during Ken Burns' Civil War TV series. Already a noted author, he had become very popular as a result of his fascinating commentaries on the various aspects of the Civil War. And Debbie almost floored him!
Afterwards I told Debbie who she had run into. She had not seen his face and could not remember him from the TV series.
We were very disappointed with the Quality Inn in Panama City. After a long day of travelling, including driving 2 further hours from the Pensacola airport, we had somehow expected better. The worst thing about our suite is that it smelled like mildew unless we turned the A/C up all the way. And then we froze.
Another disappointment were the "Best Beaches in the World", as Panama City Beach claims. I don't think so. The sand is indeed pure white. And soft. It's like powdered (not granular) sugar. But the hotels, of which there seemed to be hundreds, were right next to each other and had crowded out the width of the beach, including any sand dunes. So maybe it was the best sand in the world, but terrible planning had made the area some of the worst beaches. It was sort of like Myrtle Beach with nice sand.
We spent a day at St. Andrews State Park, where the original dunes and wide beaches had been preserved. THOSE really were nice beaches. Saw a deer and lots of birds there, but no gators.
The whole time we were there, we (especially Debbie) kept an eye on the Weather Channel. It seemed that everyone else did too. Kind of scary to see Georges getting closer by the hour. All along, though, we had figured that we'd get out just in time. It was supposed to hit land sometime Sunday and our flight out was Saturday evening. We had good weather the whole time that we were there, except for some increased wind and waves early Saturday. And there were even some waves on Friday evening. Don't know if it was related, but we saw several manta rays in the water darting around and swimming real fast at times. We also walked out to the end of the pier to watch the local fishermen pulling in some big ones.
I had planned to run in the Destin Mid-Bay Bridge run Saturday morning. Since the weather was still nice, I didn't think the race would be cancelled. Just before getting to the bridge I saw what looked like a wild dog cross the road in front of me. Then I saw another: it was a coyote! I had never seen one before. I drove over the bridge, looking for a gaggle of runners on either side, and although I found some porta-potties on both ends, there were no runners. Except for one fellow running across the bridge. I saw him when I crossed it the first time, and then again when I came back. I decided to park and run the bridge anyway, since I had come for that purpose and it looked like there was plenty of space to the side of the traffic. I saw the other runner coming towards me and I asked him about the race. He said he thought it had been cancelled. Maybe the increased wind, which did make it a little scary up there. But it was really beautiful. Almost breathtaking.
We stopped several places along the way back from Panama City Beach to Pensacola. The Eden State gardens consisted of a huge old logging family home and acres of live oaks with Spanish Moss. Grayton Beach had once been called America's most beautiful, and here I think they may be right. It was spectacular. Without any hotels (a few homes and condos) it would be tougher to find a place to stay, but we would definitely check it out if the opportunity arose. We also made stops at Blue Mountain Beach and Destin.
As soon as we got inside the Pensacola Airport, the rains of Georges began. It poured at times, but then it let up at other times. When it was close to boarding time for our turbo-prop, there was an announcement that we'd be going 10 minutes late. This was at a time when it had stopped raining, but very dark and angry clouds were coming on quickly. I said to Debbie, a bit too loudly: "Why don't they just wait until the eye is right over us!" Several people smiled at my concern. The takeoff into the rain and clouds was pretty scary; it was quite a relief to finally escape into the sunshine. We were one of the last flights out that evening, and the airport was closed on Sunday.
While we were changing planes again in Memphis, we were walking down the concourse and who should we see? Shelby Foote! I almost couldn't believe my eyes, so I asked Debbie if she had seen him going by. She had not, so I said, "Let's go back and look!" We made a 180 and caught up with him for the purpose of looking at him in the face. This act must have looked very weird to anyone who might have been observing us. Shelby himself didn't seem to notice. Debbie laughed and said, "Now I know who you meant!" And she did agree that it was indeed him, and not some look-alike.
Some questions then came up in my little mind:
Should I have asked for an autograph? I really would like to have met him, but I'm not the greatest of conversationalists on the spur of the moment at the Memphis Airport.
How did this coincidence (seeing him not once, but twice in the same place, 4 days apart) happen? Does he live in Memphis? Does he live at the airport and just walk the concourses?
Anyway, it turned out to be a memorable (even more than most) trip.
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