Casita Rojita

 After a few days with Pan’s brother in San Antonio, a repeat lunch with a friend we crossed the other half of Texas and set our sites on the beaches of the Gulf.  While this picture was taken at Santa Rose Beach in the Florida Panhandle, we did spend nights in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama before we reached this beautiful sand.   After a night at Topsail State Park, Florida,  we headed for breakfast on the break wall of the Kellogg Park in Santa Rosa Beach. Pan’s parents had donated this bayside land to the county for a park some 14 years ago.  After breakfast it was off to the historic town of Apalachicola at the very start of the Big Bend of Florida. This is our holiday greeting to one and all from the docks in Apalachicola.  These folks call this “the forgotten coast”.  We don’t know if it is the Covid or maybe they are forgotten but there were not a lot of folks hanging around this historic town and beautiful coast. Our last night on the road we st...

  Monday we arrived at Big Bend National Park after a catch up visit in Marfa, Texas. In Marfa we also visited a restored frontier Army Fort where Buffalo Soldiers (with white officers) were stationed to police the frontier mostly against the Indians. Neither of us has visited Big Bend NP previously and quickly discovered it was well worth coming this far south. This big chunk of mountain stood over our campground in Big Bend. We watched the sun go down on it and we waited for the sun to come up over it.  In order to spend two nights in Big Ben NP we had to make two different reservations for two different camp sites.  To stay in NP during the pandemic only reservations are accepted.  Reservations for parks like Big Bend are made months ahead.  Traveling on a loose itinerary as we are has a tendency to exclude us from this process.  But once again local knowledge came through and we made two different reservations for single nights.   So after we moved...