Fountain/Marianna/Panama City, FL

 

Wednesday 1/30/2013

Pine Lake RV Park

Fountain, FL

(NOTE:  DUE TO A RECENT LAPTOP MALFUNCTION, WE’RE EXTREMELY BEHIND ON OUR BLOG.  PLEASE CHECK BACK OFTEN WHILE WE GET CAUGHT UP.)

 

 

We left Eastbank Campground on Friday, 1/18, and drove southwest to Pine Lake RV Park near Fountain, FL.

After my laptop crashed the other day at Eastbank, I used Terri’s laptop to find a repair shop and located one in Marianna.  It was right on our route, so we parked the rig at a nearby Walmart and then drove over there in the car to drop it off for diagnosis.  They said it would be two to three business days before they could get to it.  Since we were already parked at Walmart anyway, we stocked up on some groceries before we left and then continued on to Pine Lake.

Pine Lake is located along U.S. 231 about half way between Marianna and Panama City.  It’s a Passport America park with full hookups and is satellite friendly.  In fact, many of the sites, including ours, are set up with a satellite dish.  However, our neighbor two doors down was hooked up to the one on our site.  That wasn’t a problem, though, because I prefer to use our own dish anyway.    The sites are pull-through, grassy, and level, but just a bit too close to each other.  The roads are paved and slightly narrow.  The P.A. rate is $18.62 per night for a total of six nights.  We decided to stay 13 nights; six at the P.A. rate and then seven at the weekly rate of about $185.  Here’s our site, #89.

    

In the pictures above you can see just how close the utilities for the neighboring site are located to us.  Luckily we only had some neighbors in that site a few nights during our stay.  This park was nice and quiet, and we’ll stay here again if in the area.

During our stay we ventured out several times, north to Marianna, or south to Panama City and Panama City Beach.

Monday, 1/21, we went back up to Marianna just to explore a bit.  We drove around town and checked out the town square as well as some of the neighborhoods.

On Wednesday morning, 1/23, I got a call from the computer repair shop informing me that my laptop was ready, so after lunch we headed back to Marianna to pick it up.  Incidentally, I discovered that January 23rd was “National Pie Day,” so Terri baked an apple pie!

 

Of course it was very delicious and quite tasty!

Thursday, 1/24, we drove south to Panama City for a 5k volksmarch in the historic Saint Andrew area of town.  We walked through Oaks by the Bay Park.

    

This Heritage Oak Tree was in the park…

    

along with this four-headed Palm Tree!

    

We walked down a boardwalk to Saint Andrew Bay,

through some residential areas along the bay,

to another park called Asbell Park with an historic Salt Pot,

    

    

and around Lake Caroline.

The weather was wonderful, and we really enjoyed our walk.  After we got back to the car we drove down to Panama City Beach on the Gulf Coast.  We were both pretty tuckered out from our 5k walk, so we just briefly strolled the beach and took in all its beauty.

    

    

By the time we got home it was dark, and we were tired!  But it certainly was a great day.

On Saturday, 1/26, we drove up to Florida Caverns State Park just north of Marianna.  We did another 5k volksmarch here at Florida Caverns mostly on established walking trails, but also through the campground and around Blue Hole Spring swimming area and picnic grounds.  We started at the swimming and picnic area and took a trail to the campground.

We left the campground and took a trail

to the Chipola River Overlook.

There was a nice bench to sit on at this very peaceful spot in the woods by the river.  We sat for a while and rested while sharing the bench with this little guy.

We saw some interesting trees too.

    

These three trees all apparently had their specific time to fall to create this geometrically precise formation!

Our walk also took us past some interesting “sinks” along the way.

    

Here are a couple more scenic pictures.

    

Many of the trees are very tall here.

We really enjoyed this 5k walk, and it certainly was different from the other two we’ve done.  After we got back to the car we drove over to the visitor center.  The Civilian Conservation Corps was very instrumental in the development of this State Park.

    

There’s a cavern tour here, but we passed on it this time.  We had a very enjoyable day here at the park.  On the way home we stopped for one of our favorite treats.

Terri had the French Silk Pie, and I had the Chocolate Xtreme.  Have I mentioned that we both like Dairy Queen Blizzards?! 

On Tuesday, 1/29, we went back to Panama City for lunch at a Chinese buffet called Chow Time Grill and Buffet.

How appropriate as we definitely did chow down!

         

There was plenty of food, and it really hit the spot!  Afterward we drove back down to Panama City Beach to walk off our lunch.  Unfortunately a storm front was moving in, and the weather turned cold and windy.

    

We walked out onto the beach for a short while, and then quickly scampered back to the warmth of the car.  We were hoping to take our chairs out and sit for a while, but the weather just didn’t cooperate. 

We’ve enjoyed our time here in northern Florida, but now it’s time to head back to Georgia.