Emerald Coast

We are still here twix white sand and blue sky on the brim of turquoise sea. Tweezing out the words, I see the fire clouds in the east, where the Forest Service is doing a “prescribed burn” where we camped two nights ago (immediately after hunting season…poor animals!) They didn’t post the Point Washington National Forest roads at all so we were in there when they started the burn then have watched the billowing clouds of gray drift out over the Gulf since.
Yesterday, the fire was the start up of our conversation with a local activist who was walking the beach on her break from caring for her aged mother. She talked about how they had fought poor development projects and been flabbergasted and disheartened when every single project was approved (glancing at a row of high condos down the way from the Grayton State Park where we met her.) We just talked briefly but it seemed to give her such hope to know that we cared about what she was trying to do and understood her love of her little patch of Florida, where the small inland brack-water lakes of Walton County are apparently unique in the country.
Next, we met a couple from Oregon who were traveling in their solar and biodiesel powered van after selling off their hand hewn home to go on the road. Everything about their lives resonated with our own wanderings and findings. The first true kindred spirits of the open road our well wishes go with them.

After that, we ran up against the “Emerald Coast.” The traffic, commercialism, military bases around Pensacola were inescapable and like a spirit trap. But today, at the beach at Navarre, Michael has processed veggie oil and Sasha and I have had our respective good walks, so now we are up to finding biodiesel in the congested heart of Pensacola with an Adelante!