Our RV Adventures: Pensacola

Continuing our trek west, we made our last stop in the Florida panhandle at Pensacola RV Park. Florida is such a long state! Crazy how long it took us to get out of it. The Pensacola RV Park was absolutely lovely. The sites were well maintained and easy to get in and out of, the staff was friendly and quick to address all issues and questions, and the location was awesome for I-10 access. We enjoyed having a sewer connection, cable, and free WiFi!

Our campsite at Pensacola RV Park

Unfortunately most of the things I had hoped to see in Pensacola were on the naval air station, which was closed to non-military due to COVID. Normally you can go to the Naval Aviation Museum on the base and watch the Blue Angels practice...not only could we not get to the museum, but even if we could, the Blue Angels weren't practicing. Very disappointing! I can't help but wonder what other unique things we'll miss traveling during COVID times...meaning we'll probably need to come back along this route again in the future!

Fortunately Fort Pickens was still open! This national park is the site of an old Civil War fort (used by the Union in the war), later equipped with significant artillery batteries during World War I. The fort saw action during the Civil War but not World War I. The visitor center was closed (so no national park passport stamp for us), but all of the batteries and the main fort were open. The drive out to the fort was incredible - we drove through a long stretch of road with dunes and water on both sides - and most of the numerous structures were well preserved and open for you to climb on (which Aaron, of course, loved).

That's sand, not snow!

Standing atop one of the batteries looking
out on the Gulf

He HAD to see what was inside...

A cannon atop Fort Pickens itself

Atop Fort Pickens

Our stay in Pensacola was pretty chilly, so we opted not to go out on the couple of bike trails I'd found. Instead, Aaron changed our transmission fluid (we just discovered it needed changing) and fixed a suddenly broken awning bracket.

Changing the transmission fluid

The transmission fluid dipstick is REALLY long and surprisingly
flexible

Fixing the awning bracket with
some sort of not-riveter that attaches
to a drill

Our time in Pensacola closed on a sad note. My Uncle John, who was an integral part of my childhood, who attended all of the major (and most non-major) events in my life, and who was generally just a wonderful, generous, fun, and fun-loving person, passed away on January 3. I will miss him terribly.