Room with a view

We are parked at a roadside turnout on Cape San Blas (map), south of Port Saint Joe, Florida. This spot was listed in our Days End directory, and we figured if it did not work out for any reason, we could just continue another eight miles or so to the state park at the end of the peninsula, which has a $27 per night campground.

This turns out to be a great spot, with panoramic views of the gulf on one side, and Lighthouse Bayou off Saint Joseph Bay on the other. It's very remote here, and I saw more stars last night than I have in quite some time. There are no services for miles in either direction, and I grilled a nice steak last night for dinner.

Just before checkout time at Henderson Beach I called the vet, and the thyroid test had just come in. It was negative, which meant no return visit and no change in treatment plan. The next step, should things not improve, would be an ultrasound, and there are no ultrasound clinics in the Destin area. Thus wrapping up our Destin visit, we checked out of the campground and headed east on US98.

Making our way through Panama City turned out to be a slog. We're sorry they bulldozed the Elks lodge there last year, as it would have been a great stop, right on the water downtown. With no boondocking allowed anywhere in town, we did not even stop, and continued on to Port Saint Joe. This spot is a bit off the main route, requiring a short detour on Florida 30, but then it is only four miles from that scenic route.

We made it here right around 4:15, which would have given us just enough time to make the state park before closing if we needed it. But it seemed fine to us and we settled in for the night, enjoying a sunset over the gulf before dinner. Angel even seemed to be improving a bit, showing more alertness overall and mostly tolerating the food we were cramming into her.

Unfortunately, the off-label anti-emetic injection that the vet had given her wore off yesterday afternoon sometime, and just before midnight she managed to spit up a good amount of what we had given her, including some of the antibiotic pill. That suggests we need to go to the next step, and find an ultrasonographer to look into her abdomen.

As much as I'd like to stay on the coast a while longer, the next major city to the east is Tallahassee, where there are at least two veterinary ultrasound clinics. So we will turn inland at Apalachicola and head toward the capital, in the hopes of scoring an appointment sometime tomorrow. We also have a club in Tally, and perhaps we can have dinner there tonight.

Photo: The view from our windows over the Gulf of Mexico.