DeFuniak Springs, FL

Our trip from Okefenokee south was a bit more eventful than we would have liked.  Because of the pipeline hack, we ran into problems with gas supplies.  We went to three different gas stations with long waits and no signage stating outages :-(  We were finally able to get gas after another long wait.  Note that there wasn't really a shortage, but gas hoarding and panic buying caused many stations to run short, especially along the interstate highways.  When we went further away, we were able to get gas, but often paid a bit more for it.

We finally arrived at our campground, "Sapphire Island," but it was on the opposite side of a divided highway and hard to see.  The campground host was amazingly kind, though, and full of ideas of what we shouldn't miss.  On her recommendation, we headed toward the beach for the remainder of the day.  It was the first time either of us had ever been to the Gulf Coast.  We ended up at Santa Rosa beach:

Richard dipping his toes:

We walked along the powdered sugar sands until we found a good spot to view the sunset.  There, we met several wonderful ladies and they kindly took a few pics of us:

We then took pictures of the sunset ourselves:

The next day, we went to Falling Waters State Park, which features a creek falling more than 100' into a sinkhole and into an underground cave system (flooded). 

It was really beautiful, with abundant vegetation, but not many animals, perhaps due to the large number of people there.  They did have a number of humorous signs, however:

Well, maybe they should hurry up, or get faster ones ;-)

The falls were lovely:

As were all of the ferns and mosses that grew around it:

Of course there was a nature walk, where we saw more flowers, dragonflies, and butterflies:

This one is technically in the damselfly family, hence the folded wings:

We then left the falls and headed south and east, looking for a beach that would show the sunset directly over the water.  We ended up at Panama City Beach, which was, to safety-minded Californians, amazingly crowded, with little to no social distancing.  We spent the afternoon walking along the white, white soft sands, taking a few pics, and Kelly, of course, hunted for pretty shells, but carefully checked for inhabitants first.

A few snapshots of the crazy party atmosphere:

And a parting shot similar to the South Carolina flag: