Eglin and the Sound of Freedom

One night stands are usually easy to arrange at most RV Parks, but the need to stay for a week or more at a popular location without reservations can be quite problematic. Travelers come and go every day for brief or extended stays. Parks that take reservations choreograph the RV site occupancies like a well-rehearsed ballet. For those that don’t, a traveler may not be able to stay as long as they’d like.

Chris and Jay prefer to stay a minimum of two to four days and like military bases because of the facility quality and security. As one could imagine there is not much vandalism and theft on a base crawling with highly trained militants.

Eglin Air Force Base did not take reservations and they were apprehensive about obtaining a site when they left Mayport. They exhaled a sigh of relief when a short phone call to Eglin assured them there was room and they could fulfill the primary reason to visit the area; pick up the growing stack of mail at nearby Crestview – the location of their mailing service and official resident address.

The campground was in the flight path of the base airstrip and a love/hate relationship with the searing sound of fighter jets screaming over the RV developed. Chris thought it was the coolest sound in the world – The Sound of Freedom! Conversation and or sleep came to a temporary halt, but thankfully the Air Force keeps civil hours and only flies between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., unlike the Marine Corps helicopter maneuvers at Camp Lejeune at 1 a.m!

The abundantly supplied PX and Commissary were perfect venues from which to stock up as they were the last tax-free military store Chris and Jay would encounter for many days. Clothes, groceries and other supplies were purchased and the consistently cold, windy weather kept the couple inside working on the numerous projects that always needed to be completed. Their original four-day stay stretched into more than a week; at least three days of which were spent planning and making reservations for the next seven months itinerary.

The plan completed and with eager anticipation of driving further west than they’d been since the outset of the Odyssey two years before, Chris and Jay once again hitched up Sonny to Big Red, and on Monday, January 31^st headed to New Orleans; the land of Mardi Gras and the City of the Dead.