Beachin' with Suzy

 


If you are willing to camp, you can score a wonderful, inexpensive beach vacay. With my senior pass I camped for 20$ a night at Fort Pickens Camp Ground near Pensacola down a long, narrow, lovely peninsula bordered to the south by the Gulf of Mexico and to the north by Pensacola Bay. 

I did get lucky on finding a site for 2 nights without reserving in advance much further than I did. You usually have to reserve way ahead. (You can sometimes get a site for one night and then a different site for another single night.)

Suzy (my Australian Shepherd) and I slept in my van. We kept cool because I have a jackery power source that runs a fan. The jackery also charges my phone. I used the campsite power to heat water for coffee and oatmeal. Yes I got a little tired of eating oatmeal and nuts and fruit and peanut butter and cheese and tuna fish, but I was trying to keep it simple. My special treat was a kale salad I brought from home and kept in the icebox with some yummy stout beer.

Suzy thought she was the campground hostess. She made a good one. I have never owned a friendlier dog. 

However, she wasn't supposed to go on any of the area's beaches except the designated dog park beach. So we tried the dog beach the first day we arrived. 

You're supposed to keep your dog on a leash there, which seems ridiculous to me. It was Suzy's first time to see the Gulf of Mexico, and she was as excited as I was when I saw it for the first time. Like me, she headed straight for the waves at top speed. After attempting to let her enjoy herself on leash, I lead her away from the dog park beach area a good distance so we were not near anyone and then unleashed her. I just had to.

Naturally, Suzy had a blast swimming in the ocean, chasing the waves and letting them chase her, dashing up and down the beach, and then rolling in the sand such that she looked like a powdered donut. Again, naturally, she disobeyed me and galloped back down the beach to greet the first person she could find: a woman who was sitting on a beach towel just outside the dog park area (there was no fence, of course, on the beach). The woman was not a "dog person," so I don't know why she chose to sit right by the dog beach. 

Much to this sunbather's chagrin, Suzy pranced up to her, gave her "kisses" and a "hug" as she told her how happy she was that she was at the beach and asked her wasn't she happy too? At the moment, she was not. 

It was embarrassing, and I'm sorry Suzy bothered the woman, but I still think it's stupid to have to leash your dog at the dog park beach.

We did manage to find areas on the bay side where no one was around. It was easier for Suzy to swim there, and she enjoyed herself.

Every morning after that, I took Suzy out on the beaches near Fort Pickens early, around sunrise, when no one else was there. Words are inadequate to describe the beauty of those experiences. Suzy and I each relished the surroundings and the feelings they engendered in us. Maybe our feelings were different; maybe they were the same. But there was a kind of ecstasy -- pure joy -- involved for the both of us. And we were each glad to have someone to share it with. I believe we were each worshipping in our our way. You can make of that what you will.




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