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After a 22 hour trip from Texas to Florida, Alison and I rented a car for the return trip. We took 4 days to get back, and felt we were going too fast! First we headed east for the Atlantic, and stopped by the Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle and it's external fuel tank parked by the highway were quite impressive.
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The shuttle external tank is huge! Located on Hwy 405 on Merritt Island, the shuttle and tank are outside the exhibit center.
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We didn't have time to take the tour, but there's a lot to see at the space center. We turned back to Hwy 1, went north to Titusville and headed east on 402 to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and took Hwy 3 north, then Hwy 1 north to Hwy 421 east.
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421 took us to Hwy A1A for a drive up the Atlantic coast. It's a windy day at the beach with 20 to 30 mph wind.
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We stopped in South Daytona to wade in the Atlantic, the town has many access points to the beach between the condos and motels.
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Nice clean beach. I was amazed how close to the water the buildings are, it's like this for miles. Alison spotted Hwy 100 on the map in Flagler Beach, heading north west, it was time to head for Texas, so we took it. Hwy 100 was wonderful. Smooth, straight, and with almost no traffic we enjoyed driving to Lakeside, Florida where we spent Sunday night.
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Monday morning we headed west on I-10, but turned south on 285 to Niceville, which really was quite nice, for a detour to the Emerald Coast in far west Florida. We made a jog to the east on 20 and south on 293 to cross this bridge that spanned the Choctawhatchee Bay and the Intercoastal Waterway to the Emerald Coast.
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Turning west on 98, we passed through Destin which reminded us of Daytona Beach, condos on the beach and lots of businesses. We stopped at the eastern edge of Fort Walton Beach that had this nice public access with a boardwalk to the beach.
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The beach isn't all developed at this point and the water was very clear.
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Even on February 27th the water was warm enough for some swimmers. Time was passing, so we headed north to I-10 to make time to the west.
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