Monday 9th January – Tyndall Air Force Base

Time to leave St George Island and head back to civilisation…. And planes!  Tyndall AFB was west-bound along the coast.  Despite only being an hour or so away, due to crossing a time zone back to Eastern time we had the hour back by the time we got there!  This meant that we could stop for lunch so that Simon could plane-spot to his heart’s content. He sought advice at the base’s reception where they tipped us off about a good location to watch the skies – a beach by the side of the main waterway that the planes would be crossing as they approached the base to land.  As soon as we arrived we could hear jets above and Simon started taking photographs and video: 

F5 freedom fighter coming into land

F22 Raptor stealth fighter

A raptor coming right at us from the distance

As is only fair, I also spied some wild birds and dolphins, so we both enjoyed the time we spent there:

New one on me - a killdeer

Yes, ANOTHER osprey!

We continued our journey west along the coast and through Pensacola, bagging a deal for cheap gas at a station that was being forced to close down by road development ($2.24 a gallon!).  Crossing Pensacola was very slow due to rush-hour traffic, so by the time we reached our plot for the night in Big Lagoon State Park it was dark.  Time for a quick dinner of fajitas – tasty!