At the beginning of this year, my friend Danita told me that her daughter was going to plan a trip for her for the beginning of May and wanted me to partake in the festivities. Both Danita's birthday and Mother's Day fall within a few days of each other during that month. I scheduled the time off of work and started making the necessary preparations. "So where are we going ?" It took a few weeks to get a firm answer. But Fort Walton Beach, Florida was eventually penciled in on the itinerary.

This sounded like a great idea to me. I'm always up for a long road trip, especially to a new place. Not only have I never been to the Fort Walton Beach/Destin area, I've never been to the Florida Panhandle before.

Since we're talking about Florida in May, I knew that it was going to be both flat and warm. So it would make perfect sense to take the bicycle with me. That way, I could explore on two wheels while the girls were doing mother/daughter birthday stuff during the day.

And finally, I have a cousin who lives in Fort Walton Beach whom I have not seen in more than 20 years. I got in touch with him and discovered that his house is only a few miles away where I would be staying, which would make for an easy two-wheeled visit.

Danita and I hopped in the Z4 with the bike rack attached to the hitch and made the 8 hour drive from Athens, roof down of course.

Everything about the drive was perfect. Mother Nature cooperated with beautiful weather. Traffic around the Perimeter of Misery in Atlanta was actually bearable on this Saturday morning. Traffic was nonexistent on I-85 and on US Route 331 south from Montgomery, Alabama all the way to the gulf coast.

However, once we reached US Route 98 and embarked on the final 25 miles of the journey heading west toward Fort Walton Beach, traffic came to a standstill outside of Destin.

I later learned that US 98 is always like this during the high season. A traffic accident in the westbound lanes outside of Destin didn't help the situation either. I used the time to take a few pics of the surroundings. Miles of sand dunes sat off to my left. These dunes are on the Gulf side and are part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

Choctawhatchee Bay sat off to my right.

I perched the camera on top of the windshield and started shooting.

I liked the guy hanging out on the bed of the truck.

The photo seen above would be a good sundown picture if all the cars were gone. However, I love the way the sun is reflected in the hood of my car.

I spotted a couple of paddleboarders in Choctawhatchee Bay.

Choctawhatchee Bay.

Choctawhatchee Bay.

Marine traffic on Choctawhatchee Bay.

The scenery doesn't change much when you aren't moving. Nonetheless, I liked the calm atmosphere of relaxing on the bay.

Relaxing on Choctawhatchee Bay.

We spent more time in traffic here than anywhere else during this trip.

Eventually, we made it to our hotels where it was time to get this vacation started !