wanderingbob wrote:
I have lived in Florida for seventy some years and have not seen it all either .
Many things to see in the Panhandle , all the military bases will have nice museums , Many State and Federal parks and campgrounds , good fishing . Bird watching , alligator watching ,climb a lighthouse or three ,lots of small coastal towns . You could spend a day walking around Apalachicola , go to Carabelle and see the nations smallest police station , see the War of Northern Aggression battle site at Natural bridge . Wow , I can't wait !
There are plenty of interesting stops along the way on 98. But much of it is tall high rise hotels and condos on the beach side and fast food joints,tacky tourists shops and gas stations on the the other side. Lots of slow traffic. 98 will never make the list of top scenic drives in America. Having said that, I prefer to drop down from I10 to some of the nicer locations like the state parks you mentioned, Destin and Gulf Shores Al. But to drive the full length of the panhandle? Doing it once out of curiosity was enough for me. But then I have always owned boats (currently a 43' trawler) and the view from out on the water is way better than peeking at it between buildings driving much of 98. I've fished the west coast in my flats boat from 10,000 Islands all the way up the coast to Cedar Key. If you really want to see old Florida take a boat out one of the more remote spring fed rivers that run out to the gulf thru unspoiled and undeveloped shore lines that are totally wild and full of fish, gaters , birds and manatees, etc. You can catch your dinner of trout or redfish, snorkel for scallops, net some blue crabs, not see a building of any kind the whole day, and have your own seafood buffet for dinner later. On the East Coast as a young guy, my family had a 60' Hatteras that we kept at Key Largo, and we fished the keys and the Bahamas for many years. Unfortunately these days much of coastal Florida is heavily built up, but there are still many hidden jems that are still relatively pristine but often not easily accessed. I do love Florida and have been lucky to see some the best of it that many folks never get to see, but 98 in the panhandle, 19 on the West Coast south of Weeki Watchi and US1 on the East Coast are all routes that I mostly avoid unless I am going to a very specific location. For me a truly scenic road would be 550 north out of Durango, the Big Sur, the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier, etc. Been to every state west of the Missisipi and most of the Midwest and East coast in my various RVs over the years, but 98? Not very special.
