Patrick AFB Fam Camp, Canaveral National Seashore and good eats

After we left Base Camp Fowler, we headed south to Patrick Air Force Base FamCamp just south of Cocoa Beach. Patrick AFB is on a barrier island and is described as one of the best kept secrets in the air Force and in the FamCamp chain. The FamCamp was on the Banana River (which Becky found very amusing).

This FamCamp had a concrete pad on a site set aside just for people in wheelchairs.

We drove up Route 1 to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It was bought by the government when then wanted to establish Cape Canaveral. They eventually turned the area into the refuge. Lots of levees for controlling the water levels in the refuge for the breeding of fish and other wildlife. The levees also are roads where people drive out to fish.

In the distance we could see the Shuttle assembly building at Cape Canaveral. A guy fishing on the levee.

Turtles on Merritt Island. Patrick likes to photograph animals

From Merritt Island, we continued North through the Refuge on a dead straight road the seemed to go on forever with a 45 MPH speed limit. We stopped to look at some manatees.

 When we finally got to Canaveral National Seashore it close to closing time and we watched a short movie, got the stamp in our book and looked around. The seashore and Merritt Island are linked together and form the longest strip of undeveloped land on the eastern shore of Florida providing valuable habitat for animals and a nesting ground for turtles.
Five years ago we passed through Daytona Beach, toured the Speedway and then ate dinner at Hog Heaven. We have been talking about eating BBQ there ever since. So we were close to Daytona and decided we needed to see if the food was as good as we remembered.

I had the sampler platter of pulled pork, chicken and ribs. It was as good as we remembered!

Patrick even wanted to eat the bones. We gave them to the dog and she agreed, good BBQ!

After dinner, Becky wanted to walk on Dayton Beach and recreate a photo from five years ago. We didnt have the original so we guessed at placement. Turns out we were close...but not exactly.

On the way back to the camper we saw a gorgeous sunset