Cocoa Beach

We played pickleball again Friday morning and then headed off to the Atlantic coast and Cocoa Beach. There are Ron Jon Surf Shop signs everywhere in Florida. All signs lead to their main store in Cocoa Beach. We had been before but it definitely deserved a second visit. This place is huge! Every possible type of surf board, boogie board, wet suit, bathing suit, beach ware, T shirts, etc. One could easily spend the day just roaming around the store. The nice thing about this store is that beach access is only a block away, so people pop into the store either on their way to or from the beach. Lots of free parking available as well and they also have a rental shop next door where you can rent surf boards, etc. We spent about an hour or so wandering around the store. I managed to find some T shirts and a pair of shorts while Chris found a skirt and tank top for herself.

We found a Starbucks next door, so after a coffee and bit of crumb cake, we made for the beach. This is the last week of spring break, so there were quite a few people on the beach. Seems like sring break goes on forever down here.

The Atlantic has much more surf than the Gulf Coast or at least it appeared that way to us. Lots of waves crashing onto the beach. We watched many people trying to navigate surf boards, boogie boards and such. Some made it up, others didn't. We noticed how low the roof lines were on most of the older homes close to the beach. The lower profile likely because of hurricanes.

We headed back to Orlando by following Hwy a1A south along the coast, past Patrick AFB,where we saw three C-130 Hercules aircraft sitting on the tarmac, to Melbourne, where we turned inland on Hwy 192 and basically followed it all the way home. The ride down the coastal highway was fabulous with the windows down and the stereo on. There was lots of roadside parking available along the way. We even saw a few motorhomes parked along the road, for the day only though, as most areas were posted no overnight parking or camping.

We would love to find a campground where we could park our motorhome on the beach. There used to be quite a few such campgrounds but theren't that many anymore. Most have sold off to developers.

We had driven Hwy a1A north out of Cocoa Beach all the way to Jacksonville, two years ago, but this was our first trip along it south of Cocoa Beach. WHat a great day!