4 years, 5 months.

Dear Jack,

We definitely had a lot of fun during our Pensacola trip, but there was also a string of weird, potentially dangerous events in our near proximity.

Here’s my video I made for this story today:

For example, when we first arrived at in Pensacola, at Casino Beach, after our 7 hour road trip, you and Mommy ran for the water. As I was several steps behind as I was carrying our belongings, I heard an explosion behind me; from beyond where we had parked the Sienna.

I turned around to see a black pillar of smoke rising in the distance behind me; but not the far distance.

My initial concern was to make sure it wasn’t some kind of terrorist attack. So I did what any dad would do: I begin running as fast as I could towards the smoke.

If I needed to help us escape from the chaos in the Sienna as our getaway vehicle, I needed to be able to do so as soon as possible.

As I ran closer, I began hearing from other people who were running alongside me that an RV had exploded.

Another explosion occurred, inviting more sirens and smoke.

I decided from there that there was no need to evacuate the beach, as I began to be able to see the flaming RV.

After an hour or so of hanging out at the beach back with you and Mommy, we decided to drive by the scene on our way back to the hotel.

The firemen were packing up and the policeman continued to keep a presence as curious onlookers like us visited the aftermath.

As you can see from my pictures, there were only charred remains of the RV. Even the car parked next to it took a major hit.

And that wasn’t our only brush with danger during the trip…

Later the next day as we were in the middle of the Highway 98 Bay Bridge in Pensacola, over the water, a 3 car pile-up occurred just a quarter of a mile ahead of us. We were stuck there in the middle of the bridge for an hour before the crashed cars were towed and we were able to move.

And on our final day, we had arrived back at our hotel to see dozens of people standing outside in the parking lot; along with a fire truck and policemen.

There was apparently some sort of gas leak scare that had occurred in the kitchen. The hotel had to evacuate everyone.

We had arrived about 45 minutes after the evacuation. We watched and waited from the Sienna. About 20 minutes later, they allowed us back in.

I can’t help but point out that we made sure to continually pray for God to keep us safe in our travels; from the moment we left our driveway.

And I believe our prayers were answered. Not to mention, to my knowledge, no people were seriously hurt during any of these events. So God wasn’t just answering our prayers, but others’ too.

Love,

Daddy