Gasoline prices fail to deter thousands

So much for gasoline prices putting a damper on the Fourth of July weekend.

Everywhere one could think to look this weekend, it was evident that many people chose not to stay home.

The beaches were packed and Crab Island was buzzing. Kites filled the sky over Choctawhatchee Bay and all manner of watercraft buzzed in and out of Destin Harbor.

The sunset cruise ship Southern Star had a full load of passengers, and license plates from 15 states were seen simply by cruising the back two rows of The Boardwalk's parking lot on Okaloosa Island.

The tourists were here, all right.

Mike Booker of Birmingham, Ala., said he and his wife, Mirela, didn't really worry too much about the cost of gasoline when they planned their vacation. They just like coming to the beach.

"I just think about Europe and what they're paying," Booker said. "We're not there yet. We're still spoiled. I can't complain."

So little complaining from the tourists probably resulted in some grumbling from locals, though, as U.S. Highway 98 turned into a parking lot at times on both ends of the Brooks Bridge and in Destin.

"Y'all do have some bad traffic," said Brandy Harris of Denver, N.C. "Good Lord, getting out here was about impossible. I was like (boyfriend) ‘Stefan, where'd all this traffic come from?' "

Capt. Shane Stewart with the Okaloosa Island Fire Department said traffic had been bad all weekend.

"We had lots of cars on the roads and lots of people at the beach," he said. "A friend of mine came over from Pensacola and it took him 2ï¾½ hours."

Firefighters on the island, in Destin and in South Walton County reported lots of calls Friday and Saturday, but Stewart termed the majority "beach calls" that weren't too terribly serious.

South Walton County Fire District Chief Corey Harned said a lot of the calls his men answered were for minor traffic accidents on crowded roads.

"The good news is there are so many people on the road they can't get going fast enough to hurt each other," he said.