Mysterious signs popping up along U.S. 98 in Miramar Beach

MIRAMAR BEACH — For the past few weeks, a series of mysterious handwritten signs have been popping up along U.S. Highway 98 in and around Miramar Beach.

Mostly carrying messages of love and comfort — a recently placed sign reading “Perfectly Crazy” appears to be an exception — the signs compete for attention with the plethora of other plastic signs crowding the route, advertising everything from fishing charters to solar power to rental properties.

Among the current messages on the mysterious signs are “I’ve got your back,” and “Give being in love a chance.” Previous messages have included “You’re my everybody” and “Let me change your life.” Only recently did one sign, just west of Seascape Drive, appear to be a change in tone, its bright orange letters reading “Perfectly Crazy.”

Like other people who work, live or drive through the area, Matt Loomis, who works at Mattress Outlet just west of Seascape Drive, is at a loss to explain the reasons for, or origins of, the signs.

“I have no idea,” he said Friday.

But, outside of the “Perfectly Crazy” sign, Loomis sees them as worthwhile messages, particularly after recent days’ news of mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.

“Maybe it was a message of hope after a rough weekend,” Loomis suggested.

Farther west along U.S. 98, Adrienna Johnson, who works in the AT&T store in the Paradise Key shopping center at Spence Parkway, took a whimsical view of the sign alongside the highway in front of her workplace, which reads simply, “I’ve got your back.”

“Who’s got my back?” she smiled. “I need to know.”

Johnson said the sign has been in front of the AT&T store for at least a week, when she started working there, and she had no idea how it might have gotten to the side of the road.

“I didn’t see anybody or anything,” she said.

Among the guesses about the purpose of the signs is speculation that they may be leading up to a marriage proposal from a bashful, but creative, suitor, or that maybe they’re part of a suicide prevention effort.

But, as in Friday’s interviews, no one appears certain about the source or reasons for the signs. Generally, though, they have met with approval, judging from comments on the Daily News’ Facebook page.

“I saw one that said something about being magic,” one woman wrote. “So cool!”

A somewhat less-ringing endorsement came from another woman, who wrote, “I like these better than the ‘Timeshares are a scam’ signs.”

But, of course, the signs didn’t escape some waggish commentary. One man, commenting on the “I’ve got your back” sign, wrote, “That’s foreshadowing all the rear-end collisions between Destin and Sandestin.”