If you find a friend to go in on an order, you can save as much as $5.00 per pound on that powder you buy, depending on the quantity of powder ordered. The Haz Mat fee is charge against the SHIPMENT, so that the more powder you order, the lower the added cost of the Haz Mat fee is per pound of powder. If you have lots of friends, who are all in the same situation you are, you can place an order for a case, and split it up when it arrives. My brother has been leading a black powder club within a larger gun club now for about a year, near Tallahassee. He places an order for Black Powder a couple of months ago for the entire group, and split up the powder when it arrived. Some bought only a pound or two; others bought 5 lbs, and more. He had enough orders to buy a case of powder, and that got them all the lowest cost per pound, delivered. He told me last week it sounds like he is going to need to place an order for more powder, as word has gotten around to those who didn't participate in the first "buy" about the low cost of the powder.
So, find a gun club, and make some friends who also need to order BP. Then contact GOEX on line, and then their distibutor for Florida, or Alabama and Georgia, since you live in the panhandle. They will tell you where your nearest retail store is that carries BP. And, you can make arrangements with some distributors to obtain the powder directly from them at the same low price you would pay to some of the dealers mentioned above. Not all distributors will do this, however, but if you don't ask, it won't happen.
Back before 9/11, in the old days, My club use to take orders that might total close to 400 lbs. We drove over to a distributor in Indiana, to pick up the powder, and drive it back home. Then it went to the club for distribution. We charged enough to pay for the gas both ways. I remember we sold the first shipment at $3.10 per pound, and the club made 5 or 10 cents per can on the " sale." That gives you some idea how long ago it was that I was involved in obtaining powder in quantity supplies.
I believe we used a couple of thick blankets in the back of the pick up truck to cushion the cases, and another blanket over the top of the cartons to protect them from direct sunlight. The man who drove told me that if the powder were to go off, we would not know it, and that all that would be left would be a very deep hole in the highway, with the engine block, or parts of it, down in the bottom. We figured that same powder was transported by semi-trailer truck on pallets from Pennsylvania, without a mishap, and we were not in any great danger. Only if someone slammed a truck into us, might we have that explosion.
Do make friends with other BP shooters. It will help all of you to order powder together.