Saint Augustine, FL

We departed our wonderful dry camp spot behind the Cracker Barrel, and next to Daytona around 8:30am for the 1 hour drive up to St. Augustine, but not before enjoying a great breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants, of course! The temperature and humidity were totally in my comfort zone for a change....low 70's, and 27% humidity....lol. As we move north the temperatures are going down!

Elaine found us a great parking spot for the day right near the visitor's center where the buses park, and it was free! She is becoming quite adept at finding overnight spots, and day parking spots. No over night camping at this location, but you can be there until 10pm at night. We quickly got dressed, and unloaded our two hybrid bikes to begin our tour of the oldest city in North America. This year they are celebrating their 450th anniversary! Our first stop was the US Post Office to mail some tax stuff off, and then down to Aviles Street which is a narrow, red brick road dating back a century, or two.

When Elaine checked in at the visitor's center she purchased two tickets to tour the oldest house in the city, which was built 1700's, then we rode over to the Castillo de San Marcos fort. No doubt many of you have seen pictures of this fort. We spent over an hour touring the fort, and got to use our Senior Park Pass again....we've only used it twice now and have more than recovered the $10 cost per pass......just today we saved $14 in entrance fees.

Castillo de San Marcos Fort

After the fort tour we rode over to San Sebastian Winery to take the tour and, of course, do some wine tasting. The only grapes that can be grown in Florida are of the muscadine (sp?) variety. This grape variety was discovered by the first explorers to America growing wild. Most of the wines produced by San Sebastian use the muscadine grape. The tour and wine tasting are FREE.....one of our favorite words! There is an interesting 10 minute video at the beginning, a tour of the wine making facility, and then on to the wine tasting room.

We arrived back at the coach around 4pm after logging around 8 miles of riding around town, and I decided to take a nap before we headed north to Jacksonville, and what we thought would be our overnight spot, however, there was a forest fire burning just to the northwest of Jacksonville, which resulted in a cloud of smoke over the city, and the accompanying smoke smell. We decided to just do our shopping here and push on north to get out of the smoke, we also wanted to wait for the rush hour traffic to subside.....I didn't drive 4,000+ miles to sit in rush hour traffic! Finally around 7pm we rolled the wheels again and headed north to Kingsland, GA.....yes....we have left Florida in our rear view mirror, but we will return. We overnighted behind another Cracker Barrel just off the Interestate. Another great dry camp spot!

Tomorrow Savannah!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kennedy Space Center

I have always wished that I could have seen one launch at Kennedy Space Center in my lifetime, in person. I still remember watching Neil Armstrong take "the first step" on the moon on my good friend's color TV.....not many had color TV's back in the late 60's. I still get choked up at the end of Apollo 13 when the astronauts return safely to earth, just narrowly escaping certain death....I remember watching that live on TV so many years ago.

We finally escaped the wonderful gravitational pull of Stuart, FL and headed north with our tour tickets in hand to visit the Kennedy Space Center in person for the first time in our lives. At $45 per person it seems over priced......UNTIL you start the tour in the IMAX Theater and see the movie about the building of the ISS....International Space Station, and about the Hubble Space Telescope. If all I had seen were the two movies they show every hour on the hour it would have been worth the price of admission, but that was just the beginning. We took a multi hour bus tour of the Cape Canaveral space port, some of which is self guided, and some of which the bus driver provides narration to what you are seeing, and some provided via video in the bus, and at each stop on the tour. We sat in a theater where they had recreated the Launch Control Center for the moon launch.....wow! We experienced a Space Shuttle launch in their very cool simulator....an on and on it goes. This is a must stop for anyone who visits northeast Florida!!!

Just being able to see the Saturn 5 rocket with all of the moon landing hardware attached (see above) is astounding. At over 500' long it is amazing in size and complexity. It has over 1,000,000 systems. To think that when John F. Kennedy announced in 1962 that we would put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade none of this technology existed.....NONE! They used computers as big as box cars, and slide rules (calculators did not exist then, either) to develop and build this amazing rocket.

To be reminded that launch pad 39 (seen above) is the only launch pad in the world to have launched men into space who set foot on the moon is awe inspiring.

Saturn 5 Rocket....too big to take one picture!

Even the Space Shuttle, which has been retired, is still ahead of its time. Without it the ISS would not exist in its present size and form.

The rocket garden (see above) is a wonderful tribute to the development of our space program in less than 10 years. I was impressed by how small the initial rockets were that propelled Alan Shepherd and John Glenn into space compared to the Saturn 5 rocket that sent men to the moon. The courage of these men who were in the most literal sense of the word "test pilots" flying essentially unproven technology on those first short shots into space is beyond my comprehension.

No doubt you can tell I am still blown away by what I saw yesterday......I am humbled by the dedication of the thousands of people it took in the 60's to fulfill a vision held by JFK to put men on the moon in just a few short years. We hear politicians today make wild promises that we know we will never see fulfilled, and it is easy to be cynical about government, and deservedly so. The space program is one of those rare instances where government promised, and actually delivered in spades. What an amazingly uplifting day. I think we started our tour around 11am, and returned to our coach around 5pm......and we could have easily spent another day.

We left KSC around 5:30pm to head over to Titusville where we hoped to dry camp at the local Walmart Supercenter, but upon arrival we just didn't like the vibe of the area, and parking lot, so we hopped on I-95 northbound while Elaine searched ahead for other possible dry camp spots for the night. We finally settled on a Cracker Barrel Restaurant (they are very RV friendly) right next to Daytona International Speedway.....what a perfect spot. This is one of the best dry camp spots we have found.....just behind the Walmart Supercenter in Daphne, AL. Of course none of the dry camp spots we have stayed in compare to any of the courtesy parking opportunities we have had in the last two and a half months. We are still in withdrawal after leaving Paradise Club and the Garden Shower.....lol!

That's it for Tuesday.....thanks for stopping by!

Have we been here 10 days already?

Hobe Sound Beach

So, what have we been doing the last 3 days? Not tooo much, but here is a recap:

Saturday morning I worked on a few maintenance projects for the coach and trailer, while Elaine went shopping, and then I watched some more of round three of the Masters Golf Tournament. Our hosts have been feeding us dinner all week, and we thought we would treat them for a change. So Elaine came home with 4 filet mignons to grill that night, and then made a great salad and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. That was our Saturday.

Sunday morning we decided to take a nice long bike ride down to Hobe Sound Beach, but not before we stopped off at the Whistle Stop cafe on Dixie Highway in Stuart. After a great breakfast we headed south on Highway A1A to Bridge Street, which took us down a tree lined street to Hobe Sound Beach. After spending about 30 minutes walking in the waves we saddled up and rode the 10 miles back "home". It was a nice 20 mile bike ride, and just what we needed. That afternoon I watched the final round of the Masters and watched as Bubba Watson came away with an improbable victory. It was great to see a golfer display such raw emotion as he bent to pick up his ball from the final playoff hole in victory. The dinner went well, and the steaks came out perfectly.....of course if really helps to start with great meat....thank you Elaine for picking out 4 great cuts.

Monday Ernie suggested we drive down to Loxahatchee River and do a 4 hour canoe tour of this really cool river. We paddled with the current down the river to the second dam where we had lunch and then paddled back. We saw two alligators and numerous turtles sunning themselves on logs along the river. It was almost like being in a rain forest the vegetation was so lush, and the cypress trees were beautiful.

Elaine and I paddled over these falls.

We had a great time on the river with our friends. We had originally planned to leave Stuart today to drive north to the Kennedy Space Center, but Ernie told us we would hate ourselves if we didn't do this canoe trip, and he was right. I'm glad we stayed over one more day.

Tomorrow we roll the tires again on our coach and begin our trek northward, first to tour the Kennedy Space Center, then on to St. Augustine, and on north to Savannah, GA. Eventually we will find ourselves in Michigan at the end of this month.

What a great time we had in Stuart, FL visiting friends and seeing the surrounding countryside. Thank you Ernie and Carol for your generous hospitality and friendship! We will be back!

Thanks for stopping by!

Garden Shower

My friend, Ernie, has built this wonderful outdoor bathroom/shower that he calls the Garden Shower...right next to the Paradise Club. This is where Elaine and I have been taking showers while we have been here. Since we do not have a sewer hookup we have taken advantage of this outdoor facility to avoid putting too much water in our gray tank too quickly. I cannot tell you what a great experience it is to take a shower in an open air stall. You can feel the breeze coming through the fencing, and see the clouds passing overhead as you enjoy a refreshing shower. Ernie's wife, Carol, has added wonderful painted artwork to the walls, along with quaint antique signs, license plates and other interesting bric-a-brac.

I apparently hurt my back taking the ice chest off the boat on Wednesday, so I spent most of Thursday just taking at easy, catching up on some office work, taking a couple of business calls, taking a long nap, and then watching wall to wall coverage of the Masters Golf Tournament held in Augusta, GA in the afternoon. To attend this tournament is one of the items on my bucket list. I checked into getting tickets, but found that I started too late, and also discovered that they are VERY EXPENSIVE! I would just love to attend one round and walk the course following a foursome. This is one of my favorite sporting events to watch. I love this golf course, and still remember Jack Nicklaus winning his last green jacket in 1986 when everyone thought he was over the hill. One of the great sports moments in my lifetime......just barely behind the 1988 Dodgers beating the Oakland A's in game one of the World Series on Kirk Gibson's walk off homerun.

Elaine and I caught up on some of our recorded shows on the DVR last night, and hit the sack around 11:30pm. A very nice laid back day to be sure! We are still awaiting news from DirecTV that we can change from the West Coast feed to the East Coast feed. I called them yesterday to find out our status and was advised they never received my FAX, so today I mailed the paperwork to them, and reFAX'd it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Deep Blue Sea

Wednesday was deep sea fishing day. Now, I haven't been fishing since 1966 at summer camp in a place called Orr, Minnesota where I fished for Northern Pike most of that summer. It's not that I don't like to fish, I just like more physical activity than sitting in a boat for hours waiting for the "strike". No doubt there is a lot of excitement for a few minutes reeling the fish in, but there is just too much sitting around. Nevertheless, my friend Ernie offered to take Elaine and I out in his power boat for the morning to watch him fish. The last time I went deep sea fishing was on a day boat out of Oxnard, CA when I was in the 10th grade, and I got sea sick, so that was in the back of my mind. Now, Ernie did all the fishing, as he has a license....I think he had 5 poles, plus a down rigger out at one time while we trolled north and south along a bed of seaweed about 10 miles out from from the coast for Dolphin Fish (Mahi Mahi).....not the Flipper kind of Dolphin, mind you. Elaine and I helped by steering the boat, and helping him keep the "weed" off the lures.

The plan was to be out for about 3-4 hours.....we left the house around 8am, and I think we left the dock for the open sea around 8:30am.......as I said, this was to be a "3 hour tour"......thinking Gilligan's Island here. As I said, we were about 10 miles out and trolled north and south for hours. Thankfully the ocean was very flat, and there was very little wind, so there was no chop, or really any swells......that's what got to me on my last Oxnard excursion....big swells, and we were sitting still, not trolling. Before we knew it 1pm had come and gone with no fish in the boat. We had a couple of strikes....one on the outrigger poll, and one on the down rigger, which resulted in the loss of the down rigger tackle....whatever hit it cut the steel cable!

Finally around 1:30pm we began to head in still trolling, but pretty much resigned to a "shut out". Ernie and I were talking when suddenly one of the out rigger poles doubled up....we had a strike! While Elaine began reeling in the other poles, I took the wheel from Ernie so he could land the fish, which turned out to be a Dolphin, or Mahi Mahi. It was 30 inches long, and about 15 pounds.....what a beautiful fish. Ernie let me hold the fish up on the gaff hook while he took a picture.

Needless to say, we had Mahi Mahi for dinner! Carol also grilled some lobster tail, and fried up some scallops along with rice, spinach and baby carrots....what an amazing dinner!

All tolled we were out over 8 hours, and by the time I finished dinner that evening I was toast.....that's what a lot of sun and salt air will do to you! It was a good thing we were out to sea all day as it got up to 91 locally.....a very warm day to be out on the water!

Thanks for stopping by!

Topless

The Thunderbird hasn't had its top off for almost a year, and it seemed that Tuesday was the day to take the top off and go for a long drive up Indian River Road to Fort Pierce and back down Hutchinson Island. But, before that, I headed out to Cross Fit with my friend Ernie, who has been rehabilitating his surgically repaired right shoulder there, and just trying to get into better physical condition. I learned some good exercises that I can do on the road without any equipment.

We got home from Cross Fit about 10am, and Elaine and I then took off the top of the Thunderbird and hit the road about 11am. The drive up Indian River Road was very scenic....Elaine drove and I enjoyed the scenery...something I don't get to do as much when I am driving the Newell. I think I even dozed off one time for a few minutes, but it was that kind of a day. We got to Fort Pierce little after Noon, and found a nice park at South Jetty Beach to have our picnic lunch that Elaine had prepared. The water here at South Jetty Beach is amazingly clear, and it made me wish I had brought my snorkel and fins.

I called "shotgun" for this trip

The view along Indian River Road

Lunch at South Jetty Beach

Crystal clear water.....where is my snorkel?

The drive back south on Hutchinson Island was just as enjoyable as the drive up, but by the time we got "home" I was ready for a nap, so Elaine dropped me off, and headed out to shop for a new bathing suit.

That was our Tuesday.....kind of laid back, but just the kind of day I was looking forward to. Thanks for stopping by!

Intercoastal and Jensen Beach

Our destination today....miles of deserted beach.

Since we put off canoeing yesterday we decided to go for it today. We tried to time our trip so the incoming tide would help us get to our furthest point, and the outgoing tide would send us home. We did pretty good on that score. I had to take care of a couple of "to do" things left on my list....fix the latch on the bathroom sink door, and reapply velcro to the rug pieces on our entry stairway so they would not keep falling off the steps. Once those things were done we jumped in my friend Ernie's 80's vintage Chevy van and headed 1 1/2 blocks to the neighborhood docks where we would borrow a canoe from one of his neighbors for our 7 mile round trip. I think we put the canoe in the water around 10:30am.

One of the many channels we paddled along

We launched the canoe around 1o:30am, and paddled for about an hour down narrow tree shrouded water lanes. We often saw fish jumping, as well as swimming....Ernie thought they might be mullet. We reached the turn around about11:30 and walked along a 100 yard path to the ocean. Miles of deserted beach in each direction....you don't see this in California! After about 30 minutes of wading in the 80+ degree water we headed back to the canoe to be sure to catch the out going tide which would carry us back to our starting point, and we timed it perfectly. We arrived back at the car around 12:45pm none the worse for wear.

Rear "engine" power....lol!

My view...

The turn around point

the turn around point after about an hour, and pulled the canoe out of the water and walked over to the beach following a tree shrouded trail for about 100 yards....when we hit the beach we were the only ones there....you could see for several miles north and south. We spent some time wading in the very calm surf, and then headed back to the canoe in order to catch the out going tide. We timed it quite well and basically were carried by the current back across to the intercoastal waterway and then back to our starting point....I think we arrived back around 1:30pm. We had some minor shopping to do, so Ernie suggested we ride with them to the various stores and then head up to Jensen Beach to Conchy Joe's Seafood place.....they have special prices starting at 3pm on Margaritas and appetizers.

The destination of the day...

Deserted as far as the eye can see...

The view at Conchy Joe's

We enjoyed great Margaritas, appetizers and conversation, not necessarily in that order. It was a great two hours watching the ocean view, and feeling the balmy Florida ocean breeze on your face.

On our way home we stopped briefly at Walmart to get some groceries, and then made it home by 5:30pm. Later that evening Carol and Ernie had us into Club Paradise for some more quesadillas and appetizers. Around 8:30 I headed back to the coach to watch the NCAA March Madness final between Kansas and Kentucky.

Tomorrow I'll join Ernie at Cross Fit (local gym) where he is rehabilitating his shoulder after surgery, and also getting back into shape. I'll let you know had that goes....God knows I need some real exercise!

Thanks for stopping by!