Update Archive

Archive 12/13 - 12/19/2005:
12/13/2005 - (169 miles – 6 hours - L:34F – H:60F) We drove from our Savannah camp in Richmond Hill, GA to our new camp in St. Augustine, FL. We finally made it to Florida!!!! On the way I stopped at the Florida Welcome Center for maps and brochures. The Welcome Center offers free samples of fresh Orange or Grapefruit Juice, your choice.
Once we arrived at camp and unhooked we took a short drive over to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1824, stands 167 feet tall and shines 24-miles out across the ocean. It costs almost $7 bucks to climb the 219 steps to the top and to be honest, I didn’t feel like climbing that much so I took some pics of the outside and then we headed over to the Anastasia State Park. Anastasia State Park, as well as our camp, is actually on Anastasia Island – which is separated from the mainland by Tolomato River to the north and Matanzas River to the south. The park has a coquina quarry and some really nice beaches. Sadly pets aren’t allowed on the beach so we walked two of the boardwalks up to the beach and then left.
12/14/2005 - (62 miles – 5.5 hours - L:53F – H:73F) Today we drove down A1A from Saint Augustine to Flagler Beach. It’s a beautiful drive along the coast. Flagler Beach has the most amazing pink sand, and even though it was cloudy the sand almost glowed. On the way back up the coast we stopped at the Matanzas Inlet to check out the beach. Our next stop was at the Fort Matanzas National Monument. The Fort was constructed in 1740-1742 and was Spain’s last effort to ward of British advancement toward St. Augustine. The Fort is small in comparison to the other forts I’ve visited. It is 50-feet on each side with a 30-foot tower and was built from coquina, a local shellstone. The Fort had four six-pound guns and one 18-pounder. The Forts name came from an incident that happened in 1564 when France dared to establish Fort Caroline in Florida, which Spain had already claimed. There was a skirmish on the sea and then the French sailed from Fort Caroline toward St. Augustine to attach the Spaniards. A hurricane carried the French ships far to the south, wrecking them on the coast between what is now Daytona Beach and Cape Canaveral. While all the French were gone, the Spaniards, led by Menendez, attacked Fort Caroline and were able to easily capture the settlement. Menendez heard about a group of white men on the beach a few miles south so marched with about 50 soldiers to where an inlet blocked nearly 130 of the shipwrecked Frenchmen trying to get back to Fort Caroline. The French surrendered and then Menendez ordered them slain. Two weeks later more French survivors appeared at the inlet. Again the French surrendered and were slain. In all, nearly 250 Frenchmen were killed. From then on the inlet was called Matanzas, the Spanish word for “slaughters”.
The ferry to the fort wasn’t working so we weren’t able to visit it, just view it from across the Matanzas River.
Our next stop was at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. St. Augustine was established in 1565 and is the oldest permanent European settlement in the continental US. For 235 years it was the political, military, and religious capital of the Province of Florida from which Spain exercised jurisdiction over their claimed lands. The Spanish first battled with the French over this area and then the British. Sir Francis Drake attacked and burned St. Augustine in 1586. They felt that the English settlement at Jamestown in 1607 was cause for concern. British pirates sacked St. Augustine again in 1668, and this attack, followed by the English settlement of Charleston in 1670, caused Spain to build the Castillo de San Marcos. Construction started in 1672 and was completed in 1695. During the War of Spanish Succession in 1702 the English occupied St. Augustine and unsuccessfully besieged the fort for 50 days. The English burned the town before they left, but the Castillo emerged unscathed. In response the Spanish erected earthwork lines on the north and west sides of St. Augustine, making it a walled city. The Matanzas Inlet was still a weak point and James Oglethorpe’s British troops from Fort Frederica in Georgia attacked St. Augustine in 1740. The Spanish endured the 27-day British bombardment and then built Fort Matanzas to guard against future attach via the Matanzas Inlet. In 1763, as a result of the Seven Years’ War, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain in return for La Habana, Cuba. The British garrisoned Matanzas and strengthened the Castillo, holding the two forts through the American Revolution. The Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the war, returned Florida to Spain. Spain held Florida until 1821, when serious Spanish-American tensions led to its cession to the US. The Americans used the Castillo to house Indian prisoners during the Seminole War of 1835-42. Confederate troops occupied it briefly during the Civil War and Indians (Arapaho, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Comanche) captured in Western military campaigns were held here later on.
The fort was fascinating, such history! I walked around trying to avoid the hordes of kids walking around. From the fort you can see reconstructed portions of the City wall that surrounded St. Augustine. You can also see the City Gates. I walked to the Gates and then strolled up and down Historic St. George Street, which is lined with historic buildings that now house restaurants and shops. It’s a charming area.
Our next stop was at the Fountain of Youth National Archaeological Park. This is the spot where Ponce de Leon came ashore in 1513 to landmark and record Spain’s claim to this land. He named it “La Florida” meaning full of flowers or flowery. The park grounds were beautiful and the exhibits include the Landmark Cross that was put in place as part of the claiming process. There is also a spring, a Fountain of Youth gimmick, which you get to drink from. The water has a very strong Sulphur taste. There is a monument near the shore, a navigator’s planetarium, and a two-story globe that they use to illustrate the colonization by the Spanish and British. It was very interesting, but one of those places that has been turned into more of a gimmick than a real historical site.
12/15/2005 - (L:57F – H:75F) We bummed around today waiting for the rainstorm to hit. It was supposed to be a bad one, but my rain gauge only registered about 1/8-inch of rain.
12/16/2005 - (203 miles – 7 hours - L:45F – H:61F) We moved from our camp in St. Augustine to our new camp near Titusville. The actual address is in Mims, FL and we’re about 25 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center (!!!!!!). It was an easy drive. Whenever it’s that easy I wonder what I’ve missed or forgotten that’s going to jump up and bite me in the butt. Luckily nothing this time :o).
We pulled in, unhooked and set out to explore the area. It is supposed to rain all weekend so I wanted to get out and see some things before the downpour.
We drove north on US1 toward New Smyrna Beach with is 15 or so miles south of Daytona Beach. I took several wrong turns trying to find A1A but eventually ended up on the right road. Maps just don’t seem to give me enough detail… Anyway, we stopped at one of the Beach Parks and then headed into the Canaveral National Seashore. I took the trail back to the Eldora House, the only surviving example of the community that existed here between 1877 and 1900 and contained as many as 100 people. Walking back to the house, I was amazed by the veritable jungle that covers the whole area. I started thinking about the creepy crawlies that probably inhabit this kind of vegetation... then I was jumping at each rustle of brush along the trail. We continued down to the end of the road and walked out to the beach. It’s a pretty narrow beach with coarse sand. I noticed that the water has gotten warmer as we move south…good thing my boots are waterproof. Our next stop was at the Turtle Mounds Archeological Site. The mound is an Indian midden – a trash heap of discarded shells accumulated over 600 years. The boardwalk trail led to the summit of the mound. From the top you could see over the tops of all the trees. Nowhere could I find out how tall the mound is, but it’s amazing to see and realize that this hill is comprised of millions of shells. On the drive out of the Park I saw an armadillo. My first armadillo (not counting the road kill ones in Texas).
Heading back to camp we drove inland a bit, to Lake Harney. It’s so swamp like, I didn’t see any alligators, but I expected to. I’m surprised at all the pine trees. I associate pine trees with alpine type terrain, but they are all over the place.
Back at camp we’re parked under a towering live oak tree and the acorns drop onto the top of the trailer with a really loud thump. Max and I jump every time.
12/17/2005 - (L:55F – H:70F) We bummed around today….
12/18/2005 - (156 miles – 6 hours - L:62F – H:66F) Today we drove down the coast to the Sebastian Inlet State Park. It’s a beautiful 755-acre park set between the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1715 a hurricane wrecked a fleet returning to Spain from Mexico and Peru laden with gold and silver. At the site of the survivors’ camp, the McLarty Treasure Museum was built in 1971. A number of people were out fishing from the pier and there were a lot of surfers in the water. The water temp is reported to be 63F, which is much colder than you might think.
On our way back up the coast we stopped at Cocoa Beach, a popular fishing and party pier. Once again there is a charge to go to the end of the pier… So I just strolled around the areas that were free. Visibility isn’t all that due to the low cloud cover. The area around Cocoa Beach, while having really nice beaches, looks somehow dilapidated. There are huge condos and apartment buildings and hotels. Maybe it’s the dreary weather that makes it seem so… what’s the word…depressed.
12/19/2005 - (37 miles – 7.5 hours - L:58F – H:66F) I dropped Max off at the free kennel on the Kennedy Space Center grounds and headed into the Visitors Complex. WooHoo!! I’m at NASA!!! I can’t even begin to tell you what a thrill this is for me. This place is soooooo freaking cool!
I had actually planned ahead and made reservations for the “NASA Up Close Tour” which departed at 11:30 so had some time to stroll the grounds. I watched one of the Imax films and listened to Astronaut Charlie Walker talk about his experiences in space.
The tour was fantastic. It’s such a trip seeing places like this in person. When you see them on TV it’s more like watching a movie… like it’s not really real. The tour took us right by one of the two Shuttle launch pads, the VAB building (the big one with the flag and the NASA symbol that you always see on TV), the International Space Station Center – where you get to watch folks working on pieces that are going to be shot into space in a few months, we drove by a number of buildings where the administrators work to keep everything going year round, saw the stairwell where the astronauts are always filmed leaving on their way to the launch pad, and just happened to see four alligators. Freaky. The tour guide joked that they were part of the security system, and didn’t even draw a salary.
Rockets and missiles were originally tested at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and the KSC area was called the Merritt Island Launch Complex. NASA was formed in 1958 and NASA’s Launch Operations Center was opened in 1962. The center was renamed after President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. The John F. Kennedy Space Center covers more than 140,000 acres of land, swamp and waterways. It shares the property with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and in 1975 nearly half of the Space Center was designated as part of the Canaveral National Seashore. Visitors have been allowed since the early 1960’s, with attendance growing each year. The first permanent Visitor Complex opened in 1967 and within a year more than 834,000 people visited KSC. Now, annual attendance is well over 2 million. The Visitor Complex and tours are funded exclusively by proceeds from ticket, food and merchandise sales. Around 3,000 people work here in three shifts, so something is going on 24 hours a day. How cool would it be to work at NASA?!!? One of the really interesting conversations on the tour bus dealt with all of the advancements we owe to space exploration. I had no idea… some very cool stuff, for instance, drugs manufactured in space have no side effects. How weird is that!
After the tour I strolled around the grounds some more. Visited the full-size replica of a Shuttle Explorer, was too late to catch another Imax and then visited the gift shop. This place is amazing. You just have to visit when you’re in the area.


New Pictures: FL