St Augustine

We ventured just a little farther and just a little longer for the second shake-down cruise of our new rig.  We had been intending to get to St Augustine for a few years.  It was a great trip!
With a shorter RV, we now are able to get into campgrounds that would have been more difficult with the motor home.  And this time we truly lucked out.  We never have been big on camping reservations so of course we headed north to St Augustine without one.  We had talked with a couple places.  The State Park said they had a very few sites for drive-up customers.  And another private park said they would have plenty of space so we knew we could camp somewhere.
When we arrived at Anastasia State Park, I went in to check what they might have.  At first, they said they didn’t have anything, but then a Ranger walked in and said someone had just checked out of one of the non-reservable sites.  So what did we get?


We scored a beautiful site in an old growth Atlantic forest with Oaks, Cedars and Pines at the top of the green canopy with palms and shrubs in the lower regions.  And even better, the campsite was an ADA site meaning it was paved instead of pack sand and had a paved path to the bath house as well.
And what else was at this State Park beyond the ocean forest?  How about a few miles of Atlantic beach as well.  Ahhhhhhhh.

And that park was just a few short miles from the historic district of St Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied city in the United States.  Ponce de Leon explored here in the early 1500’s in search of the fountain of youth.  He claimed “Florida” for the Spanish crown.

In addition to the Spanish influence on St Augustine, there is also very much the Flagler influence of Henry Flagler who developed the Florida East Coast Rail System and built many a fine hotel for rich northerners to travel to on his railways. 

We tested out the new roof-top bike racks on this trip as well as a larger TV Gary said we just had to have.  On the way back, we even were able to get a weigh station on the interstate to give us a wheel by wheel weighing of the trailer and we learned we need to distribute our stuff just a little differently to equalize the load on each wheel.  It is getting just about time to be heading north!
Click on any of the pictures to see a larger version,