Day 5 - Fayetteville - St Augustine

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On the road again for another long day of driving, but an hour longer. The drives are becoming a regular long stint in the van with several breaks for sugar load ups and lunch, but this one was around 4 and a half hours to the oldest city in the USA!
When we finally hit St Augustine, we were let loose, and Kylie, Zoe, Scott and I went on a walk along the river front, but after only a few buildings round the block, we found a martini bar, and decided to try it out. Setting up on a table outside, Scott and I soon went in to order. Scott stuck with a good cold beer, whilst the rest of us ordered 3 different martinis to try.
Having started watching M*A*S*H from a young age, I've always been interested in what a martini tasted like, and being a big Scrubs fan, I ordered an appletini! I wasn't prepared for its strong taste, there was an amount of vodka in there to clear your head of everything - and that was just the first sip! After having a mouthful of everyone else's, we finished our own, before reluctantly peeling ourselves from our table - I managed to get my chair stuck at the base of a tree on the patio. As soon as we hit the street, we noticed up ahead coming out of the very next building - an Irish sports bar - some familiar faces - Sarah, Jess, Graham, G and Becca to be precise - looking very pleased for themselves. It seems that Sarah was able to get them all free drinks just for being Irish!

The 4 of us headed along the river front up to the old fort, but didn't go in, as there wasn't enough time. When we all met up again back at the van, we headed to the next site, which has to be the best site of the Tour so far.
The site itself was the usual small sites crammed in between the many RVs. Each site had a couple of picnic tables each for our cooking and eating needs.
About 200 yards further down was the nearest toilet block and laundry area, and this is where I did my first laundry wash - ever! After getting the necessary quarters from the office and having a brief chat with the guy who ran the place about Cornwall (seems he loves it there, going there for surfing - but he doesn't like the rest of England!) I headed to the laundry with Sarah, and she helped me load my laundry and detergent in. I never realised how easy it was to do, and in no time I was also putting it on for drying as well, but the real highlight was still to come.

Across the highway and about 200 yards down a close, was the Atlantic Ocean. As we reached the end of the close, the tarmac very quickly turned to firm white sand under foot. As we entered the beach itself, the pure soft sand, stretched out forever in both directions, and also in front of us as well. Back home, beaches I've been on, have been about 100 yards before the water hits the shore, but here it went on for 5 times that. And of course, the further onto the beach you went, the softer the sand got. It was simply amazing!
Everyone had put their swimwear on, and almost straight away some of us had waded into the fantastic Atlantic. It was by now late afternoon, around 4.30-5ish, the sun was on its descent but still out strong, but the water was still so lovely, refreshing and warm. The water was still under foot some distance into the water, so I was still easily touching sand whilst still wading out and starting to meet the bigger waves. It truly was an experience, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.
Finally bringing myself back to the sand, Graham, Todd and I started tossing the American football to each other, but this time doing a slightly better job at throwing the ball, the catching still a letdown, and I even picked up a rather nasty burn on my elbow, trying to pick a Graham fumble off the shallow water, being put off by Graham also rushing for the ball, falling and sliding on the sand right underneath. Looking at the graze, the blood quickly flowed from it, and I had to get first aid from Todd, putting a band aid on it, which didn't stay on for long.

Still the fact that I stood waist deep in an ocean, early evening as wave after wave rolled through me certainly is an experience that I will never forget. Certainly something to tick off one of those lists of things to do before you die. As we all finally tore ourselves from the awesome beach and walked back to site, we had agreed to get up extra early tomorrow morning and take in the sunrise over the ocean. So we all headed to for dinner, and then to bed for an early night in preparation

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