Day 1 - The Adventure Begins with the First 100 Miles

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The long journey begins with a few baby steps. The original plan was to leave tomorrow and head directly to Atlanta. But that turned out to be close to 500 miles, a bit much for the first day. So we decided to leave a day early and head for St Augustine to take at least 100 miles off the Atlanta trip. Besides, we were getting anxious to get on the road, so why not. The morning began uneventfully, with Jody convinced, of course, that we had forgotten something. So far we haven't found anything forgotten, but it's too late now.

We generally avoid interstates whenever possible as battling for the road with 18-wheelers at 80+ mph is not really my idea of a relaxing drive. So we headed out FL434 to FL419 until we turned onto FL17/92 in Sanford. The scenery is not particularly exciting, flat roads, minimal curves, and an endless supply of strip-mall shops. Once we got past Deland, we turned onto FL11 and the scenery got much better. Still flat and straight, but FL11 is a Scenic Drive road, with plenty of forest and small towns. Once we hit FL11, I was ready to pass a few cars and have the road to myself. Unfortunately, just as I began to pass the first car, I realized the reason why the cars were moving slowly was that the second car in line was from the Flagler County Sheriff. So the next 20 miles were 5-10 mph below the speed limit because the car in front of the sheriff did not want to exceed the speed limit. Eventually, even the sheriff got frustrated and blew past the slower car and traffic moved up to a more reasonable 60-70 mph.

In no time we were in St Augustine at about 10:00. Well, the hotel check-in isn't until 4:00, so we headed off to public parking and spent the day sightseeing St Augustine. The last time Jody and I were in St Augustine, we think it was 2001. Some parts of the city have changed, but most of the old charm is still there. There used to be a lot of local artist products in the shops, but we noticed a few of our favorite local artist shops were gone, and there were a lot more commercial and foreign products around. Still plenty to see, but we do miss the local stuff.

Of course, no visit to St Augustine is complete without a trip to Castillo San Marcos, and now with our National Park Senior Lifetime Pass, it's even free! We went in and got our National Park Passports stamped, watched the obligatory 20 minute movie explaining the history, and even managed to stumble upon a Park Ranger explaining all the various objects that used to be shot out of cannons. It's always pretty at the fort, and fun to walk around. After visiting the fort and all the shops we were interested in, a quick lunch in a local cafe, it was about 2:15 and we were trying to decide what to do next, when we passed by the marina and remembered that there was a scenic boat ride available. A relaxing ride on the water, and maybe a few pictures was just what we needed as or feet were getting tired from all the walking.

We had done the boat ride in 2001 and it was still the same boat, and the ride was just what we needed. It was quiet and relaxing when all of a sudden, I heard the sound of the woman at the next table's phone. She was evidently intently viewing and listening to something really interesting to her, but it was really loud. I gave her the "evil eye" a couple of times, and I guess she saw me because she caught Jody's eye and mouthed to her "can you hear this?". Jody nodded yes, and she turned it way down and held it up to hear ear so she wouldn't disturb everyone else. I don't think she was trying to be rude, she just didn't realize that her phone was so loud that we could hear it.

After the cruise, we headed to the hotel. We're staying at the Doubletree tonight with special thanks to Maureen for her "Friends and Family" discount. The hotel is great,especially the chocolate chip cookies! Thanks Maureen! We weren't particularly hungry after a late lunch at the cafe, so we just headed back to St George St for a quick dinner at Barefoot Bill's Island Grill. Fish and Chips for me and a BLT for Jody and we were done for the night. So it's back to the hotel to write the blog, upload today's pictures and figure out what we're doing tomorrow. It will be early to bed, and early to rise as we head off to Atlanta in the morning.

114.2 miles today

114.2 miles total

0.0 gallons today

0.0 gallons total

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