I’m home safe and sound from my Florida road trip with my brother, George, and his wife, Juliana. It took me two good nights of sleep to get over the jet lag. Now that I have my wits about me, I’m ready to share our adventures. Our two week Florida road trip was a jammed packed with good times and sunshine. Let’s start from the beginning. I met Juliana in Atlanta. My flight arrived late on Tuesday night, so we spent the first night at a hotel near the airport. Wednesday morning, we were up and ready to be on our way to St. Augustine. However, we had a slight 1.5 hour delay getting on the road because we couldn’t get the bus started. After receiving help from two nice hotel employees, phone help from George and their mechanic, we realized the problem was rather simple. The bus needed gas. One of our new friends brought us a gallon of gas and the bus turned over right away. We were off to the closest gas station with strict instructions from George not to go more than 200 miles before refueling and never have less than 1/4 of a tank. Lesson learned. I’m happy to report, that was our only vehicle incident. The rest of the trip, the bus ran like a champion! Our trip through Georgia and across Florida went by quickly. Each time we stopped we were greeted with at least one “what year is your bus”? Usually, the person who approached us shared a story. Juliana and I decided more people approached us during the days before we picked up George. His presence, although appreciated by us, seemed to make us less approachable. Eventually, we arrived in St. Augustine. We checked into our campsite at Anastasia State Park in time for a picnic dinner at sunset. By the time we parked the bus for the night, it was lights out!
Thursday morning we went for a jog and as we were returning to the campsite, we came across this beetle working really hard pushing a dog turd. I couldn’t help taking a video. Even now when I watch it, I can’t help but laugh.
http://wabisabisole.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img_5911.movWe spent Thursday morning exploring St. Augustine. We walked around the touristy downtown area. This was by far my favorite photo spot! Argh!
We also explored sights off the beaten path. We enjoyed a tour of the Oldest House in St. Augustine.
During the tour, we learned about coquina. (The science teacher in me was so excited.) Coquina is a sedimentary rock composed of sea shells. It was used throughout St. Augustine for construction of buildings and the fort!
After lunch and our enjoyable morning in St. Augustine, we loaded up in the bus and set out for Sebastian Inlet State Park. We had an amazing campsite at Sebastian Inlet. Perfect for watching the sunset.
Friday morning we decided to enjoy a little beach time before getting on the road. The Inlet had a small lagoon – perfect for taking a swim.
While we were swimming, we were fortunate to see dolphins!
http://wabisabisole.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img_5991.trim_.movAfter our morning at the beach, we showered and were on the road by 1:30. We didn’t have far to go for our next campsite. We were staying at Dickinson State Park just north of Fort Lauderdale airport. We had a rendezvous with George Saturday morning. He was flying in and would join us for the second half of our trip. Since we weren’t in a rush Friday afternoon, we chose to drive down A1A and enjoy the scenery. Talk about cruising in the bus.
http://wabisabisole.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img_6014.movWe arrived at Dickinson State Park shortly before a huge thunderstorm rolled through. At one point, the lightening was so close we hunkered down inside the bus. As the storm passed, we moved outside and enjoyed dinner. Tomato soup, believe it or not! It was the perfect warm meal during the nasty storm.
By the time the sun was setting, the storm had rolled out.
It it’s wake, it woke up a lot of bugs. We were prepared for the mosquitoes. We had been warned about the no see ’ems. The warning wasn’t nearly strong enough. I went to sleep in shorts and a tank top and work up with bites on every inch of exposed skin. Talk about itchy… The bugs would become an incredible nuisance as we arrived in the Keys. But, I’m going to save those stories and the second half of our adventure for tomorrow. Stay tuned for the rest of the story!