Florida in the Fall is absolutely Fabulous!

We were back in the St. Augustine area for the month of October. Doesn’t seem like a full year has already gone by since we were last here. Last year, we were focused on getting our residency set up, our driver’s licenses, car registrations, setting up healthcare, etc., all those things you do when you move someplace new. This year we were really looking forward to some beach time, a little historical downtown time and of course getting all our healthcare visits completed. Then, wham, here comes another hurricane and Nicole struck! What the heck?

The beach

Let’s start at the beginning. Fall in Florida is absolutely one of the nicest times to be here. The humidity drops, the sun shines brightly and even though the Atlantic may cool down and limit some of the swimming, the bugs are mostly gone and you can walk the beach and just enjoy the entire area. We love Crescent beach. If you have never been there and want to go to a really nice beach, we highly recommend this one. White sand, a few shells, it allows dogs, you can park close to where you set up right on the beach, there are no fees to drive on and off, and as long as you pay attention to the tide tables, it has all the makings of a perfect day. Max and Rocky will even spend a few hours with us walking around, sniffing the shells, and growling at the sea birds if they get to close.

Prior to leaving Lover’s Key state park due to hurricane Ian, I had an opportunity to visit their discovery center and found the coolest laminated fold out of all the shells that occur in this area. It’s now one of my goals to fill it in with those I find and try to see if I can get them all. I am consistently amazed at all the different shapes, sizes, colors and critters that use these for homes. Talk about having a traveling home!

Dave even gets in on the hunt with me and will look for interesting shapes and sizes we can compare and see if we find any rare ones. We spent 2 days just enjoying the crash of the Atlantic, body surfing and walking that beach. We are definitely water people.

St. Augustine

Last year when we were here, we did a little exploring of the historical part of St. Augustine but there was a lot that we missed due to time constraints. The bridge of lions is absolutely beautiful. You can either drive across it to get to Anastasia Island or take the walkway, which is about 1/2 mile all the way across. It’s still a draw bridge and don’t be surprised if you get part way across and it raises on you. There are no set times for it to go up or down, it’s all about the boat traffic on the Mantanzas river.

The original lions on the west side are names Fiel and Firme, (Faithful and Firm). In 2015, two more were added to the east side of the bridge, Pax and Peli, (Peace and Happiness). They are very large and the detail is actually quite extraordinary when you consider Faithful and Firm were added in 1927. Can’t even imagine how many hours it took to carve them back then.

As you cross over the bridge, you’ll be amazed at the boat traffic that is all along the Mantanzas. It’s constantly moving and changing. I thought it was funny when I saw a boat right of a James Bond movie next to a pirate ship from way back in time.

To learn about it for yourself, check out the link below:

The Old Brick Road

Our campground was about 20 minutes west of St. Augustine. We had a mail address that listed our city as Hastings, Fl. According to our weather app, we were located at Gopher ridge, Fl. ?????? Anyways, we were kind of in the middle of nowhere, which we really enjoyed. It was very peaceful and quiet and yet close enough to do the things we needed to do. Whenever we would drive towards St. Augustine or Palm Coast, I kept seeing this dirt road that had a road sign titling it “Old Brick Road” about 5 miles from us. So, I googled it. Believe it or not, this was part of a highway that was built over 100 years ago to travel from Miami to Montreal. By the mid-1920’s there were over 5,000 miles of interconnected roads across the states and because of the rain and mud in Florida, our portion had been built with bricks from Birmingham, Alabama. Once US-1 was built, this road became obsolete and is barely maintained for most sections. You can still drive it and as you go along, you will notice bricks that just sort of pop up to the top of the road and then sections that are fully filled over the top of them, by dirt. There isn’t much out this way, although I did come across a group of turkeys just walking along.

When you google the history of this road, the pictures are amazing that you see. It definitely does not look like that anymore, which is kind of a shame. If you are ever in the area, its a pretty trip back in time and while it’s fairly bumpy, I was able to stop in multiple locations and just feel the history with my own hands. Check it out for yourself at the link below for more info.

Are you frickin’ kidding me? Another hurricane?

I think we were very fortunate last year. We barely had a thunderstorm the whole time we were here, in Florda. After going through Hurricane Ian, sort of protected, we were not expecting another one anytime soon. Plus, we we’re now located on the East coast of Florida and not the gulf. And yet, we should have known to expect the unexpected. Once again, we filled our water tanks and were ready to mobilize in the car if we had too. Thank goodness, we were about 10 miles, as the bird flies, from the coast itself, and just ended up with lots of rain and little bit of wind. Nothing compared to Ian. While the coast of St. Augustine had damage, including our beloved Crescent beach, we were absolutely fine this time around. I feel very fortunate that after going through two hurricanes in the same season, we had no damage and were completely safe. We were able to stay put and finish out our fall season in our beautiful gopher ridge.

We completed October and most of November in St. Augustine and are now about an hour west of there in between Ocala and Gainsville, Florida on Orange Lake. This is a different type of park for us. They have activities here, a golf course and a restaurant all located in a very large park. We’ll be here until Jan. 2nd and will hopefully find another state park volunteer opportunity for our next location. If we don’t, we may just head back to Biloxi to finish out the winter. We are water people for sure and where there’s water, that’s where we want to be.

See ya on the road,

Dave and Theresa