Florida

We had an easy drive down to Florida and got ourselves settled in at Anastasia State Park which was a couple of miles south east of St Augustine, the oldest city in the USA. We hopped on the bike and went and had a look around. They have built a new bridge across Matanzas Bay and are taking down the beautiful old Bridge of Lions. Such a shame as it was much nicer on the eye than the modern replacement. We arrived too late to get into the old Spanish Fort (Castillo de San Marcos) but had a wander around the outside for a while before heading off in search of Flagler College. This was originally an up market hotel but is now used as a college. It is an impressive building. The old section of the city had lots of beautiful old homes, some that were loved and others that were much neglected. We followed a tour tram for a short while and listened to the commentary before turning off and meandering our way around the city.
The Park encompasses part St Augustine Beach so after tea we went for a stroll along the beach. A few people were swimming but most of them were attached to surfboards. There had been a few days of rough weather so I scoured the beach for washed up treasure from sunken Spanish galleons but the only things I found were plastic and of no value.

I like looking at lighthouses and the St Augustine lighthouse was also located just outside the park. Marty has put lighthouse viewing in the same category as castles in Europe and he longer wants to climb every staircase!! He humored me by taking me there and patiently waiting for me in the car park while I climbed the 219 steps to the top. I nearly chickened out as it was an open type spiral staircase and I did not like being able to see the floor below one little bit. I hugged the inside of the stairwell and moved over for no one. The view from the top was spectacular. The climb down wasn’t as scary but I still stuck to the inside. I did a quick tour through the light keeper’s house and saw amongst other things a working Fresnel lens. I could have spent quite a bit of time in this house but as Marty was waiting I thought it best that I do it at speed.
At the entrance to the State Park is an old Spanish Quarry so we decided to take a look. The Spanish mined the Coquina rock here and used it for building. The rock was soft and easy to cut when in the ground but became hard when exposed to air. It was used to build the walls of the Castillo. The fort was never captured in battle because the walls simply absorbed the cannon balls. We were a little disappointed with what we saw as it didn’t look like a quarry at all – just looked like a swamp.

We headed on south taking the A1A along the coast and didn’t stop till we got to Daytona. This is one big shopping mall, and despite it being the off season was still pretty busy. We headed straight for the raceway which was very easy to find. Nothing on but we were able to go and have a look at the track. They have a gift shop and numerous other attractions to bring the tourists in all year round but it is geared almost exclusively to NASCAR racing which doesn’t really hold too much interest for us.
We had planned to camp around Cape Canaveral and watch a satellite launch but it didn’t work out as planned. We did go out to the space centre but arrived too late to do a tour and the launch we had hoped to see had been postponed for another day and we didn’t have the time to spend waiting so we continued on our way south.
Next stop was Cocoa Beach. Extremely built up and very hard to find a park but the beach was nice and yes you could swim. We spent the night at Sebastian Inlet having driven 250 odd miles. That is a long day in our old RV.
The next day was a long driving day again as we drove straight down to Key Largo. Somehow I managed to take us through Miami instead of around it. It took us over 2 hrs to do about 30 miles. Thankfully it wasn’t during rush hour traffic!
It was a relief to pull into John Pennekamp St Park; we were both tired and beginning to get cranky.

It was nice to get on the bike the next day and head off to Key West. A trip of 200 odd miles return, from the top of the keys to the bottom. It was a nice straight ride. I don’t think we went around any real corners the whole trip. I got to see sea turtles and dolphins, but Marty just got to see the road and other cars. He did get to see the Iguana I spotted when we stopped for a leg stretch.
Key West was alive with tourists on hired scoters and push bikes. Some looked like they would have been much safer on foot. We drove around taking in the sights, stopping at the monument marking the southernmost point and closest point to Cuba for a photo. Of course we had to stop at a local eatery and sample the famous Key Lime Pie. This is really yummy.
Having seen enough we headed back to Key Largo and a swim. We planned to go snorkeling before we left to see the remnants of an early Spanish shipwreck 100 yards off shore but it didn’t happen. I worked out the cost to hire the gear from the pamphlets we had and we set off. Discovered the prices had changed and we could only afford the masks and snorkels. No problem we would do that. The nice young lady started filling out the hire forms (knowing we only had $20 with us) and then said she would need another $30 as a deposit. What part of “We only have $20 with us didn’t she understand?” We gave up and decided to head towards the Everglades instead. Arrived back at our campsite to find a rather large Iguana munching on some berries in the site across from us. Cool. I had a disaster with my camera and lost all the photos I took of the Keys. I was gutted.

We took a nice quiet road across to the Everglades, and as per Gary’s instructions we took the loop road off the 41 so that we would see lots of alligators. This road takes you through a cypress swamp. What the Beidler Forest in Sth Carolina would have looked like had there been water. It would have been great on the bike but the poor old camper took a bit of a pounding. It was a narrow dirt road with lots of potholes and overhanging trees. If one didn’t get us the other did. But we did get to see one alligator from a distance and a huge Grey Crane that when it saw us and realized it was wanted for a photo shoot took to the air making so much noise that it sounded like half the forest around it was being knocked down so it wasn’t an entirely wasted two hour drive.
We stayed at another State Park and while I went for a bike ride Marty went fishing. He was closely watched the whole time by an alligator. Guess he had designs on any fish Marty might catch. The alligator was still there when I went down to the lake to watch the sunset.

Ever since watching Gentle Ben on T.V. when I was a kid I have wanted to have a ride on an airboat so next morning we headed off to Everglades City and did just that. It was great fun. We saw a couple of alligators, bald eagles, osprey and even a raccoon.

We left the Everglades and headed towards Tampa. We met up with our friend Kay here. She is working on a cruise ship and we were lucky enough to time our arrival in Tampa with the ships and her day off. We didn’t do anything exciting just spent the time yakking. It was great to see someone from home.
I excelled at navigating our way out of downtown Tampa and onto the toll road and before we knew it we were in Spring Hill and meeting Pete and Cathy, who were kindly putting up with us for the next couple of days. Marty and Pete had met on the internet. No not like that, by exchanging motorcycle parts and information!
They took us to Tarpon Springs and a cruise out into the Gulf. This was great. Saw a couple of dolphins but no Manatees. It was a little early in the season for them apparently.
On the way to Tarpon springs we passed a Doggy Day Care. We saw a Doggy Day Care bus a few years ago when we were in Seattle and I don’t really think people believed us, so for all you non believers here is the proof. They really do exist.

We had a lovely time with Pete and Cathy but with the Barber Motorbike Festival weekend looming in Alabama we had to move on. The Google directions said it was about 500 odd miles and an 8 hour drive. Well Mr. Google obviously doesn’t own a 1981 350 Chevy or have me as a navigational advisor……………..