Florida! We made it
and it only took 5 and a half days to do it!
Fernandina, out on A1A was the first stop – it was
lunchtime! H found a seafood place –
The Beach Diner and it reminded us both of the Anna Marie’s Oyster Bar
Restaurants in the Sarasota area. We
both love Anna Marie’s and this one is good too! To work off our excellent lunch we knew we needed to walk the
main (Centre) Street of the touristy old fishing hamlet. We did – stepping in and out of small shops,
all the way to the huge antique mall at the edge of downtown and back. Chatted with a Deputy Sheriff and then
headed out of town – down condo lined A1A, across Amelia Island and onto the
Talbot Islands.
Little Talbot Island State Park is old and in need of
updating! The last time we were there
we were in the silver pickup truck with the popup camper. MUCH easier to maneuver than this
“train”! Narrow and winding does not
say enough. Neither does the term
“jungle”! We wiggled into our site for
the night and settled in. The first wave
of rain in the much forecast upcoming rain and cold front event hit us during
the night. When we stepped out in the
morning – we were sitting in a huge swampy puddle! H had to pull the truck and train out before I could grab the
leveling ramp and chocks without wading thru the muck!
On our way towards I 295, the northern bypass around
Jacksonville, H found a sign for the Kingsley Plantation – the oldest
plantation house still standing in Florida - and chose to turn in. We expected a short drive to this National
Park Preserve but the sandy, rutted, narrow road extended deep into the swamp
for several miles before it deposited us at the St George River and the
plantation itself. Back in the late
1700’s it was the river that was used for transportation – way easier than
tramping thru the jungle, dragging a 35 ft trailer! We strolled thru the grounds and inspected the barn, the kitchen
building, the main house and the slave quarters that were made out of tabby – a
cement like mixture of lime from cooked oyster shells, sand and water. This extremely interesting bit of history
showed the life of Zephaniah Kingsley and his wife Anna whom he bought as a
slave in Haiti. He freed her and their
children in 1811. Spain lost control of
Florida in 1821, and the laws became intolerable regarding freed people. In 1837 he moved Anna, their 2 sons and 50
of his now freed slaves to Haiti, a free black republic, so they would not lose
their freedom.
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| Kingsley Plantation |
We pressed on in the rain, up and around Jacksonville and
down thru Palatka then on to Salt Springs Campground – our home for the next 2
plus weeks. H will no longer need to
hook / unhook the train each morning and evening!
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| Our home at Salt Springs |
The Cold Front with its thunder and lightening have come and
gone. Temps are mild once more. We’ve settled in and besides doing a lot of
walking and bike riding we’re working on our “Forest Bucket List” –
1.
Day tripping: Micanopy was 1st with its antique
lined streets and quaint old homes.
Coming back to camp we ended up on a sandy forest road and ran into a
“road closed”
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| Down town Micanopy |
sign and a detour – deep in the middle of the forest! Go figure!
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| Alcazar Hotel |
2. Shooting skeet: Followed by lunch at Corky Bell’s in Palatka and a jaunt to St Augustine to see their famous Christmas lights. Since we arrived before dusk, H just had to do his annual drive on the beach! The Old Town was festooned in millions of white lights, as was the nearby college and the 1888 Alcazar Hotel, modeled after a Moorish Castle in Southern Spain, which is now a museum and city hall. I loved how the water splashing from the ornate fountain created all the dancing reflections.
3. Attendance
taking: Almost daily trips to the
beautiful clear blue spring
to watch the elevated water level slowly slide back down to normal after all the previous rains!
Fat Mullet still leaped high out of the water and then resumed their
position in the swirling mass of silver bodies in the massive school of
fish. Bass, bluegill and even a perch
swam innocently back and forth. Two
good-sized blue crab seemed to dance as they moved under the sparkling
water. A small alligator tried to hide
in plain sight in the bed of grasses at the mouth of the spring but we saw him
anyway!
