Not our first time to Hanna Park! Not our first time to eat at Safe Harbor Seafood Market &
Restaurant either! YES the Shrimp and
Singleton’s Seafood was open for business this year but we
could not tell what, if any, remodeling had been done! The day we ate there was warmer so we sat
out on the open deck area to watch the boat traffic. The car ferry was busy and
Being right next to the Mayport Naval Air Station, there is
always activity in the air above. Helicopters are either zipping up and around
the curves in the river or, as the day we were going by, were practicing their
hover maneuver while dropping a line with a weight on the bottom and seeing if
they
Still heading south, our next campsite was just south of St
Augustine, about 15 miles and just off of RT 1 at the junction of I95. Faver Dykes State Park is down a one lane
sand driveway that leads to a small campground in a palmetto and hardwood
hammock (woods). The park is outlined
by the scenic Pellicer Creek, which then empties into the Matanzas River. In the campground, each spacious site is
carved out of the bushy palmetto and most often you cannot see your
neighbor. Clean facilities sit in the
middle of the loop made by the narrow tree lined path that is called the
road. After setting up, our immediate
visitors were a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers and later after the sun had set,
but our door and windows were still open, an armadillo came by to see what
treasure he could dig up in the dry oak leaves surrounding our site!
Always the need to explore, we ventured out and finally made
it
During the EARLY morning hours on Saturday, the weather
radio started blasting its tornado warning.
It was 3 AM! By 4 am we were in
the truck and heading to the security of the cement block bathhouse! It was Trimble Park all over once more and
H was again concerned about sitting in a cardboard box on wheels during a
tornado. You meet the nicest folk in
lady’s bathrooms during bad weather warnings!
In Trimble Park it was J&A and now it was Arlene who was camping in
a tent! The storm passed without much
adieu but later we had heard an EF0 tornado touched down between Palatka and
Hastings – less than 25 miles from here and an EF1 did flip a camper over in a
state park just south of us!
The St Augustine Boat Parade was Saturday evening! Last year we missed it by one day. With the storm long gone, we made an
afternoon of lunch out and some shopping and always more exploring with the
intent of arriving in St Augustine in plenty of time to procure a parking spot
in the lot near the river. We even had
time to revisit the waterfront by the famed lighthouse!
Everyone in Florida must have planned on attending the
parade too since the streets were clogged with vehicles and horses pulling
decorated buggies. Pedestrians were
swarming the town like hordes of angry ants escaping a disturbed nest! Cars were stuck in line in the parking lot –
waiting for a treasured parking spot.
We sat behind one such car – until he was forced to move when the
trolley cars with their wagons trailing behind, beeped their wonky squeaky
horns, forcing the stopped offender to move.
Then we were the stopped offender.
Cars were AGAIN backed up out of the lot and down the street. H moved over to let some cars go by - and the car that passed first - got the
parking spot that WAS supposed to be ours.
Did that happen just once?
NOPE! Was H angry and
frustrated? YUP!! Did we finally give up and go home without
ever seeing the parade? Another really
big YUP!! The parade would have to be
put off for another year.
