St. Augustine

Castillo de San Marcos

Greetings from St. Augustine.  St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States, founded in 1565.  We know this because we all learned it in grade school and because everyone here is eager to remind you.  The old fort (Castillo de San Marcos) is the focal point of the old city.  There were nine previous wooden  forts built on the same spot but all nine burned down.  The current stone fort was built in 1696 when apparently Spain finally got the memo, no more wooden forts.  After a 90 minute trolley ride around the city we set out by ourselves to get a closer look of what we viewed as the city’s highlights:  The St. Augustine Cathedral Basilica, Flagler College and of course, Castillo de San Marcos.

Conveniently, we were able to bike from our campsite which is in Anastasia State

Park.  The Park has a beautiful white sand beach that goes for miles.  After searching the beach for any of the speedo boys from Hendricks College and finding none (see earlier post), I decided to go for a swim in the ocean.  The water was cool but fortunately the huge waves allowed me to acclimate to the water very quickly.  I had a blast but the adventure was exhausting.

We discovered a great treasure which was within biking distance from our campground, a Dollar General, a pawn shop and a thrift store – my kind of mall!

We had to leave the park for the weekend as alas, there was “no room for us at the inn”.  We ventured 30 or so miles down the coast to a hotel in Palm Coast for the weekend .  We spent a sunny Saturday at Flagler beach, swimming and strolling the boardwalk, before returning to Anastasia on Sunday.

After re-establishing our camp we made a return biketrip to the old city.  We took a guided tour of Flagler college mostly to see the priceless Tiffany windows in the dining hall and the equally priceless chandeliers.  Flagler College was once a luxury hotel, The Ponce de Leon.  In the gilded age, the Uber rich would pay todays equivalent of $100,000 to stay for the winter.

We found an outdoor aquatic center in St. Augustine and once again did a little lap swimming.

We break camp this friday and plan on heading to Savannah.

The Villages

The people who attend the 4:00 Saturday Mass in The Villages look pretty much like the people who attend the 4:00 Saturday Mass anywhere else.  The difference with The Villages is that ALL the people in The Villages look like the people who attend the 4:00 Saturday Mass.

Here is an example:  Last week I was grocery shopping at Publix.  When I was paying the cashier, the bag boy asked me if I need help getting my bags out to my car.  The bag boy was old enough to be my father!  And no, I didn’t.

Here is another example:  You may remember the video arcade game, Frogger.  The goal for the player is to get the frog safely across the road while dodging traffic.  Cathy and I played a similar game at one of The Villages’ many pools.  There were 16 senior citizens walking from pool side to pool side.  It took Cathy and I a great deal of planning and patience to negotiate all 16 just so we could make it to the deep end of the pool.  We should have gotten extra points for being able to avoid the old guy who was water walking, refusing to look up while doing his crossword puzzle in the pool!

But it’s too easy to criticize the Villages.  Jokes abound about the golf carts on the roads and how everybody is afraid to buy green bananas.  My cousin said that every time they hear a rescue squad siren in their area, people wonder if there will be another home on the market.  However, The Villages is more than that.  The weather there is ideal, it is safe, clean and it seems that everything is well cared for.  There are pools, pickelball courts, tennis courts and golf courses everywhere.  The is also entertainment and social clubs to suit most people’s tastes, even if they are geared to “people of a certain age”. 

While there last week, we enjoyed our visit with our friends from Sister Bay, Dick and

Bev, Patti, Lloyd Kolb & Cathy

Penny Schiller and we also managed to sneak in a visit with some more of the Kolbs, Lloyd, Bev and Patti.  We sincerely enjoyed spending time with my brother, Bill and our hosts, Bill and Karen Early.  We had a good time and look forward to a return visit after three more weeks of being on the road. 

We are off to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine!

Karen & Bill Early

Bill Blaney

  

A Visiting We Will Go

We’ve not had any major excitement since our last post.  We did travel to

Darrell Kolb's Birthday

Bradenton to visit Cathy's Uncle Darrell and go out to lunch with Darrell, Kathy, Mary and Kathy's daughter, Laura.  We also drove to Sanibel Island to visit Marilyn Maglio, a longtime friend of Cathy's.  On our way back to our campsite we stopped in Siesta Key to see Faith and Kathleen Powers. 

However most of our days are mundane – wonderfully mundane but mundane.  We take long walks, we go to the beach, we bike, we make some pretty good meals and we sleep like newborns.

Much of our fun comes from daily life.  Here are some examples:

EXAMPLE #1  There is a familiarity that many southerners use, Hi Hun, God bless you dear etc.  So Cathy was only a little surprised when the man next to her said, “Good morning sweetheart, how are you this morning”  Cathy, being Cathy, turned to him and said, ‘Great, how are you?”  Only then did she realize that he was talking to his wife or girlfriend using his bluetooth earpiece.  At least he knew that Cathy was having a great day!

Sunshine Skyway Bridge

EXAMPLE #2  Here is a photo of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
ME:  In 1980 a 600 foot cargo ship hit the bridge.  Seven cars and a Greyhound bus fell into the water and 35 people were killed.
Cathy:  Why would you tell me that while we are on the bridge?

EXAMPLE #3  Cathy and I had biked to the beach the other day and we were lucky enough to see some dolphins.  Our picnic was interrupted when my phone rang.
KAREN FROM DESOTO PARK:  “Hi, Kenneth?  This is the Karen at DeSoto Park calling.

East Beach Fort DeSoto

  You were supposed to be off your campsite today by 11:00 a.m. (It was 12:30).
ME:  No, No, No, we have the site until tomorrow.
KAREN:  No, No, No you had the site until today.  We packed up and were off the site in less than an hour, our personal best.

EXAMPLE #4
CATHY:  Thanks for fixing the brakes on my bike.
ME:  It would be a good idea if you didn’t use them unless you have to.

EXAMPLE #5
STRANGER:  Man, how ‘bout that flu epidemic.
US:  That’s why we have chosen to live in the woods.

EXAMPLE #6
ME to Cathy with a frequency that has become annoying:  “Can you believe this is our life now?”

Marilyn Maglio & Cathy

Cathy, Faith & Kathleen Powers