January 27, 2004
St Augustine, FL – Anastasia
Our next stop was back towards the coast: St Augustine, FL. We stayed at Anastasia State Park campground, where Andy perfected his fire-building techniques (using Duraflames, of course). The temperatures have been surprisingly cool, so we’ve been happy that we invested in some winter clothes prior to leaving on our trip.
St Augustine is a beautiful, historic town that’s well worth your time to stroll through. There’s also an old fort – Castillo de San Marcos – which is a National Monument that’s right in downtown. Fort Matanzas is nearby if you wanted to see another fort and National Monument.
Historic St Augustine
We enjoyed our visit to the lighthouse, which included a climb to the top:
St Augustine Lighthouse
View of Town from Lighthouse
View of Inlet from Lighthouse
The beaches are packed sand you can drive on. Unlike our sand in South Florida.
Andy and Ele on the Beach
We had several family members from Orlando and friends from Jacksonville come visit us during our short stay here.
Here are some of our friends from Jacksonville who came down to visit us at the campground.
Chris and Colin
Elizabeth
January 24, 2004
Ocala National Forest – Salt Springs
From Blue Springs, we continued north to Ocala National Forest. We stayed in a private campground near Salt Springs. There are several areas in and around Ocala National Forest where you can camp.
We took our mountain bikes out on Alexander Springs Trail in the morning, then kayaked Juniper Wayside in the afternoon. Gotta love these multi-sport days – and with all of our toys being inside Ele, we didn’t even need to go home! We also found a great use for the tailgate – that’s where we ate lunch. Perfect.
The Alexander Springs Trail was about 12-miles of sandy, scenic trail through a pine forest. Not technical, which was good for me to practice more.
Our Lunch Spot!
Juniper Wayside was a narrow creek with a strong current.
Kayaking Juniper Wayside
Kayaking in Ocala Nat'l Forest
Our last day allowed us to sneak in a 7-mile hike through the pine forest and past numerous small lakes before heading out of town. We did a spur trail from Salt Springs to the Florida Scenic Trail.
Hiking in Ocala National Forest
January 22, 2004
Orange City, FL – Blue Springs & Manatees
Mist over Blue Springs
Andy on a Misty Morning
A Mother and her Baby
A Manatee
January 18, 2004
Florida – The Beginning of our Trek
January 18th – The Big Day: Today was the day we started our big Trek!
Packing Up the RV
We made sure that our parakeet, Nikki, was safe and secure in his new home:
Nikki's New Home
And all of our toys were loaded in Ele – our mobile Toy Box. We carried our 2 road bikes, 2 mountain bikes, and 2 kayaks with us on our trip.
Our Toybox
Our first stop was Jonathon Dickinson State Park. Yes, we know it’s only an hour and a half from home, but Savanna’s Preserve was full and it was raining. We wanted to stay close to home the first few nights to get used to the new RV and make sure we didn’t forget anything. Were’nt we surprised to learn that our windshield leaked in the rain?!
Our First Campsite of the Trek
We found some great singletrack off-road biking trails in Jonathon Dickinson, too! I’m so inexperienced that I crashed several times – several bruises and scrapes and a splinter from getting too close to a tree – but I still had fun. The paved roads in the park are also good for biking, too.
We had a great sunset to enjoy as well:
Our First Sunset
I’m sure we’ll be in for a lot of new “firsts” – we’re so excited for this adventure!
Diandy's RV Travels from 2004 