JU Freshman retreat / St. Augustine / June 23-27 2009
Monday – pre-tripWashed the trailer front – all rugs, floor, bathroom, etc. Loaded the street bikes.
Tony hooked up the backup camera to the back of the trailer – not the truck, the trailer. It comes on automatically when the truck is put in reverse. Isn’t he clever?
Tuesday
This morning we are all up and packed and ready to go but the sky is falling out. We don’t want to try to hitch up in this downpour – or even drag our luggage through it. Plus if we started down the road in this, our progress would be markedly slow. So we’re waiting it out for a bit. I won’t say patiently, because Tony is hopping from foot to foot.
Stopped at Steak-and-Shake at the Ft. Pierce offramp (where you change from turnpike to I-95) for lunch. Arrived at the Stagecoach RV Campground about 4:30 – plenty of daylight to get settled in. We went out for sushi (Rhiannon’s request) and then we caught an 8p ghost walk and a midnight ghost train tour. On the midnight tour they give you each a disposable camera so we snapped away – will develop to see if we got any ghosts! Big fun, both tours. Late night, though.
Wednesday
Drove Rhiannon up to Jacksonville, dropping her there at about 10:30a. I showed Tony around campus – he had not come with us to Jacksonville before. Then we drove over to UNF where Mikal is considering attending. They are repaving the whole perimeter road and it was a nightmare. But the campus is large and shiny and new. Then Tony and I drove back from Jacksonville to St. Augustine via A1A, just to see the sights. Stopped for a quick lunch (at Sonny’s BBQ), then changed into motorcycling clothes and took the bikes back over to the historic district. Cruised it for awhile, then over to “Anastasia Island” where the lighthouse is. We went in – up the lighthouse and into the museum. Stayed until dinner time and then found this place on the island called the Conch House with wooden decking out over the ocean, sailboats all around, reggae music but not too loud. Very pleasant – fantastic food. Relaxed there for a long time, then rode the bikes back to the campground.
We had one text message from Rhiannon – she says she’s having fun.
Thursday
Packed a lunch and took the truck back over to the historic district, bought tickets for the hop-on/hop-off tour tram.
Went to the Fountain of Youth – that was a much more interesting exhibit than I expected – particular highlights were the Planetarium where they use this ancient machine (sadly they are replacing it with a computerized one, soon – but this one runs with a singer sewing machine engine and lots of (Rube Goldberg) levers and dials!) to show the night sky as it was when Ponce de Leon arrived and how sailors used to navigate. They also give you a Dixie cup of the water – so, of course I am much younger now. We got back off the tram at our truck and ate our picnic lunch, then walked over to the Fort and walked all through it – it has old guns and exhibits and a film. After that we took the truck and drove a few blocks out of the historic section to tour a winery. It was fun – not great wine, but not expensive either, so we bought a few bottles. Muscadine grapes grown in Clermont – all very sweet wines. But it’s more interesting than having stuff on the rack that you bought at Publix, even if it’s nothing fancy! The port was good and I didn’t have a port on-hand, so now I do.
Left about 4p, to head up to Jacksonville to get Ree. We explored downtown Jacksonville and the “River Walk”. Found a nice enough restaurant but we were generally disappointed with the River Walk and the restaurant. Jacksonville is a pretty city though. We took a water taxi one way and then walked over the bridge the other way and that was nice.
Friday
Took the truck again – it turns out we need to solve the problem of where to keep Tony’s boots. He tried riding without them and doesn’t like it. He can’t do much walking while wearing them. So we didn’t take the bikes any more. I think I’m going to buy larger, locking saddle bags for my bike and that will solve that and other storage/security problems. Anyway, back to town, bought a tram ticket for Rhiannon (ours were still good) and then walked over to the oldest streets - lots of shopping and exploring to do. We wanted to do that first while it was a little cooler. At lunchtime we walked back to our truck, ate our picnic lunch and then grabbed the tram and rode it to a stop where we had pre-planned to get off and tour two or three (air conditioned) museums. By the time we finished two of them we were too (mentally and physically) exhausted to tour the third, so we’ll save it for next time! So what we saw was the Villa Zorayda museum – once a private home modeled after the Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada Spain. A private collection of incredible middle-eastern art and furniture. Then we visited the Lightner museum – once the Hotel Alcazar. Fantastic collection of “collections”. The coolest thing is that we happened to walk in the door right when they were starting their 2p daily demonstration of the musical instruments like the orchestrion (look it up!) So many amazing things to look at in that museum. No real theme – just room after room of “cool stuff”. Then we hopped back on the tram and just sat it through the whole rest of the tour. Took almost two hours to make the whole circuit. We watched for where we wanted to have dinner and eventually got off the tram and took the truck back to the restaurant we had decided upon. It was a great choice! “A1A Ale Works”. Wonderful seafood and microbrews. We selected it partly because of its proximity to the marina where we walked after dinner to take our night-time pirate/ghost ride on the Schooner Freedom. That was fun – but if we had it to do over we would take the “sunset” tour on that same schooner which is two hours and goes out past the drawbridge to the Atlantic. This one stayed in the bay and while the pirate/story teller was fantastic, we were disappointed at how abbreviated the actual sailing was.
SaturdayUp and hustle to pack everything up. Hitched and out by about 9:30a. Lunch at a Perkins in Melbourne. Yawn. Home. Unload the bikes, take the trailer back down to Markham, dash over to Vincie’s to check on her and give her meds then home.
SundayFetch the trailer from Markham, bring it home for clean-up and to reload the quad and the bbq grill for its transport up to the farm. Dash over to Vincie’s, give her meds and take her out to Sunday lunch, then home to fetch the trailer, drive it to Clewiston and drop it off, unloading the bbq grill into the container. Quick visit with Dad and home just before dark. Whew!
Tony hooked up the backup camera to the back of the trailer – not the truck, the trailer. It comes on automatically when the truck is put in reverse. Isn’t he clever?
Tuesday
This morning we are all up and packed and ready to go but the sky is falling out. We don’t want to try to hitch up in this downpour – or even drag our luggage through it. Plus if we started down the road in this, our progress would be markedly slow. So we’re waiting it out for a bit. I won’t say patiently, because Tony is hopping from foot to foot.
Stopped at Steak-and-Shake at the Ft. Pierce offramp (where you change from turnpike to I-95) for lunch. Arrived at the Stagecoach RV Campground about 4:30 – plenty of daylight to get settled in. We went out for sushi (Rhiannon’s request) and then we caught an 8p ghost walk and a midnight ghost train tour. On the midnight tour they give you each a disposable camera so we snapped away – will develop to see if we got any ghosts! Big fun, both tours. Late night, though.
Wednesday
Drove Rhiannon up to Jacksonville, dropping her there at about 10:30a. I showed Tony around campus – he had not come with us to Jacksonville before. Then we drove over to UNF where Mikal is considering attending. They are repaving the whole perimeter road and it was a nightmare. But the campus is large and shiny and new. Then Tony and I drove back from Jacksonville to St. Augustine via A1A, just to see the sights. Stopped for a quick lunch (at Sonny’s BBQ), then changed into motorcycling clothes and took the bikes back over to the historic district. Cruised it for awhile, then over to “Anastasia Island” where the lighthouse is. We went in – up the lighthouse and into the museum. Stayed until dinner time and then found this place on the island called the Conch House with wooden decking out over the ocean, sailboats all around, reggae music but not too loud. Very pleasant – fantastic food. Relaxed there for a long time, then rode the bikes back to the campground.
We had one text message from Rhiannon – she says she’s having fun.
Thursday
Packed a lunch and took the truck back over to the historic district, bought tickets for the hop-on/hop-off tour tram.
Went to the Fountain of Youth – that was a much more interesting exhibit than I expected – particular highlights were the Planetarium where they use this ancient machine (sadly they are replacing it with a computerized one, soon – but this one runs with a singer sewing machine engine and lots of (Rube Goldberg) levers and dials!) to show the night sky as it was when Ponce de Leon arrived and how sailors used to navigate. They also give you a Dixie cup of the water – so, of course I am much younger now. We got back off the tram at our truck and ate our picnic lunch, then walked over to the Fort and walked all through it – it has old guns and exhibits and a film. After that we took the truck and drove a few blocks out of the historic section to tour a winery. It was fun – not great wine, but not expensive either, so we bought a few bottles. Muscadine grapes grown in Clermont – all very sweet wines. But it’s more interesting than having stuff on the rack that you bought at Publix, even if it’s nothing fancy! The port was good and I didn’t have a port on-hand, so now I do.
Left about 4p, to head up to Jacksonville to get Ree. We explored downtown Jacksonville and the “River Walk”. Found a nice enough restaurant but we were generally disappointed with the River Walk and the restaurant. Jacksonville is a pretty city though. We took a water taxi one way and then walked over the bridge the other way and that was nice.
Friday
Took the truck again – it turns out we need to solve the problem of where to keep Tony’s boots. He tried riding without them and doesn’t like it. He can’t do much walking while wearing them. So we didn’t take the bikes any more. I think I’m going to buy larger, locking saddle bags for my bike and that will solve that and other storage/security problems. Anyway, back to town, bought a tram ticket for Rhiannon (ours were still good) and then walked over to the oldest streets - lots of shopping and exploring to do. We wanted to do that first while it was a little cooler. At lunchtime we walked back to our truck, ate our picnic lunch and then grabbed the tram and rode it to a stop where we had pre-planned to get off and tour two or three (air conditioned) museums. By the time we finished two of them we were too (mentally and physically) exhausted to tour the third, so we’ll save it for next time! So what we saw was the Villa Zorayda museum – once a private home modeled after the Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada Spain. A private collection of incredible middle-eastern art and furniture. Then we visited the Lightner museum – once the Hotel Alcazar. Fantastic collection of “collections”. The coolest thing is that we happened to walk in the door right when they were starting their 2p daily demonstration of the musical instruments like the orchestrion (look it up!) So many amazing things to look at in that museum. No real theme – just room after room of “cool stuff”. Then we hopped back on the tram and just sat it through the whole rest of the tour. Took almost two hours to make the whole circuit. We watched for where we wanted to have dinner and eventually got off the tram and took the truck back to the restaurant we had decided upon. It was a great choice! “A1A Ale Works”. Wonderful seafood and microbrews. We selected it partly because of its proximity to the marina where we walked after dinner to take our night-time pirate/ghost ride on the Schooner Freedom. That was fun – but if we had it to do over we would take the “sunset” tour on that same schooner which is two hours and goes out past the drawbridge to the Atlantic. This one stayed in the bay and while the pirate/story teller was fantastic, we were disappointed at how abbreviated the actual sailing was.
SaturdayUp and hustle to pack everything up. Hitched and out by about 9:30a. Lunch at a Perkins in Melbourne. Yawn. Home. Unload the bikes, take the trailer back down to Markham, dash over to Vincie’s to check on her and give her meds then home.
SundayFetch the trailer from Markham, bring it home for clean-up and to reload the quad and the bbq grill for its transport up to the farm. Dash over to Vincie’s, give her meds and take her out to Sunday lunch, then home to fetch the trailer, drive it to Clewiston and drop it off, unloading the bbq grill into the container. Quick visit with Dad and home just before dark. Whew!
