Blog#26-St. Augustine

Fine dining

Slept in until 8:30 today—that’s a first. All the birdseed I put out is gone. Most of the campers are leaving today, and others coming in to replace them. Ron and Anna stopped on their way out to wish me safe travels and gave me a thumbs up when I told them I saw the armadillo.

I used my toaster oven and made toast, for a gourmet breakfast.

Near my camp

Had a shower that left me with much less of the day ahead. The water pressure was so bad, it took forever to rinse shampoo out of my hair. But I felt better, none-the-less.

Tidied my campsite and commandeered some fire wood from one of the sites that had been vacated. I asked the camp host if it was okay, and he said after a pause, “Well I guess you could. We generally gather it up for the Boy Scouts”, with that tone that indicated that I should not take the wood.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I was at a fundraising event for my sisters’ swim team. I found a $20 bill. I took it to the swim coach and asked if anyone had been looking for it. He took it and said to check back at the end of the evening. I remember how excited I was at the thought of having $20. I’d never had a bill that big. When the event was over, I went back to the coach and asked if anyone had claimed the money. He answered no, then, holding the bill out to me, he waited until my hand was on it. He continued to hold the other end of the bill, and said, “Don’t you think it would be a good thing to donate this to the swim team?” He did not release the bill. The Catholic guilt thing kicked in, and I dumbly nodded yes and let go my money, the money I had already started spending in my head.

I’m guessing the swim coach went out for pizza and beer on me that night. Bastard. But I digress…

Boy Scouts are big down here. Most of the state parks have wood bundles for sale, and many of them are done through the Boy scouts. My feeling is that the Boy Scouts can come and gather the wood if the profit for selling it over and over goes to them. This time, my Catholic guilt did not stop me. It is a work in progress, getting over that guilt, but I persevered. I planned a nice campfire.

St. Augusitne

I spent the day in St. Augustine, the oldest city in America. It is the landing point of Ponce De Leon, and proud of it. The historic part of the town was awesome. I took a historic tour on a trolley and it was a really enjoyable afternoon. You buy a ticket and the trolley has 18 stops, but they run every 15 minutes (until 4:30) and the whole tour takes ~85 minutes.  You can get off and on as you choose.

Ponce De Leon, St. Augustine, Florida

The history was fascinating, and the architecture impressive. I was too late after the tour to go to the Fountain of Youth and drink from the spring, but what the hell. Brian so enjoys me being older than him, I wouldn’t take that from him. I am selfless that way.

Ponce de Leon was reported to be only 4’8″ tall, 4’11” with his heels and feathered hat.  That was about average for a Spaniard at that time.

The first wax museum in the US was in St. Augustine, as well as the first house, first Catholic Church, etc. etc.  Ripley’s believe it or not had their first location there as well, and they had a full sized, marble replica of Michelangelo’s David sculpted and put on display.  Some of the more proper of St. Augustine took offense to having a huge naked man in their town square, so Ripley’s planted a hedge around the statue, which took several years to grow high enough to hide the statue’s privates.  For many years, the statue wore a toga.

David, behind a proper curtain

Mosaic Tile!!

I headed back to my camp at Faver Dykes State Park, 17 miles from St. Augustine.  I stopped and bought some firestarter for my campfire, then went into a taco place for dinner. I stopped to get gas, and saw this van at the station. I loved it. Now I really want a van.

By the time I returned to my camp, the rain was coming steadily down.  Thus ended my campfire plans. The Boy Scouts will be reselling my 2 chunks of wood after all-once it dries out.

My wet ill-gotten wood

No critter watching tonight–the rain continues.  I like the sound of it on my car.