The East Coast of Florida

 I don't complain often, but right now I am tired and crabby. Operating on just a few hours of sleep makes Jim not a happy camper. We had been happy up to this last stop. In fact, we were having a blast. 

After leaving Forrest and family in Savannah, we continued south to Brunswick. We were going to visit Jekyll Island, but a friend suggested St. Simons so we went there instead. We had visited Jekyll last time we were in the area, so we thought we would try something new. 

Our first stop was Fort Frederica. There is a dozen or so forts like this scattered along the coast dating back to the mid 1700's. What I find interesting about these forts is what they were built out of. Looking at them for the first time, I thought they were built out of a manmade material of seashells and some kind of concrete. I later learned that I was not that far off, but it is natural, not manmade. 

Coquina is a sedimentary rock of all things ocean; seashells mostly. They were able to cut it into slabs and build the forts out of it. Much of it is still standing, hundreds of years later. Very interesting. 

Some of the trees on the grounds were equally impressive dating back up to 300 years. 

We drove to the other end of the island where we walked the waterfront and saw the lighthouse. Whenever we are in places like this Barb peeks at the real estate prices, not because we are looking to buy, but to see how much out of our price range the houses are. Very few houses were under a million and if they were, they were fixer uppers. 

We spent the night in one of the sketchiest Walmart's we have in a while. I can tell you for certainty, that Brunswick has a drug problem and most of the deals are taking place right in that parking lot. Some genius based their operation out of a beat-up Class A right there in the lot, about 15 yards from us. Car after car approached this RV, stopping for a few seconds before taking off again. We were never in any danger, but it did give us something to watch. 

The next day we headed to the St. Augustine area in Florida. Our friends Dan and Jeanie were driving over from their place in Dunnellon to hang out with us for a few days. They were staying at the Hampton Inn right on the beach. We were just going to wing it and find someplace to stay at night. That is the beauty of a truck camper, you can usually find a place to park at night. 

Our goal for the next few days? To fish and check out St. Augustine. We met Dan and Jeanie at Vilano Beach, after saying hello, they went and checked into their hotel. When they came back Jeanie hands me a parking pass saying that the clerk said we stay right in the Hampton parking lot! So, we tucked into the corner and called that home for the next couple of nights. 

Neither Dan nor I had been surf fishing before so we wanted to see if we could figure that out. Dan had bought and brought all the rods, reels and equipment to do it, so off to the beach we went!

We learned a lot. Our very first lesson came when we baited the hooks and walked to the edge of the surf to cast out lines out. The lesson? Put your bait away before you walk away from it to cast out your line. When we walked away, birds immediately landed on it and gobbled up the rest of the bait!

Speaking of birds, we had our first Wood Stork sighting. What an odd bird. It just followed us around and hung out while we fished. 

There were also a lot of gulls and osprey overhead as well. 

The fish were just not cooperating. We packed it in for the night and decided to get up bright and early to see if the morning bite was any better. It was not. We then headed over to the local pier to try our luck at pier fishing. 

Nope, nothing going on there either. If it was any consolation, the other fisherman were not catching anything either. It wasn't. Dejected we headed into town to drown our sorrows at the St. Augustine Distillery. 

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The tour was free and it was pretty cool. They had different taster stations set up throughout the distillery offering both mixed tasters as well as the straight product. 

After a tour and tastings, we were still dejected so we headed over to San Sebastian Winery for a tour and tasting which apparently no one took any pictures at. Then it was into the historic district of St. Augustine to walk the streets. But wait? What is this? City Gate Distillery? Of course we have to stop! We picked up a bottle of Cookie Dough Whiskey. Sounds horrible, but it actually quite delicious! By then we had worked up a hunger, so we walked down to the famous Columbia restaurant for an early supper. The Columbia offers authentic cuban cuisine. It was very good!

After supper we walked down to the old fort. 

We did not have time to take the tour, but even walking around the outside was fascinating. 

One more walk on the beach the next morning and we hit the road headed further south. 

But we did not go our separate ways. Dan wanted to try one more fishing spot about an hour down the road at Flagler Beach. The results you ask? Well, let's just say, the fish won this round as well. I still have yet to figure out this surf fishing. Our "Adventures with Dan and Jeanie" portion of our east coast tour complete, we parted ways and headed in different directions. 

Barb and I carried on south while they headed back to Dunnellon. We stopped by Rusty's Seafood and Oyster Bar in Port Canaveral for a late lunch. This place was recommended by our friends Jim and Diana who have wintered in Melbourne Beach for years. It did not disappoint!

Our destination for the next three nights was Long Point Park just south of Melbourne Beach. Our plans were to meet with Jim and Diana down here. They have been wintering down here for 7 seasons, but when they heard we were headed this way and were going to visit, they decided they would rather endure the cold Michigan winter than see us so they did not come down this year. 

That brings us to now, we are in the last day of our stay here. At first I thought we would love it. It is a remote park. Reasonable at ~$50/night. Quiet and it offers a lot of fishing opportunities. In fact, that is all we did while we were here. We got out the inflatable kayak and hit the water! 

Not being experienced saltwater fisher-people we did not know exactly what to do, but we tossed some live shrimp into the mangrove bushes and it was not long before Barb had her first fish on! It was a Whiting. We had to buy a cheat sheet at the local bait shop just to know what we were catching. She also caught a sea trout and a catfish which left me a bloody mess by the time I unhooked it and got it back into the water. All told, Barb caught 5 fish to my 1, a typical day fishing for us. 

After lunch I went out by myself for an hour and caught quite a few.  Black Drum, Mangrove Snapper, and a Jack Carvelle that pulled the kayak around before I finally landed it. 

Barb came and joined me after a while, she quickly caught a few more fish taking the lead back. The coolest part of the afternoon were the dolphins. 3 or 4 swam by us a couple of times within feet of the boat. The problem was we could never get any good pictures of them! They would surface and be gone before I could put the pole down and grab the camera. Very cool to see though. 

When we first arrived in the area, we thought "This is someplace we could spend the winter". Barb even went as far as researching monthly prices at the park. That all changed when the sun started to set and we started to feel all these little pin pricks on our legs, arms and necks. We could not see anything, but we knew what it was. They don't call them no-see-ums for nothing. Anyway they attacked Barb like crazy. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that Barb blows up like an Umpalumpa.

We retreated inside to escape them, but these little buggers are so small, they were making it through the screens! We started a Thermacell, which helped but they still attacked us both all night long making for a miserably sleepless night. Barb has been taking Benadryl, putting on hydrocortisone, but nothing seems to be helping. So, what we thought was our paradise has turned into our nightmare. 

It is fine during the day, but at night it is a terror. We leave today and carry on south. Hopefully our next stop is bug-free, and we get a good night's sleep! Looks like we might be without cell in internet at our next stop so we will not be able to keep up with reading blogs.

In the meantime, I will leave you with this calm and soothing video I took of the surf at sunrise in Vilano Beach.