Flagler Beach/St. Augustine, Florida

Nov. 19 we pulled out of Lake Aire RV Park and headed off south on US 17 a little ways north of Savannah, Ga. We joined up with I-95 south bound. Made good time and covered 300 miles today to Beverley Beach Camptown in Flagler Beach, FL, right on the Atlantic Ocean. Bad news! Still setting record low temps even here but enough about the weather… for you guys up north it was still in the 60’s during the day.

We are about 30 miles south of the oldest city in USA, on A1A. Seeing as how old cities and history has been the theme of this trip, next up is St. Augustine, FL.

We downloaded the trike and set off for St. Augustine, and once again Bruce decided the best way for us to cover the city was by tour tram train.

St. Augustine is 443 years old and the downtown area is still made of narrow brick paved streets, some open to foot traffic only, others are only one way.

Our first stop was the Fountain of Youth, a perpetual spring that Juan Ponce de Leon, who was the first European to discover this in 1513 then claimed all of North America for Spain, called La Flori(ee)-da. He was not able to start a lasting community at that time.

There was a huge Live Oak tree called “The Senator” that was 600 years old,

and a lovely lane lined with Live Oaks near there.

Didn't like that they had the Fountain of Youth fenced, it looked so touristy. Well, duh!

We saw a lot of artifacts, and we drank the water from the famed Fountain of Youth…Don’t feel any younger!

Pedro Men’edez established the town of St. Augustine 1565 and it has been continually inhabited since that time. We visited the oldest house in the USA, with its’ four centuries of history.

This desk was in The Oldest House and said to have been used to write parts the Declaration Of the United States by one of the signers. (can't remember which one.)

This little girl posed for me at the Oldest House. The interpreter put the glasses and hat on her.

Then we saw the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse made from Cypress wood. It was built in1763 and remains the same as it was then, (I think the mannequins in the schoolhouse are NOT what they had, but gives us an idea anyway!).

OH WAIT! the one in the middle is NOT a mannequin...it's Bruce!

We also saw the Castillo de San Marcos, which is an old fort and a national park. It was interesting as old forts go.

Ready... aim... fire!

The Lightner Museum was very large so we spent some time in there…a lot of nice stuff.

We thought we were in Texas again, for a minute there!

Lynn has an antique punch bowl made out one of these types of crystal.

The Lightner Museum, formerly a luxury hotel was ahead of its' time with a sauna room.

We walked through the Spanish Quarter, a working period village that had quite a few interesting exhibits.

All in all there are a lot of interesting places and museums to see.We enjoyed the two days time spent here. Could have gone back one more day, but we got sick.

There were school children everywhere we went, so we think we were exposed to a few germs combined with two days of very cold motorcycle rides back and forth from St Augustine. We both came down with colds, so the rest of our time at Flagler Beach was spent sitting in the sun beside the trailer enjoying a good book and sorting state quarters, (and dosing ourselves with cough drops, Musinex and Zicam!)

Charleston SC

We left Pirateland RV Park on Thursday, Nov. 6 and headed down South US 17 to Charleston, SC, a nice easy 100-mile drive. One thing about the route we decided to take this fall has been the depth of history one can cover going down the east coast.

Bridge across the Cooper River

Charleston is one of those places were the European settlers came to develop business for the rich in Europe then decided independence was a better deal. The Charleston Harbor was the scene of naval action by the British, and the Civil War; just so much history concentrated in these places!

Flags flying over Ft. Sumter

We had selected Lake Aire RV Park in Hollywood, SC as our home for the next week; it is about 12 miles south of downtown Charleston. We downloaded the trike, took a nice walk through the park, and then the wind and rain moved in. With the trike we had to wait for the weather to clear or get wet. It rained off and on for the next day and a half! Stuck in the RV again!

It rained so much we didn’t get out to pick out a church during our travels, as we usually like to do. So Sunday morning we jumped on the trike and headed out at 10:15am. Lynn said we would just find a church up the road that started at 10:30 or 11:00 o’clock. Now that is a real church raffle! We spotted Garden of Gethsemane Church, a small residential home converted to a church.

As we entered to worship we found ourselves greeted with beautiful smiles and warm hugs of an all Black congregation; too late to turn around and leave in what felt like an uncomfortable situation, (this was only due to the fact that it was “different” than what we had expected). Anyway, we planted ourselves in the middle of the row right in front of us. We immediately knew that this must be where God wanted us this morning! We were welcomed so warmly that we began to feel at home in spite of being the only white faces in the place. What a good yet different worship experience! The spirit-filled service lasted 2 ½ hours. We said later that it was the most energetic church service we’ve ever been in! The songs we thought we knew where sung to a somewhat different tune, and as usual by good singing voices and energetic off-key ones as well. What a joyful noise unto the Lord! When we left the service we had some new friends and a new church to pray for.

We headed across town to visit Boone Hall Plantation. Lynn wanted to see the Live Oak drive to the mansion that inspired Margaret Mitchell when she wrote “Gone With the Wind”. Charleston is on a peninsula jutting out into the bay flanked by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. You have to cross both rivers to get back to the north side of town. The bridge over the Cooper is new and is very pretty. Arrived at Boone Hall too late to make it worth the fee to go in and look around, (45min before closing and no discount for the $17.50 each entry fee!). We went down the road to the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. Who is Charles Pinckney you may ask? We did too! We found out that he was one of the youngest delegates to the Constitutional Convention and signers of the Declaration of Independence, one of South Carolina's finest!

Later that afternoon we took a drive around historic downtown Charleston, thankful for having the trike and not the KW due to the very small and narrow streets, very typical of these old cities.

We proceeded across the bridge to James Island and rode through the Charleston Festival of Lights at the county park, very much like Hines Drive at Christmas and really put us in the holiday spirit. It was dark and cold as we headed home to Lake Aire Campground.

Monday we headed back into town to take a combination bus and boat tour of historic downtown Charleston and Ft. Sumter. This city has all the southern charm of the gracious old south, (you know Rhett Butler made a good living as a smuggler here in “Gone With The Wind”).

There are many things to see and do here and a tour like this gives a good overview of all of it, Bruce recommends it as a good first step, unless you know the city. We didn’t get a chance to do a deep exploration this trip but there will probably be a next time for Charleston!

Fort Sumter

Inside the Fort

Bruce wanted to see Ft, Sumter being somewhat of Civil War history follower, (if you read some of the other post on this blog he will not claim to have the in-depth knowledge of the “real” history buffs). But that said, he found it interesting to visit Ft. Sumter and learn more about its place in our nation’s history. Lynn enjoys, (and learns!), history in this fashion, since she didn’t like it in school!

On the way home we stopped for dinner at a local BBQ place and had some excellent Carolina BBQ ribs, I would tell you the name of the place but I can’t remember, its on S. US 17, a couple miles from downtown on the west side of the road.

Tuesday morning was cold and blustery; Bruce rode the trike to Hollywood SC to pick up our mail, came back to campground and loaded the trike, and we got ready to leave in the morning. We have decided it’s time to head for the Florida beaches. We’ve had enough of the “unusually cold for this time of year”, and “record lows”.

Myrtle Beach, SC

Monday November 3rd: It was a 300-mile drive to Myrtle Beach, so it was dark when we arrived. We weren’t very happy to discover that we had to park our motorcycle at the front gate after we unloaded it the next day. We had to call for an “escort”! What a pain! They gave us a spot way to the back of the 1500 site campground. Didn’t look forward to walking up to get our motorcycle so we could explore the area but the exercise didn’t hurt us either.

At least we were near the beach! We could hear the waves crashing on the shore from our door. Lynn couldn’t wait to walk on the beach. When you were standing up you could see over the dunes out the back window and see the ocean, too.

Next day we took the trike into town. Very commercial! Set up for the summer tourist crowd for sure! Lynn got a Myrtle Beach hoody; we had a nice lunch at a small café and headed back to the RV. Glad we decided to stay for just three days. Friday was predicting rain and colder weather.

We enjoyed more walks on the beach and discovered that people like to ride their horses on the beaches here, too! The beach is very nice but Bruce said, “ See the waves crashing on one sandy beach and you’ve seen them all, now mountains are another matter”!

Wed. we discovered where the indoor heated pool was and enjoyed a couple of hours in the pool and the hot tub. Got back to the RV before the rain hit. It came early. Lynn wanted to walk on the beach in the full moonlight when we got back, but the clouds foiled that plan! Next morning we headed off to Charleston, SC.

A Visit With Our North Carolina Family

We arrived In NC on Friday, October 31, tired and ready to get set-up and rest. This is where Lynn’s oldest sister, Micki’s 3 children live. (We have no grandchildren, so she said she’d share!) We called our niece, Erika and told her we’d see her the next day.

(back to front) Dominik, Chad, Blake, and Gavin

We sure enjoyed seeing her, Chad and the kids, Dominik, 5, Gavin, 2 ½ and 10 mo old Blake! My nephew Mike’s wife, Kelly was there with their 11 yr old daughter, Mia. (Mike had to work. Never did get to see HIM!) Mia got sick the next day and didn’t recover until after we left! Sure am glad we got to see her at least one day! Got pictures though!

Aunt Grammy Lynn, Mia, Gavin, Dominik, and Uncle Grampa Bruce

It was sure fun playing with Erika’s boys. Chad and Erika were in the middle of packing to move to Ashville, NC due to a job change for Chad. Micki will be happy to have them near her and Dan!

Grave Digger Monster Truck

Sunday after church we triked around the Outer Banks and went to Digger's Dungeon, the place in the NC Outer Banks, where they build Monster Trucks!

There was a radio control car group out behind the Dungeon having a n RC competition. We watched them for a while and grabbed lunch at the Digger's Dungeon Cafe. Great homemade clam chowder!

We later managed to see nephew Cory and his wife Cynthia and their two boys, Jack 6, and Casey 4, for a little while, and went back Tues for a longer visit and some pictures. What a joy that was! It’s hard when families are so far away!

Cory, Casey, Cynthia, and Jack

We started packing up to leave since we were camping on the Currituck Sound and a Nor’easter was moving in fast. Then Micki calls and says, “You can’t leave yet! I’m driving 6-7 hours to see you!” So we rode out the storm and stayed!Spent two days stuck inside the RV until the storm passed. Got to see a great sunrise when it was all said and done!

Micki drove into the campground with Lynn’s sister, Carol Sue's, daughter, Riley! She had flown in from Las Vegas to visit “Aunt Grandma Micki!” We spent a few more days at Chad and Erika’s, helping them pack and enjoying them and their boys, Micki and Dan, and Riley.

Riley (on top), Caleb and Chase

Riley

Sunday, Micki and Lynn drove to Raleigh, NC with Riley to meet Lynn’s sister Gayle’s son, Rick and wife Katrina from Charlotte, and their boys Chase and Caleb with their new baby sister Mickayla!The Kids had a great time in the playscape before we had to leave Riley and go back to The Outer Banks.

Proud Papa Rick and Mickayla

Chase and Caleb

Mickayla and Mom Katrina

They were picking up Riley so she could catch her plane on Monday out of Charlotte back home to Nevada. Got more pictures!

(Left to right) Chase, Rick, Katrina, Caleb, Micki, Riley, and Mickayla's in the buggy!

What a great visit with family! Lynn was disappointed that she just missed seeing her younger sister Gayle who was in the States for a little while from South Africa. Said she’d be back in Nevada next August. We’ll see what we can work out when the time comes.

Packed up on Monday, Nov.10th, and really left this time; headed for Myrtle Beach!