Day 39 - Touring the oldest city in the U.S. -- St. Augustine, Florida

Yesterday Concetta and I got to do something that we both have been dreaming about doing since we were kids: visit St. Augustine, Florida, America's oldest continuously inhabited city.

As a youngster I was fascinated by tales of sea-going explorers and adventure on the high seas. I read just about everything I could get my hands on to do with those subjects. Whenever you start reading about the exploration of North America, be it Spanish, French, English, or whomever, it isn't long before you run into a discussion of the first men who tried to colonize the New World. Usually that distinction goes to Spain.

St. Augustine was founded on September 8, 1565, a date impossibly old for our modern north American minds to fathom. Over four hundred years? The Spanish Armada hadn't even sailed yet. And yet it's true. It's almost like getting to have lunch with Christopher Columbus. We couldn't resist. We just had to go and check this out.

Here's where the Davis luck swung into action. We had parked our RV in a handy KOA that advertised that they were just scant miles from the old part of the city. The park was easy for the GPS to find, which is always a plus. Once set up for the evening, we checked with the park employees and they told us that a shuttle bus parked just across the street from the park and the fare into town was just $.50 each way. Now that was a bargain for sure.

The next morning, after all our chores were done, we set off with our backpack, camera, water bottle, maps, and assorted other essentials for whatever adventure was to come our way. As we walked toward the entrance we fell into step with another couple who were apparently headed our way. After a few moments we conferred on just where the bus stop might be and together the four of us figured it out (based on the fact that four actual buses were parked across the street, waiting for passengers).

Almost sooner than it will take to tell you about it, the bus had crossed the drawbridge into the old city and had dropped us about three blocks from Fort San Marcos. It being the largest building we could see, we naturally headed in that direction. Once again we were pleased that our senior pass purchased at the U.S. Forest Service facility in Carson City got us in for free.

The fort is very interesting because it's constructed, not of stone as you might expect, but of a mixture of sand and sea shells that they call coquina. The park interpreters told us that the sand/sea shell mixture, which had been pressed into a rock-like consistency under great pressure over thousands of years, made a great building material for a fort because canon balls were just absorbed when they hit. Forts constructed of actual rock tended to disintegrate under a canon barrage.

We discovered, as we wandered the grounds, that our Saturday visit had been fortuitous. Not only was a man on hand to discuss eighteen and nineteenth century medical equipment (that's him above right), and a park ranger scheduled to discuss various types of canon shot used by the fort against marauding ships in the harbor, but in the latter part of the morning they planned to fire a couple of canons from high atop the battlements. To accompany the canon demonstration, they had a full compliment of soldiers in proper Spanish artilleryman's colors to do the job. Much to our delight, the soldiers even received their battle commands in Spanish. Just really exciting.

Somewhat before midday, Concetta and I had ended our tour of Fort San Marcos and had ventured into old St. Augustine to see what we could see. Our plan was to meet with a couple of ex-coworkers from my days at Nevada's Department of Public Safety. The couple had retired several years ago and had relocated from the mountains north of Truckee, California, to the seashore south of St. Augustine.

Our plan at this point was to find St. George street on which my friends said they wanted to meet, and hang out for a few minutes until they called. After wandering around a good bit, concentrating more on taking photos than navigation, we had stopped to admire an old church on St. George street. Just then my phone rang. It was my friends.

"Where are you?" my friend, Janice asked.

"We're at the southeast corner of St. George and Cathedral," I said.

"Wow!" Janice said. "We're just parking in the lot on the northeast corner of St. George and Cathedral."

And so it was that ten seconds later the four of us were united and trying valiantly to fill each other in on the events of the past several years, all of us talking at once. A short time after that we had located the Columbia restaurant, ordered up lunch and drinks, and spent the next forty minutes or more getting reacquainted. Along the way the waiter snapped the accompanying photograph. As for food, I, for one, had a truly memorable dish of eggplant Parmesan, followed by the very best key lime pie I've had in years. Great restaurant, that.

Though we walked a bit after lunch so our friends could get us pointed in the right direction for some more exploring, Concetta and I were on our own again for the afternoon. Knowing us, you now what we did. That's right, we visited museums -- no less than three. Our favorite was a hands-on interpretive, more outdoors than indoors, museum that I just thought was wonderful. Our guide was a very animated young man who, in my opinion, was a magical cross between a thespian and a historian (photos lower right and below left). He really knew his stuff. He felt just as comfortable showing us how to do blacksmithing as he did firing a flintlock rifle. For at least an hour he marched us around the museum grounds and discussed every part of St. Augustine history. Just fascinating.

Before our tour had begun I had wandered off to conduct my own tour and managed to stumble over a full-sized wooden Caravel being constructed on the property. Now ship building has long been fascinating to me and I naturally crossed the barricade and started taking photos. Very soon a man appeared at my elbow and wanted to know just what the heck I was doing there and could he help me. However, in mere moments he and I were in a very animated conversation about ship building when he found out that I had lived and worked aboard a wooden boat for a year. We discussed all the ins and outs of boat construction and by the time I left we were best buds. In fact, before I could start on the scheduled tour, he dashed up and gave me a handmade belaying pin that he had crafted for his boat project. A belaying pin is used to tie off halyards on a sailing vessel and I was very happy to accept such a special gift.

But the day wasn't over yet. Once off the museum tour of what they called "The Colonial Quarter." we had to decide on dinner. The time was about 5:30 and the last shuttle bus was due to pick us up and return to the KOA camp at 7:15. Thankfully, much of the decision of just where to eat was taken out of our hands. Along with our trio of museums came a black wrist band that was good for ten percent off at one of two restaurants on St. George Street. At first we couldn't decide just what we wanted to eat. Our choices were Mexican or British. But as we passed the Bull and Crown Pub, one of our choices, the idea of Fish and Chips seemed to leap into my head and I suggested to Concetta that we give it a try.

This turned out to be fortuitous, as just as we sat down to order, a guitar player appeared beside our table and started setting up. It wasn't long before we not only had some very tasty fish and chips, and a couple of bottles of Corona, but we had entertainment as well. The young woman doing the strumming did everything from Bobby McGee to tunes by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, so her music choices fit right in with our tastes. We can certainly recommend the Bull and Crown for its food, its service, and extraordinary entertainment. Everything was just great.

All too soon it was time to catch the shuttle and head back. The couple we had met in the morning, who happened to be French from Montreal, rode back with us. As we rode we got into quite a spirited conversation (their English was quite good) about motor homing around the country (ours) and lasted long after we got back to the park. We walked back to their Class B RV, a much smaller unit than our Class C, and spent the next hour exploring subjects that ran the gamut from Archeology and Anthropology, to genetics and computer technology.

Though we hated to have the day end, we finally made it back to our RV close to 9:00 p.m. where we collapsed in total exhaustion. Still, it had been one of the most memorable days of the trip.

As I write this it's close to 10:00 p.m. and I fear that Concetta is already asleep. Of course the events related above happened yesterday. Today, we had another incredible adventure, but I'm going to have to wait to tell you about that. Tomorrow, hopefully, we're headed into Savannah to see what we can see. The adventure goes on, so stayed tuned.