Tuesday, March 2, 2009
Out initial plan was to leave for this trip tomorrow. Yesterday morning I checked state parks for cancellations and found one night at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Park located a few miles south of Flagler Beach. This time of year the ocean side parks are booked months in advance. Plus this is Bike week in Daytona. There are thousands of bikers in this general area.
Left home about 9:30 am. Arrived at Gamble Rodgers just after lunch. The place is full. It’s cold & very windy. The low tonight will be in the 40’s. This is a beautiful park; directly on the ocean. Our site doesn’t back up to the dune line but half of the sites do. Almost everyone in the campground has a motorcycle. Gopher & walked all the place. Mostly it was too cold for Carol but she did sit in the sun for a while.
Wednesday:
Cold & windy morning. Left the campground about 9:30. Decided to drive on A-1-A to the Mayport Ferry instead of I-95; much more scenic. We stopped next to Marineland for a while. I had been to Marineland as a child and we visited there when our children were young. I wonder if this is the oldest tourist attraction in the State. It’s certainly one of the oldest. Drove through St. Augustine. We’ve been there several times so didn’t bother to stop. Right next to the ferry terminal is Singleton’s Seafood Shack; a local favorite. We both just finished reading a book where the main character used to hang out at Singleton’s. We had a great lunch. Carol had two fried soft shell crabs; I had an oyster Po’ Boy. It was as good as a New Orleans Po’ Boy. We went to get on the ferry and found out it was out of service today; maintenance. So we had to take a very long drive to cross the St. Johns River. Checked in at Little Talbot Island State Park around 1:00. Took a long walk trying to wear off a huge fried food lunch.
The park is OK. Nothing special. The campground is on the west side of A-1-A, a very long way to the beach area.
Thursday:
In the morning we took a ride to another beach access parking area. Let gopher off leash for a while. Mostly we just read our books and enjoyed another nice day. Still rather cool. High in the mid-60’s. The weather forecast is for warming over the next few days.
Friday through Monday
Huguenot Memorial Park, near Jacksonville.
This is one of our favorite FL parks. Right on the north shore of the St Johns River with a few miles of beautiful Atlantic Ocean beach. We enjoy watching the shipping traffic on the river and driving on the beach. On Saturday we drove onto the beach in the morning then came back to the campground after lunch. A beautiful, sunny day.
Tuesday:
We packed up and headed off to Hanna Park for the 4th Annual Hanna Park Campout. Stopped at Singleton’s Seafood Shack for lunch.
Wednesday through Saturday:
By the afternoon, there 25 Lazy Daze’s there. Carol & I hosted the welcome ice cream social. On Thursday we had a pot luck brunch. On Friday Clara Ellis cooked pancakes for everyone. Friday night was the main pot luck supper. Saturday night we finished up with the pizza party.
Saturday. Said our goodbyes and headed home. Camping with our friends is always so much fun. It was four years ago that we got this Lazy Daze club organized. One of the most enjoyable things we’ve ever done together.
