St. Augustine to Patrick AFB

We left St. Johns RV Park this morning at 9:15 and headed south on I-95 to the Flying J at Exit 305 to get gas ($2.889 gal - after our discount). Then it was back south on I-95 to CR-509 at Melbourne and down to SR-404. We went east on SR-404 and crossed the Indian River on the Pineda Causeway to A1A.

From Patrick AFB

We drove north on A1A about a mile to the commercial truck gate at Patrick Air Force Base. After showing our IDs to the gate guard and getting directions to the FamCamp, the guard lowered the security barriers for us to enter.

From Patrick AFB

The campground is located on the western side of the airfield, so we drove around the airfield to the Manatee Cove FamCamp.

We saw a 747 over by one of the hangars at the airfield and I was able to get a photo of it.

From Patrick AFB

We arrived at the campground at 12:30 - 150 miles from St. Johns RV Park. We met Lorrie, one of the camp hosts, and she took Mike around to look at some of the site. Manatee Cove FamCamp only accepts reservations for active duty personnel and first come, first served for everyone else; but right now there are a lot of empty sites.

While they were doing that, I started unhitching the car. Mike & I then drove around to look at the sites that were available and we settled on #30. There was a site open right on the water, but it is a back-in and looks to be too short for us.

Site #30 is a pull through with full hookups (50 amp). We have a fairly good view of the Indian River. After Mike hooked up the electric and we leveled the RV and put the slides out, we stopped to fix lunch. After lunch we finished setting up camp and spent the rest of the afternoon just enjoying the view of the river. There are pelicans diving and fishing in the river and a family of blue herons in one of the Australian pine trees near our site.

Since the FamCamp office is closed on Sunday, Mike will go over tomorrow morning and pay. We had planned on staying here for 2 weeks, but this evening we decided to stay for a month.

Tallahassee to St. Augustine

We left Tallahassee RV Park this morning at 10:00 and headed east on I-10 where we crossed over the Suwannee River again.

From Patrick AFB

We stopped at the WalMart Supercenter in Live Oak about 11:30 for a lunch break and to do a little shopping and were back on the road by 12:30. Just west of Jacksonville we got on I-295 and crossed the St Johns River on the Buckman Bridge. There were a lot of boats out on the river today and I managed to get a photo of one.

From Patrick AFB

We exited I-295 south of Jacksonville and headed south on I-95 to St. Augustine. We got off I-95 at Exit 311 and went east on SR-207 to St. Johns RV Park which is just off the exit (197 mi from Tallahassee).

We're spending the night at St. Johns RV Park. We are in site #A8 with full hookups (50 amp). Its a Passport America campground and we're paying $15.77 for the night. We are parked on a grass field and it's very level.

From Patrick AFB

The campground also operates a Flea Market which is nearby. There is also a free shuttle to the beach and the Old Town Trolley stops here. Something to keep in mind whenever we come back to St. Augustine.

Tallahassee

We met Mike's brother and wife (Chris & Carole) at their hotel for a late breakfast, before attending the funeral for Mike's cousin, Dick, who died earlier this week. We saw cousins that we hadn't seen in years - it's a shame that it takes a death to get the family together.

After the services for Dick the 4 of us went to TGI Friday's for lunch, before going back to the Residence Inn. This afternoon Mike's cousins, Voncile and Denise (her daughter), met us at the hotel for a visit and to catch up on each other's news.

From Tallahassee

Since we had had a large meal for lunch, Chris & Carole suggested eating at McDonald's and getting their Angus burgers which they told us were very good. We've had Angus burgers at Hardee's and like those and now we have added McDonald's to our list.

After dinner we went back to the hotel for a final visit, before heading back to the RV park. Chris and Carole are leaving tomorrow to go back home. We will be heading to St. Augustine on our way to Patrick Air Force Base.

Silver Springs to Tallahassee

We got up at 6 a.m. this morning and after our morning coffee and breakfast began breaking camp. We hitched up the car at our campsite and headed over to the dump station to empty our tanks. It was 9 a.m. when we left Silver River State Park and headed west to I-75.
We stopped for lunch at the rest area on I-10 just west of the junction of I-10 and I-75. We stopped for gas ($2.899 gal) at a Chevron station south of Lee, FL before continuing west on I-10 to Tallahassee.

We arrived at Tallahassee RV Park a little after 2 p.m. The campground is just a 1/2 mile south of I-10 on US-90. We drove 183 miles today.

We are in site #38 with full hookups (50 amp). Their normal daily rate is $40, but with our Good Sam discount it's $36 a day. We'll only be staying here for 2 nights.

From Tallahassee

Mike's brother, Chris and his wife Carole, drove here from their home in Texas and are staying at the Residence Inn in Tallahassee. We met Chris & Carole at their hotel and walked across the parking lot to the Outback Steakhouse next to the Residence Inn for dinner.

From Tallahassee

New cell phones

After we finished breakfast this morning, Mike called Tallahassee RV Park to get a reservation for tomorrow night and Friday night when we go to Tallahassee to attend his cousin's funeral.

We had planned on going over to the Silver River Museum and walking down one of the trails to the Silver River this morning. But the 40% chance of rain became 100%, so that was out.

I had been working on our genealogy last night on Ancestry.com and kept having problems with slow response time or having to click a link 2 or 3 times to before it would work. I found out this morning what the problem was – our Verizon broadband modem died. I tried plugging it into our other laptop and nothing – Windows kept saying the USB device had malfunctioned!

Mike called Verizon and we located a Verizon store near Silver River State Park. He also called Tech Support and explained our problem with the broadband modem. Our Verizon USB 720 modem is out of warranty (of course). Since we’re going to have to purchase something to replace it, the technician recommended getting the Verizon MiFI modem/router.

Anyway, long story short, we bought a MiFi modem/router (there was a $50 rebate) and we got new cell phones (also $50 rebate on each phone). We were entitled to an upgrade on our phones and we got 2 Samsung phones that have walky-talky capabilities.

We stopped at Walmart after leaving Verizon to get a few groceries before heading back to the RV. It was pouring rain so hard by the time we finished, that we had to wait several minutes before we could get to the car. Hopefully this rain will be over by tomorrow morning when we break camp.

Florida's Silver Springs

After lunch we drove over to Florida's Silver Springs. We had downloaded and printed a coupon from their website that was a "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" for an adult daily ticket - so it cost us $31.79 for the both of us.

We headed over to get on a glass bottom boat for a tour, but just missed one that was leaving. Since we had a little time to kill, we looked through the gift shop and the display showing all of the movies and television shows that had been filmed at Silver Springs.

From Florida's Silver Springs

Before boarding the glass bottom boat, we talked for a few minutes with the Captain of the boat, Capt. Oscar. He told us that he has been working at Silver Springs for over 40 years!

From Florida's Silver Springs

There were only 3 other couples with us on the boat tour. We saw a mother wood duck with a LOT of ducklings, we stopped over the different springs, and learned about some of the

Silver River Museum

Today after lunch we drove over to the Silver River Museum that is here in the State Park. The museum is only open to the public on weekends. During the week the museum is open for 4th & 7th grade students to visit and there are classrooms next to the museum for the students.

The admission to the museum is $2 for adults and we weren't quite sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised and impressed with the displays we saw in the museum.

We were first greeted by a 12,000-year-old Columbian Mammoth

From Silver River State Park

and the jaws of Carchardon Megalodon - the giant, prehistoric ancestor of the Great White Shark.

From Silver River State Park

There are displays of prehistoric animals that have been found in Florida, Spanish explorers, Indian tribes who inhabited Florida, the Seminole Indian Wars, the Civil War and up to modern times.

From Silver River State Park

After visiting the museum we walked out to the replica of a Florida Cracker Village. The buildings weren't open, so we couldn't go inside any of them. But we enjoyed walking around and looking at them. One building even had horseshoes used as handles for the shutters.

From Silver River State Park

From Silver River State Park

The original colonial pioneer settlers in Florida were referred to as "crackers" and people whose families have lived in Florida for many generations may refer to themselves as "Florida Crackers". The term may be derived from "to crack a joke" or in colonial times it sometimes meant "boastful" or "entertaining conversation".