We departed Daytona Beach early Sunday morning (April 17) after taking on 161 gallons of diesel at $3.83/gal, the highest we've paid thus far. Good news, we could have paid $4.39 at Vero Beach and $4.10 at St Augustine. Bad news, fuel prices will, undoubtedly, continue to rise. C'est la vie.
Even with this purchase, our average cost of fuel for 2,522 gallons is $3.38 per gallon. We are averaging better than 1 mile per gallon after 2,641 miles.
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| Guided Discover refueled and ready to go at the Halifax Municipal Marina fuel dock |
The 53 mile run up the Halifax and Matanzas rivers was pleasant as we ran at trawler speed (9 MPH) all the way. Scenery was viewed from a distance as the rivers were fairly wide.
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| View astern of the Halifax River |
Along the way we were passed by Bill and Laurene Parlatore in Spitfire making tracks for the Chesapeake. It was great running into to them at Daytona Beach and spending a few hours chatting over a glass of wine.
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| The Parlatore's pass us enroute to the Chesapeake |
Shortly after we passed
Fort Matanzas which was built by the Spanish in 1740 to guard the Matanzas Inlet and the southern access to St Augustine.
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| Fort Matanzas viewed in the distance |
We arrived in St Augustine late in the afternoon and were immediately impressed. The St Augustine Municipal Marina sits right in the edge of the Historical Downtown. The Bridge of Lions sits to the north and an on-water restaurant sits immediately to the south and, best of all, it has floating docks (a necessity with a 5 foot tide).
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| View of the Bridge of Lions |
After securing Guided Discovery, we did a preliminary exploration of the downtown area and found it full of history. Founded by the Spanish in 1565, it's the oldest city in the US. This is one very charming place and one that we would recommend you put on your list of places to see.
Monday, my friend Jim Long drove 80 miles to St Augustine and we spent they day exploring family history. Jim's enthusiasm has got me involved in my family's genealogy and Diana and I are now members of ancestry.com.
During this session I discovered my grandmother on my mother's side's maiden name. Up to now, I knew her as Minnie Thurman (married to Louis). Through my uncle Hans' WWI draft registration, accessed on ancestry.com, I learned her name was Levicoff and that she came from a town in Russia called Mogelev, which is located in an area called the Pale of Settlement. Jim had obtained document that summarized life in the Pale of Settlement. Needless to say, my ancestor's had a tough life in Russia. Call it Fiddler on the Roof without the music. Note: They were not allowed to have surnames until the late 1800s, which may prevent me from going back much farther than 1850 and my great great grandfather (Moishe Kassal Ashapa) on my fathers' side.
Tuesday, Diana and I drove to Newberry Florida (80 miles), to visit with Jim and his daughter Maureen (Mo) and her husband Jeff Price. I have known the Long family since 1978. Notwithstanding a three hour delay waiting for Enterprise to produce a car and a long two hour drive, we had a great visit. Jim, Mo and Jeff live on a farm just west of Gainsville with three dogs and two horses. Mo teaches veterinary medicine and Jeff is an attorney. Kodi made fast friends with Frank who she now considers her boyfriend.
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| Diana getting kisses from Kodi and Frank with Fran in the background |
Dinner was at a Sister's restaurant in Haile Village. We had a lovely time although this dinner was the longest we've ever had; over 3 hours. No one can explain why it took so long but it was not a problem. We sat outside and chatted in literally perfect weather. The food was great and the desserts were off the chart.
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| Les, Diana, Jim, Mo and Jeff |
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| Jeff and I pose with Monica the owner of Sister's |
The only negative was the 80 mile drive back to St Augustine. Surprise. The left front headlight was out. Not good on dark country high speed roads. We arrived back at the boat at 1:15 AM.
Wednesday and Thursday were spent exploring St Augustine as tourists. Highlights included a trolley train tour and a visit to Ripley's Believe it or Not (well, you got to do it least once - turns out it was very interesting). St Augustine is full of attractions, literally too numerous to mention. We skipped the rest of the commercial stuff and after the train tour walked the town where we learned about Henry Flagler.
Henry Morrison Flagler, of Standard Oil fame (circa 1890s), played a big role in the development of St Augustine and Florida's eastcoast. Flagler built the Florida East Coast Railroad that ultimately connected to Key West, founded Palm Beach, built hotels throughout Florida, built the 540 room Ponce De Leon in St Augustine, which is now Flagler College, and ultimately controlled the two other luxury hotels in town (see photos below).
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| Ponce De Leon Hotel now Flagler College |
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| Henry Morrison Flagler's statue at the college gate |
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| Flagler controlled Alcazar luxury hotel now the Lightner Museum (and was once was City Hall) |
Henry Flagler
built the MAGNIFICENT
Memorial Presbyterian Church in honor of his daughter who died in childbirth. She is buried the family mausoleum as is Flagler who died in 1913 (photos below). This may be the most impressive gravestone in America.
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| Memorial Presbyterian Church |
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| Flagler Mausoleum |
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| Henry Flagler is buried to the left |
Another highlight of the two days was a visit to the James Coleman Art Gallery at the Casa Monica Hotel, which occurred when the manager, Dawn, met the Furry Kid as we breakfasted on the porch. James Coleman, for whom the gallery is named, was an illustrator for Disney. His work was spectacular and the shop was like visiting a museum. Great stuff.
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| Dawn poses with Diana and the Furry Kid |
Friday, we drove to Green Cove Springs, visited St Brendan's Isle, our mail service provider. St Bredan's Isle is a terrific service. They send an email with a scan of each envelope and give you the ability to send, hold, shred, scan, delete or disavow each item. The scan function allow us to see any item that might be time sensitive in 24 hours as a PDF file. At our request they also eliminate all third class mail making "mail' life rather simple.
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| Scott Loehr holding our name tag |
We then drove to the Clay County Tax Collector's office and got our Florida driver's licenses (
good until 2019), registered to vote and registered Guided Discovery as a Florida boat. This turned out to be a pleasant experience as they were well organized and totally computerized. The whole process took less than an hour and the clerk was friendly and helpful. Note: On arrival they determined your objective and assigned you a number. Then you sat and waited for your number to be called. Cook County take note.
It's fun and maybe a little shocking to be Florida residents.
Written by Les.
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