Sweet Savannah

Dave & I were planning to take the Old Town Trolley tour again, as we heard that they were also in Savannah.  At $30 for one day compared to $25 we spent for 3 days in St Augustine, we decided to take the 10,000 step walking tour instead.  It worked out great!  We were able to get a good tour of the city including all the squares, statues, city market & River Street District.  Plus, we were able to see the place where Forrest Gump's Bench was.  The original is now in the Savannah History Museum.  :-)

When Oglethorpe proceeded to lay out this town, the basic component of his plan was a ward.  It was comprised  of 8 blocks.  The larger 4 blocks are further subdivided by east-west lanes.  The city was expended by simply replicating this pattern.  Today 22 squares remain out of the original 24.  Beautiful grassy park settings featured gorgeous historic monuments & statues.  This is an absolutely gorgeous city!

 Oglethorpe Monument - 1910   This bronze statue is one of Savannah's most notable monuments.  General Oglethorpe is facing south to keep a watchful eye on the Spanish in Florida.

 Nathaniel Greene Monument - 1830  This 50' marble monument, intended to resemble a Roman sword, is the grave of Nathanael Greene & his son.  A personal friend of George Washington, he served as the leader of the American forces in the South during the Revolutionary War.

 

Container ships everywhere!

 Respect for our fallen soldier of Chatham County, GA

 Just had to take a pic of this one for our precious granddaughter Harper!

Enjoyed a great lunch on the porch at Cafe at the Market!

 This was one of my happy places to stop - The Savannah Bee Company!

Nope....I think I will skip the stairs & go up this way!  

Can you imagine using these steps during any time in history?  Crazy!!  What a day!  We really enjoyed seeing this beautiful city.  Although it  is historical, this city is hustling & bustling with young  trendy entrepreneurs.  It has a youthful vibe in an old but trendy setting.  It's kind of like an East Nashville type Vibe.  I love this town - Sweet, sweet Savannah!

Compass to Skidaway!

Ready to go!  We really enjoyed our time in St. Augustine.  Although the history we enjoyed downtown was amazing, our favorite part was spending the past 3 days relaxing at our campground.  Compass RV Park is a keeper.  The new owners take great pride in it.  The location is great & close to everything - shopping & touring.  Yet....it is peaceful & serene with a beautiful wooded setting & nice pond with fountain.  If we are ever in this area again, we would definitely stay here.  Bye bye Compass RV Park!  We wish you the best on your renovations.  You are doing a great job!  I especially loved your new laundry room.  :-)

Sometimes.......well, probably most of the time, we don't look at our plans for the next day until the morning we leave. Yes, I ALWAYS make reservations.  I absolutely have to cause that's who I am...a planner.  LOL!  Anyway, we were very happy to see that we only have 3 hours to travel to our next destination - Skidaway State Park in Savannah, GA.

Traveling went smoothly and thankful for the good Lord watching over us.  While traveling through Jacksonville on I-95, (note to self - take bypass next time) we almost ran straight into a barricade of orange barrels.  Thankfully, the construction truck on our left was switching lanes for us.  Dave had seconds to react & went to the left into his lane while he was moving out.  The barrels & construction were directly in front of us.  I still don't know how we avoided such a horrific accident.  Yes  I do..........thank you Jesus.   

We easily found this state park.  You learn after traveling awhile with a 5th wheel to keep a Good Sam RV Atlas in your lap, Maps on one phone, Waze on the other & Big Rigs book available at all times.  Big Rigs disappointed us this time but thankfully, our navigation got us there just fine.  

This is one of the nicest State Parks that we have stayed at. The sites are huge!  I wish all parks were like this one.  Everyone has a large site with beautiful  views of the woods.  It was fun setting everything up including our Coleman screened tent & smiley lights.  We are all set to do some real camping now.  OK.....glamping maybe?  :-)

Bad storms coming our way & had to scurry to the bathhouse a couple of times for tornado warnings.  It looks like tomorrow will be another day like this one.  Oh well.......time  to settle in and do a little relaxing.  

 

FIX IT DAVE!  Carbon dioxide detector alarms went off.  We had an empty propane tank & that probably caused it.  Dave hooked up the second one and all was good!   If we actually had a following of RVers, I would be begging Dave to add all of his diagnosis & fixing techniques for all the quirky things he fixes.  When we left FT Myers Beach, our left blinker & brake lights were not working.  I knew he would fix it.  He did.  He trouble-shooted in St Augustine & we now have left blinkers & break lights.  I mean.  Really.  It is almost a daily thing with us while we experience this life living in an RV.  If you are an RVer or not & live like normal people in a home & would enjoy a blog by him fixing stuff, let me know.  I have been telling him for years now to start a DAVE FIX IT Blog & help people.  Just saying!  Can you tell that I am proud of this man? 43 years with this man. He is a keeper!

Another day in ST Augustine!

We are starting out earlier today to try & fit everything in on our last day downtown.  The Flagler College is a highlight for us to see today.  It was originally the Ponce de Leon Hotel.  Our tour guide was a sweet young lady who is now a Sophomore at the college. It is one of the top private schools in the South for a moderate price of $25,000 per year.  The architecture is stunning!

There is no need to explain our next 2 stops.  Ha Ha!  We really enjoyed the samplings at our wonderful tours of the St. Augustine Distillery & St Sebastian's Winery.

What?  You say "What"??  Yep.  I just had to add the toilet pictures.  I mean.  How cool is that?  I have never seen a sink like this before.  Imagine my surprise when I walked into the ladies room at the Distillery?  And the toilet?  My goodness.  This thing still works.  I know.

Lightner Museum & more - St Augustine

After touring on the trolley our first visit to town, we were anxious to check off some sites on our list.  Dave was hungry so we stopped at Burger Basket for a quick bite for breakfast.  I just watched him eat as I was waiting for lunch.  They are known for their burgers as all the patties are made from scratch.  His breakfast sandwich was the same and home-made.  Very Good!  Highly recommend this place if you are going to shop on St George Street.

Even though we purchased a trolley pass, we did our share of walking.  No problem getting my steps in again today!  Lovely quaint homes & streets.

We made a quick stop at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.  Originally established in 1565 and re-built in the 18th century, it is the oldest church in Florida.

The Lightner Museum was certainly the highlight of our day.  We were able save 50% by purchasing our tickets on Groupon for $5.00 each.  Words cannot describe the amazing things we saw.  Dave made the comment that there are so many items that we have never seen or heard of before.  We were blessed to be there at 2PM when they played the old-time musical instruments for all of us to enjoy.  I wish that I had taken pictures of this room but was too engaged in this beautiful unique music.  It actually sounded like we were at an old time carnival.  I was waiting for the ticket man to come by and sell us a ride on a carousel.

It was originally the Hotel Alcazar commissioned by Henry Flagler, to appeal to wealthy tourists who travel south for the winter.  The hotel had a steam room, massage parlor, sulfur baths, gymnasium, 3-story ballroom & the world's largest indoor swimming pool.  After years as an elegant winter resort for wealthy patrons, the hotel closed in 1932. After purchasing the building to house his extensive collection of Victorian Era pieces in 1947, Chicago publisher Otto Lightner turned it over to the city of St. Augustine.

Fun day!  We finished off the day with some fresh Latin cuisine at the Casa Maya.  It was a lot for us to do in a day.  By the time we get back to our RV, we were ready to crawl in bed.  LOL!  So glad...we are doing this though & ready to rest and head out earlier tomorrow. 

.

 

Old Town Trolley - St Augustine

The only way to experience the history of a town like St Augustine is to take a tour.  Our park office recommended the Old Town Trolley Tour.  We purchased our 3 Day pass directly from them for $25 a piece with a free shuttle from the park.  Dave was happy about this as he gets the next 3 days off from driving.  You can't beat this offer as parking is somewhat hard to find and is $12 for the day.  We stayed on the trolley for the hour and a half tour to get a feel for this wonderful city.

Our first stop was Castillo de SanMarcos.  Building for this fort was started in 1672 but took 23 years to complete.  It was built of Coquina, a quarried soft shell rock which did not become brittle & crumble under cannon fire.  It was pretty much indestructible.  We really enjoyed visiting this historical landmark.  We have the senior "Beautiful America" National park pass so admission was free.  This pass is for ages 60 and older.  The current cost is $10 but will be going up to $70 soon. 

Other highlights of our day were walking through town admiring the old homes, lunch at a quaint Spanish Bakery, walking on the sidewalk by the bay and checking out all the cute shops on the famous St George Street.  It was a hot but enjoyable day taking in the sites and getting my 10,000 steps in.  :-)

Heading to St Augustine!

Here we are 7 months after selling our home in Nashville to leaving on our first vacation from our vacation.  :-)  Well....that is exactly what this life on the road feels like.  We figured that we may as well sell our beloved Nashville home while the market was hot.  Besides, it certainly did help that our 2 daughters, hubbies & 5 grandchildren recently moved to Naples.  Our oldest granddaughter, Brilynn is still in TN enjoying her final years of college at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.  It was never our plan to move away from her or all of our friends.  God has a way sometimes of throwing a curve ball in our lives.  We are trusting Him and on our way to a new adventure!!

Dave and I have always wanted to visit St Augustine.  After all, it is the Oldest City in the USA!  We are excited to see, learn & experience new things in this old Florida town.

After spending the winter at our lot in Gulf Waters RV Resort, we are sad to leave but ready to change things up a bit.  We have quite a summer trip planned.  If you are following us on this blog, I hope you can experience some of this with us.  It's time!  Let's get on the road again.............

It is a beautiful day for traveling and decided to by-pass I-4.  We heard that there is a lot of construction going on.  Instead we took I-75N from Ft Myers to Hwy 80E, Hwy29N, Hwy27N, Hwy 70 to I95 to St Augustine.  We will be staying at Compass RV Park for one week.  The reviews were great on RVParkReviews.com.  It is under new ownership and they take great pride in their park.

We arrived by 5PM and were pleased with the friendliness of the staff.  The Ambassador escorted us to our lot #76.  We picked this lot on line by looking at pictures of the sites.  It doesn't have the patio or nice picnic tables like  some but the cost was less.  We were fine with this and it is great to save a little $$ now that we are on the road and paying rent.  It is a very nice wooded lot with a gravel pad.  We just put our grass turf mat out and settled in for the night.  We are home cause "Wherever we roam, is our home."  :-)