St. Augustine

We'd heard about St. Augustine so we packed up for a night and made the drive.

St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in the contiguous United States.  The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years.  

Back to our volksmarching days, we parked the truck, picked up a map, and off we went.  First area to explore was this.

Here on September 8, 1565, 55 years before the pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock, Pedro Menendez de Aviles founded the town of St. Augustine and Nombre De Dios Mission.  On the same date, Fr. Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales held high the cross and celebrated the first parish Mass.  After Mass, the Spanish settlers and the native Tumucuans celebrated a meal of thanksgiving together.

We walked around the historic area and saw some interesting things.

He seemed almost tame - must be used to visitors

On we went.  The historic part of town is charming with lots of history.

The oldest Spanish fortification in the United States, this stands as a remnant of the European colonization of America.  The Castillo de San Marcos dates back to 1672 is an example of military architecture built in the defense of the Spanish crown.  It was declared a national monument in 1924.

This was an interesting furnace.

We walked on to find a place for lunch.  There were a lot of restaurants along the way and we chose this.

Casa Reina - our table was under an umbrella on the right

The food was delicious but even better was the view.

The bridge is a draw bridge and we watched several times as the bridge was raised so sail boats could pass underneath.

As we walked further, I was fascinated by the historical houses along the way.  Here is an example.

And another.

What a beautiful spot for the National Guard.

Originally, this was the site of the Alcazar Hotel.  The hotel was built by Henry Flagler in 1889.  It was one of Flagler's many contributions to St. Augustine developing the nation's oldest city into a tourist destination during the turn of the century.  The hotel contained the world's largest indoor swimming pool, the first in the state of Florida.  The Alcazar remained open to guests until 1931 and today is the home of the Lightner Museum, shops, and cafes.

Alcazar Hotel/Lightner Museum

Across the street is Flagler College.

In 1882-1883 Henry Flagler, the founder of Standard Oil and the man who would later be known as the father of South Florida, decided to spend the winter months in St. Augustine.  In 1879, his wife, Mary, had fallen gravely ill and the doctors advised Henry to take her to Florida saying that the sea, air, and the weather would help.  Mary died in 1881 but Flagler had by then fallen in love with the wild and unruly state.

Two years later, Flagler was once more acting like the titan of industry that he was.  He arrived in St. Augustine and was blown away not only on account of its lush greenery and pristine beaches, but on its untouched and historic architecture.  He felt like he was going back in time and traveling back 100 years.  St. Augustine was an artistic enclave of different cultures and truly historical.  He saw the potential for a winter resort for wealthy northerners and started planning.  He started to build the blueprints for the Florida East Coast Railway and had huge plans for the state and the money to back it.  While he was planning, he sent out an army of scouts to buy up real estate at pennies on the dollar.

He met up with a local named Franklin Smith, who was well-versed in concrete constructions and was hired to start construction on Flagler's base of command and flagship hotel.  Flagler's personal friend, Thomas Edison, oversaw the installation and the hotel was lauded as the first in the world to be wired for electricity and constructed with the technology in mind.

Thomas Edison later said "It was sort of funny, because for a month after it opened up the hotel didn't have any electricity.  Not because the installation was faulty, but because local staff and even people staying in the hotel were too afraid to turn the switches on and off by themselves.  Flagler had to hire men from Edison's company to actually turn the power on and off...In each occupied individual room."

The Ponce de Leon Hotel was opened in 1888.  During World War II, the hotel was taken over by the federal government and used as a Coast Guard Training Center.  St. Augustine is considered to be the birthplace of the Coast Guard Reserve.  Hey, we just walked by the Coast Guard!

The hotel was permanently closed in 1967 and a year later reopened as the centerpiece of the newly established Flagler College.

There were many Bed & Breakfasts along the route.  

Of course I was attracted to the cemetery.

And with that, we were back to the starting point.  What a great day!

The Swamp

Since Gainesville is the closest city to the RV park, we found ourselves there often for groceries and even a movie.  So on one visit we decided to get back to volksmarching and signed up for a walk.  We like to walk through universities and this one fit the bill.

The University of Florida (Gators) is a public research university and a senior member of the State University System of Florida. It traces its origins to 1853 and has operated continuously on the Gainesville campus since September, 1906.

The first semester in Gainesville began with an enrollment of 102 students.  Two buildings had been completed at the time: Buckman Hall, named after the primary author of the law that created the university and Thomas Hall, named after the mayor of Gainesville who had led the successful effort to bring the school to town.

We especially like seeing stadiums, particularly football stadiums, and this was right on the route.

According, to the Gainesville Sun on June 9, 1992, the Florida football vernacular was changed forever when Steve Spurrier, who had been the Gators coach for the previous two seasons, said that "The 'Swamp' was a place where only Gators get out alive.  It had been seven months since the Gators ended their 1991 regular season by defeating Kentucky to finish unbeaten in the Southeastern Conference and won the first league title in school history.  They followed that with a thrilling 14-9 defeat of No. 3 Florida State that marked the first win over the rival Seminoles in six years.  It also gave Florida a perfect 12-0 record at Florida Field in Spurrier's first two seasons.  

The Florida home field (and its crowd) had taken on an identify all its own and Spurrier felt it was time to give the place a nickname.  "The 'Swamp' is where Gators live," Spurrier said.  "We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative.  A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous.  We feel this is an appropriate nickname for our stadium."

However, The "Swamp" initially would be used in a limited capacity, with no plans for posters, bumper stickers or a marketing theme.  Instead it was a Spurrier thing, and it quickly became a thing because he felt so strongly about it.

He had elevated Florida football from mediocrity to national prominence overnight those initial two seasons.  Along the way, Spurrier always credited the rabid, racket-making UF home crowds for the Gator's blowout performances.  Spurrier, along with then UF Communications Director and resident historian Norm Carlson, did some homework on this.  In 1930, UF President John J. Tigert selected the location for the school's football stadium and described the area as a "swampy depression."  The school hired engineers to drain the area and install pipes that funneled water down the hill along North-South Drive and dumped it into what is now known as Graham Pond.  So the field, in essence, was built on a swamp 60 years before it became the "Swamp".

It was for the Orange & Blue Game in 1992 that Spurrier first had a fiberglass Gator head, donated by a local company that built museum exhibits, placed in the south end zone hallway.  He had the UF players rub the creature's head as they ran onto the field.  Into the "Swamp".

The Gators went unbeaten at home in 1992 and did not lose a game in the "Swamp" - Spurriers first 23 there - until Florida State's Charlie Ward clinched his Heisman Trophy in the regular season finale of 1993.  

All told, Spurrier's teams went 68-5 at home during his 12 seasons.

It was fun to see The Swamp and learn more about the honors that were bestowed on some of the players.

And the statues commemorating their awards.

Some interesting stats about the sports teams.  In their history, the university's varsity sports teams have won 45 national championships, 40 of which are NCAA titles, and Florida athletes have won 275 individual national championships.  In addition, as of 2021, University of Florida students and alumni have won 143 Olympic medals, including 69 gold medals.

What a mascot!

It was a fun day and the next time I see the Gators playing, I'll pay closer attention.

Where have we been?

It's been a few weeks since I've posted.  We've moved on to Florida (about 20 miles south of Gainesville) and have been here four weeks.  We rode out the cold snap here - while nothing like the rest of the country faced, it was cold right before Christmas.  It actually got down to the low 20's a few nights - the cold weather can be challenging in a trailer so we were glad it didn't get much worse.

We haven't had too many adventures but we did spend my birthday at the happiest place on earth.

We wanted to see the holiday decor and it was pretty.  Not too much here, though.

There were a few Christmas trees around the parks.

We had a great time meeting people while we were in line for attractions.  Visitors from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and right here in Florida.

We love walking through Disney Springs which is similar to Downtown Disney in California.

It was really decked out for the holidays!

Look at that - a store just for coke products.

It was filled mostly with Chotchkies but this one piqued my interest.

I never heard this with my own ears because I was the younger sister but family lore has been passed down that as a toddler my sister proclaimed "there's Ka-Dunk-A-Dunk drinking coke".  This one's for you, sis!

A first for us was exploring Gideon's.

We'd been by there several times and every time we went by there was a long line.

What the heck?  We asked the employee at the door (with an iPad) why there was always a line.  He said they only let in a few people at a time but we could put our name in the virtual queue, go about our business, and they would text us when it was time to get in the real line.  Typically the wait is 2 hours or so but had been known to reach 5 hours!  Yikes!  While I love cookies, we weren't up for that so we moved on.

But a few days later we found ourselves back at Disney Springs right before the shops opened.  Sure enough, there was a line (and the shop didn't open for about 15 minutes) but no virtual queue so we got in line.  We were probably at about the end of the line you see above.  The people behind us were regulars and told us that it would be probably about 30 minutes before we went in.  The time passed quickly as they were delightful to talk with and sure enough, just as they said we were close to the front and were handed a menu.

Fortunately, the regulars behind us coached us on the cookie flavors.  Our new friends told us that the Coffee Cake cookie was delicious and was only available in the morning and only a limited amount were made - when they were gone, they were gone.  So, of course, I put that on my list to get.  

And just like that, we were inside.

It's all very organized - the line moves along, you pass by the different cookies to take a look, and then you're at the register where you place your order.  They put the perfectly wrapped cookies in a box as you order.

I confess - we bought some.

And we ate them.  But we waited until we got back "home" and each ate only 1/2 at a time.

What an experience!

Of course we had to stop for a Diet Coke.  Who knew McDonald's had a location inside the Disney property?

The lobby was pretty cool.

Hey look - I could work here!  Pretty creative way to put up a Now Hiring sign.

Time to hit the road.  We still have 3+ weeks at this RV park and have a few more adventures planned.