Saint Augustine Day Trip

We spent a week at Manatee Cove RV Park on Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, not to be confused with Manatee Cove Family Campground on Patrick Air Force Base, which is the one to which our GPS liked to default. Catching up on laundry and restocking groceries for the next phase of our Florida jaunt, we really didn't do a whole lot. Plus, we were experiencing some rather cold temperatures for Florida, as in, the coldest temperatures since 2018. 

Still, one rainy morning, we headed south to St. Augustine. This was another stop I remembered from my youth, and Harold, from his days of being stationed in Jacksonville. We toured Castillo de San Marcos and then walked around historic Saint Augustine. The light rain had ended earlier and the cooler temperatures were nice. We stopped by the St. Augustine Lighthouse before continuing up the A1A road. Wow, are some of those houses at the ocean's edge. Our final stop of the day was at Hanna Park in Jacksonville for a quick walk. The trail, leading through some lush foliage, was perfect this time of year, probably not so much in the summer's heat. Perhaps though, the best moment of the day was when we spotted the owl. Neither of us had ever been so close to an owl in its natural habitat. Win!

Castillo de San Marcos

Seashell walls

Over the ramparts we watched

Courtyard panorama

Never defeated

St. Augustine Lighthouse

Whoa

Where Are We Going Next?

Salt and Silver

Springs, that is. Swimming fish. Manatees. After leaving Tampa, we headed toward Salt Springs Recreation Area. Full hook up sites in a national forest are somewhat rare so we were thrilled to get a couple of days in Florida's wildlife corridor. 

Salt Springs is a great little area that would probably lose a little of its peacefulness in the height of summer. We watched the fish swimming around, located a group of manatee just beyond the swimming area, and watched a couple of eating-size (Harold's words)  blue crabs scurry around. 

You are allowed to swim in the springs, just don't harass the wildlife. We ventured in the water late one afternoon. The water was 72 degrees. The air temperature was around 60 degrees. I think I was in the water a total of about 30 seconds, if that. Polar Bear Plunge material I am not.

Silver Springs was about 35 minutes away, and I wanted to ride on the glass bottom boats. I remembered taking a boat ride during a family vacation way back when. Did you know that glass bottom boats were invented in Silver Springs? During the 1870's, Hullam Jones added a glass bottom to his rowboat.

The area is now a state park, as opposed to a privately owned venture. The area found it hard to compete with the theme parks a little further south. The state's goal is to restore the area, protect the environment, and promote it as a part of the "Old Florida." After being in the metro areas of Orlando and Tampa, we certainly liked the respite. 

Salt Springs

Yum?

 Where Are We Going Next?

Tampa RV Rally

We had heard that the Tampa RV Show was the largest RV show, despite the claim made by the Hershey RV Show that they were the biggest, we wanted to experience it for ourselves. Originally planning to make the show a day trip from the Orlando area, we were delighted when we made the registration list for the Newmar Kountry Klub rally at the show. Over 200 Newmar coaches were parked onsite for the entire event, no waiting in line to park and no waiting in line for tickets. Yeah!

Newmar brings a bunch of factory technicians to the event annually, and rally attendees are able to schedule non-cosmetic service work to be done onsite. That alone is worth the price of the rally. Though there are no promises that the techs can get everything completed, they sure do make an effort. We had four service items completed, the max per coach allowed, and a component vendor, KIB, worked on another issue.

Another rally bonus was the training sessions. The Newmar tech who trains the dealer technicians was on hand with his training boards and holding classes each day. Yeah!  Even the Spartan and Freightliner chassis representatives held a Q&A session one morning. Harold was in his element with in-depth conversations.

Oh yeah, there was an RV show. We kind of chuckled when we realized that we barely looked at most of the RVs, especially when we thought back about our first RV show, where we entered just about every unit on the grounds. We do think Tampa was bigger, but we felt that the Hershey show offered more educational seminars.  

Prevost - before the buildout

Why I don't like salads??

Catching up with Big Mike from Spartan Academy

Exhibitor Hall 1 of 2

Newmar Training Aid

The army of technicians getting ready to roll

The '22 New Aire - Sold within the first hours of the show

The RVs we did check out ; )

Where Are We Going Next?

Treasure Island and Kites

When we camped with Will and Heidi in November, Will reminded us that we'd be in Florida at the same time the Treasure Island Kite Festival would be held. We took a day trip over to Tampa. It was so good to see a few people we hadn't seen in years and to see all the colors in the sky. I had almost forgotten how enjoyable it was just to see a sky filled with kites. The ground displays were not to be overlooked either. 

 Where Are We Going Next?

Dezerland Auto Experience

Dezerland - that's the destination of which everyone automatically thinks when they hear Orlando, right? Maybe you would if you are a car enthusiast, particularly cars from TV shows and movies, even more specifically, Barris Kustom Cars. We spent a couple of hours walking through the Dezerland Auto Experience, reliving tv shows from our childhood. Please tell us we don't have to tell you any of the below!

Where Are We Going Next?