Cross-country to Key West: "Mayberry" to Key Largo

Leaving NC for Florida we made two overnight stops. The first was in Decatur, GA to see William and Megan. Almost 10 years ago I served as William's mentor when he did a year's community service working with at-risk students in the Seattle District. After he completed the program he returned to Seattle and got his Masters in Sociology at the UW. We had a wonderful dinner and spent the rest of the evening at their home catching up on the past couple years since we saw them on our last country wide trip.

Our second stop was in Jacksonville, FL to see my cousin Janice in Jacksonville. We hadn't seen each other in over 40 years. The times we were back in Illinois she was living elsewhere and when she got back to visit her mom, Aunt Jerrie, we weren't there. We met her husband, John, for the first time and spend the evening at their house having pizza and some of the fine wine we had brought from home. We weren't interested in taking photos so there aren't any, sorry.

We decided to drive down the coast through St. Augustine since it was a short drive and we could do some touring on the way. We thought we could get out at St. Augustine and get some time at the Castillo, but it was Sunday and a day before many Florida schools opened for the fall. What a scene! We drove around for an hour in bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to find a place to park and finally had to do just a drive-by. Heading down the coast we found Fort Mantazas, a small Spanish outpost on the Mantazas River which is the backdoor to St. Augustine. Castillo de San Marcos guarded the north and east approaches to the city, but not the south. The "fort" is actually more of a watchtower constructed on a small spit of land in the river. The fort is surrounded by Rattlesnake Island, actually constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. The original site wasn't much bigger than about 200' by 200'. There is a set of white stones surrounding the structure that was the original site. The fort actually did repel a British attempt to come up the river in the early 1700's so it was worthwhile. There's a free ferry to the site and the total trip takes about an hour. You get a 1/2 hour at the site. There's a ladder to the top of the tower but it's a tight fit. Some of the larger guys on our tour couldn't get through the hole. Soldiers 300 years ago were a lot smaller.

As close as we could get to the Castillo.

OLD swamp oak at Fort Mantazas

The pontoon ferry, built in Bellingham, WA, is named after one of the early Spanish vessels.

Fort Mantazas from the river north of the site.

Rattlesnake Island

Bozo on one of the working cannons. There are two on the site. Two others are decommissioned.

The larger cannons could shoot a mile downriver effectively sealing off the approach.

All the soldiers slept here when not on watch. The commander had a room above, also above the powder room.

The rock used was local stone, actually compressed shells and fairly soft.

View north from the top of the tower.

View south from the tower.

The fort from the river east of the site as we returned to the mainland.

Bozo in the swamp oak

Our next destination was Orlando to see my niece, Tasmine, and her husband and son, Brandon and Micah. Brandon fixed a great dinner and, again, we broke out the good stuff that we had reserved for occasions like this. We've got one left for Arizona at another niece's place. We usually would see Tas and Brandon in the Reno area, where they lived till a few months ago, whenever we headed back to Seattle from Arizona and California. Tas got a chance to move up in her work and move to Orlando and they took it. They had finally gotten most of their furniture delivered just before we got there. What a hassle. It seems the company she contracted with did not handle the actual move of their stuff. Some other company actually did the hauling. Not a smooth operation.

Before you reach Orlando, however, you have to go through Daytona Beach. OPPORTUNITY!! Daytona Beach International Raceway beckoned us. On our last trip we stopped in Indianapolis at the Speedway so this is something we couldn't pass up. Unfortunately the track was being used and in order to get in you had to take the tour. We didn't have time for that so we swung through the constantly present gift shop and scored a couple small things. We got exterior photos and had a chance to listen to the cars using the track. We found out that the SCCA had leased the track for the week and three or four cars were doing hot laps. It's a joy to hear them gearing up and down as they came through the 3rd and 4th turns into the straight in front of the grandstands.

On the way to the racetrack we stopped at JT's Seafood Shack for lunch. If you are ever in this area hit JT's. Damn fine fish.

Stopped here for lunch on the A1. Great fresh seafood.

Brandon, Tas & Micah

Our intermediate stop from Orlando was Key Largo. We stayed at the Pelican Cottages. A nice clean and quiet place with a couple docks that you can sit on and watch the sunset. There's some good restaurants within walking distance. DiGiorgio's, about a 100' feet up the road has really good Italian food at good prices. We had dinner there and really enjoyed it. Knocked off another bottle of vino that evening.