Sonya's Blog - Day 189 - Traveling to St. Augustine, Florida
Sonya’s Blog - Day 189 - December 28th - Traveling to St. Augustine, Florida
It’s a driving day today. We got up fairly early because we wanted to be on the road by 9:30 or 10. It is about a 3 hour drive, so we wanted the afternoon to do something.
We managed to get out by 10 and Blake said he knew where he was going. Missed his first turn and we ended up on the right highway going the wrong way. We had to drive about 10 minutes to finally get turned around and heading in the right direction. Not a great start.
For such a short trip we ended up stopping many times. The first time was a rest stop for a bathroom break, but then we had to stop about 10 minutes later at a gas station to fuel up. Then we crossed into Florida and Blake wanted to stop at the rest stop because, wait for it, they had free orange juice. I said, I can buy you some orange juice, but we stopped. Sure enough, they were giving out free orange juice (or grapefruit juice, but who the hell wants to drink that - sorry I can’t stand the stuff) in a little dixie cup. We also picked up a Sunpass, which will allow us to go through the toll roads without stopping, as long as we keep our Sunpass topped up. Fifteen minutes later, we stopped again. There were huge signs advertising Disney passes and Universal passes for $39 at the Florida Welcome Centre, so we thought we would stop and check it out. Well, it was a waste of time. It was a timeshare thing and we had to commit to a 90 minute presentation. MMmmm, let me think - uh, no thanks!
As a result it took us almost 5 hours to get to our next destination. The last hour was really slow, very heavy traffic and stop and go the whole way. We did get checked in really quickly and set up without any problems, so that was a bonus. Our campground seems pretty nice. It is not on the Ocean, but we are only about a 5 minute drive away. The campground does back onto a river, and our campsite is quite near the river. It is nice, because it is a long narrow campground, and this puts us near the back of the campground away from the busy road. The river is the Matanzas River and is quite mucky looking. There is a sign that says to be careful of the Manatee’s, so this must be one of their wintering zones. They would be hard to see though, because the water is not clear at all. Pretty sure there is probably gators out there somewhere too, just looks like that kind of place. Here is a picture of Kizmet and I, we just missed the sunset:
We are camping on Anastasia Island, with the Matanzas River on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side, where St. Augustine Beach is. St. Augustine, the city, is only about a 10 minute drive away. It is a great location.
Blake and Isaac took off to the store, after checking out the fitness centre, to get some groceries. I stayed behind and corrected Isaac’s schoolwork. I found a workbook in Barnes and Noble called The Complete Grade 6 Curriculum. He is always complaining that he doesn’t know what to do and now he has no excuses as there are about 800 pages of things to do, at his grade level. I thought he would be all annoyed by it, but he loves it. He started on it right away (I wrapped it up for Christmas as a joke) while I was cooking Christmas dinner. He is already 120 pages into it. Granted, a lot of that is short stories, because he is in the Reading Comprehension section. However, it is still a good start and he loves the short stories because they are full of interesting facts. He is doing really well and does not struggle with reading comprehension. He gets 100% almost all of the times and other times 90%, mostly because he didn’t read the question clearly enough.
Blake had bought some Tilapia and Salmon for supper, which we had with rice, green beans and beets. It was all super tasty. We ate outside and it was just beautiful. The humidity is not as high here and there were no bugs, so it was very pleasant. After supper, I did the dishes and Blake and the kids watched an episode of The Flash.
After I was done the dishes I took Kizmet on a nice long walk. We walked to the road and then up it for a bit because it was so nice out. On our way back we met the night attendant, Becka. She had a lovely southern accent and just loved Kizmet and Kizmet loved her back. We had a good chat and Kizmet got lots of pets.
When I got back we called my Mum to wish her a Happy Birthday. Her birthday is, actually, tomorrow, but she will be out all day so we had to sing to her tonight. Luckily, we just caught her and sang our little hearts out. She could only chat for a minute because a friend was taking her out for supper. This is the last birthday in December for our two families, thank goodness. Blake’s family has three birthdays and my family has three birthdays, so it is a lot.
Isaac wanted me to read more of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. We have neglected the story a bit this past month. I read him a couple more chapters and then he went off to bed.
I decided to try and post my blog from yesterday, since Natasha was catching up earlier today when we first got here. She was having no problems, but I cannot get on. I have today and yesterday typed up, so I am sure I will be able to post them in the morning. The wifi is not nearly as bogged down in the mornings as it is in the evenings.
Sonya