Home of Anastasia State Park
We managed to book 4 nights at this popular state park way back in September....that’s the longest stretch we could get for a trailer our size. Sites for big rigs like ours are limited and apparently in high demand.
This was our first time at this park and it’s by far one of the nicest Florida State parks we’ve stayed in. Although no sites are right on the beach (it’s a wide, gorgeous, 4 miles long stretch of sand), it’s only a 5 minute walk away. The sites themselves, are for the most part, nestled among lots of trees and vegetation which in the summer would be great for shade.
The site we got had one tree at the entrance that made backing in challenging but once again, all that practice Dave had backing up wagon loads of hay into our barn back on the farm paid off and no tree bark was harmed. :-)
Our first 2 days here were in the 80’s, spent time walking on the beach (found some BIG sand dollars) & an afternoon biking down to the St. Augustine Beach, beach front. While we were there, Met a couple (Brittany & Garret) who had just completed a 3 month cycling trip from San Diego, CA. He’s a documentary film maker, she’s a still photographer. They have posted all their experiences on their website www.cyclingforwater.com It would have been great to hang out with them longer and pick their brains about travels cross country, they seemed like a really personable, nice couple.
Then as seems to be the pattern this trip, the temperature dropped 20 degrees, so highs only in the low 60s the next day. Since low tide was in the morning, we got in a great bike ride on the beach. There was a STRONG onshore breeze so the first half of our ride, 4 miles to the tip of the island took 30 mins, full into the wind the entire time. I had to bike most of it like I was going uphill. Talk about a good workout though! Coming back was a breeze! Seriously, we were human sails! We went a fair distance without even peddling! Found some really cool purple & orange starfish on the way back.
Our last day there was even cooler with highs in the 50s so not a good beach day. Decided to spend it exploring St. Augustine which we’ve never visited before. It turned out to be an unexpectedly pretty town, lots of history and Spanish Influence. Flagler College was by far the most interesting building since it was originally the flagship hotel of the Flagler hotel chain back in the late 1800s....in addition to amazing murals, carved oak etc, it has stain glass windows designed by “the Tiffany”
Check out the ALBUM!
Oh yeah...just before we left for our next destination, took advantage of the big beach parking lot they had at the park and I got my first lesson in backing up the 5th wheel. I did OK but lets just say I need LOTS practice. Still scared shitless to haul the trailer on public roads but one of these days I’ll have to suck it up and just do it!