Day 115: Tomoka State Park, FL

It appears the Law of Averages has won out over the Wind Gods (it had to be the former, as I failed to make any sort of offering to the Gods).  I had a screaming tailwind coming straight out of the north today, allowing me to cover 44 miles at a pace that exceeded 21 mph (despite having to grind a couple of miles into the wind to leave the campground).

It was pretty cold (low to mid 40s) when we got up, so we went out for breakfast, rather than suffer through preparing it for ourselves.  Then we drove into St Augustine to look around a bit before the tourist crowds were out and about.  I always like visiting Castillo San Marco, a Spanish fortress constructed in the early 1700s (though earlier wooden forts at the site date back to 1565).  And the Spanish Colonial architecture of the nearby town buildings is also interesting, though nearly every one of them is now a bar, restaurant or souvenir shop.  No doubt the current look is far from what it was 250 years ago.  But it's still pretty cool...

Castillo San Marco.

We also took a look at the old coquina quarry.  Coquina is a type of soft limestone partly consisting of fossilized sea shells.  It was the primary building material for the Castillo and many of the other early buildings of St Augustine.

Of course we ventured out to look upon the Atlantic Ocean before hitting the road today, though an ocean view was also available along several miles of today's route along Highway A1A, particularly around Flagler Beach.

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from Anastasia State Park.

We are camping tonight at Tomoka State Park ($27.00, power, water and showers), which is located along the Intercoastal Waterway.   We may actually be back here in February, as there is a Tearjerkers gathering planned here for February 4th through 7th.  And as it turns out, there are two other teardrops camping here tonight.

We stopped by to visit with one of them, our neighbors Ben and Laura.  They are in a Panther trailer that isn't quite a teardrop, but a pretty similar concept - that everything you need can come in a small package.  Ben describes it as a teardrop on steroids, a fair description, given that it is more than twice as heavy as our camper.  But there were lots of great ideas - many of which I had never seen  before on a "micro-camper."

It has been cold and windy all day, with the high barely reaching the mid-60s.  That doesn't sound that cold, but it was enough to make us get a fire going at 3 pm today.  Even then, it wasn't enough to warm me up after today's ride.  But a nice, hot shower helped restore my core temperature and make the evening more tolerable.