A couple of days at Gamble Rogers State Park

About 25 years ago on a whim, I headed east off of I-95 on Florida State Road 100 which headed into Flagler Beach, FL.   It was if I was in a time warp as the urbanization of Florida's east coast had passed right by this sleepy beach town.   I had just bought my house in Delray and was amazed that I could have bought the same size house and property less than a block from the ocean here!   I didn't get in the ocean on that trip as there was no surf at the time but when we left we drove south on A1A toward Ormond Beach, FL.

A few minutes south of town I noticed a state park with CAMPING ON THE BEACH!   As a tent camper at the time, I did find this interesting and said that I would stay here one day.  Well, I ended up getting married and having a few kids and while the park was on my radar, it was always booked out.  Much like Bahia Honda in the keys, it's tough to get a spot, so imagine my pleasure when back in December I looked and saw that a Sat-Mon was avail for ONE spot on the beach side of the park.
I didn't want to burn two vacation days and so I booked Sat and Sun nights.

The park is called Gamble Rogers after a famous Bluegrass/folk singer.   He drowned at the park in the 1980s trying to save another man who was in trouble in the ocean.  Gamble wasn't a great swimmer but the guy's daughter begged him to help and he went in....Neither of them made it.  His legacy lives on in his music and namesake of the park.   Here is just one of the many songs he recorded (shortly before he died):

In the car, Flagler is about 3.5 hours away, so it was about 4.5 in the Pineapple.   Trip up was fairly easy, only spotty rain.  I'll ad here that the forecast looked like crap.   Was supposed to rain all weekend they said with a fresh (15-20 mph) onshore flow of wind.   Well they got the wind part right anyway.

Know how fickle FL weather is, I packed a couple of surfboards into the coach for the first time

My 9'6" and Lucy's 7'6" (which I also love to ride), weren't too obtrusive while underway, but a third board probably would have been (need to investigate a roof mounting arrangement for future jaunts).

Somewhere along the I-95 corridor heading north toward Daytona.

Had to grab this photo for my OCD friends.  I did get one with the mileage at 7/10s but it was blurry.  Here it is as 7777.75.  Now I'm not going 55 in 2nd gear.  Both the speedo and gear selector are off as I'm in Drive and doing about 63-64.

Like any veteran surfer I no sooner turned off the engine than crossed the dune to check the conditions.   Looking south.

I noticed the water tower and jogged back to take this shot as the coach was framed out nice with the water tower in the background telling everyone we had arrived.

Originally, a week out the wind was supposed to be 5-10mph and I small weak surf.  As the week went on the marine forecast kept ratcheting up.  Hard to tell from the pic, but it's well overhead on the outside with 20mpd east wind making it really choppy and drifty and not very inviting.

Since we weren't going to surf, it was time for cocktails on a Sat afternoon at the beach...

Gratuitous selfie with the ocean behind me.....

Sunday morning we headed over to the river side of the park and these caterpillars were EVERYWHERE.  I mean every few feet they were running around with hundreds smooshed in the road.  They were the FASTEST caterpillars I've ever seen.  They moved pretty quick and I did accidentally kill a few while either riding the bike or walking on the nature trail.   Just thousands and thousands of them.

Couple of shots of the river side of the park.  For as big as the park is on the map, not much is accessible without a boat (this is good).

Going to guess this guy was a hurricane Irma victim as you could see damage to the park and the cuts on this sable palm looked pretty fresh.   He was on the nature trail, but also visible from your car as you enter the park.

The girls logging into one of several geocaches in the park.

Another pic looking west at the natural splendor.

So I found this now rare artifact along a walking path.  Thank goodness we don't have these around anymore!

Gaillardia pulchella

Indian blanket flower or Fire wheel.  According to the book they were out of season for North Florida, but the weather has been crazy lately!  They were blooming all over the park.

Piratus Drunkenuss

We took a 3 mile bike ride up to Flagler Pier and passed this Piratey homestead.   I liked it!

Flagler Pier and no one out surfing, tells me I made the right choice.  Half an hour later there were about 10 guys out, but shortboard inside chunk and dunk kinds of waves...

Having lunch upstairs at Finns.  Good Bloody Marys and EXCELLENT Onion Rings.

Beer battered goodness!

Dune level shot on Sunday afternoon.  You can see the rain coming.

I love the lines on this machine, it's beautiful....

Other vintage interlopers.  Girl said it was a 1982 so only six years younger than the Pineapple

Neat fiberglass unit, a retired couple are full timing in it and doing the lower 48.  On the road for almost 2yrs they are loving their golden years.  They were very interested in our coach and we gave them the  royal tour.

View of the accomodations

For all the talk about rain and horrible forecast, it only rained for about 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon and then we got beautiful rainbows....  It was a double, but not all the way across the sky.

The kid showing off her handstand skills.  The rainbow had just disappeared :(

Monday morning was hazy and the ocean had laid down quite a bit, but still not enticing enough for me to paddle out :(   I watched it for close to an hour and saw exactly ONE rideable wave the whole time...hopefully next time!

She looks so nice in the morning light!   I really need to get some wax on her.

We got home on Monday and my new spare tire cover was waiting in the mailbox.   It's an OEM Jeep part from their Islander Edition that came out in 2010.  I spent 25 bucks on the skull and crossbones and the UV killed it in about a year.   Hopefully, this will last longer as it was a bit more ($65) but the material is alot thicker so high hopes :)