Summer Vacation 2020 - St. Augustine Days 1&2

Best laid plans of mice and men and all that.   Originally, had two weeks off in a row, with a short trip to the Rainbow River planned for late July/Aug.   We had plans for Texas or Maine after that, but as with everything in 2020, plans change and some other commitments forced our hand and a rearrangement of dates was necessary.   We were able to take a week and roll it together with the Rainbow River, so we got 9 nights on the road this outing.  I have another week off coming up, but the Space Pineapple is down for repairs during that time (details below and in following days).

We had four stops on this 1100 mile tour of the Florida system, with a jaunt out of the system to Georgia for 3 nights to see my son.  I will break the blog out to each stop as a separate entry and each location offered up new and interesting experiences.  Showing the route taken, not the one originally planned.  Read on for the reasons behind the changes

Having just used the coach two weeks ago,  I was feeling pretty good that all the mechanical systems needed for safe flight were in order.  Lucy started on our new curtains and packed her sewing machine along for the ride as they didn't get finished prior to departure.

This mission to beyond the edge of the Florida galaxy had an additional crew member

Astrobear Capt. Ted E. Bear reporting for duty on this space mission to far away lands.

Command module co-pilot Hugo, Major Tommy (away team), and Science officer Capt Ted E. are strapped in and ready for lift off, ready to travel back in time to the oldest city in North America.

First stop was Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine.  A beach front park, but the campground is just far enough from the beach, you want to bike or drive over to it.
We got loaded up and headed out on time for the second trip in a row!  Pulled out around 11:50 AM Wed morning as I knew it would take longer in the coach to make it the 250 miles.  I figured 5 hours and with a gas stop and a quick stop for takeout, I made in about 5:10.   Above 2500 RPM one of the belts was slipping and would start squealing loudly, so I would have to back off the throttle until it quieted down, then ease back on the gas.   It hadn't been a problem as our usual outings as we stay off the interstate.

Aside from that, I realized 20 min into the ride that I forgot to lock down the paper towels and the whole roll unwound while I was driving.   Normally, not an issue as crew can cover the small damages, but I was flying solo except for my stuffy crew (they are useless when under power).  Luckily, the towels stayed in the coach and the glue on the roll was good, so I just had to roll up the roll again.

We arrived and got settled in and headed for the beach.  As we had multi stops, I skipped bringing a surfboard as there was surf shop just outside the park entrance if it was really good.  We did bring a boogie board, and there was some small shin to knee high lines coming in.   Lucy and I both caught a bunch of them and it was surprisingly thumpy for the size.   We stayed in the water until the sun was going down. 

Dunes and a platoon of Pelicans flying by.  This section of shoreline I found out is relatively new.  It was some offshore sand bars, but in the last 100 years or so, once they built the jetty at the rivermouth and ocean it filled in and vegetation took off on it.  The actual campground area about a 1/4 mile away is older growth with many mature trees etc.

Part of this trip for me was to try and spot comet NEOWISE as the photos were outstanding, and the rainy season in South FL had made viewing it impossible.   St. Augustine wasn't any better this ever as a huge thunderhead had the entire NW part of the sky obscured, so we headed back to the campground and had dinner.

My Mom's backyard pineapple in the Pineapple.  We saved it to share with my other offspring.

I built a fire using, some more of the wood from my Mom's oak and it still wasn't dried out enough (we left it in the coach to bake for the past 2 weeks).   It would burn, but slowly and you could hear the water boiling out of it..   Lucy and I sat out for awhile and we turned in fairly early as I had been really tired from work and not sleeping well.

Day 2 came dark and early as I woke up at 5AM for some unknown reason.  I thought about going back to sleep, but even though I KNEW the morning viewing on the comet was fleeting (getting lower on the horizon every morning), I rationalized if I didn't get to see it, I would always wonder if I blew my chance.

Here is a video that pretty well describes how it was moving across the sky.   It was based on Charlotte, NC so everything was even higher in the sky than here in Florida.

Okay, so with that key information, I knew the morning to the 16th would be the end of morning viewing, but decided WTH do I have to lose and went to the beach at 5:15 AM.  My first thought was to go to the top of the dune on the overlook so I would get a better angle and look to the NE just out over the ocean from shore.   The first thing I noticed was the No-See-ums.   Usually, insects don't bother me, but they were biting me every second or two.   I rationalized that down by the waters edge would be better.   As the wind was offshore, it was only slightly better as now I was getting bitten every 5 seconds. 

First light of the morning around 6:15 AM

The surf had died down overnight and was no longer rideable.   Unfortunately, there was alot of moisture low in the sky although it was broken overhead and I could see Venus clearly, but Mercury was obscured by clouds that didn't move until it was too light out.

Or so I thought!   Looking at this pic at home on the big screen, you can see Mercury just above the cloud below and slightly left of Venus.  Wow,  missed it naked eye, but got a picture (I checked the star maps and it works out). COOL!

I kept trying to find the comet, although I wasn't exactly sure where I should be looking but knew it was right at the edge of the horizon.   As I found out later, at this latitude, it was no longer above the horizon in the mornings by this date....  I toughed it out with the bitey flies and watched the sun come up to a pretty nice sunrise.   I was along until the last 10 min before it popped up.

Turned out to be a decent sunrise for the dozens of bug bites I paid for it with.   But I don't welt up, so 20 min later I forgot about them. And by the time I got back to camp the sun felt hot already lol.

On the ride back to the campground. I saw a Great Egret and juvenile red shoulder hawk.

I relaxed with coffee and breakfast for a little bit, then took a look at the squeaky belt issue and didn't see a good way to adjust it and decided to leave it alone rationalizing I didn't need to go too fast anyway and this was sorta like a speed limiter for me.

By now the girls were up and moving and they wanted to go into town and see the historic part of St. Augustine.   We had a vehicle to use for the first part of the trip and I gotta say, it was nice to have as it extended our range. 

As we left the park we saw how they maintain their sidewalk edging....

 We first went to St. Augustine light, which none of us had been too before.   We toured the light keepers home and then trekked up the stairs to a commanding view of the area around us.

 Tommy violated the mask restrictions.  Something about not having lungs, but I wasn't buying it.

 This wrench was for tightening the bolts on the balcony around the top of the light.  It was HUGE!

After the light, we went to the Post Office as Lucy has been sewing masks for the Navajo Nation as they are in dire need of help with PPE in combating CoVid-19.   That done, it was lunch time.  Naya wanted ribs, so we asked and were told Mojo BBQ  was the 'best in town'.   Well if it was, they are hurting for BBQ in St. Auggy.   At best is was okay.  The meat while tender, had no smoke infused flavor and I had to slather the sauce on as it was also dried out.  Maybe since I started smoking meat and have eaten a lot of Texas BBQ, I'm spoiled, but so be it.   It was in old town and thus the restaurant was geared to high volume tourist trade   I should have known better.

After lunch we took a walk down St. George St. stopping in St Augustine Distillery.  I'll admit I've become a rum snob.  But at $25 a bottle for un-aged rum with flavoring,  it's a hard pass for me.  Out of the 12 or so tastings they had, I tried about 5 of them and was done.  I can think of much better aged and smoother rums you can sip at the same price point.

We went in and out of shops and people were mostly wearing masks (inside it was required).  We walked the whole length and then back to the fort (closed) for some photo ops with Tommy.

 Major Tommy left his tin can and went for a space walk above Castillo San De Marcos.  He was floating in a most peculiar way and the stars looked very different to him that day.

Major Tommy returned to the capsule hatch at too great velocity and had issues with the airlock.

Luckily, we were able to get him back in the capsule and he modeled, his uber cool Conquistador straw hat he picked up at the lighthouse.

We went food shopping and picked up a few other things and headed back to the campground.
The sky was looking promising for night viewing of the comet, so we set off to the beach right around sunset.    I forgot how long twilight hangs around and it took awhile for it to get dark enough.  Based on maps I had seen and saved, I had a good idea of where to look for the comet.  It was clear in that direction and I was hunting for some time.   Finally, I moved around and used the lifeguard stand to prop my arms up and started a methodical search of the sky.  On my 2nd or 3rd vertical sweep I found it.

I was SO excited.   Ever since I was a kid and saw pictures of comets, I have wanted to see one with my own eyes.  I had tried on some previous ones (Halley's in the 1980s, and a couple others) but always came up empty handed.  This wasn't a fuzzy diffuse blob, but had a bright head and long tail.
I gave the binoculars to the girls, but they couldn't find it.  After they gave up, I got it back in view and held the binocs while they looked through then let them take over.   I spent the next half hour or so looking at it in awe.  It.was now almost 9:30 so we went back to the coach and played a card game called Turtle Butt.