Happy New Year!
After a good night’s sleep in our fancy schmancy RV Resort (and right by the bathhouse…again), it was time to head north. Since the previous day was pretty jam-packed with a long drive and a hardcore tourist destination, we thought we’d take it easy up the coast and leave the bustle in our wake.
We hopped on Hwy 1 headed north and then somewhere near Port Orange we turned right to get on A1A to get back to following the coast as much as we could. This dropped us right on Daytona Beach Shores where we properly began the north heading. We did stop and walk on the beach at Daytona just to say we did it and I even talked to a gatekeeper about driving the RV on the beach. Other than being a cool Instagram photo moment and likely resulting in a hefty towing bill, I really couldn’t talk myself into doing it. I have no regrets. And I’m honestly pretty unimpressed with all of the beaches that have the name “Daytona” associated with them.
Our plan was to enjoy the coastal drive and stop at interesting places along the way…like St. Augustine…and beaches…and taco trucks…
Note to self: the next time I want to experience the agony and suffering that normally accompanies beach vacations in popular areas, go to St. Augustine on a holiday like a beautiful January 1 and attempt to find a place to park with any vehicle, much less an RV.
We didn’t stop in St. Augustine. In fact, it took a while driving out of that cluster**** to find a place where my nerves could recover enough to have an awkwardly stressful lunch in the RV. Sorry, Keli.
St. Augustine: FAIL!
Away from the mess and pretty disappointed about our recent failure to see something we really wanted to see, we found a nice little park with a bridge over the highway to the beach. We were back to quieter areas now. And the light at the end of the momentary tunnel…shells!
This random stop completely changed our perspective and attitudes. One plan didn’t work out but led right to something unexpected and wonderful…which is exactly what we imagined would happen on this expedition. Now if we can just NOT lose sight of that…
Spirits renewed and hope restored, we continued north along A1A, passing more wonderful, quiet residential beachy areas and very small coastal communities until we arrived at our destination for the night. Keli had once again found us an opening at another state park.
Fort Clinch State Park is another beautiful piece of real estate with a fort that was built by some people for some purpose a long time ago. There are two campgrounds on the property, one on the west end on the Amelia River (where we stayed) and the other on the northeast tip that I think might overlook the beach there. Obviously we weren’t getting into that one at the last minute…we’d pushed our luck quite a bit so far on this trip…and we were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived. Stay tuned for more!
