31 October 2019
It was a little over six miles to the route start today, and the Wonderwood Drive bridge was worth it. I thought of it as Mt. St. John, much the same way we used to call the Torras Causeway crossing Fancy Bluff Creek, Mt. St. Simons. Not that bad, but you know--it’s a hill!
I decided to use Relive to make the video of today’s highlights. Facebook friends, nothing is different about this video than the one you may have seen already. A few other remarks and photos follow, though.
The plan was to ride to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine. From my cousin’s house, it should have been about a 45-miler. The heat, though, again. There was a nice headwind, which made it almost okay…if there had been shade. I looked for shade several times. You saw the two shady spots I grabbed in the video. I was only at mile 26 when I pulled into the North beach parking lot of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. I rationed my remaining ounces of cold water. GTM Reserve looks to be an interesting place, and I would like to explore it sometime. On it goes to the list!
DL hadn’t left Jacksonville left, so she agreed to grab me up on our way to St. Augustine. I dodged the shade first from the interpretive sign. Then I followed it courtesy of the statue of Ponce de León. I had immediately noticed that the parking lot was ample for Mel and Roxy to pull through as long as there were as many empty spots as there were. I stood out at the highway when I saw DL was within a few miles (yes, we can find each other on our phones).
Shortly after we were underway to Anastasia, DL noticed an oceanfront restaurant. After setting up camp and cranking up the air inside Roxy, we left Jack to “chill.” Neither of us knew the name of the restaurant, but of course, that’s why there is an internet and map apps. We came across The Reef. We actually ate outside in the shade. Yes, it was hot, but an ocean breeze, shade, and an adult beverage cures any discomfort.
Our server (the bartender) never seemed to mind coming outside. He made a great Old Fashioned using a St. Augustine distiller’s whiskey. It was happy hour, so that was even better. All appetizers were two bucks off. Seared Tuna, Crabcake with an island flair, good ol’ tossed salad. DL had mussels. The food was super. The drinks were good. The wine was good, and then, of course, there were desserts. I limited to myself to only one and some sips so that I could drive us safely back.
Oceanfront. The usual beautiful blues of the water. The crashing of waves. The birds—osprey, and the usual sanderlings or some other peeps. The clouds. Oh. What a beautiful spot. Sated in every way. On the way out, I took a picture that indicates why we enjoyed it so much. Yup. Our kind of place.
Loved seeing folks’ costumes on the way back to the campground. On the way to the shower house, we passed a couple of sites that had tables with candy, and their hosts had on costumes. Our effort is leaving a plastic jack-o-lantern with LED “candles” flickering on the dashboard all night.
Internet not good enough to post, so spent time writing yesterday and today’s pages. We should have a good signal tomorrow and/or wifi at the campground.
Tomorrow the high is supposed to be about 20 degrees cooler than today! Looking forward to cooler temperatures. It’s a big day in other respects. I will be a new Medicare recipient as of tomorrow. A little scary.
26.57 mi / 650.9
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