Happy Holidays from Cedar Key, Florida
Chillin’ in St. Augustine
We stayed in St. Augustine for a month and my dad was able to join us for a week. Although it’s Florida, it was cold, windy, and rainy during most of our stay.
St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States.
Coastal Florida was a major field of conflict as European nations fought for control in the New World. As part of this struggle, Fort Matanzas guarded St. Augustine’s southern river approach. Fort Matanzas National Monument is one of the few free attractions in St. Augustine. The tour includes a short ferry ride across the river from the visitors’ center to the monument.
The St. Augustine Light Station is a private-aid to navigation and an active, working lighthouse. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built between 1871 and 1874. To tour the lighthouse is $13/person. We decided to skip the tour.
The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort in the continental US. Possession of the fort has changed six times, all peaceful, among four different governments: Spain, 1695–1863 and 1783–1821, Kingdom of Great Britain, 1763–1783, and the United States of America), 1821 (during 1861–1865, under control of the Confederate States of America).
The Old City Gates were erected to protect the town and citizens from foreign marauders.
The Bridge of Lions, a pair of copies of the marble Medici lions, guard the bridge. It spans the Intracoastal Waterway and connects downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay.
Flagler College is a private four-year liberal arts college. It is a beautiful example of Spanish Renaissance architecture.
Another free tourist activity is the St. Augustine Distillery. We went for a tour and a tasting. They are very generous with the samples.
Nights of Lights
This is the local winter holiday celebration in St. Augustine where each historic downtown business and many residents participate by lighting up their buildings. The celebration was chosen by National Geographic as one of the ten best holiday lighting displays in the world. This year there were more than 3 million white lights.
We took a boat ride to view the lights from the water.
Congaree National Park
While heading south for the winter, we stopped for a short visit in South Carolina to tour Congaree National Park. Congaree National Park protects the largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in North America. Much of Congaree National Park lies within the floodplain of the Congaree River. With all the rain this year, we weren’t sure if we would be able to tour this park. We didn’t attempt any hiking here as the ground was muddy, but the self-guided tour along the boardwalk was perfect to get a sense of the park and its biodiversity.
I was warned that mosquitos here can be brutal. It was chilly when we were here, about 50 degrees, which made for a mosquito-free walk. However, if you’re curious about current conditions, they have a handy meter at the visitors center.
Do bad things happen in threes?
We experienced a series of car/RV repair issues in a very short period of time, which caused us to wonder if bad things really do happen in threes.
1. We sometimes drive separately if it’s a short distance to our next destination, since taking the car on and off the tow dolly is a chore. We did this for our drive from the Mammoth Cave area to the Louisville area – Scott in the RV with Buddy and me solo in the VW Beetle. While driving, I had a check engine indicator light come on. I completely forgot about it because…
2. as I caught up to Scott, I found him parked in a grassy area feet from the campground. In fact, I thought this was our campsite for a minute. As it turned out, Scott made a wrong turn to the campground. He saw a grassy area and decided to make a U-turn. (Did I mention that KY has had record rainfall this year?) You guessed it, completely stuck. We had to call a tow truck to winch us out. We weren’t in deep, but 22 tons of RV doesn’t move even if you’re only stuck a little. After two hours, we were out and no harm done.
…so back to #1 above. The next day, we were driving to Woodford Reserve distillery and noticed that the car wasn’t responding like it should. Scott said, “What it this indicator light.” I said, “Oh yeah I meant to tell you about that but got distracted with yesterday’s events.” As we were coming back, even though I was giving it gas, we couldn’t get above 40 mph on hills. As we drove two more warning lights came on.
Scott got an appointment the next day at the VW dealership and barely made it (10 mph during morning rush hour). The dealership said that one of the sensors on the accelerator was malfunctioning. A costly repair, but what can you do?
3. On our journey from Louisville to Tennessee, our tire pressure gauge started beeping indicating a problem with one of our tow dolly tires. In fact, the message read “rapid pressure loss”. Scott immediately pulled onto the shoulder of the highway to check it out. Scott could hear the tire hissing air, fortunately we had a spare. As cars and trucks whizzed by at 70+ mph, Scott replaced the tire (road side no less). We arrived safely in Tennessee to our campground with no further issues.
I hope we are done with the drama. As we all know, 3 is a magic number.
Unbridled Spirits – Bourbon and Horses
How can you visit Kentucky and not visit some the bourbon distilleries and Churchill Downs? We couldn’t?
Bourbon
There are 10 well known distilleries that make up the Bourbon Trail, so you can spend days going from place to place. We decided to limit ourselves to two, Marker’s Mark and Woodford Reserve.
We chose Woodford Reserve because reviews claimed that the bourbon was excellent and the property was extremely scenic. Both were true. Rolling hills of grass with beautiful old buildings and they even had their own Thoroughbred horse farm.
We visited Maker’s Mark because it’s a bourbon standard with it’s hand-dipped red wax bottles.
Since we already went on one tour, we decided to take the Behind the Bar Tour. This is a guided Distillery tour and instead of a typical tasting of neat bourbon, our guide showed us the steps of creating hand-crafted bourbon cocktails. We all got a sample of what we made. Scott was the teacher’s pet, as he knew all the bartending tricks. The tour was a blast with a wonderful guide and wacky attendees.
Horses
One of the reasons we decided on a visit to Kentucky, was the Breeders’ Cup World Championship was being held in Louisville at historic Churchill Downs. The Breeders’ Cup World Championships is the culmination of the horse racing season worldwide and the $6 million Breeders’ Cup Classic is the defining event of the international racing season. The Breeders’ Cup Classic is run at 1 1/4 miles, draws the top international Thoroughbreds year after year, and is open to horses 3-years-old and older; but limited to 14 starters.
We jumped at the opportunity to watch the races and take in Churchill Downs.
Next stop a brief layover in Tennessee, then on to South Carolina’s Congaree National Park.
K, Y Kentucky? (Mammoth Cave National Park)
Kentucky was not originally part of our planned journey. We intended to be in South Carolina for Marine graduation on Parris Island. However, nearly every RV park that we called was full due to the pipeline work in the area. The final straw was hurricane Florence. For those reasons, we changed our plans to Kentucky.
Our first stop, a short stay near Daniel Boone Forest for some hiking.
Then off to Mammoth Cave National Park.
Mammoth Cave got its name because the caves are mammoth in nature. We went on three tours while here and loved learning about the history of the park.
The first tour we took was a small tour by lantern light only. This is how the early American visitors would have explored the cave. Spooky, but appropriate for Halloween time.
The next tour we took featured more of the geological features that are common with caves, like stalactites and stalagmites. However, I think if you want to see features like this, go to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. You can view our photos from our trip to Carlsbad here.
Our final tour was fascinating providing hundreds of examples of visitor experiences still visible today, from the multitude of nineteenth-century candle-written signatures to the dozens and dozens of stone monuments left behind by visitors nearly 200 years ago.
Although, not terribly clear, the pictures below show remnants of a gun powder factory that existed in the cave during The War of 1812. Not only has the cave been a factory, it has served as a hospital, church, and finally a national treasure.
Next stop, Louisville and the Breeders’ Cup.