We are in state eleven now and trying to hit all fifty states this year in our Class B van. I am Bob and I travel with Hillary and we call this the Lemon Route because we just make things work. We did not have a reservation since I forgot to hit the complete button for Anastasia State Park and the guy could not find our name. We ate egg salad sandwiches on Crescent Beach in the cold wind because we eat chip crumbs and just do what we have to do. Florida is not done with us yet and we might even go from van life to boat life next.
I am scared of heights and the wind was blowing so hard while my legs were on fire. We climbed two hundred and nineteen stairs to get one hundred and sixty five feet high. The glass up there is nine feet tall and it is over one hundred and fifty years old. It used lard oil first and then kerosene and then electricity before it was automated. The Spanish built the original one in the fifteen hundreds but this new one is made of brick and took three years to build. We got a sticker and some cookies at the St Augustine Lighthouse before we went up.
We spent a lot of time inside Castillo de San Marcos because our America the Beautiful pass got us in for free. It is a very old masonry fort from sixteen seventy two and the walls are made of shell stone that absorbs cannon fire so they do not shatter. My knees hurt from crawling into a powder room with a really low ceiling. The ocean tide flushed the toilets twice a day and they had a big drawbridge for defense. We saw graffiti from illiterate soldiers from two hundred years ago and then a cannon fired and I thought I got shot. The guy waiting for our parking spot was so happy when we finally left.
We felt safe driving today because we installed the Wolfbox dashcam and it records in 4K. It handles low light well so you can see license plates and I can send the video right to my phone. We stood on the Bridge of Lions which is almost a hundred years old and still opens for boats. Crews were putting up metal frames to protect the lions during construction near the plaza. We walked down St George Street and saw the old ten cent store where civil rights sit ins happened. St Augustine is the oldest city in America and it was cool to see the oldest public space.
We started the year in the Florida Keys with a goal to see every state and now we are here in the oldest city. We grabbed our camera to see what makes it special but you have to pay to park everywhere. I drove around a tiny lot for fifteen minutes just waiting for a spot to open up. It was really hard to find parking downtown and the temperature dropped from the sixties down to the forty degree range. We had fish and chips and shepherd pie for lunch at a place with a great view. They actually had Guinness in stock and it felt good to eat while it got cold.