Our Own Daytona Track

Today was a cold, gloomy and windy day in St. Augustine. So we opted to stay put in the RV and watch the Daytona 500. We were waiting for our friends, the Sepseys, to arrive from frigid Chicago to Jacksonville, FL. They were on separate flights but supposed to arrive within 15 minutes of each other. They didn't fly together because John decided to join Jackie at the last minute.

When the race was over, we drove A1A north to Jacksonville as we had plenty of time to get there. Jacksonville is only a half hour from where we are staying.The first beach that we reached was Vilano Beach and to our surprise, we were able to drive the Jeep out onto the beach. So Mel delightedly took us off-roading up and down the beach. It was too miserably cold to get out of the car so I took this photo from the car. As you can see, the ocean was really rough and the only live creatures on the beach were the gulls. I am sure the warning flag for boaters was red-Danger, Will Robinson! Anyway, Mel got that racing fever out of his system.

As we proceeded north on A1A, we came up the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. It encompasses 60,000 acres of salt marsh, mangrove wetlands, oyster beds, lagoons and all the flora and fauna natural to the region. It looked like a fascinating place to explore but it was just too cold and windy to walk around. Perhaps, we will make it back there another day.

It was close to 8 p.m. by the time the Sepseys made it to their hotel, but we passed the time in the hotel lobby, watching TV. John's plane had been delayed in Atlanta, where he had to transfer and Jackie had to wait for him at the Jacksonville airport.

Once they were checked into their room, we went to a local microbrewery for a late supper. We talked, laughed and caught up with the news of each other's families. We got back to the RV at 10:30 p.m.