Fort Clinch State Park, Florida

Day 21 - 226 miles

We said our goodbyes to Bob and Linda and Morgan in Cocoa after a great sendoff breakfast, and mounted the bikes once again. It was a great stay but it also felt good to be on the road again. We headed to the Interstate as it was the best route for getting to the seashore forts we had planned for today.

On the way, we stopped in Daytona at the world's largest Harley dealership, and though an impressive store, they are, after all, Harley's. I love being a Honda snob. LOL I didn't take pictures though, as I once said on my Sturgis ride last year, once you've seen 100,000 bikes, you've seen them all.

We hit our exit and immediately followed the signs to the nearest fort, Fort Matanza, and stopped on the way to see another Florida State Swamp Park, Faver-Dykes State Park. I don't know what I expected to see in the form of dikes, but it wasn't obvious where the dikes were, if at all. But it's a pretty watercourse.

Then on to Matanza... and were we disappointed. This was supposedly a star-fortress of the type seem in Europe, the only one of its kind in North America.... Still pretty neat as you can see.





Later we realized the signs to the fort were what misled us... it wasn't the fort we had planned to see, just the fort nearest the exit we chose. Then we came to Castillo San Marcos. Wow!! Both Matanza and San Marcos are from the colonial era when the Spanish, French, and English, were all vying for supremacy in the New World.

Now, if you were aware of our bicycle trip from last year, I pointed out how Kip and I compare when it comes to the size of our.....guns, and once again, I must point out Kip's.... er.... shortcomings. LOL

We continued north, made a stop to shoot a pic of the St. Augustine Lighthouse, for both my brother-in-law, who actually doesn't have a thing for lighthouses... and my online bud, Lighthouse Boy.

We headed back toward the I-95 to make the go-around to the next fort and our probable campsite, Fort Clinch at the Fort Clinch State Park. This is purported to be a Civil War Era, but we'll have to wait 'til tomorrow to check it out as we arrived just a bit late. We set up camp, took a quick look-see of nearby Fernandia, and called it a night.

Gotta tell you though, about the weather which, besides being hot and humid, generated a late afternoon electrical storm. We had thought we had fortuitously skirted around it on our route, but just before we left the barrier island near Jackson, it started to rain. Big humongous drops, maybe as much as a 1/2 ounce each, but sporadic... and then I thought it was over. But up ahead is a suspension bridge hidden in "the mist" and I can't seem to peer more than 60 feet onto the bridge. I think we would have stopped under an overpass... but it was already full of bikers dressed for a Sunday cruise in the sun, i.e., barely covered... so we passed the opportunity to stop, and road into the fog. Did I say fog? I meant the torrential rain storm. Water so thick on the bridge it was flowing an inch deep or more. We had to slow to a virtual crawl. It lasted all of two minutes, when we left the river, nada. It was only raining on the river and the Florida heat at 60 miles an hour dried us off completely within ten minutes.

Total miles: 5613

One last thing... lest you think tent camping is too primitive....