Saint Augustine, Florida

So, Linda and I have a week off, and we decided to take a trip back to Saint Augustine, Florida, to break in the new car. We bought a 2013 Honda Accord on Thursday from Cale Yarborough Honda. This thing has so many features that I may actually have to read the manual to find them all. As it is, the Navi system has its own book, about 150 pages worth. And another guide just for the new technology, including voice control. Matt and Faisal showed us a lot of it, but we could have spent days finding all of it!

 

After figuring out how to add destinations into the navi system, I plugged in the address of the Hampton Inn, on the A1A Beach road in St. Augustine Beach. Sunday morning I packed up the trunk (lots of room, much more than the Mustang), and we headed out about 9 am.

The Accord has a smooth ride, and I was interested in finding out how it was on the Interstate. The 2013 has Noise Cancellation technology that sends a “counter-wave” through the audio system to quiet the road noise. It really works. While you still have some “drone” noise, you can have the radio on a reasonable level, and you don’t have to raise your voice to have a conversation. We plugged the iPod into the USB port and rolled on down the road. By the way, when the iPod is playing, the album cover for the song is displayed with the rest of the information. Nice touch!

Once you get used to the camera that comes on the screen when you turn on the right turn signal, showing you the blind spot (and more), you find that it’s much more than you can see in the mirror. The guidelines displayed help you determine when it’s safe to pull in without cutting off the driver. And when traffic got heavy, the collision avoidance sensors in the front beeped and flashed if I got too close to the vehicle ahead. Very cool stuff that keeps you safe on the road.

The only close call was an elderly gent that Linda thinks may have gotten drowsy, and started to drift into our lane, right next to us. A car in front kept us from moving ahead, and the traffic in the left lane was too close for a safe lane change. I held down the horn, and moved as far to the left as I could while staying in the lane. Fortunately, he “woke up” and moved back into lane. The girl on my left had slowed down enough that, if I had to I could have moved over. All in all, about a 2 second adrenaline shot. Wow.

We stopped in Darien, Georgia for a light lunch at a Wendy’s. As we pulled into the mall, we realized that we had stopped at the same Wendy’s last year on our way to Daytona. We filled the half-empty tank on the way out. We had traveled about 226 miles on 6½ gallons, for about 34 mpg. Pretty good for a full-size car (and a LOT better than the 20 mpg on the old car).

When we crossed the border into Florida, I shifted the view from the audio view to the navi view, to better negotiate Jacksonville. When you’re on the Interstate and approaching a navi “event,” the screen will split and show a graphic image of the exit, and showing the appropriate lane for where you need to be. I can see this being very valuable on the next New Jersey trip as we go through Norfolk, where you have multiple exits, and the lane you’re in is critical.

While we’ve been down here before, I decided to follow the navi system all the way in, to see how good it was. It took us to St. Augustine Beach on a different route than I would have chosen, but I think it was more direct, and easy to follow. As we pulled up at the Hampton Inn, we realized that this was the same hotel that we had found when we came down in 2007! It’s a good location, with an unobstructed view of the beach (although the beaches look like they’re a half mile away).

 

We arrived around 2, and the desk clerk told us they had a second floor ocean front (of course that’s what I asked for. I’m not getting this close to the ocean and getting a street view room if I can help it) or, if I could wait for it to be cleaned, a room higher up. We could wait by the pool, or head across to the Sunset Grill, a local restaurant and bar, and check in a bit later. We opted for the bar at the Sunset Grill.

Judging from the accents of the bar patrons, we could have been in New York, and I remarked as such. I wasn’t far from the truth, as they laughed and agreed that, while they were from the “other part of New York,” aka not New York City, there were a lot of Northerners there. The bar was crowded, with no two empty seats available. One gentleman moved to the other side of the bar so we could sit together. He was delighted when I bought his first drink.

We ended up on the third floor with a great view of the beach and the pool area. The temperature was 84 (although it’s not supposed to be this warm the rest of the week). After unpacking and a short rest, we headed back to the Sunset Grill for dinner (too tired to go looking for anything else). Linda had gotten a look at the crab legs, and wanted to try them. I opted for the 12 oz. NY Strip.

The food was great, the steak perfect, the crab legs coming out of the shell cleanly. We watched the Giants fall to the Steelers before heading back to the room. We were asleep before nine.

We only have two things we really want to do while we’re here: Head to Kennedy Space Center (about 100 miles south), and do a boat tour on the bay. We’ll play the rest of it by ear. Stay tuned!