Saint Augustine, Day 2

The ending of Daylight Saving Time has us kind of screwed up. We were in bed and asleep Sunday night by 9:30 (our bodies thought it was 10:30), and up early on Monday. After writing yesterday's blog entry, I set about looking for "things to do in Saint Augustine" on Google. We were out and cruising by 9:30. We decided to first visit the St. Augustine Pirate & Treasure Museum across from the Castillo de San Marcos.

Parking is the only downside to Saint Augustine. There's very little room for public parking lots, the street parking is always full, and as far as I can tell there's only one parking garage, and it's not convenient unless you want to walk a lot. As it turned out, the parking in front of the Castillo de San Marcos worked out fine. In 2007 there were parking meters that you had to feed quarters into, and I was prepared for that. Now, though, they have the kiosks where you can pay for up to four hours at a time, at $1.50 per hour (Visa and Mastercard accepted). You get a ticket that you put on the dash. Much more convenient.

You enter the museum through the gift shop (of course). You're not allowed to use flash inside the museum, so many of the pictures we took are a little blurry or dark. But it's an interesting hour of walking through various rooms and looking at the replicas and actual artifact from 400 years ago.

The flag is supposed to be one of only three actual pirate flags still in existence. Linda pointed out that the stitching looked way too even to be done by hand. I'm pretty sure they had sewing machines back in the 1800's, but it looked pretty even to me. Even so, we had a good time, and bought a couple of souvenir shot glasses for our collection.

From there we went to the Whetstone Chocolate Factory on King Street for their tour. You buy the tour tickets in the store, and the tour begins there.

 

After a fifteen minute introduction, where our guide explained how cacao is harvested, and the process to convert it into chocolate, we walked across the lot to the factory to see the equipment that makes the chocolate candies we all love so much.

 

 

We got the chance to walk through the actual production area (hair nets required) and he even ran the wrapper machine (even making reference to the I Love Lucy episode, saying this would have made her job easier), and there were plenty of samples, from a sweet milk chocolate (31% cacao) to a nice dark chocolate (71% cacao). I learned that 35% cacao is the dividing line between milk and dark chocolates.We even got a piece of while chocolate (0% cacao). Since there isn't any cacao in it, why is it called chocolate? Because it has cocoa butter in it.

 

We didn't buy any chocolate from the store at this time. Instead, we opted to go down King Street to the San Sebastian Winery tour.

 

 

We toured here back in 2007, but who can resist the wine tasting? We saw a video of the vineyards and harvesting process before Doc took us around the site. While most of the wines are fermented in large stainless steel tanks, one of them, the Castillo Red, was being fermented in American Oak barrels, purchased from Jack Daniels.

 

Last time, they had tasting stations along the tour. This time, we gathered around a big table in the store, and got to taste about 8 different varieties, from dry whites through sherry and port (way too sweet). Our guide Doc was great, and gave us extra when we asked. We ended up buy six bottles.

 

We'd had enough touring, so we returned to Whetstone and bought some milk and dark chocolates before heading back to the hotel. After dropping of our stuff we asked our desk clerk Robert to recommend a local place to eat. He suggested Beachcombers.

 

 

I don't think Beachcombers has changed since the 60's, and it was just what we were looking for. Linda had the flounder sandwich, I had a great cheeseburger, and we shared a basket of onion rings, all of them delicious. At 3 o'clock we headed back to the hotel for a much-needed nap.

For dinner, I looked for a local micro-brewery, and found the A1A Ale Works, right across from the Bridge of Lions.

We had appetizers for dinner, along with their home brews. Linda had their King Street Light Lager, while I opted for the Bridges of Lions Brown Ale. I sampled the Strange Stout (named after Alexander Strange, the founder's grandfather), and it was pretty good, but a little more than I wanted. Good people, good beer. Our kind of place!

Back to the hotel and asleep by 10:30.

Today we're heading to Kennedy Space Center. I'm hoping to get lots of pictures.

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!

Wednesday, March 14

When we visited St. Augustine in 2007, they were in the process of rebuilding the Bridge of Lions, a 1920's era drawbridge. On the mainland side of the bridge stood two granite lions. The two statues had been removed for cleaning.

Last year (check the blog), we returned to St. Augustine to see the Lions, which were supposed to have been returned to their place of honor at the end of the bridge. As it turns out, they had been lost (still not sure how you lose a couple of tons of statues), and were scheduled to be installed two weeks after our visit.

So today we headed up the A1A from Ormond Beach, on a 50-mile trek to see the lions. The bridge is beautiful, and the lions just top it off.

From the small dock behind the lion, you could see the Castillo de San Marco, a 15th century fort that changed hands several times, without a shot being fired.

St. Augustine needs more than just a few hours to enjoy its charms, so we didn't do much sightseeing. We're going to need to plan a long weekend to visit again. It's a lovely town, steeped in history, and worth a visit.

We turned around and headed back down to the Ponce Inlet, 15 miles south of Daytona Beach. At land's end there is a small restaurant that we enjoyed last year. This year, however, was a different story.  It took a long time for a waitress to show up at our table, and when the food came there were no napkins or cutlery. When I asked, I was told that the dishwasher was broken and they had to do them by hand, but I was assured they'd be out as soon as they were ready.

I watched another waitress carry a handful out to her stations, and I had to actually ask ours to bring them. The food was mediocre, and the only good part was the ride. Oh, well.

There's a chance of a thunderstorm tonight, but clear in the morning. We ordered a pizza for dinner, and we're packing to leave tomorrow.

All in all, this has been a good trip. Lot's of fun, lots of riding, and spending time together. With a little luck, we'll miss the bad weather on the trip home.



Tuesday, March 13th

Another great beginning to the day, with the promise of warm, sunny weather all day!

There's supposed to be a new event, the Daytona Experience, out at Hwy 1 and I-95. We had already decided that today was going to be the day for the Iron Horse Saloon, one of our favorite spots. It's on the same road, so we got the bikes ready (translate: I got the bikes ready) to roll.

We pulled out and headed back across to the mainland, and up Hwy 1. As we passed Iron Horse, it looked like it was getting busy, even at 10:30 in the morning. We drove north another 8 miles to the Daytona Experience, and pulled in, along with a lot of other riders.

This event was oriented more to the bikers looking for parts and custom work done on their rides. Kuryakin, a major after-market supplier for both Harley-Davidson and Goldwing, had a large tent. Other, smaller vendors dotted the mall that had at its center the Bruce Rossmeyer Harley-Davidson Accessories store. Linda found this on a poster:

We picked up a few catalogs, and headed out for Iron Horse Saloon.

The place is amazing. At noon, it was already filling up, and we were directed to where we were to park. Since they park the trikes in a different area, Linda rode back around, and back to the front of the event, and I was parked under the huge deck.

Parking is free, and the entertainment is free. The Porchdogs were performing when we arrived, and as we picked out our t-shirts and patches we could here their Cajun-style music playing from the bandstand. We found the only shady spot along the dance floor, and settled in to listen. These guys were great.

With St. Patrick's day coming up this Saturday, when they saw the shamrock in Linda's tatoo they played an Irish song for her, "Whiskey For Breakfast." And Linda knew the song!

At one point during a lively tune Renee (the fiddle player -- could you guess?)  came around to the stage and, without missing a lick, did a pretty good clog.

The accordion player (a "magic button" box, not a piano style keyboard, btw), picked up his newly painted pink fiddle and bow and joked around about it for a few minutes before he and Renee jumped into one hell of a "Devil Went Down To Georgia" rendition that rocked the house.

The Porchdogs performed until 2 o'clock when the Slipnotes took the stage. They had a drummer, an Elvis wannabe lead guitar, and a freaky girl on a green bass fiddle. They sounded better from farther away, so we headed over to the food concessions for some pizza.

We got a couple of slices of cheese pizza, faintly reminiscent of New York style pizza, and then climbed the stairs to the deck.

We sat up there, enjoying the warmth and sunshine, the music, the crowds, the constant rumble of the motorcycles, until almost 4. We headed out and back to the hotel for a nap before hitting Main Street after dark.

Main Street After Dark

We left the bikes at the hotel, and took a cab down to Main Street, just as it was getting dark. It was pretty much like Main Street during the day, only --- it's dark. Crowds, music, girls, motorcycles. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. We were told that it really got wild after about 1 am. Sorry to disappoint, but we didn't make it that late.

Anyway, here are some pics we took. These were at Cruiser's Cafe, where we ate dinner. Yum!

Finally, we found a server that Linda could pose with!

And, of course:

Home about 11:30, had a really good time.

Monday, March 12th

What a difference a day can make! Woke up to 60 degrees, with the promise of 80 in the afternoon, with plenty of sunshine.

We headed out early, to International Speedway Blvd and the Daytona Speedway. Traffic past Main Street and up ISB was light, and we got to the track quickly. We hit the Honda exhibit first.

To be honest, there wasn't a lot of different stuff from last year, when they debuted the 2012 Goldwings. But there were some pretty bikes.

In Honda's merchandise tent, there were no shirts with "Goldwing" on them; only Honda and Honda Racing. Oh, well. We rode over to the the Yamaha tent. They were offering free test rides, but we just looked around. They had some really nice looking motorcycles as well.

Sorry, Harley fans. We didn't go to the Harley-Davidson tent. If I want to look at Harleys, I just have to look -- um, anywhere.

We headed back across the river and down to Main Street, where we parked and walked. We picked up the obligatory souveniers (glasses, shirts, etc), which I dutifully carried back to the bikes so we wouldn't have to carry them all day.

Just when you think you've seen every kind of bike there is, wait a minute, and something weird will come along. As always, there was some beautiful Iron Horses out there, and something else . . .

At first, I thought Linda was taking a pic of the trike, but then I noticed: that's me in the background, carrying some packages back to the bikes.

There were several pictures that both Linda and I took of this one, and it took a while to figure out why. After all, it's just another trike, right?

Nope, it has two wheels in the back, and two in the front. Why not just get a convertible?

We looked down the street, and saw this guy walking down the middle, until the police had him move to the sidewalk.

And, some of the "babes" of Main Street:

This girl came up next to me, and we talked for a bit. Apparently, she's a stripper somewhere, and her manager was taking her and a friend to lunch. I took the picture to show you the location on her shirt -- Krakow, Poland. Honest!

And, of course:

 We headed back to the room around four, and took a nap before heading out to Hog Heaven for some great Bar-B-Que. Afterwards, we were so worn out we headed back to the hotel to bed. Having a great time!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Even on vacation, I can't seem to sleep in. As my Facebook friends could see, I was up early, and I don't think the weather was any happier than I. The rain had stopped, but it was windy and chilly.

I could hear a strange whistling noise coming out of the bathroom that I initially thought was water in the pipes from someone showering above us. I've heard that before. But when I opened the front door, the noise stopped! Close the door, noise in the bathroom; open the door, the noise stopped. It turns out, the tiny window over the tub had a slight air leak that whistled in the wind. The rest of the room is so tight that, once the door opened and the pressure changed, the noise would quit. Opening the window just a bit stopped that.

The ocean has been rough all day, and the wind between the buildings pushed us around as we headed down to Beach Street. It was a shock to see the change from last year. Except for a small handful of vendors, the east side of the street was empty. Bruce Russmeyer's Harley-Davidson store moved to Main Street a few years ago, and it looks like every store on that side had closed as well, with chain link fencing blocking most of the parking lots.

On the west side, it looked more like we've seen before, the Harley-Davidson pavilion taking up a large part of the show. T-shirt and biker accessory kiosks were there, as well as a few food vendors. Custom lighting installers were doing some business, and we looked at a really nice camper-trailer that could be towed behind Linda's trike. There was a trike vendor that had some displays of their product without the panels, so you could see how they're built. Very interesting.

When Linda's knee began to bother her, we stopped in at the "B" Street bar (a tent) for lunch. Good music, good people, pretty barmaids.

I went over to the food kiosk next door to get some food. I had a Polish Sausage dog with peppers & onions, and Linda had just a plain Polish Sausage. The guy called over to the cook, "One naked polack!" Funneee.

I thought our 400 mile was long. We met a guy that came down from Maryland yesterday. 835 miles. He said, "When I hit Myrtle Beach, I was just hittin' my stride!" That's a long ride.

Linda found some nice shirts, and I found a good pair of shades. We're hoping that Main Street will be livelier.

One of the locals told me that, a few years ago there were over 650,000 visitors for Bike Week. This year, they're hoping for 400,000. That's almost a 40% drop in attendance. With gas prices going crazy, I can't imagine trailering a motorcycle down from Michigan or New York. This economy is tough on a lot of people.

We went out for dinner at TGI Friday's, and it's damp, windy and chilly. It's supposed to be much better tomorrow, and we're just gonna hunker down for the night.

71st Annual Daytona Bike Week, March 10 - 18, 2012

Friday, March 9th, 2012 -- Pre-trip Prep.
Finally! Spring is soon upon us, and Daytona is coming along for the ride!

Linda and I will be headed out tomorrow morning for Daytona Beach, the motorcycles moving down I-95, with Florence in the rear-views. Somehow, even though we've been there twice before, we're even more excited about this trip.

We haven't taken a cycle trip since the Kyle Petty run in October. Oh, sure, we've done a couple of charity rides, and a ride or two to Myrtle Beach for lunch (gotta love Joe's Crab Shack), but this is turning out to be the traditional season opener for us.

The normal time for this trip is about 5 hours. We'll stretch that some, as we'll follow our usual 100-mile rule and break frequently. The 400 miles will roll away beneath us quickly, and we're hoping for fair skies and light traffic.

My cycle was due for it's 4000 mile checkup, and I'd held off taking it for a faulty grip heater until now. Pair that with a recall for a potentially faulty rear brake cylinder, and I ended up leaving the vehicle for a week. Both rides are ready to roll, and we'll be packing tonight.

As we take our 100-mile breaks, I'll be posting our whereabouts on Facebook, and I'll be sure to let everyone know when we arrive safely. Hope you enjoy following our trip, and I'll be sure to post a lot of pictures. I'd love feedback, and I'll be happy to answer any questions along the way.

Ormond Beach, Saturday, 6:44 PM

We made it! I know I was going to post our stops on Facebook, but we didn't break for long. Anyway, we pulled into the Best Western in Ormond Beach at about 4:50 this afternoon, about 7 hours after we hit I-95 in Florence.

For the most part, the ride was great. At first, light traffic made the southbound trek easy, and we cruised along at 75 mph. It's hard to converse on the CB at that speed, between wind noise and the motor noises of the vehicles around us, so as Linda listened to her MP3's, I grooved on the road humming under my wheels. The sun was shining, the sky was a cloudless blue (a "Carolina Blue," if you will), and the temperature stayed in the mid to upper sixties. We were dressed for 50's, so we were warm and content.

Stopped in Walterboro for our first 100 mile break, then headed towards the Georgia line. About 5 miles from the line, around Hardeeville (for my Yankee friends, yes there is a Hardeeville), traffic came to a sudden stop, and we moved at a snails pace for 5 miles. Accident? Traffic checkpoint? We couldn't tell. Finally arrived at the cause of the backup -- a tractor trailer had tipped over -- IN THE MEDIAN!!! There was no reason for the slowdown except for the damn rubberneckers, and we lost almost an hour screwing around with it. Sorry, rubberneckers, no bodies for you to drool over. It was just as bad on the northbound lanes.

Georgia passed with little incident. Traffic was heavy for a while, but we took our second break about 30 miles from the Florida line, and let the block of traffic move on. After that, it got easier.

As we crossed into Florida, the skies began to cloud over. We knew we might have rain, especially in Florida, but we kept on going, and except for a slight drop in the temperature, the road stayed dry.

There are just three words to describe Jacksonville -- We Hate It! I95 is under perpetual construction through there, lanes are shruken, traffic is nuts. We both clenched our teeth and got through it before we took our third break. We knew we were close, and we gassed up and took off again.

As we came down Route 1 into Ormond Beach, the rain finally hit. Not too heavy, but enough to soak the roads. As they say, if you're riding a Goldwing, you're not getting wet, so we road through the worst of it relatively dry.

All in all, a good trip. It's raining on and off right now, the skies are dark and menacing. I've covered the bikes for the night, and we're going to dine across the street at the (authentic) German restaurant.