April 1, 2008 - St. Augustine, FL

On our way to St. Augustine, we parked the RV in a Walmart parking lot and disconnected the car. We drove to the historic district of Sanford. Sanford was originally called Mellonville and evolved around Fort Mellon, built during the Seminole Indian wars of the 1830s. It was a major steamboat center because it is located near Lake Monroe, fed by the St. Johns River. In 1870, General Henry Sanford purchased more than 15,500 acres. He set up the community and established citrus groves. He tested 140 varieties of citrus fruits and developed the Valencia juice orange. In 1894-95 they had a big freeze so many of the farmers switched to growing vegetables. By 1910, Sanford was one of America’s largest vegetable shipping centers. Today it is known as the Celery City. We walked down main street and took pictures of the all the old buildings. In the chimney of one of the brick buildings, an osprey was busy constructing her nest.

We continued our drive to the St. Augustine CampingWorld so our new tires could be set with our Smart tire system. At least by staying in Cummins and CampingWorld we got to stay free. Larry went in and told them we were here and that we would be driving into town. As we drove into town, we had to stop, traffic was backed up because the draw bridge was up and no one could get across on the bridge. This draw bridge was so unusual at least to us. It is a lift bridge where a section of the bridge is raised striaght up and held there until the ship passes underneath it. Once the bridge was lowered, we were able to drive out to see the St. Augustine Lighthouse. It was originally built in 1824. It managed to survive the Civil War and then it was flattened by tidal erosion. The lighthouse was rebuilt on Anastasia Island in 1874. The spiral black and white design is another example of the daymark used to guide ships during the day. We drove back into town and went to the visitors center to get information about touring St. Augustine. There were many tours to pick from but we decided to take the Ripley's Sightseeing Trains. This train tour was good for two days and it also allowed us to get off and on as we desired. The tour took us down some of the narrow brick streets and by many beautiful buildings. It was a terrific way to see the town and to figure out where you wanted to go back and spend more time exploring.

St. Augustine is a beautiful town filled with history, great architectures, beautiful gardens, narrow brick streets and walkways, stone walls and overhanging balconies. Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. Spanish Explorers found gold and silver in Mexico and Peru and were sent back in ships to Spain. Spanish settlements needed to be built to protect the Spanish fleets. Pedro Menendez founded St. Augustine in 1565. St. Augustine is the oldest continually occupied European settlement in North America. St. Augustine was constantly under attack by pirates and Indians. The fort and the village was burned by Englishman Francis Drake in 1586. St. Augustine was sacked again in 1668 by pirate John Davis. Spain’s Queen Regent Mariana realized that St. Augustine was the keystone in the defense of the Florida coast, so she ordered the construction of a new fort in 1672, the Castillo de San Marcos. It took 23 years to complete. The fort was built of coquina (a mixture of shells, lime stone and sand) which did not become brittle and crumble under cannon fire. England defeated Spain and The Treaty of Paris in 1763 divided Florida into two colonies and St. Augustine became the capital of East Florida. Florida was returned to Spain after the American Revolution in 1783 and Spain ruled for another 37 years. In 1821, the Americans took over from the Spanish.