Spring Break Road Trip 2020: Day One

St Augustine, Florida:  After skipping our annual road trip last year because of transitioning to a new job, I was really looking forward to this year's trip.  We had originally planned on Charleston for the trip, but we were still recovering from an extended time without pay during the transition so we decided to stay a little closer to home.  The choice for this year's trip was St Augustine.

We were in St Augustine a while back but left with only scratching the surface of what the city has to offer.  So during this trip, we decided to experience more of what the Old City has and by doing this we used the Old Town Trolley and Historic Tours of America to enhance our exploration of the city.

As the trip came closer, the world and the country began to spiral out of control with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Disney closed, Universal closed, Busch Gardens/Sea World closed, much of Florida and the country was closing.  We were concerned that the trip wouldn't even happen as a result of closures.  We kept monitoring the closures and the number of cases in Florida.  The eve of departure we had a decision to make.

After careful consideration, we decided the night before we departed for St Augustine to continue with the trip.  Most of the attractions we had planned on visiting were still operating and there was only one case of the coronavirus in St Johns County, the county in which St Augustine is located.  We would exercise self hygiene, take precautions to avoid large crowds and keep up the current happenings in the city and state to ensure we are following safety recommendations. While some may think it was selfish of us to continue with the trip while the world is dealing with the pandemic, I felt it was the least we could do to help stimulate the tourism and service industry before their livelihood came screeching to a halt in the coming days.

The fluidity of the trip started from the moment we departed Monday morning.  During the original planning of the trip, we had initially planned on starting with the Jacksonville Zoo.  But the zoo was closed through the end of the month, we the first stop of the trip now became the St. Augustine Zoo.

We hit the road early and in typical road trip style, we took back roads most of the way.  We avoided the Interstate trio of 75, 4 and 95 as the GPS recommended and opted for a few country roads and the scenery of back-roads Florida.  We got off I-75 in the Ocala area and headed through the small towns of the middle of the state.

Our first stop once we reached St Augustine was the St Augustine Alligator Farm. Last trip we skipped over the Alligator Farm, mainly because living in Florida we have seen our fair share of gators.  But we have heard nothing but good thin  It is gs and have seen some amazing photos from the natural rookery here we decided to check it out.  I am glad we decided to go.  This place is seriously underrated!  I never knew there were so many species of alligators and crocodiles.  Every corner had a new species I had never seen or heard of.  But this place doesn't just have gators and crocs, they have lemurs, a sloth and a bunch of different types of exotic birds.  Then there is the rookery, this is what drew us into the park.  We have seen a bunch of photos online from native birds here in the natural rookery.  It did not disappoint, hundreds of gators and nesting birds of all species packed the rookery and surrounding wetlands.

After we finished at the Alligator Farm, we headed into the historic district to check into our hotel.  We pulled in the hotel and were instantly welcomed by a rough looking, aged Floridian motel that looked nothing like the photos from the website.  I attempted to look past it, I mean the photos of the rooms showed the interiors have been remodeled.  Once in the lobby, the trend of rough looking aged Florida continued and it was met with an attitude from the check-in staff so we decided maybe it was a sign to find somewhere else to stay.

We drove around town a bit to do a little recon on potential hotels and we settled on the Best Western Historic in the heart of the downtown district.  They offered a good rate and were close to what we needed to do.  The outside looked much better and the inside was nicely renovated and clean.  The cleanliness is what really drew us here, with the coronavirus scare, we didn't want to take any chances with a hotel cutting corners.  We took the suitcases up to the room and unpacked before hitting the streets for some more exploration.

The next stop of the day was the Fountain of Youth.  Here is where Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon landed in 1513.  The centerpiece of the property was the namesake Fountain of Youth, a free flowing spring from a deep aquifer.  They believed drinking from this fountain would provide eternal health.  After a drink from the fountain in an effort to fend off the virus, we continued to explore the grounds.  There are living history exhibits that bring the past to life.  From the Timucua Indian Village to the Spanish and Catholics, there are history interpreters here to help give you an inside look at life in early St Augustine.  A few other highlights of the tour were the canon and rifle firing which occurs several times daily and the free roaming peacocks which seemed to be everywhere.  While we seemed to always miss the planetarium show, we managed to do experience everything else they had to offer.

Once we completed the Fountain of Youth, it was time to find something to eat.  We headed towards the north side of town and found a seafood place along Ponce De Leon Boulevard.  Our first St Augustine meal came from Schooner's Seafood House.  They were listed as one of the favorite seafood houses in the area and had great reviews on Trip Advisor.  It was outside the downtown historic district and seemed to be full of locals enjoying their meals.  I chose the shrimp and had a cup of clam chowder as well.  The food was delicious and they did not skimp on portions.  In fact no one finished their entire meal, so we had leftovers to take back to the hotel afterwards.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to drop of the food in the fridge before heading back out to explore.  We had a couple hours to go before our scheduled ghost tour, so we decided to explore the barrier island and beaches.  We drove through St Augustine Beach southward toward Fort Mantanzas before heading north to Ponte Vedra, stopping at a few beaches along the way.  At Fort Mantanzas, we missed the final boat for the day so we decided to come back Wednesday to take the ferry out to the island to explore the fort.  We then stopped at Crescent Beach and South Ponte Vedra Beach to take a look at the Atlantic and the white capped waves of the ocean that we usually do not get at the Gulf of Mexico.

As the sun began to set, it came time for the ghost tour.  During this trip we chose the Ghost and Gravestones Tour by Old Town Trolley.  We met at the Welcome Center about 20 minutes before our departure time and were told by staff that due to changes caused by coronavirus precautions, they have capped tours to less than 20 people instead of the 30 they usually have.  Our tour was the only one that was sold out so they were splitting our group up into a 20 person tour and 8 and a 10 person tour at 8:20.  We elected to take the bump to the 8:20 tour and enjoy a smaller group and a more intimate experience.  We boarded the trolley and hit the streets for a tour.  The tour made a few stops along the way.  The first was the Tolamato Cemetery for a story of the haunts in this ancient final resting place.  From there we headed into the Chamber of Horrors at the Potter's Wax Museum where we learned about Andrew Ranson and his botched hanging in which I was chosen to play the part of Ranson and be hung from the gallows.  As a result of being the victim of the hanging, I was given a copy of the Ghost and Gravestone book with tales of some of the haunts talked about on the tour.  This was a really cool gift as I had planned on buying the book at the conclusion of the tour.  The last stop of the tour was at the Old Jail.  The Old Jail was on several of the ghost hunter tours and is one of the most haunted places in town.  We learned about the haunts of the jail through our convict actor.  I really enjoyed the story telling of the tour, it was probably the one of the best ghost tours I have taken in that aspect.  We just wished there was time to explore the jail and do a little ghost hunting of our own.

At the conclusion of the tour, we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before another big day of exploration tomorrow.  While we do not have anything hard scheduled tomorrow, we do have a busy list of things to-do tomorrow.  With the ever changing climate from the COVID-19 pandemic, there are constant changes taking place that can effect our trip at any moment so we are trying to get as much done today and tomorrow in the event attractions start closing.

Be sure to check back later from more stories and lots of photos from our trip to the old city. Until then, click on any of the photos in this article to view the 2020 Spring Break Road Trip photo gallery to see photos from day one of the trip and photos from the rest of the trip will be added to the gallery once they are completed.