JONATHAN DICKINSON STATE PARK, HOBE, FL

Thursday, September 24 - We traveled a little over 200 miles this morning down I-95 to Hobe Sound, Florida. We are about 75 miles north of Ft. Lauderdale at Jonathan Dickinson State Park. This is a huge park – over 10,000 acres. It is one of Florida's largest and most diverse state parks.

The park is named for Jonathan Dickinson, a Quaker merchant whose vessel shipwrecked nearby in 1696. His party became victims of Indian wars and disease and died shortly thereafter.

During World War II, the land the park now occupies was home to Camp Murphy, a top-secret radar training school. It became a state park in 1950.

There are two campgrounds available. One is designed for smaller RV's and tent campers with water and 30-amp electric. Those sites are grass and have fire rings. The other is newly remodeled and predominately designed for RV's including being “big rig” friendly. This is where we are parked in Site #73. The streets are paved with compacted gravel sites. We have a 50-amp full hook-up site. This surprised us. Our research showed the site to have only water and electric, but we were pleasantly surprised to be told we had a sewer hook-up as well. There is a very large attached patio of gravel with a fire ring and posts to string up a clothes line. There are large grassy areas between the sites making it nice and private. The price is $27/day + tax. This does include entrance to the park each day. Possibly a disadvantage to some is that there is no shade in this bigger camping area. With 50 amp, we are plenty comfortable even in the 90 degree weather.

Looking right.

Looking left.

There are cabins available to rent, canoes, kayaks, motorboats and bicycles also for rent. There is a picnic area and a playground. There is also a network of over 20 miles of hiking trails maintained by the Florida Trail Association.

The Hobe Mountain Observation Tower offers awesome views of the park, the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

Hobe Mountain (should actually call it a hill) is an ancient sand dune that rises a whopping 86 feet above sea level, making it the highest natural point in South Florida south of Lake Okeechobee

That is the Intracostal Waters in front. The Ocean blends in with the sky in the back.

There is a very nice nature center and Visitor's Center with exhibits of many of the animals calling Jonathan Dickinson State Park home. They also have many programs including guided hikes, night hikes, guided platoon rides on the river and guided canoe and kayak tours. We've signed up for a kayak tour tomorrow morning – our first experience in a kayak. So ya'll come back and experience a first kayak trip with Marsha. This should be an experience!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

DISTILLERY AND WINERY FREE TOUR

Wednesday, September 23 – We had three more things we wanted to do in St. Augustine, FL, before departing on Thursday. Since it was pouring down rain, we made a quick photo stop at the Oldest House. The "Oldest House" title dates from a period when the house was believed to have been built in the 16th century.

Next up was the St. Augustine Distillery. This is a small local distillery of Bourbon, Vodka, Gin, and Rum. They have only been in operation for a year and a half and only distribute in the state of Florida. They are a brand new business collaborative; a group of locals that share a dream. Everything from the sugar cane to the citrus is local.

There is a very nice museum that we visited while waiting for the tour to begin.

The tour begins with a short movie giving us an overview of how the distillates are produced. Following the movie we were escorted through the facility on a tour. This is a short tour taking less than ten minutes. The next stop is the tasting room.

They do everything by hand…even putting the cork in each bottle.

Our tour guide acted as barmaid mixing a delicious Florida Moose, their take on the well-know Moscow Moose. She used St. Augustine Distillery Vodka. It was delicious.

Our guide makes crushed ice the old-fashion way.

Our next drink was a Gin and Tonic. Marsha was only one of two in the crowd that does not like Gin. Our guide guaranteed this would be unlike any Gin and Tonic we tasted in the past, and she was correct. The local use of oranges and grapefruits is obvious in the flavor and a good improvement in our tasting. Best Gin and Tonic we have ever had!

We chased the G & T down with a neat taste of the Vodka and then a little Gin. Both were tasty, and we enjoyed them. The Bourbon is not expected to be ready until closer to Christmas.

All their alcohol and bar products are available at the gift shop. Average price is about $23/bottle. It is also sold locally and in some locations throughout Florida. It currently is not being shipped outside the state. It is the #2 place to visit on TripAdvisor. It was a really nice stop.

Our next stop was the San Sebastian Winery. Another free tour.

This too is a small operation selling most of their wine locally. This tour also began with a short video followed by a tour of the winery and then a stop in the tasting room.

They cork their bottles by hand also.

The wine tasting in itself was pretty extensive. Our sommelier was excellent. He explained that there are 5 S’s to wine tasting….See, Smell, Swirl, Sniff, Sip. We were given tastes of four different wines, plus a port and a sherry. We found them all pretty good, except one.

We showed are appreciation by purchasing two bottles to go! Marsha will save them for our wine tasting party next summer back in Ohio. We already have the theme for the party – Florida wines.

A mention about the weather. So far we are not a real fans of the weather here in the Northeast part Florida. It's been VERY humid. Temperatures haven't been really too unbearable with highs in the 80's and lows in the 70's, (It would be nice if it cooled down a little more at night.) but combined with the high humidity, it makes it pretty uncomfortable for doing much of anything outside. We don't particularly like sitting in the RV. Much prefer relaxing on the patio, but with the humidity even Bella, our cat, can only take about an hour at most before she's wanting to return to the AC. Maybe things will improve as we move South. Marsha has just about had it with “bad hair days.” :-)

This morning, we hook-up and headed to Hobe Sound, Florida. It’s located between Daytona and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We plan on spending most of our stay relaxing on several of the many beaches in the area.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

SUN ON A BEACH

Tuesday, September 22 – – Today was beach day! We arrived to a nearly deserted beach around
9 a.m. We like arriving early so we can get in plenty of sun before it gets too dang hot. Nice to have miles and miles of beautiful beach to walk along without thousands of people.

We did test the water, and it was pleasantly comfortable. Not too cold or not too hot. We spent the day relaxing, reading, strolling the beach and people watching.

It cracked us up that the two times we went for a walk upon returning to our chairs people had set-up less than ten feet away. What's wrong with these people? There's miles of beach here folks! Just relax, we'll pack up our stuff and move down the beach.....jeesh! (end of rant :-)

When Marsha walked over to the restrooms, look what was looking up at here by the steps.

We never thought we would see this in Florida.

We had enough sun shortly after 1 p.m. and headed back to the RV park at the St. Augustine Elks Lodge. On the way back, we stopped for a Kodak moment at the St. Augustine Lighthouse. It was difficult to get a good picture without paying for a tour. We weren't willing or is it too cheap for that, so we did the best we could.

Another RV pulled-in today making it five total. Not sure if they are full or not. There are several more RV hookups in the weeds beside us, but they look like they haven't been used for quite some time. Guess we'll have to wait and see if anyone attempts to use them.

Whenever we do a hike or a long walk, we rely on our iPhones to let us know how many steps we took and how many miles we walked/hiked. According to our iPhones when we did our walking tour of St. Augustine, we walked over 8.55 and took 18,462 steps. If that sounds too overwhelming for you, there are all kinds of trolley tours and carriage rides available. We considered taking one just to hear the driver's description of the sights, but we really enjoy stopping whenever we choose and seeing the sights at our own pace.

Marsha found the first thing she doesn’t like about Florida…the humidity. She keeps saying that she is having the worse hair day EVER. She says if she lived her she would have to cut her hair short. That ain’t happening, so I guess we won’t be moving to Florida in the near future.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!