Jacksonville and St Augustine, FL

After our brief stop in Charleston, we drove down to Jacksonville, Florida and we're staying at the Naval Air Station's Jacksonville RV Park.

We caught up with friends Fran and John, who were staying at another Naval Air Station campground, Osprey Cove RV Park.

Back in 2009, Lynda and I discovered Beach Road Chicken when we were visiting the Jacksonville Mayo Clinic. They claim to be the oldest restaurant in Jacksonville, and have been at the same location since 1939. Beach Road Chicken serves up very generous portions of family-style dinners of good ole' southern cookin', such as fried chicken, catfish, creamed peas, biscuits... etc. Everything is heart-stoppin' good, and we were determined to go back there again. Anyway, we picked up Fran and John and went to Beach Road Chicken for lunch - it was as good as we remembered!

Fran and John

After lunch, we drove to a so-called historic district which was supposed to offer an interesting area to park and walk around. We could not find it, and  ended up driving around. We came upon some beautiful old homes and so it turned out to be a very pleasant afternoon despite the false start.

Fran and John left the next day for Patrick Air Force Base... we will be just a few days behind them.

Before arriving in Jacksonville, I contacted a long-time friend, Kevin, who had moved to St Augustine about a year ago. We arranged to spend Saturday afternoon and evening with him in St Augustine, and I was really looking forward to seeing him!

Knowing that we would not be home from St Augustine until at least 10PM, we decided to board Sydney and Barley rather than leave them alone for 12 hours in the motor home. We dropped them off Saturday morning at the Jacksonville Airport Pet Paradise boarding kennel. Pet Paradise has facilities around the country at major airports. What makes them so useful is that you can drop off and/or pick up your pets on Sundays... most kennels do not offer Sunday service.

As it turned out, another friend, Bridget, had recently moved to Ponte Vedra Beach and so we met her for brunch at Beach Diner Saturday morning before driving south to St Augustine. We became friends with Bridget online several years ago when we were looking for a housesitter, but had never met her in person. We were so glad to have that time with her!

We met up with Kevin at his apartment in the old part of town around 1:30PM. We met his little dog, Walter, and then spent the next eight hours walking all over St Augustine, seeing both the touristy stuff and the off-the-beaten path things. Kevin's enthusiasm and love for St Augustine is so contagious! And he knows so much about this beautiful old town.

The weather was perfect. We ate a late lunch, popped into taverns for a beer every so often, got some pizza, walked around cemeteries, smoked cigars, visited Flagler College, etc. It was just an amazing time with my dear ole' friend. And, as you can see, Kevin and Lynda hit it off just fine!

We left St Augustine around 10PM and drove back to our Jacksonville campground  - we were exhausted and our feet were sore, but what a fun day we had!

We left Jacksonville this morning, after picking  Sydney and Barley up from Pet Paradise. They were happy to see us. Woof!