USA Road Trip » florida

Day 16 Orlando Florida to Jacksonville Florida

Judy — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 01:39:57 +0000

So we’ve reached the turnaround point of our trip, and now we’re heading back across the country to LA. We drove to the east coast and stopped to dip our toes in the Atlantic Ocean, so that we can say that we really did go right from the West Coast to the East Coast. The water felt quite warm, and there are plenty of people on the beaches over here on the East Coast. Gorgeous weather too.

We made our way up the coast, stopping at St Augustine, the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the US. It was founded by a Spanish explorer in 1565. We wandered round the Castillo de San Marcos fort and the old streets in the centre of the town, where we saw the original city gate, the oldest wooden school in the US and a few other old things that have been around since before Australia was discovered. If you’re interested, here’s the Wikipedia article

We’re staying in Jacksonville tonight, then heading north to Georgia tomorrow.

Space Shuttle launch pad and vehicle assembly building across the water from Titusville Florida

How the americans handle beach traffic. Hundreds of cars, thousands of people over many kilometres of beach, all controlled and orderly. Smyrna Beach Florida

Feet in the Atlantic Ocean

Day 15 Orlando Florida

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:17:03 +0000

Harry Potter at Universal Studios

Hogwarts Castle

Drinking Butter Beer at the 3 Broomsticks

The ride that Judy did

Day 14 Grayton Beach State Park Florida to Orlando Florida

Judy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:18:29 +0000

We spent most of the day driving from the campground we stayed at last night to Orlando Florida. Much of it was spent on the I-10, then we headed south towards Orlando. As we got closer to Orlando, we had to avoid the tollroads as most of them don’t accept cash payments at a tollbooth – you have to have an e-ticket-thingy, or phone to organise a credit card payment. It ws easier to just keep away from tollroads.

And the main reason we’re in Orlando, Florida? To go and see The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, which is part of Universal’s Islands of Adventure theme park. Watch this space tomorrow!

One of the many excellent rest areas along the USA interstates. The Florida ones have been even better

Day 13 New Orleans Louisiana to Grayton Beach State Park Florida

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:41:38 +0000

Unlucky day 13. We left New Orleans at a good time, to make Grayton Beach early in the afternoon. However at Mobile Alabama, we holed a tyre (or tire in the USA), fortunately right outside a tire shop. However they did not have a replacement, although they tried to fix the old one, but could not. They spent some time helping us, and charged us nothing. We then went to another one, but also no luck. However they sent us to a third, which did have a replacement.

The whole episode took about 3 hours, and we didn’t arrive at Grayton Beach until 7pm at night (losing another hour crossing into the eastern time zone in Florida. We then found someone had already taken our booked campsite, but they moved on. We think they were just hoping no one would turn up.

Its a nice State Park. The americans do know how to setup camping areas. Its not exactly wilderness camping (Water, 50 amp power point for powering your 10 metre long RV), but it is nice.

campsite Grayton Beach on the Gulf of Mexico

Grayton Beach on the Gulf of Mexico Florida. Calm and the water was warm.