The Beginning of the Trip to St. Augustine

We decided to take off for St. Augustine this past weekend. I put the decision off to the last moment, but everyone was dying to go. This was unusual for SaurKid, who has matured a great deal in the last year. In the past, his ultimate goal was to live and die with a PlayStation 2 controller in his hand. I had mixed feelings about going, and I was also not looking forward to driving 3 1/2 hours there. Still, the thought of the beautiful old town was very tempting. In the end, the town won.

We left mid-morning, with little rush and the knowlege that we'd still arrive there in time to see some things. We drove at 80 mph from the Tampa Bay Area to Orlando, where traffic always jams to a near-stop for miles on end.

I think the hardest part about being in Orlando is fighting with yourself; because Orlando has become a nightmare destination due to the abominable traffic. All you think to yourself is "what if I just go around all these cars and run up the emergency lane for a little bit? It will really shave off some time!" At the point where my inner voice had almost needled me into doing it, I saw a broken-down car in the emergency lane and realized it was a good thing I hadn't tried it.

I believe we lost at least 45 minutes to the usual Orlando Traffic Jam. I don't know how the citizens there stand it, because it's a daily occurrence. Perhaps those of you in other cities experience it, too, but it's a rarity in Florida (so far!). They have plenty of land: Why don't they expand the roads???

Then we continued on toward Daytona Beach, passed a massive Harley Davidson shop, and continued up the stretch to St. Augustine.

Did I mention that I drive stick shift? I didn't think so. This will become very important later in the story. As you can guess, my legs were already sore from the constant stop-&-go in hellish Orlando.

When we finally reached St. Augustine we made a wrong turn and headed for the beach there. That's how we discovered that there's a lesser-known and smaller fort there: Fort Matanzas.

This is how Ft. Matanzas appeared in the 1870s

Ft. Matanzas (Matanzas is Spanish for "slaughters") was initially built in 1741. The name is much older than the fort, based on the bloody slaughter of 450 French Protestants in 1565, who refused to convert to Catholicism. Restoration on the fort began in 1916 and finished around 1940, with this result:

This is how Ft. Matanzas appears today

Because we had so little time, we chose to not take the ferry over to Ft. Matanzas. We were content to look across the water at it, and returned to our car.

Part 2 is tomorrow.