... spending the night at St Augustine FL

Breakfast, I did go down for breakfast. Eggs and really good bacon, plus yogurt. I finally finished my last bottle of juice that I got at the farmers market. This one was mango, not as good as the first flavor. (I thought I had taken a picture of the stand, but no)

We pull out of the hotel in time to get to the Ocala airport when our rental car needs to be returned. We wait on the outside chance that we get a trip, can pick up my truck AND find out that there is room and makes sense for BB to ride with me, not follow me. That didn't happen.

1st stop is the airport in Ocala to change our car from a local to a one way. Usually we would stick with a local as long as possible but in this case we need to keep our one way, one week to get a car. And we need to be home Monday, so today is one week.

When BB gets back in the car she checks the load board as she has been doing all morning. There is one truck in Orlando going to WI. It was from the corp location. I do not have a direct number for them, it goes through a switchboard and by the time I get to dispatch the trip is gone. It was listed as a tractor and I likely would have had to call the shipper to find out what it was. But it was gone.

That was the only FL trip today. There were two GA trips, one coming back to FL and the other going to GA. Nothing worth leaving home for.

No work? So we are heading to Blue Springs State Park. It was recommended by a driver on FB when they heard we were going to be 'stuck' in FL for the weekend.

It is just over 60 miles so we thought we'd be there in an hour. A half hour into our trip it was an hour and a half to the park. So BB started looking closer.

Everything went well until we were about a mile from the park. The computer briefly changed from 45 minutes to 30 minutes before changing back again. 45 minutes to go the final mile.

Some people were parking at a local park and walking the last mile. If we thought about it, neither of us commented about it. And neither of us said it was a bad idea to wait ... that happens with us sometimes too.

We could also see a lot of cars making u-turns and leaving. Sometimes that seemed to be the only times we moved.

45 minutes later we are at the gate, just like Google maps said. BUT Google maps didn't tell us that they were sending us BEYOND the park and having us make a u-turn to help keep traffic from backing up onto the main highway. It will be another 30 minutes before we are back to the gate and paying.

We see that some people who likely had been waiting the same 45 minutes to get to the gate as we did, decided when they saw it would be ANOTHER 30 minutes ... they did u-turns and left at that point.

We thought that the wait was because of a lack of parking. If it had been earlier it was not now. Cars were going in as fast as the booth could take the money. AND we found a place to park right away, with only a handicap spot between us and the park buildings.

One of the first things we see is a sign that says a record 725 manatee were counted in the park this AM. That is up from the 14 that were counted in 1970, the 1st year that records were kept. Within the last week a record of 600+ was set, so a large bump since even then.

We spent about two hours there, looking and some listening to a volunteer.

Cost was $6 per car, up to eight people. The best viewing was within two blocks of the parking lot, we may have walked a mile the whole time we were there.

The news/website says come early. Today I would say come late. We left at 4:30 and the parking lot was 1/2 empty with no line to get in. And the park does not close until 6 PM.

While we were there was saw 'hundreds?' But like a zoo you are looking at them front a distance and they stay mostly under water. They keep stirring up the mud but when they don't the river clears quickly. We walked to the spring which is the start of the river. The spring keeps the water at 72 degrees, always. And that is what brings them back year after year.

When we are ready to leave I text my son who is also in FL. We had mentioned doing something on Sunday but we headed south for warmer weather and he ended up having to work. So we met up tonight for a meal.

3rd stop was Palm Coast, first a hotel to pick him up, then Woody's for food. Opps, we eat inside again. But there is almost no one in here. My son has eaten here once before and they almost left when they saw the parking lot so empty. But really good food, (both times for him)

I THOUGHT I was ordering a French Dip with a different name. But it was a stake on bread with au jus sauce. Between my teeth and my throat I only ate a third of it by the time the others were done. I should have gotten the ribs? Smaller pieces of meat.

Our only lunch today had been an ice cream sandwich at the park. We had planned on eating after the park ... before we knew it was an extra hours wait to get in.

When we are done we drop my son back off at the hotel and head to ours.

BB had looked on line at the reviews of the hotels by Daytona Beach and even the good ones were bad. The #2 rated hotel in Daytona Beach, their last 10 reviews were all ones or two's, no fives.

4th and final stop is the Best Western in St Augustine. When BB couldn't find one in Daytona Beach she looked north of Palm Coast instead of south. Nothing in Palm Coast in our brands of hotels.

Load board

US - 301

IA - 97/96

Tomorrow we watch the load board again. No where to go but home now. We will likely keep moving closer to home even without a trip. We ended up further north than we wanted but if there is an early load we can still be home by Friday from anywhere in FL. If the trip shows up later in the day it will be Monday when we can deliver. This car should be returned by 10:30 on Monday ...

LOG

10:00 - Leave Comfort Inn in Wesley Chapel FL

11:15 - Ocala FL Airport to change reservations from local to one way

2:15 - Orange City - Blue Spring State Park

4:30 - Leave Blue Spring

5:30 - Palm Coast - Woody's BBQ

7:30 - St Augustine - Best Western