Experiment-627: A Caribbean Double with a Wilderness Chaser

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Chapter 3: The Hook

Part 2: Interstate Blues​

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One of the benefits of riding (as opposed to driving) is that you actually get to see where you’re going. Yah… I know the driver is looking through the same windshield, but if you have the wheel in your hands then you’re focusing on the art of driving (or at least you ought to be). All the sites around you are just a blur of motion to which you ain’t paying attention (unless you actually want that truck to run you down of have that cop over there pull you out of line and subject you to a little bit of special attention). But form the passenger side, the same “view” looks totally different. Because you actually get to see it. Now, if we were riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway, or heading down US-17 on the coast, or up NC-12 in the Outerbanks, or along A1A in Florida, then this freedom to watch all the scenery would have been a real bonus. As it was… we were traveling via those long roads with capital “I” and a dash in their numeric designations. Vast stretches of homogenized sameness designed to move freight from point-A to point-B while simultaneously sucking the life out of every small town that was no longer on the way. The dream of every conniving land developer, the bane of every daily commuter, the stuff of traffic jam legends, we’re talking about the US Interstate system. I know that most of you (at least the ones that haven’t been glued to either a Gameboy or a DVD screen for the last sixteen years) already understand what I'm on about here. But just to drive home the concept, here’s a sample of how amazingly different the scenery is between my home and our central FLA destination.

First there is the enticing mix of evergreens and hardwoods that frame the wide lanes of I-77 through the Carolinas

Not to be outdone, I-26 boasts a clear view of the roadway surrounded by a canopy of greenery made up of deciduous trees and conifers alike.

Then there is the majestic expanse of I-95 cutting its way though a swath of verdant coastal forest in the SC Low-Country.

Once in Georgia the view along I-95 changes dramatically as you enter the coastal plane with its prodigious growth of year-round greenery.

But to be fair, I-95 doesn’t really start to shine until you are surrounded by the glorious mix of pine and coastal perennials that put the “flora” into Florida.

OK… snap out of it. HAY… I said wake up! It’s not all that bad. Well… sometimes it is, but I’m not really being fair. There are a number of rather interesting things to see along the way. No, really. There actually are (and I’m not talking about the regular billboards for fireworks and “adult superstores”). As a for-instance: it’s not every stretch of road that boasts this particular view:

That… is a retired USAF B-47 Stratojet. Here, I’ll reduce the speed from 75 to 0 so you can get a better look. You’ll find this bird (and much more) on display at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Pooler, GA.

There are also a lot of really great views toward the southern end of the I-95 in GA. Especially as you start through the river inlets around the sea isles south of Brunswick. I don’t have any good photos of this area (as by this time, I was doing the driving and Tamara and Max were trying to catch a little after lunch shut eye), but the inlets in this area are grand sites. The smell coming off of some of the paper & pulp mills… not so much, but the visuals are excellent.

Of course there are several sites that will just miraculously lift you’re spirits right up out of the doldrums.
Like this one:

The top sign I mean… the one on the bottom… ehhhh… I don’t have a dog in that fight, so it don’t matter to me. Oh, here’s a tip. Remember to pound out the melody to IASW on your car horn as you’re crossing over the St. Mary’s river at the FL/GA boarder. There’s a fellow DisDad living around there and he’d really appreciate hearing that particular tune (he’ll hunt me down for that one I’m sure, but I couldn’t resist).

Another great vista can be found by leaving the main road and taking FL-9A around Jacksonville (which is a good idea anyway). The bridge crossing over the St Johns at Dames point is absolutely spectacular, both as a structure and as a vantage point.

The first span of the bridge

Jacksonville in the distance
(and off in the distance is a good place for it)

But do keep one little thing in mind. If you let the road hypnotize you and stop paying attention to what you’re doing… you’ll very likely find yourself getting a close up and personal view of one of these ubiquitous highway landmarks:

Y’all be careful out there… Ya’ hear.

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[Grooovertoo]

Here’s what all was in the packets:​

…a couple of small door/fridge magnets (also our work) and here’s one example:​

…and a CD of various Caribbean/Sailing/Vacationing/Disney related tunes. A couple of other groups also gave out CDs, but since I did the artwork for one of them, I already knew what songs she was planning to use and could stay away from repeating those tunes at least. I was also able to capture recordings of the various ship’s horn calls and added them to the CD as well.​

On the up side, once you deliver all your gifts, you’ll have an extra bag left over into which you can cram all the flotsam and jetsam that you’ve collected up during your own exploits aboard the ship.​

Love the ideas for the gifts. The pin is very cool and I was actually thinking of doing some magnets and putting together a CD too. Would you mind if I ask what was on your playlist? I’m putting together some ideas, but want to make sure it works.

And holy snieky!!!? I was afraid we would need another suitcase just for the FE trinkets and you proved it…WOW!!!!

 

[afwdwfan]

Stupidhead alarmclock. Doesn’t this hunk of ****

Kind of a deja vu moment with the cat thing.

The wretched thing has no trouble at all racing through the fourth dimension and rousting me up from a sound and blissful sleep just so I can drag my sorry rump off to work.

Isn't that the truth...

That bit of physics it can circumnavigate faster then Sheldon Cooper

Excellent reference!

It’s easy to bring too much stuff when you’re going to be away from home for a while, but we got it all into a manageable number of bags and I was able to get all of them into the trunk of the car. I didn’t even have anything overflowing into the back seat or on the floor in the cabin. Cool!

I would say I have no idea how you did it, but I'm sure Max's age helps. We can't leave home without... well... anything.

Oh, here’s a tip. Remember to pound out the melody to IASW on your car horn as you’re crossing over the St. Mary’s river at the FL/GA boarder. There’s a fellow DisDad living around there and he’d really appreciate hearing that particular tune (he’ll hunt me down for that one I’m sure, but I couldn’t resist).

I think somebody better get over to the DDC to announce the newest nemesis pairing. That's quite a brave move choosing Fed for a nemesis.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Excellent reference!

Thanks

I would say I have no idea how you did it, but I'm sure Max's age helps. We can't leave home without... well... anything.

Been there… done that… have a huge collection of the souvenir cupie dolls.
It has taken time to teach the “Art of Less”, but we get better at it with each trip.
One of the best tricks is to say: “If we get there and you’re missing something you need, I’ll buy you a new one… with Mickey embroidered on it.”

I think somebody better get over to the DDC to announce the newest nemesis pairing. That's quite a brave move choosing Fed for a nemesis.

Naaaaa… Fed is a good ol’ Southern boy as well. But to be fair, y’all can use that same IASW trick on me as well. If you blast it out on I-77 at the NC/SC boarder, I’ll certainly hear you (wait a couple of miles till you get to Exit-85, and I’d be unable to avoid it)

 

[petals]

I love the pic of your cat trying to hide out in the luggage. Fortunately (or unfortunately as if I was allowed the dogs would be coming across the atlantic as well) my dogs have yet to figure out the art of hiding in the luggage!

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Love the ideas for the gifts. The pin is very cool and I was actually thinking of doing some magnets and putting together a CD too. Would you mind if I ask what was on your playlist? I’m putting together some ideas, but want to make sure it works.

And holy snieky!!!? I was afraid we would need another suitcase just for the FE trinkets and you proved it…WOW!!!!

"Holy Snieky!!!" I like that one. I may have to quote you. That was one of the smaller suitcases we brought, but it was an entire suitcase. The space required will obviously vary with the volume and numbers of F/E gifts you need to bring along.

As for your question about the CD… I’d be glad to oblige.

Let me first make the following disclaimers about the tunes selected for this little venture. Disclaimer-1: we have a rather vast collection of Disney music from well warn standards, to modern remixes, to atmosphere music from the parks and attractions. Now a collection of this type is not uncommon for DisBoard members and most other Disney freaks. That fact coupled with the fact that I already knew what songs were going to be on at least one other CD being handed out on this cruise lead directly to our choice of theme and choice of songs for our offering. The theme chosen was to go with songs that fit either a Caribbean, island-ish, or dance music style. This leads me to Disclamer-2: those tunes chosen (mostly the dance stuff and especially the last one) are in no way to be seen as a reflection of my particular musical taste or be seen as an endorsement on my part for even being aloud to exist.

Now then… you’ve already seen the image from the front of the jewel case. Here’s the one that we put into the backside:

and heres a slightly more readable version of that list:


When You Wish Upon a Star 1 (Ships horn)
Knee Deep (Zac Brown Band)
Get the Deck Party Started
Hot Hot Hot (Buster Poindexter)
When You Wish Upon a Star 2 (Ships horn)
A Whale of a Tale (Kirk Douglas from 20,000 Leagues)
Holiday (Jimmy Buffett)
Carefree Castaway Cay
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (Ships horn)
Kiss the Girl (Samuel E. Wright from Little Mermaid)
Best Years of Our Lives (Baha Men)
One Particular Harbour (Jimmy Buffett)
Conch Cooler Chill Out
An Actor's Life for Me (Ships horn)
Gilligan's Island (TV Theme Song)
Coco Jamboo (Rainer Gaffrey)
Bang the Drum All Day (Todd Rundgren)
A Pirate's Life for Me (Ships horn)
A Pirate's Life for Me (From the POTC Attraction-WDW)
Angelica (Hans Zimmer - POTC4 Movie soundtrack)
South of the Border Sunshine
Volcano (Jimmy Buffett)
Be Our Guest (Ships horn)
I Like It Like That (Manny Rodriguez)
Banana Wind - Instrumental (Jimmy Buffett)
Oh, I Love You So (Preston Smith)
Two Hornpipes - Tortuga (POTC1 Movie Soundtrack)
Swisskapolka (Swiss Family Treehouse Attraction-WDW)
It's a Small World (Ships horn)
Cha Cha Slide (William Perry)
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Those tunes that do not list the composer or source, were pulled from a CD given to us by DCL as members of their Castaway Club. The ones marked “(Ships horn)“ are recordings of the actual Disney Dream’s horns, and if you’d like I can get you copies of those. The rest of ‘em are pretty self-explanatory and the order was designed to change the styles fairly frequently so as to keep the disk interesting on long car rides.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I love the pic of your cat trying to hide out in the luggage. Fortunately (or unfortunately as if I was allowed the dogs would be coming across the atlantic as well) my dogs have yet to figure out the art of hiding in the luggage!

I understand completely. We’d love to be able to bring “Captain Hair-Ball” with us when ever we’re heading out on a long trip, but he does not travel well and hates change with a capital ! Actually he was trying to prevent us from putting anything into the luggage. If I had closed the lid for even a second, he’d have completely wigged out.

 

[afwdwfan]

One of the best tricks is to say: “If we get there and you’re missing something you need, I’ll buy you a new one… with Mickey embroidered on it.”

I'll have to try that one... although I doubt it will work. Since it will only be the 3 of us, we're going to take the truck. I'm going to take all non-essential items out of the toolbox so we can put luggage in it, but I'm sure we'll have spillover into the bed.

Naaaaa… Fed is a good ol’ Southern boy as well. But to be fair, y’all can use that same IASW trick on me as well. If you blast it out on I-77 at the NC/SC boarder, I’ll certainly hear you (wait a couple of miles till you get to Exit-85, and I’d be unable to avoid it)

I'll keep it in mind If I'm ever over in those areas, but we typically are driving down through GA.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I'll have to try that one... although I doubt it will work. Since it will only be the 3 of us, we're going to take the truck. I'm going to take all non-essential items out of the toolbox so we can put luggage in it, but I'm sure we'll have spillover into the bed.

This don’t work for very young kids (with them you have to bring all the paraphernalia in order to survive). It’s mostly a ploy I attempt to use on my DW. It’s a fairly safe bet because you really don’t need everything that you think you do (self included). If we get there and she really is missing something needed, then getting her a new one of what ever it was just adds to the trip, as every time the uses or wears said item, it will be a reminder. Besides I like doing too much for her in the first place.

She needs to be spoiled, and spoiled often and by someone who knows how…

I'll keep it in mind If I'm ever over in those areas, but we typically are driving down through GA.

Coming from Indiana, I wouldn’t be venturing off of I-75 either (unless I had a specific side destination in mind). If, however, you ever find occasion to head toward the NC/SC/GA coast line, just holler out.

 

[Grooovertoo]

"Holy Snieky!!!" I like that one. I may have to quote you. That was one of the smaller suitcases we brought, but it was an entire suitcase. The space required will obviously vary with the volume and numbers of F/E gifts you need to bring along.

As for your question about the CD… I’d be glad to oblige.

Let me first make the following disclaimers about the tunes selected for this little venture. Disclaimer-1: we have a rather vast collection of Disney music from well warn standards, to modern remixes, to atmosphere music from the parks and attractions. Now a collection of this type is not uncommon for DisBoard members and most other Disney freaks. That fact coupled with the fact that I already knew what songs were going to be on at least one other CD being handed out on this cruise lead directly to our choice of theme and choice of songs for our offering. The theme chosen was to go with songs that fit either a Caribbean, island-ish, or dance music style. This leads me to Disclamer-2: those tunes chosen (mostly the dance stuff and especially the last one) are in no way to be seen as a reflection of my particular musical taste or be seen as an endorsement on my part for even being aloud to exist.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! The track listing is very helpful. And I will not hold any of the listings against you. I hope the CD FE gift idea isn't too trite and that others will enjoy it too, did you find that?

Please use "Holy Snieky" to your hearts content. (I stole it form Cris Farley)
Our 3 cats do that too...we like to place one luggage out for them that we will not be using and load up all the rest.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! The track listing is very helpful. And I will not hold any of the listings against you. I hope the CD FE gift idea isn't too trite and that others will enjoy it too, did you find that?

You’re welcome. We actually liked the CD’s we got from the other cruisers. The first thing we did when we got back to our car after the cruise was to plug those bad boys in.

 

[petals]

I understand completely. We’d love to be able to bring “Captain Hair-Ball” with us when ever we’re heading out on a long trip, but he does not travel well and hates change with a capital ! Actually he was trying to prevent us from putting anything into the luggage. If I had closed the lid for even a second, he’d have completely wigged out.

My baby dog would probably take the stuff out as I put it in! The older one ain't to bothered so long as someone walks him... Last time we went away he smiled when kennels man came because he knew he was going for walkies and hadn't been out for ages as we'd been so busy. The pup hates travelling though and whines very loudly when he's put in the car!

 

[IamTrike]

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far. DS and I even built your model Disney cruise ship this far. That may make you the proud owner of the first TR to give away real parting gifts. You are the Oprah of trip report writers.

The information on the big red boat was fascinating. It's amazing to see the many lives of a cruise ship.

Being on the western side of NC you miss the crown Jewel of I-95 in your drive. South of the Border is a very different view than the normal view of trees. Also I think you may have forgotten to mention that Georgia seems to find road construction the best improvement to their scenery.

Your information on F/E's was really good. Looks like you put together a pretty nifty package. The addition of the ships horn tracks to the CD is great. Where did you get those MP3's?

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Well, I'm back after my trip, and I can either catch up on work or read through your various updates. So I guess I'll start a couple of pages back...

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

I'm really enjoying your trip report so far. DS and I even built your model Disney cruise ship this far. That may make you the proud owner of the first TR to give away real parting gifts. You are the Oprah of trip report writers.

Oprah!!! Not so sure about that one. It’s not like I can say “read this… do that… don’t buy these…” and actually have an effect on the global economy.

But the important thing here is that I’m glad y’all are enjoying the trip so far.
Thanks for following along.

The information on the big red boat was fascinating. It's amazing to see the many lives of a cruise ship.

There is just something about ships in general that really gets into me. Can’t explain it, but I’m certain I missed my calling (of course had I actually gone to sea, I’d never have meet my DW and that would have been unacceptable).

Being on the western side of NC you miss the crown Jewel of I-95 in your drive. South of the Border is a very different view than the normal view of trees. Also I think you may have forgotten to mention that Georgia seems to find road construction the best improvement to their scenery.

Most defiantly! I know exactly of what you speak as it’s not far off our normal trip to and from the Myrtle Beach area, but when traveling to Fla… We don’t hit I-95 until it crosses I-26 well south of Padro’s. However I must agree that it is truly a site (more gaudy then amazing… but something that does need to be seen).

As for the construction in GA… you’re right to say that has been the case for better then a decade, but this last trip we didn’t encounter one work crew or any detours, so they may finally be about done.

Your information on F/E's was really good. Looks like you put together a pretty nifty package. The addition of the ships horn tracks to the CD is great. Where did you get those MP3's?

Thanks. We probably did too much, but it’s a lot of fun. As for the MP3s… back before the official Maiden voyage of the Dream, they did a two day press cruise to nowhere. During that sailing one of the things they did to show off the boat to the writers and travel agents was to roll through all the new horn calls during a party up on deck 11. Someone aboard recorded that demonstration and posted it up on YouTube. I found it there, ripped a copy of the video, cut the audio out of it and then chopped the dead spaces out and separated the individual calls. I’ve actually got those posted where they can be downloaded if you’re interested (hay another potential “parting gift”)

Well, I'm back after my trip, and I can either catch up on work or read through your various updates. So I guess I'll start a couple of pages back...

I saw the pictures of the various DisDad meets you were able to put together… quite the accomplishment. I’m looking forward to reading about that trip myself. Welcome back home and hopefully you’ll find the foolishness I’ve posted since you left at least mildly entertaining.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Chapter 3: The Hook

Part 3: Castillo de San Marcos​

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The time required to traverse the distance between my humble abode and the “Mecca” that is the Orlando/Canaveral Shore area (given the current speed limits on the highways, and the extent to which I’m willing to disregard them) is about eight-ish hours. As we’d gotten off to a fairly early start, the arrival of mid afternoon saw Jacksonville well in our rearview mirrors. From that point there was only a couple more hours’ drive time until we’d reach “The Cape”. That being the case, we were presented with an excellent opportunity to get off the interstate and cobble an additional diversion of some sort into the trip. The next town on the horizon happened to be St. Augustine, and being one of the oldest cities in the Americas, it offers several options for fulfilling that goal. The diversion we decided to partake of is a spot that the locals simply refer to as “The Fort”. What follows is both the next installment of my little TR and a Bonus Feature (because you’re going to get a little bit of history along with a good bit of photographic eye-candy).


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St. Augustine was founded in 1565 and is the oldest continuously inhabited colonial settlement in the US. Soon after establishing the town, the Spanish settlers erected the first of what would ultimately be nine different wooden forts for their own protection. The fact that they built nine of them, illustrates their apparent need for having one. But then again… it also clearly identifies the problem of building them of wood; that being the fact that their enemies were able to defeat and burn the blasted things. After better then a century of this ongoing urban construction project (city planning ani’t improved much in all this time now has it?), it finally occurred to someone that what was required was a better plan.

That better plan was to build a stat-of-the-art “star-fort” which would look out on the entrance to the harbor. They also wisely decided to build the thing out of something a smidgen less combustible. Construction began on the new fortification in 1672 and the original edifice was finally completed around 1695. The building material of choice this time around was a local variant of limestone that was formed from ancient sea shells. The Spanish name for this rock is “coquina” which translates to "small shells" (imagine that). They queried the stone on Anastasia Island and ferried it across the inlet to the site of the fort.

This rock had a couple of things going for it. First and foremost, it didn’t burn (duh…). Better still was that when cannon balls struck it, the blocks would not shatter. Instead the fairly soft coquina walls more or less absorb any shot the struck them like a sponge absorbs water.

Once completed the Castillo was covered in “Argamasa” which is a bright white plaster made from a mixture of lime, sand and water. Brickdust was added to some of this plaster and that was used to cover the trim work and sentry towers. As built the fortress would have been as striking a site to the eye as it was imposing to the will.

So successful was this outpost, that is was never taken by force. Surrender, however, is a different matter (be it either by treaty or a shear lack of personnel to man the facility). As such, these stone walls have stood silently for over three centuries and beneath five different flags.


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I suppose that’ll be enough of a history lesson for the time being. Now it was our turn to storm the fort. First we had to lay siege to the parking lot. Being a Saturday afternoon in the mid summer, open parking spots were in short supply. It took about three trips around the loop, but we finally were able to commandeer a space. If you choose to park on site, remember to bring some quarters for the parking meters. The current parking fee is $1 per hour, but there is also a city parking garage a couple of blocks away that does not charge for the privilege (and the exercise probably won’t kill ya’ either). The entire site is maintained by the National Park Service and they charge a $6 fee per adult, but young’ins 15 & under are free and… the ticket is good for the next seven days.


Now that we’d settled up with gate keeper, we were free to storm the battlements.

If you show up during the weekend, you’ll very likely encounter a number of volunteer reinactors (and this was just the first of several that we would run across).

This is the main gate that offers the final protection for the only opening in the main part of the fortress once you get past the drawbridges and the ravelin.

OK… so what’s a Ravelin? It is one of the design elements of what is known as a “star fort” These forts are built with “bastions” (diamond shaped protrusion) at the corners and usually also have small triangular shaped mini-forts (the ravelins) that are detached from the main structure to guard the entrances (which are known as sallyports). The ravelins are also usually built within a moat that surrounds the rest of the structure and is connected to it only by drawbridges. The whole design is purpose built to make it easy for any of the fortress guns to be trained on any other part of the fort if necessary and thus protect itself from attack from virtually any direction. Below is an overhead shot of St Mark that will give you a good idea of how everything is laid out. The Spanish also had a habit of naming not only their forts, but also the major parts of the forts after saints so I included those lables in the image (which may help you get an idea of where you are as I’m talking about some of the pictures that will follow).

During the Spanish colonial period, solders lived in town and manned the fort in shifts of around 24 hours at a time. As such most of the vaulted chambers built into the walls were for storage with only a few spaces reserved as barracks... like this one:

And being humans, the solders were not above leaving behind a little bit of graffiti (actually, they’re still trying to translate this bit so feel free to dust off your ancient romance language skills and take a crack a it… myself, I suspect it’s a dirty joke)

Taking it in – You’ll notice that all the windows are enclosed in bars. These were not put there to make the fort a prison, but since they were there… that is certainly something it would ended up being used for.

A few views from inside the chapel (If you're going to name everything in the building after a saint, you’ll certainly need to have a chapel as well)

A barracks space as it would have appeared during the British army’s tenure at the Castillo

The Plaza (main court yard) from a couple different angles.

The Ramp – This is the only direct access to the ramparts of the fort

Apparently, it is possible to reserve parts of the grounds for gatherings and celebrations. While we were there, an outdoor wedding was just about to get under way.

Here’s a view to the northeast across Baluarte San Carlos (St Charles’ Bastion)

Members of the gunnery crew getting ready for a demonstration

I actually caught this demonstration on a video, but… the wind noise on the small camera mike is so overpowering that you can’t really make out anything that is being said. I may post it later on, but I was really hopping for something better so that I could include a link to that vid within this part of the TR. Oh well… things don’t always go as planned.


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I believe that I've added about as many pictures as I’m allowed to cram into a single post so I guess it’s about time I closed out this section of the tour. If you folks will kindly wait right here for just a moment or two while I do a little bit of paperwork, I’ll be right back to begin the second half of our excursion in just a minute.

​

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Chapter 3: The Hook

Part 4: The Ramparts of Fort Marion​

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Welcome to Fort Marion!

OK… what happened to the Castillo de San Marcos?

Well… when the British took control of the place they, like the Spaniards before them, referred to this little slice of heaven as Fort St Mark. The Americans, however, would have none of it. We changed it to Fort Marion in honor of Revolutionary War general Francis Marion (of South Carolina no less). It kept that name for nearly a century before the facility was finally retired and turned over to the Park Service in the 1930s. The original name was not revived until 1942 by an act of congress to honor of the Spanish heritage of the site and the entire state of Florida.

Mean while back at the ranch… errrr… I mean fort… we left our traveling party just after they… we… had made it up to the ramparts along the top of the fort. We’ll now return you there to continue the tour already in progress…


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Here’s a cast bronze mortar looking northwest over the Vigia (watchtower) on the Baluarte San Pablo (St Paul’s Bastion)

…and some of the details from that cast bronze mortar

The amount of craft work that went into casting bronze cannons raises them into the realms of art (deadly art… but art none the less). There were several collections of other guns from the Spanish period spread about the fort. This group was situated on the western ramparts between the two bastions on that side of the Castillo.

This image is looking southeast across the ravelin from the Baluarte San Padro (St Peters’s Bastion). The Bridge of Lions and the St Augustine Light can be seen in the distance.

A couple of shots looking southeast from Baluarte San Augustin toward the Bridge of Lions

A gunner’s eye view - this time looking southwest from the Baluarte San Augustin back toward town. In the distance is Flagler Collage.

A close up of the plaque on the gun in the previous picture.

There are a couple of interesting things going on in that last picture. First the piece was captured during the Mexican-American war and is not original to the fort. Many of the guns at the Castillo were actually from other theaters of operation, but they date form the Spanish colonial period so the Park Service displays them here. This is not uncommon as each time the fort changed hands the new occupant would certainly have confiscated and moved any useful armament left behind. The other interesting thing here is that the gun had already been in use for over a hundred years when it was taken (not uncommon for smoothbore cannons).


And… here’s another archeological find (I’m referring to the fossil in-between the gun and the boy)

Here are several views of the main signal tower on St Charles’ bastion

The Vigia on the corner of the Baluarte San Augustin. This is the only one of the three smaller watchtowers that you can enter. They are tight to say the least. Bit you’d feel pretty safe standing guard in on of these bad boys.

The Shot Furnace – When the US took control of the fort after acquiring Florida, we filled in part of the moat on the east side to add an additional costal defense battery. The furnace you see here was also built at that time and was used to heat the cannon balls that were to be fired, thus creating “Hot Shots”. When these struck a sailing ship, the intense heat of the shots would not only damage the vessel, but start fires where ever it came to rest.

Examples of the flags that have flown over the Castillo de San Marcos during its three hundred odd years of existence

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On the way back to the car we snapped a few more images from around the fort. Here’s a good shot of the main section of the bridge

The St Augustine Lighthouse across the inlet on Anastasia Island.

This is one of the better maintained lights on the east coast and you can clime to the top if you’re in the mood (I’ve actually done this on a prior trip and it’s quite the clime I assure you, but the view is spectacular).


And lastly… here are a couple of very nice views (if I say so myself) of the “Black Raven” approaching the Castillo.

This ship is used for pirate shows and tours. It sails out of the St. Augustine Municipal Marina just south of the Bridge of Lions on the bayfront. Reviews vary widely, but they offer a number of different types of adventures including over-21 excursions and even a dinner cruise.


= = = = = = = = = = =

Well, that concludes our tour of “one ancient fort”. From here we headed back toward the highway to continue on our journey toward an encounter with “one fine new ship”. I’ll be putting together that last section of our traveling day and I think I feel another bonus feature coming on as well. But, for now y’all can just take a break… rest your eyes… grab ya’ a little snack form the icebox… and we’ll catch up with you again in just a little bit…

​

 

[afwdwfan]

(because you’re going to get a little bit of history along with a good bit of photographic eye-candy).

It wouldn't be a GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes TR without it!

And lastly… here are a couple of very nice views (if I say so myself) of the “Black Raven” approaching the Castillo.

Is the Black Raven a distant relative to the Black Pearl?

Interesting history lesson about the Fort. Thanks!

I'm sure the pictures are good as well, but I'll have to check them out sometime later when I'm at home.

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

It wouldn't be a GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes TR without it!

Guilty as charged.

Is the Black Raven a distant relative to the Black Pearl?

Interesting history lesson about the Fort. Thanks!

Likely… They are certainly riding the wakes left behind by those successful movies. One reviewer noted that they were greeted on board by first mate “Jaclyn Sparrow” and that the garbs being sported by the various members of the crew were like snapshots from the movies.

I'm sure the pictures are good as well, but I'll have to check them out sometime later when I'm at home.

Peanut-butter fire walls.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Nice job on the Castillo de San Marcos report! My DS and I were just there in May and had a great time exploring it. It was kind of funny to see all the similar pictures we took! I remember taking a shot of the flags hanging inside and thinking "Hey, here's a unique one..."

Did you get to see the Old Town at all? Some neat little buildings here and there. But the fort is definitely the highlight.