Road Trip Rehash - Part I

I was a bit worried about this trip as I have a strange fear of breaking down on the side of the road. I also dislike not knowing where I am going (Note to self: next time buy a GPS) Prior to this, my longest road trip was cross country from LA to Miami. I relocated from LA in May of 1991 making the trip with my 2 cats in a Toyota Tercel SR5. We traveled for 6 days along Route I-10 - with military like precision; Drive 8 hours, find motel before dark, sneak cats in, eat, sleep, drive 8 hours, find motel before dark, sneak cats and so on. With 2 cats in the car there was no real ability to linger and sight see along the way. I recall the only exception to my 'drive during daylight' rule was when I got stuck in the Louisianna swamps and was desperately tailing a very fast car as if my life depended on it!. So, for this trip I was quite glad Gianinna decided to join me. It was because of G's last minute decision to go, that I made some changes to the itinerary. I nixed going to Blue Springs State Park in favor of St. Augustine. A favorite of mine, and a place I was sure she would enjoy. Ultimately we were headed for Brunswick GA, where we were to sleep in a treehouse (yes, you read that right!). Here are some pix from St. Augustine:

Cute old house..


Another..

Lovely boat in the harbor...

The Fort (Castillo de San Marcos)...

Cobbled streets..



Charm just oozes out of St. Augustine, I highly recommend it...
Even if it is a bit touristy....

And there's that lunch I just mentioned...

Alas, we didn't have as much time to spend in St. Augustine as it deserves.. I, of course, had an agenda - get to Brunswick GA before sunset!

Aha, the Hostel in the Forest
(Gianinna's favourite part of this trip), good food (vegan though), good company, (thank you John from Colorado for pumping up my bike tires) and an altogether great experience!

Here is the campfire where we stood in a circle holding hands giving thanks for the day, before dinner.. (try it - its good:-)

This is the near freezing lake that we swam in.. okay, a little truthfulness here, (the following may be TMI for some of you, so feel free to skip ahead). G and I took the canoe out to a platform that was floating in the center of the lake, and the two of us trying to get out of the canoe onto the platform was so funny, we (alright, I) peed my pants laughing:-(
In my defence, there were no bathrooms... only a sawdust receptacle for 'deposits' only - something about ammonia disturbing the PH balance. Anyway, now you know... we had to swim. Besides, the mosquitoes were KILLING us.
I do hope you will revisit this blog again someday....
Here are the chickens.. they have a grand life (oh, except for the 3 or 4 minutes when a hawk came a visiting... damn, they can move fast in a hurry! Luckily, no chickens were hurt in the ruckus, although it did seem to excite the rooster terribly, as one poor hen got a really good lay right after!.. *cough cough* True story!
This was our 'room' for the night.. its a tree house called the peacock. We stayed in the top part (good thing there's no alcohol there) with 2 screened walls, and 2 solid walls, a single bed as well as a bunk bed (which G fell out of.. again, perfectly true). It was quite lovely...


And the 'world-famous geodesic dome' (Apparently, Geodesic means built with triangles.. and here I was thinking it was something fancy and geothermal like.
See, its getting dark too, we got there just in time;-)

Good night all,


Next stop.. Savannah.
To be continued....