I said a sad farewell to Don, who has kindly let me use his place for showers, laundry, social gatherings, Tony Bennett music, reminiscing over the 'good old days' and general fun for the last three months. Thank you so, so much.
I spent a night at the Ocala National Park then on to St. Augustine where I found this....
This spot is spring fed and the water supposedly has great supernatural powers.
I spent a night at the Ocala National Park then on to St. Augustine where I found this....
This spot is spring fed and the water supposedly has great supernatural powers.
So I decided to try it out.
Well, it sure smelled supernatural!
A series of dioramas around the spring helped to demonstrate to us unimaginative tourists what it must have been like before lady docents were on hand to give us plastic cups full of smelly water to drink. Ahh!! Twenty years just fell away with the first sip. Someone ought to bottle this stuff! Oops, someone did. They sell it in the gift shop and there's a 10% discount!
A series of dioramas around the spring helped to demonstrate to us unimaginative tourists what it must have been like before lady docents were on hand to give us plastic cups full of smelly water to drink. Ahh!! Twenty years just fell away with the first sip. Someone ought to bottle this stuff! Oops, someone did. They sell it in the gift shop and there's a 10% discount!
Tinajones? Who was Tina Jones? If she's selling any of these jars I would sure love to have one in my yard in Tucson. Wow! What a neat idea. Why don't we still do this in the drier areas of the country?
And how did they make them so big?
Canons came on the earliest ships.
I am really tired of canons. Do you suppose there was a NCA in 1500? Every town, fort, encampment, jail, watering hole, and courthouse had a canon.
This very nice young man was about to fire one of the canons and he is telling us to get our cameras ready so we can get a picture of the great puff of smoke that will come from the gun powder....
The noise startled me so much that this is the picture I got. Others in the crowd got the sky, the back of the head of the guy in front, a bird and someone got his own nose. No one got the canon going off.
Did you know that Ponce de Leon was only 4 foot 11 inches tall! And that was average for the day! One of the docents tried to tell me it was because they drank so much coffee and it stunted their growth. Huh?
Ponce de Leon named the land 'La Florida'--the land of the flowers. That is a very good description of the state. The flowers are in full bloom right now and so beautiful everywhere you look.
Tomorrow--The Castillo de San Marcos.
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Toni,
ReplyDeleteLynda G. from Tucson here. I didn't know, until Don mentioned your blog at our last meeting, that you were on the road, although I'd been missing seeing you at meetings for a while. I've been catching up on your blog for the last week, love your accounts of your adventures, and am seriously impressed with your photographs.
Please keep on doing this. You are an inspiration to me.
Lynda
Lynda...How really nice to hear from you! Thank you so much for the really nice comments--and keep them coming. I will be heading north up the east coast for this summer--so follow along. Toni
ReplyDeleteI GOTTA GET SOME OF THAT WATER
ReplyDeleteJUNE