Today, we traveled back in American history to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the country. St. Augustine was founded in 1565, making it almost 460 years old. It has also been subject to rule by many different countries in its history.
Our visit focused on the older parts of St. Augustine. We walked around the Huguenot Cemetery, visited the historic part of the old city, and spent some time at the Fort Castillio de San Marcos National Monument.
The tour of the town showed how close together the people lived. We saw a wooden one room school house that bills itself as the oldest remaining one room school house in America. The old town was a mixture of buildings from different times with varied architectural styles. Some of the structures looked very old. Others looked very modern. Most of the area is now businesses selling food, souvenirs, and local crafts. The one thing they all seemed to have in common were high prices.
We spent most of our tour time in St. Augustine at the fort. It is in remarkable condition considering its age. The moat was dry with grass growing in it.
Reading the history of the fort and considering the number of countries that have occupied it, it has survived exceptionally well. The one upgrade we appreciated was that they no longer use a tidal based outhouse.
The most interesting part of the tour was a reenactment of the daily cannon practice. The men doing the reenactment explained the whole procedure in English. They explained that the soldiers would practice firing each day for training and also for time keeping. After the explanation, they did a single cannon, single shot practice fire with no cannon ball and only about a third of a normal load of gunpowder.
The entire practice round took several minutes. It included a pre-firing check of the equipment, bringing the ammunition to the cannon, loading the cannon in the proper order, properly preparing the cannon for firing, checking that everyone was ready, firing the cannon, cleaning up, and then realigning the cannon for the next time. The most interesting part of the demonstration was that they were speaking in Spanish for the entire exercise. It was methodical for safety and for accuracy. The volunteers did a great job. They only broke from their characters for a moment to warn the crowd that it was about to be very noisy. They were right. It was a bright flash and a very loud noise. We were glad they had used a lighter load of gunpowder.
The rest of the fort seemed to be much like it was so long ago. The barracks and officers quarters were spartan and clean. The walls were in very good condition.
After our tour of Old St. Augustine and the fort, we headed to Fort George Island, near Jacksonville Florida. The Ribault Club is new. It is less than a century old. It was founded as a golf club in 1928. It is now a historic site and wedding venue. The building is very nice, but the golf course must have been very flat. Trees and sand would have been the only troubles on the course.
Our last stop on the history tour was the Kingsley Plantation. This plantation predates the Southern mansion type plantations. While they did use slave labor, the plantation master was more of a manager than an owner. The house was large for its time, but it was far from lavish. The building at the back of the house was the kitchen area for all the workers. It was built as a separate building as a fire protection for the main house.
Access to the entire area was on narrow dirt roads.
A ranger provided an interesting and educational tour of the house. The tour included an explanation of the modifications of the house over time, and the problems that the modifications were causing now. The guide also said that they did not have a great deal of data to work from because the managers of the property kept great business records, but left no personal diaries that documented their lives. It was suggested that if you wanted to be a part of history, you should begin a diary and write out your personal life story.
There was a barn built near the house. It was probably used to store crops, but there were also numerous benches that suggested it was also a building used for gatherings as well.
After the tour, we walked around the grounds. The plantation was located on the water, so we enjoyed a walk along the water for a short time.
After we finished our tour we drove to Kingsland Georgia for the night.
Many people try to provide a list of the things to look for in a good southern BBQ spot. Most of them say 1) Does it smell like BBQ? 2) Can you see where they smoke the meat? 2) Is the menu entire BBQ related? 3) Is it a small place, preferably one story? 4 Do they make pig jokes or have a picture of a pig?
We found a place that fit all the criteria, except for the aroma. It was next to the parking lot of our hotel. We talked to another customer who said she stops here whenever she is in Kingsland.
This is where we had dinner. It was quick, it was inexpensive, and it was good. The criteria still work!