I searched for a place to stay on the Gulf Coast, but because it was the Fourth of July, all hotels and campgrounds that I stopped at were completely booked up. It was horribly disappointing because the original idea for this trip was that I would hang out in places along the Gulf Coast and see how people are dealing with the continuing effects of the BP oil spill. Honestly, I didn’t see anything related to the oil spill even when I was there, except a few bits of tar on the sand. Obviously, to really understand its impact, I would need to stay there and talk to people, but I wasn't going to be able to do that this weekend. To go somewhere else then go back to the Gulf Coast would use up more time and money than I had to spare. The local towns lost much of their history when Hurricane Katrina blew through, though, and that seems to have had more of an immediately obvious impact. I decided to just move on, get back on I-10, and see how far I could get into Florida.
For the record, Florida has the largest and nicest welcome center along I-10 of any state. It offered a free glass of either orange juice or grapefruit juice, and had double sets of bathrooms for both men and women. So when one bathroom for the women was closed, the other was open. This also made the lines a lot shorter when trying to get into the women's bathroom. I don't know if the men actually needed the second set of men's bathrooms, but I sure appreciated the lack of lines in the women's bathrooms! I had had to stand in long lines in the Miss. and La. [I just realized that I've been using US postal abbreviations for the states and not the AP abbreviations in past blogs.] rest area bathrooms over the best five days as people traveled for the holiday. There were a lot of vending machines, too, selling coffee and ice cream as well as the usual sodas and junk food. These things may seem small, but when you've been on the road for hours, a cup of coffee and quick bathroom stop mean a lot.
I ended up in a KOA campground just a little outside of Tallahassee. It didn't have many spots left, but since I was pitching a tent and didn't need electricity or water hook-ups, I was able to get a space. Unfortunately, someone had reserved several of the small cabins the campground also offered for a Fourth of July party. The music blasted up until 10:00 p.m., but fortunately, they respected the quiet hour rules all KOAs have. The manager of the park set also set off a short but decent set of fireworks. There was a small pond in the campground, and the fireworks were set off by the pond. It was actually difficult to see the fireworks because of all the trees, but it was nice, anyway.
I foolishly decided that since the city and beaches of St. Augustine were not far from the end of I-10 and where I needed to turn up north onto I-95, I would stop off for a night or two there. However, St. Augustine is a very popular place for holidays. It was very crowded. I did manage to get one of the last spots at a KOA campground just outside the city. The sites were extremely close together. I reserved my spot, then drove into the city. I had to park in the large public parking garage next to the visitors' center by the historic section. Traffic moved slowly because of all the cars. The upper level of the Castillo de San Marcos was closed because of the thunderstorms that kept rolling in. The National Park Service (NPS) was afraid of lightening strikes. The lighthouse was closed for the same reason. The rain was light, though, so I was able to walk around the historic section. Most of it was made up of stores, bars and restaurants. I ate at a Mexican restaurant and then drove back to the campground.
It was getting late. I set up my tent and lay out on my thick air mattress, reading. Another thunder storm rolled through. I was grateful to discover that my tent was completely waterproof. I stayed dry. Unfortunately, two sites down, a group of people were having a party under a canopy. The rain did not deter them in the least. They blasted their stereo loudly and shouted and yelled as they played drinking games - all night. I complained to the guy who was running the office. He promised to talk to them about keeping the noise down, especially after 10:00 p.m. He told me to call the number on the sign under the pay phone by the office if they didn't tone it down after 10:00. I tried to call that number around 12:30 a.m. because the party was still going strong and loud. However, I got only the operator telling me the number was no longer in use. They finally stopped yelling and playing games around 1:20 a.m. Then some kind of family drama erupted. One of the women started screaming in Spanish to one of the men, who left in a truck with a loud engine. She then started sobbing. That went on for awhile. I wondered why this KOA didn't have anyone patrolling the grounds to make sure everything was fine, the way the other KOAs I had stayed at did. Supposedly there was someone who lived at the end of the campground and was supposed to be available for problems, but I guess that no longer valid phone number belonged to him or her. Eventually I fell asleep. I woke up around 6:00 a.m. to the sounds of the man in the tent next to mine opening and shutting doors to his truck. I was in the process of taking down my tent when the man in the tent next to mine returned from the showers. We talked for a few minutes about the party noise we had to endure all night. He was angry about it, too. He planned on staying long enough to complain to the staff in the office when it opened at 8:00 a.m. I wrote a note and left it for the office and got on the road by 7:30 a.m. Since there was no way I was going to get any more sleep, I figured I might as well get as much driving in as I could before I became too tired. But I admit, I made as much noise as possible in packing up. The other campers around me were already up, so it was only the partiers whom I was disturbing as I banged my doors. I am resolved to never stay at KOA again.
I headed north to Charleston, SC.
For the record, Florida has the largest and nicest welcome center along I-10 of any state. It offered a free glass of either orange juice or grapefruit juice, and had double sets of bathrooms for both men and women. So when one bathroom for the women was closed, the other was open. This also made the lines a lot shorter when trying to get into the women's bathroom. I don't know if the men actually needed the second set of men's bathrooms, but I sure appreciated the lack of lines in the women's bathrooms! I had had to stand in long lines in the Miss. and La. [I just realized that I've been using US postal abbreviations for the states and not the AP abbreviations in past blogs.] rest area bathrooms over the best five days as people traveled for the holiday. There were a lot of vending machines, too, selling coffee and ice cream as well as the usual sodas and junk food. These things may seem small, but when you've been on the road for hours, a cup of coffee and quick bathroom stop mean a lot.
I ended up in a KOA campground just a little outside of Tallahassee. It didn't have many spots left, but since I was pitching a tent and didn't need electricity or water hook-ups, I was able to get a space. Unfortunately, someone had reserved several of the small cabins the campground also offered for a Fourth of July party. The music blasted up until 10:00 p.m., but fortunately, they respected the quiet hour rules all KOAs have. The manager of the park set also set off a short but decent set of fireworks. There was a small pond in the campground, and the fireworks were set off by the pond. It was actually difficult to see the fireworks because of all the trees, but it was nice, anyway.
I foolishly decided that since the city and beaches of St. Augustine were not far from the end of I-10 and where I needed to turn up north onto I-95, I would stop off for a night or two there. However, St. Augustine is a very popular place for holidays. It was very crowded. I did manage to get one of the last spots at a KOA campground just outside the city. The sites were extremely close together. I reserved my spot, then drove into the city. I had to park in the large public parking garage next to the visitors' center by the historic section. Traffic moved slowly because of all the cars. The upper level of the Castillo de San Marcos was closed because of the thunderstorms that kept rolling in. The National Park Service (NPS) was afraid of lightening strikes. The lighthouse was closed for the same reason. The rain was light, though, so I was able to walk around the historic section. Most of it was made up of stores, bars and restaurants. I ate at a Mexican restaurant and then drove back to the campground.
It was getting late. I set up my tent and lay out on my thick air mattress, reading. Another thunder storm rolled through. I was grateful to discover that my tent was completely waterproof. I stayed dry. Unfortunately, two sites down, a group of people were having a party under a canopy. The rain did not deter them in the least. They blasted their stereo loudly and shouted and yelled as they played drinking games - all night. I complained to the guy who was running the office. He promised to talk to them about keeping the noise down, especially after 10:00 p.m. He told me to call the number on the sign under the pay phone by the office if they didn't tone it down after 10:00. I tried to call that number around 12:30 a.m. because the party was still going strong and loud. However, I got only the operator telling me the number was no longer in use. They finally stopped yelling and playing games around 1:20 a.m. Then some kind of family drama erupted. One of the women started screaming in Spanish to one of the men, who left in a truck with a loud engine. She then started sobbing. That went on for awhile. I wondered why this KOA didn't have anyone patrolling the grounds to make sure everything was fine, the way the other KOAs I had stayed at did. Supposedly there was someone who lived at the end of the campground and was supposed to be available for problems, but I guess that no longer valid phone number belonged to him or her. Eventually I fell asleep. I woke up around 6:00 a.m. to the sounds of the man in the tent next to mine opening and shutting doors to his truck. I was in the process of taking down my tent when the man in the tent next to mine returned from the showers. We talked for a few minutes about the party noise we had to endure all night. He was angry about it, too. He planned on staying long enough to complain to the staff in the office when it opened at 8:00 a.m. I wrote a note and left it for the office and got on the road by 7:30 a.m. Since there was no way I was going to get any more sleep, I figured I might as well get as much driving in as I could before I became too tired. But I admit, I made as much noise as possible in packing up. The other campers around me were already up, so it was only the partiers whom I was disturbing as I banged my doors. I am resolved to never stay at KOA again.
I headed north to Charleston, SC.