Bike Ride to St. Augustine

Atlantic Beach to St. Augustine: 31.6 miles

Total miles: 31.6 miles

 

After the wheel dip we were officially on the road to begin our adventure. A mom of a past participant came to visit last night and was super excited that we were starting out. The one piece of advice she gave us was that we should enjoy every moment of the trip and to make sure to keep everyone back home updated with what is going on with postcards, phone calls and blog posts. If you need yet another thing to read, out trip has its own website which will be uploaded daily with posts from riders, route information and pictures.

The ride was a pretty easy one which left us with tons of time to make quick stops along the way. Lunch was beach side so people we able to go for a swim. On the way to the beach we came across a project with city was collecting oyster shells as part of a beach restoration project.

Between lunch and St. Augustine we came across a castle building that was erected as a garden/sandy. Unfortunately we were not able to get any closer, but did get a great shot. From here we pretty much booked it to St. Augustine because we wanted to explore the city and see the oldest city in the US.

I found an awesome mailbox too.

 

As we made our final approach across a bridge into the city, we came across this AMAZING carousel. The guy who was running it remembered The organization from last year and we we able to DM a free ride.

From there Alex Jessie and I headed over to the Fountain of Youth. There was a health fair going on so we were able to seek in the back way. I was surprised to learn the the aquifer supports a great deal of the southeast, including Coke and Pepsi.

The last stop of the day was a quick trip to the Castillo de San Marco, the fort which served as the major defense for St. Augustine. Sadly we were not able to DM a trip inside, but the outside was gorgeous. Apparently it was able to survive because when the enemy would shoot cannons at the fort's sides the cannon balls would become stuck in them instead of causing damage (the walls were very soft). The cannon balls would later be tak en up, the walls patched and then the cannon balls refined against their enemies.

Once had gotten to the host site and gotten showered (27 people and one shower) a couple of us headed out to explore the city. The architecture was beautiful, including Flagler College.