Author: Tincan Travels

This park is named for a Florida folk singer who was camping at Flagler Beach and lost his life there while attempting to save a drowning man. In honor of his heroism they renamed the park for him. Site 42

The park has two camping areas, ocean side or riverside. We were set to stay ocean side but the cold and wind had us moving to the larger more sheltered river side campground.

The park’s location allowed for more time with family and a chance to explore the marine scrub forest.

The curiously twisted trees are Sand Live Oak which are surrounded by Saw Palmetto.

While it was REALLY WINDY– we did walk the beach to enjoy the many shore birds as well as the surf and sun.

The river side campground had lots of bird watching opportunities. Without binoculars we had a hard time identifying what we were looking at. A quick trip to Daytona Beach solved that problem.

On one of our hikes we ran into this guy.

We also also came across this unusual fern like plant called a Coontie. Early settlers in Florida made arrowroot starch from the root of the plant. At the center of the plant a cobb like structure develops that produces a bright orange seed.

We saw a fungus growing under one the same color as the seeds.

After a few days at the beach we where ready to move on to Alafia River State Park with it’s 17 miles of mountain bike trails.

We’ve been here before but it’s always fun to come back. Anastasia State Park, just south of Saint Augustine, has four miles of undeveloped beach teaming with wildlife. The campground is tucked into a live oak hammock not far from the beach.Sea Urchin, Site 76

The first few days were a wintry mix of fog, wind and rain. We took a short walk on the beach but couldn’t see much of anything. We were guided by the sound of the waves.

On the plus side of inclement weather, we had a chance to catch up on the movies we’ve missed as well as check out some local restaurants.

A fabulous gumbo from Catch 27 in Old Saint Augustine.

While this may look like soap suds we’ve been assured they are not. This is the result of the wind and waves pulverizing zooplankton and phytoplankton.

The sun eventually arrived with moderate temperatures that allowed us the opportunity to ride and hike the beach.

We met up with Shelly’s sister Andrea and her family, Jeff, Jack and Emily, for a walk on the beach.

Monday we pack up and move down the coast.

Winter in the Southeast 2018

This winter we decided to spend most of our time in Florida visiting with family and friends. We will be criss-crossing the state and camping in state and regional parks.

After a short visit with Andrea & Jeff, we picked up the Tincan from where we had parked it at Mike & Donna’s. We drove to the coast and set up camp at Tamoka State Park. It was a little cold temperatures dropping into the mid-20s the first two nights. This didn’t stop us from enjoying the sand and the scrub hardwood forest. Tomoka State park is located on a peninsula between the Halifax and Tamoka Rivers at the site of an ancient village of the Timucau people. Spanish explorers encountered the village in the 1600’s. At that time it was a thriving town on the peninsula between the two rivers. Today you can still see plenty of shell middens that accumulated from that time. It’s a popular spot for kayaking and fishing.In spite of the cold weather we did see some blooms. Plenty of hiking and biking.

Inevitably the Timucuan people were driven away or enslaved. An indigo plantation was established by Richard Oswald in 1766. (Coincidentally Oswald was a preliminary signer and British negotiator of the peace agreement with the colonies after the Revolutionary War.) In the 1950s,after the park was developed, a group of people wanted to pay tribute to the native people who made their home there. They chose to immortalize a mythical chief named Tomoki from a legend of the Timucuan people. It is a kitschy statue in the old Florida tradition. We spent an afternoon wondering around downtown Ormond Beach on the banks of the Halifax River at the Rockefeller Gardens. Lunch was @ Hull’s Seafood, and old-school fish counter-no pictures but definitely worth a stop. Monday afternoon we moved up the coast for a week at Anastasia State Park in Saint Augustine Beach.