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12 March 2018 - Visit to St Augustine Alligator Farm

16/4/2018

12 March 2018

Made a trip with with Barrie and Eve to the Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in St Augustine Florida and supper at the Columbia a Cuban restaurant. The Columbia restaurant, located in the historic district is one of the oldest restaurants in St. Augustine and has been family owned for five generations. While at the higher end on the price scale it is a highly recommended establishment for a meal. The service, meal presentation and taste were all well above average.

Earlier in the day we did visit the Alligator Farm and were there in time to watch the feeding frenzy. The Alligator Farm has been established since 1893 and is still going strong. The farm claims it is the only zoo that features all known species (24) of the world’s living crocodilian. While we may not have seen or noticed all 24 species we did see quite a few alligators and a few crocodiles.

One way to tell the difference between alligators and crocodiles is the shape of their snouts. Alligators have wider, U-shaped snouts, while crocodile front ends are more pointed and V-shaped. Toothy grin: When their snouts are shut, crocodiles look like they're flashing a toothy grin, as the fourth tooth on each side of the lower jaw sticks up over the upper lip.

There is also a large open air bird rookery where various types of shore birds come to roost and produce young!

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11 March 2018 - Day 3 of our Holiday.

15/4/2018

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11 March 2018

After a pleasant night’s sleep and a scrumptious breakfast it was back onto the highway again. Heading south to New Smyrna Beach.

Distance remaining to NSB = 882 Kilometres (548 miles). We phoned Barrie and Eve and told them where we were and how far to go. We originally planned on spending a 3rd night in a motel along the way but they suggested that we drive straight through.

882 Kilometres (548 miles) to New Smyrna Beach

> 09:00 - Depart Smithfield 9 Celsius = 48 Fahrenheit. Completely cloudy and rain in the forecast. However, we only experienced a few drops. The area is very green with lots of Spring flowers in full bloom. It certainly is a different setting that what we left behind in Ottawa.
> 10:27 - Enter South Carolina which seems to be relatively flat and a pleasant 14 Celsius = 57 Fahrenheit.
> 10:30/10:45 - Visit South Carolina Welcome Centre. It seems as if the roads are not as well maintained in this area of the state and in the previous states that we have been through. But the sky is brightening up.
> 11:48/13:12 - Manning South Carolina for lunch at the Circle K. We opted for a la carte rather than buffet. Once lunch was finished we went in search of a car wash. We finally found one but the machine that took the money did not seem to be working. A person ahead of us put in his cash and nothing happened finally he decided to leave. I tried with a credit card but that did not seem to work. We decided not to take a chance on the machine eating our money. So it was back on the road again. Had to turn the air conditioning on 20 Celsius = 68 Fahrenheit and partly cloudy.
> 14:20 - Tried opening the top but it seemed to be a bit noisy on the highway. It is getting warmer 25 Celsius = 77 Fahrenheit much more pleasant that the Ottawa temperatures we left behind.
> 14:52/15:05 - Enter Georgia and visit Welcome Centre.
> 15:24 - Pass through Savannah.
> 16:43/17:00 - Enter Florida and visit Welcome Centre
> 19:05 - Arrive in New Smyrna Beach and are greeted by Barrie and Eve.

Distance approximately 2324 Kilometres (of course I didn’t write it down).

2324 kilometres = 1444 miles.

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10 March 2018 - Second day of holiday and still heading south

15/4/2018

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10 March 2018

Keeping up the log entries.
Bright and sunny in Enola Pennsylvania and +2celsius (36 Fahrenheit).
1497 kilometre (930 miles) to go

> 08:45 - Depart Enola
> 09:30 - Things are starting to look a lot greener.
> 09:38 - Enter Maryland. In this part of the US Maryland is very small - not even a Maryland tourist Welcome Centre.
> 09:48 - Enter West Virginia. As you can see Maryland was very small. Only took 10 minutes to drive through in this area.
> 10:00/10:10 - Visit West Virginia Welcome Centre. We try and stop at all of the Welcome Centres. It is a bit of a break to be able to get out and stretch your legs and pick up a map and a book of $ off hotel coupons.
> 10:40 - Off I81 and on US17/50/522.
Temperature +6 Celsius (43 Fahrenheit) and cloudy.
> 12:10 - Enter I95 at junction133 heading south with heavy traffic but moving well.
> 12:33/13:26 - Lunch at Poco Loco (Mexican) in Fredericksburg. Very good Mexican food provided by Mexican owner and staff.
Daffodils are out
> 13:30 - Accident on Northbound I95. Two cars - one off into the ditch and the other on roof facing the wrong way!
> 13:50 - Traffic becomes very slow north of Richmond.
> 13:55 - Police have two cars pulled over and traffic is now beginning to move much faster.
> 14:00 - Richmond and trees are in bloom. +11Celsius (52 Fahrenheit)
> 15:13/15:30 Enter North Carolina and visit N.C. Welcome Centre. Told that hotels in Wilson, where we thought we would spend the night, were all full. The reason may have been because of a junior baseball tournament and a US Army exercise. We were advised to carry on to Smithfield which was only a little further south.
> 17:00 - Arrive Smithfield and remain overnight. Tried to get into Best Western but full. B.W. called Sleep Inn and they had rooms so that is where we stayed. It just happens that the hotel complex is right beside (attached to) a Factory Outlet mall. Of course we had to do a bit of shopping and then supper at Texas Steakhouse and Saloon. Hotel gave a 10% discount.
Happy to recommend the Smithfield Sleep Inn. Very comfortable room and complimentary breakfast. It would be on parr with the Best Western.

Didn’t get the daily distance for today’s trip.

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09 March 2018 - First day of our holiday

15/4/2018

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I kept a bit of a log in the CAA TripTik and a notebook of the times we reached various places so I will just list them in date time order along with any comments.

09 March 2018
GPS says it is 2224 Kms to New Smyrna Beach where we will spend time with our friends Barrie and Eve
> 08:45 - depart home - a little later than we had hoped for. Originally wanted to start at 08:00
We did not take the TripTik route along the 401 to cross at the Thousand Islands Bridge between Gananoque Ont. and Alexandria NY. We continued along 416 to cross at Prescott Ont. and Ogdensburg NY and then continue on highways 37 and 11 to connect to I81 at Watertown. We find this crossing and smaller road much more pleasant. Also most of the time it seems as if the Ogdensburg NY crossing has less traffic and is, therefore, quicker.
> 10:07 - reach Canada side of border with United States of America
> 10:11 - now in the USofA a nice easy crossing
> 11:40 - Watertown - and light snow.
> 11:48/12:37 Lunch - at Shorty’s on I81
> 13:13 - Mexico NY - Snowing and road is very wet
> 13:37 - Syracuse NY - much less snow on the ground
> 14:15 - Tulley NY - very heavy snow
> 14:20 - Stopped snowing, road dry almost no snow on the ground
> 15:05 - Binghamton
> 15:20 - Enter Pennsylvania
> 17:30 - Lebanon Penn - NO SNOW ON GROUND
> 18:08 - Enola/Harrisburg - remain overnight at Best Western
TRAVELLED 752.2Kms on first day

Through a very dirty windshield.
Our happiness is heading south to see good friends, warm weather and a relaxing cruise.

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I am back and getting caught up.

15/4/2018

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Back from a wonderful three weeks away. Mostly nice warm weather, although it was ‘cool when we first got to Florida but that did not deter us from walking on the beach or birdwatching.

The weather on the cruise was mostly in the high 20’s (high 70’s Fahrenheit) during the day and only one day with a little bit of warm rain in Grenada. The rain did not deter us at all.

Finally have my photos from the holiday and cruise edited now it is time to try and update my blog. At least I did keep a little bit of a log while we were away, for both the trip down and back as well as days on the ship.
Over the next several days I will be adding more information under separate blogs. I still have a little bit of other editing to do but that shouldn’t take to long.- - -
Supposed to have a bit of freezing rain and possible snow over night. Did have a bit of freezing rain a little while ago but it seems to have stopped now. That is going to deter me from doing my training run. I have signed up for the 5K on the Ottawa Race Weekend in May so I do have to get into a bit better shape. I did do some treadmill running as well as faster walks around the training track on the ship.

Also have to do some updates on my vegetable experiments. Heather was a good girl and took care of my seedlings while I was away. Mostly good results.

Time to get back to work on the editing.

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12 March 2018 - Visit to St Augustine Alligator Farm

11 March 2018 - Day 3 of our Holiday.

10 March 2018 - Second day of holiday and still heading south

09 March 2018 - First day of our holiday

I am back and getting caught up.

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