Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: 3 Camper Nights at St Augustine - Daytona - Auburndale

Harry getting scammed at gas pump

Sandi Jimmerson at her Media Center with Lulu

We slept along the marina at St Augustine the first night

Outside Frank Lloyd Wright - student built chapel

Fort St Mark - St Augustine - they fire a cannon for you

I am typing from 30,000 feet on the way to Washington DC to visit my son and grandson. Lulu and I just finished a 4 day vagabond trip circling parts of Florida. We spent our 11th - 12th - and 13th night in our camper. I use the term camper pretty loosely. It is a full self-contained motor home - only 19 feet long - but jam packed with the comforts of home.

We started out on Saturday morning driving 200 miles east from Tallahassee to Jacksonville - Atlantic Beach - Neptune Beach - and St Augustine. We occupied the right lane at 60 MPH and just enjoyed the scenery and the comfortable ride that new tires - new shocks - and fresh wheel alignment provides. I drove - Lulu spent most of the time in her little office in back. She is busy on a contract to re-write one of her former books.

The first night was spent in St Augustine - we found a parking meter right on the Main Street - and to our surprise - it was free for the weekend. So we paid nothing to "camp" as we did for all 3 nights of this trip. St Augustine is such a great walking town - lots of historic buildings - good places to shop - lots of reasonably priced eating places - and plenty of tourists to view. We ate at the Bull and Crown Pub - with a perfect outdoor table to watch the promenade on St George St.

We have been to St Augustine - the oldest continuous city in the USA - many times. Each time we learn something new. Before it was a state - England and Spain took turns owning Florida. During the Revoltionary War - Florida was owned by England. They used St Augustine and its Fort St Mark as a prison to house POWs from America. Three signers of the Declaration of Independence spent time here. Chief Osceola - the leader of the Seminoles Indians was captured under a white flag - and he spent much of his last years here.

On Sunday at about noon we headed south to Daytona Beach. We drove on A1A all along the coast. It is a wonderful road with not a lot of traffic. You pass through all sorts of beach communities. Daytona Beach is an interesting place. The sand is packed so hard - you can drive your car right on the beach. A few things have changed there. Now you must pay $20 to drive on the beach. It used to be pretty busy when it was free - the fee calmed it down a bit. Also it used to be two-way traffic - now it is just one-way south. This cuts down the danger to pedestrians. The beach is very wide - plenty of room for cars to park - traffic - and beach blankets. In some places - the beach is over 500 feet wide. They used to race cars on the beach - setting world speed records.

Ironically - the Daytona 500 was racing just 2 miles away. In some places you heard the racetrack from the beach. Using my Slingbox - iPhone - and laptop - I could watch the race right on the beach. It started out foggy in the morning - but on TV - you could see it was sunny at the racetrack. Later in the day the sun broke through.

Our Roadtrek is the perfect beach vehicle. We have all the comforts of home - like a refrigerator that freezes ice cream - TV - computers - Internet - wifi - music - heat - AC - toilet - indoor and outdoor showers with hot water - generator - gas stove - microwave - even a kitchen sink. There is a king size bed - and a table to serve as Lulu's desk. We carry 30 gallons of water that easily gave each of us 3 showers.

At sunset - the police with loudspeakers - chase all the cars off the beach. Just south of the race track - we found a nice quiet Walmart to spend the night. At night the temperature dropped into the 60s - making for excellent windows-open sleeping. All windows have screens - curtains - and are tinted to keep out prying eyes. All three nights on the trip - we were pretty tired and slept well. No surprises - unless you count quiet as a surprise.

Monday morning - we drove to Lakeland - home of the Florida Southern College. It is a small expensive methodist college of less than 3000 kids. What makes it famous is that it is the largest collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world. Wright designed and built 18 buildings here in the 1930s - 1940s - 1950s. They have an organized 3.5 hour tour which we paid only $18 for. The reason was - we arrived 10 minutes past the 1 PM start. They let us join the tour saying we could pay later - and they only charged us half price.

Wright is considered The Godfather of American Architecture. He had very little formal training - and he flew by the seat of his pants. His buildings are distinctive - they have a special look and feel. They certainly are not practical. They have not held up well - as a matter of fact - they were crumbling. They are too expensive to maintain - and although Wright liked to fit his buildings with the environment - they were not practical. This is all my opinion. Wright was from Wisconsin - and his designs did not allow for Florida climate. They had flat leaking roofs - lots of skylights - and the building materials did not weather well. Most of the buildings are made of "textile blocks" that were made on site by the students. The blocks had pieces of gas imbedded that caused much leakage and weathering.

The buildings did not have air conditioning. As a result - they were hot and humid. This caused mold - a real problem in Florida. Eventually the buildings were refitted with AC and it did not work well in the un-insulated buildings. The college eventually covered over the sky lights - and many of the spectacular features. AC units hung on the outside of the buildings. The buildings are connected by esplanades - covered walkways - that are made of decorative concrete.

During the war - tuition was waived to students that agreed to do manual labor on the buildings. They had a strong Industrial Arts Department that led the way. The kids did a lot of the concrete work and it shows. They made the textile blocks on site. Reinforcement Bar Rods were inserted through the blocks both horizontally and vertically. These rods rusted causing crumbling and decay.

At the end of the tour - the last building - is new. It was built in 2013 and they used better materials but followed the original plans. It is a faculty home - from the Prairie School Style. They used stainless steel rebar and a higher quality of concrete to build the textile blocks. It includes a carport - which supposedly was invented by Wright.

During his time - Wright was mocked by the Architectural Industry - but he was later appreciated for his imagination. His personal life was as unusual as his professional life. He married many times and there were questionable fires and deaths.

Many of the buildings are in various states of dormancy and decay. Many need major renovation which would cost more than the buildings are worth. Let's face it - if you spend - $50,000 to perfectly restore a Model T Ford - you still have a Model T that cost $295 new - and it still performs like a Model T Ford.

After the campus visit - we drove to Auburndale to visit Sandi Jimmerson - one of Lulu's best students. She has her own home and recently took a job at Citrus Grove Civic Academy to set up a new library in a new school. We were surprised at how lovely Sandi's hometown of Auburndale is - in the Lake District of Florida. We pulled the Roadtrek (camper - motorhome) into her yard. We had supper with Sandi and planned our visit to her library the next day.

We had our 3rd straight night of windows open sound sleep - we didn't hear Sandi leave for work at 6:30. It took us until about 10 AM to get to the school for the library tour. Sandi's library is lovely - spacious - and has giant windows. If you look hard enough you can see Mount Everest in Disneyworld - about 5 miles away - from the library. Many of the cars parked in the school lot have Disney Annual Pass stickers on them - including Sandi's.

There must be a great satisfaction to say you designed - setup - and operate a library from scratch. You can tell Sandi loves her library - school - and job. The kids and teachers love her. Sandi is a graduate of the FSU Project LEAD. It was a program designed to pick fantastic teachers and turn them into library leaders. In the program Sandi earned her Master of Library Science degree from FSU - the number 1 school in the nation for "schools library science" - according to US News and World Report.

At that time I was ready to go home - but Lulu insisted on a visit to Disney World. We have become masters at the "free" Disney Tour. We visited the ticket office and purchased park tickets using our resident pass. In April - the grandkids are coming down. After that Lulu insisted on 2 hours in the outlet shopping mall.

I would like to finish the trip on a positive note - but I have to include problems to make it real. The camper performed flawlessly. I didn't. I was the victim of a scam. We were about to leave Lake Buena Vista - the gas gauge read 1/4 tank left. The Shell Station up ahead had out a big yellow sign saying gasoline $2.47 a gallon. The place must have had 24 pumps and most of them were empty. One of the neatest inventions is the pay at the pump feature with your credit card - I do it all the time. No need to go inside to pay - we use the toilet in the camper. The screens on the pumps were hard to read - fogged over by weather. I grabbed the nozzle - put it in my tank - and proceeded to fill. Usually a fillup costs about $50 - this time it went to $75! I noticed I only got 20 gallons. Here is the scam and it is my fault. They charge $2.47 a gallon for cash and $3.47 a gallon for credit card! Yes - I did not read the fine print. I went inside to pay with cash - too late - once you insert the credit card - they got you. Fool me once - shame on me - fool you twice - we won't be fooled again :-)

I did let them know how I felt - but they heard it all before. Shame on me for not reading.

That was 4 PM. We entered the Florida Turnpike and we were home before 9 PM. We stopped once half way to change drivers. I do not remember the last 2 hours - I slept the whole way in our quiet - comfy turtle shell. Lulu knows that section of I-10 by heart.

The trip covered 700 miles. 4 days - 3 nights - no fee camping. We spent $20 to ride the camper on the beach - and $36 for the Frank Lloyd Wright tour of the campus - and $20 extra for the gasoline scam. Most of the meals were made in the camper. I am typing this story from Keith's apartment in Washington DC. I flew up here this Friday morning between 7 and 9 AM. I will fly back to Tallahassee on Sunday night.