86 ST Augustine

Didn't see this last night.

     We slept well and awoke to sounds in the kitchen,  Rat may be a skilled Harley technician but when he is in front of the stove you would swear he is a chef.  I have never seen anybody so methodical preparing a meal.  Some may even say he is anal about it, but who am I to talk.  At home we always seem to be in a rush and Ruthie can have a meal on the table in less than 15 minutes.  I believe the tomatoes were diced into measured cubes as well as the rest of the breakfast ingredients.  It was well worth the wait.   Elaine asked if I would like a cup of coffee?  Unsuspecting (I'm such a babe in the woods.) I said yes, then she asked "how do you like your women?"  Careful Vern, try to answer appropriately.  (never been asked that before.)   We left Rats and Elaine under the most protest we had seen,  They had room they had food, (what more could we ask for). and

Elaine wanted us to stay,  she could not believe we were leaving in weather like this.  It would be nice to stay.  Actually the weather wasn't that bad, 43 and overcast our friends in Minnesota were dealing with wind-chills, 63 below in Grand Marais MN and as always good old Embarrass MN proudly displays the "cold spot" on their city web page and gets national recognition as the coldest spot.  We were dressed in layers and would feel quite comfortable.

Also we were trying to keep ahead of the frigid weather train heading our way.   Wishing our new friends well we donned our new buffs, (Dale in Ocean isle had gave us the scoop on these.) Elaine said I looked like a girl in mine.  It felt good on our face and neck against the cold wind.  Time to hit the road.   The official time was 9 AM January 6, 2014 when we finally crossed the Florida line, it should warm up now, still 43 degrees?

  How much further south do we have to go.   We enjoyed the ride in several places the ancient trees arched across the road touching in the center.    We crossed the Suwannee river, that didn't look right, we did a U-turn to check the spelling.  It seems Stephen Foster had misspelled the river in his  famous song.   

    The last time we were in St Augustine We had been here Bandanas by Michelle was a toddler.   I had been stationed there temporarily for a Navy radiography school learning to x-ray airplanes.  The GPS took us to the center of town, we were very hungry and it was hard to find a parking spot for our rig near food.   We like to find a spot that is easy to back out of or a pull thru.  We rode up and down the main drag a couple of times.  I said I had seen a Italian place with a nice parking lot.  Le Pavillon, silly me, turned out to be French with hints of German and Norwegian.

   Adventurous we ordered a brie round baked in a pastry puff.  While it was baking Ruthie made an expensive trip to the bathroom.   A wise entrepreneur had placed a sample of some kind of coconut oil laden exfoliate where the soap should have been.   Guess we will make room for it.  The brie was served with fresh fruit, yum, we will have this again.  Our servers Allison and Laurel made sure we had the recipe and were well taken care of.  We found a motel and while Ruthie was checking us in she inquired about the hot tub, after all people in Minnesota use their out door hot tubs all year round, something about the Scandinavians.  She was assured it was ready to go.  It was several blocks from the historic part of town.    Ruthie was determined to visit Aviles Street the narrowest and oldest street in the United States, many of the homes and shops are over 200 years old, Even though we were tired we decided to walk rather than try and find a parking spot.  After walking down the street we went down Saint George Street which is more popular because of the shops and cafe's.  We stopped in a candy shop and tasted a truffle with a hot pepper in it, won't do that again.  

A sample of wine helped to get the heat out of my mouth and this tasty treat finished the job.  It was dark by the time we walked back to the motel so we were able to enjoy the Christmas lighting as we walked, 
     Back at the motel we were looking forward to using the hot tub. We were still chilled from the cool ride in and it would help our muscles to relax.  Almost to the gate we were met by a maintenance person, "Please don't tell me your going in the pool?".  We told him our plans, he said let me check it out I don't think it is turned on.  Sticking his hand in he said "you don't want to go in there."  He turned it on and said give it 45 minutes
   We watched a little college football, Charles in Midland had gotten us interested in the college games and we have a friend back home that is a Buckeye fan, felt bad for her as we were emailing back and forth during the game.  Evidently the maintenance man over estimated the heating capability of the hot tub.  A hour wasn't enough, more like Luke warm bath water, deciding to tough it out we were able to enjoy it as it fought to heat up against the outside air and cold cement surroundings.  

  It turned out to be quite pleasant as normally they are too hot for me to stay in very long.  Our riding muscles needed this therapy.    Unfortunately because the hot tub was filled to the top some of the water spilling over the edge soaked Ruthie's phone, no rice available so we disassembled it and used the hair dryer, we will let it dry overnight in front of the wall heater.  We received some upsetting medical news from our friends in Midland and would be in touch with them as they went thru this challenge.