03-03 through 3-09-2019 A Week at Jacksonville Naval Air Station

Current Location: Jacksonville NAS Family Camp, Jacksonville, Florida

Clear and 70 degrees at 8PM

We left Mayport on a quiet Sunday morning, ready to travel the short distance across the bay to our new digs at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.  Knowing we couldn’t check in until 11AM we spent an easy morning walking the beach one last time, having a nice breakfast, and enjoyed a leisurely time as we readied the MoHo for travel.

The camp manager was so helpful, calling us two weeks prior to our visit and then again on Sunday morning, giving us explicit directions as to how to get to the park, where to go to check in, and then where to go to actually enter the campground.  Too bad I didn’t pay attention when he told me to take I-295 since it was the quickest route.

After our experience coming into Jacksonville last Sunday, I got the bright idea to instead choose the no tolls, no highways option on Google Maps.  If you look closely at the photo below, you can see what happened.  I was routed right through downtown Jacksonville, across the big drawbridge, and through the very narrow brick streets in the historic neighborhoods before finally getting on something remotely resembling a highway.  No freeways, and two hours later we arrived at what is locally known as JAX NAS.

We definitely got an eyeful of Jacksonville, more than we had in our previous sheltered week at Mayport, and I needed to learn a bit about the city.  What I found was a surprise.  Jacksonville is the 12th largest city in the United States for population and the largest city by land area in the contiguous United States.  No wonder we saw Jacksonville city limit signs miles and miles out of town on Amelia Island.

It seems that in the latter part of the 60’s, the city center was abandoned to the suburbs, and was in a state of decay with no tax dollars to improve the situation.  The suburbs were floundering as well, without services and any kind of central government to manage some kind of infrastructure.  As a result, the city of Jacksonville actually annexed a huge area of all the surrounding small towns and communities to create one huge city. 

I think it worked.  Jacksonville now has a thriving economy, with a big military presence, high employment rates and a decent standard of living.  For a big city. And it is a really BIG city.  Somehow I had no clue just how big it was until we spent another week driving Jacksonville traffic trying to get around to “do stuff”.  The other problem with trying to get around in Jacksonville is all the water.  Part of the wealth of the city is directly related to the huge St John River, and the deep water port, navigable from the Atlantic Ocean.  No matter where you go there is water, and there are bridges, lots of them. 

When we arrived at the campground, the camp host was right there waiting for us, showing us to our site and making sure we were positioned for hookups.  He also warned us about the unlevel cement pads, and offered some wooden blocks to add some height.  We managed to level without them, but he hovered around quite a bit trying to make sure we were comfortable.

The campground is a lot different than Mayport.  It is smaller, and tighter, and the sites are much closer together.  There is no cable TV, but full hookups.  Most of the people here seem to be settled in for the season, and almost all of them seem to have “Retired Navy” either on their rigs, or on their tee shirts and caps. 

The laundry room is also free, but the machines aren’t as new or nice as Mayport, but at least they do have some folding tables which is helpful.

After settling in, we decided to explore the small nature trail that goes from the campground along the bay, but much of it was muddy and overgrown.  Late in the week, we never made it back there, because we would walk Mattie on the wide open grassy spaces around the park. and at the wonderful big regional park we found just outside the gates of the base.

A surprising thing about Jacksonville are the number of parks with various lands within the city limits operated by the National Park Service, Florida State Parks and the City of Jacksonville Department of Parks and Recreation. Jacksonville operates the largest urban park system in the United States, providing facilities and services at more than 337 locations on more than 80,000 acres located throughout the city.  Rather amazing I think.

During our week at JAX NAS we spent some local time at one of these beautiful city parks, Tille K Fowler Regional Park.  On one afternoon we hiked to the observation tower, and on another day we traveled a bit of the Island Trail. 

It was wonderful having such a dog friendly park directly across the street from the base, just outside the main gate.  I have never seen a dog park like this one, with actual trails for the dogs to run, surrounded by tall chain link fence to keep them safe.  There was a small dog park and a large dog park, but with all the standing water in the small park we chose to let Mattie hang out in the big dog park.  No other dogs were around, so she was ok to run and play all she wanted to in that big open space.

Another great benefit of JAX NAS is the brand new commissary.  It is huge, about as big as any Costco, with lots of good produce, including organic, excellent meats and seafood, and just about anything you could ask for in the deli section.  I was shocked at the low prices, with items costing sometimes half of what I am used to paying in Oregon and elsewhere on this trip, even here in Florida. The NEX was also huge, with lots of choices, but the prices at the NEX didn’t seem all that different than anywhere else, except you don’t have to pay sales tax.  Well, we are from Oregon, so we aren’t used to paying sales tax anyway!

During our time here, we spent a day cleaning up and shopping, two separate days exploring nearby Saint Augustine, (post to come soon), a day traveling farther south to kayak the Silver River, (see this post) and a couple of days doing nothing but catching up on stuff, doing free laundry, and taking the dog to the park.

It has been a good week, and the campground served us well for the time we were here.