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.

03-03-2019 A Few Days at Mayport

Current Location: Pelican Roost RV Park, Mayport Naval Station, Jacksonville, Florida

Cloudy and humid at 66 degrees F at 9AM

Our time here at Pelican Roost RV Park has been a bit low key.  Some of that is due to Mo’s less than perfect knee, but she has been plugging along reasonably well.  We are now taking turns walking the dog, and we have managed a few beach walks as well.

Even a dull gray day Mattie loved the beach at Mayport NAS

The other limiting factor in our adventures this week has been the weather.  We love outdoor stuff, mostly kayaking  and hiking. While there have been breaks in the gloomy weather, most of the days are foggy in the morning, gloomy during the day, and almost always with a prediction of rain ranging from 20 percent to 100 percent.  Not good kayaking weather.

One of the nicer amenities here at Mayport is the great view of the St John River and all the passing vessels coming and going.  The other amenity we came to appreciate more as the week progressed is the lovely beach, stretching for as far as the eye can see.  It is quiet and uncrowded, clean and peaceful. One morning we managed to get down to the beach in time for the sunrise.  Being from the west coast, sunrise on the beach is something we never see, and it was beautiful.

Atlantic Beach

Our adventures have been more connected to the car than usual, but we have managed to do some exploring in this area that was interesting.  I will say up front, that I am not particularly enamored with this part of Florida. It isn’t quite as crowded as the more southern parts of the Gulf side of Florida, but it isn’t even close to the Old Florida charm of the limestone backbone of the state around Ocala and Gainesville. 

This part of Florida certainly isn’t a bad place to be when almost the entire country is encased in snow and ice, blizzards, floods, storms and horribly cold temperatures.  I am glad we are here and not complaining in the least.  Just sayin’ I would choose North Central Florida over the Atlantic side of Florida.

Mom runners on Atlantic Beach.  Dedication!

On our first full day here, we decided to do a bit of reconnaissance and traveled south on A1A toward Atlantic Beach.  One of the better parts of Florida beaches is that many of them are actually dog friendly.  I had no idea about this, since most of the beaches in the state parks do not allow dogs, even on leashes.

Reading about the dog friendly sands at Atlantic Beach, just a bit south of us here in Mayport, was all we needed to pile into the Tracker with the dog and head for the beach.  The skies were sunny, and the breeze was a bit cool, but the walk was wonderful.  We saw a few people walking the beautiful beach, but not nearly as many as I expected to be out on this lovely day.

Beach parking in Atlantic Beach consists of a couple of spaces at every cross street that ends at the beach, with 15th street having the most spaces.  We were lucky to find an open spot on 14th street near some rather lovely beach homes. 

Beach homes at Atlantic Beach

Something that doesn’t show in the nice photo is the damp, moldy, musty smell that accompanied our walk from the car to the beach.  Lots of water here, and lots of humidity.  Of course that damp smell is to be expected.

Atlantic Beach in the vicinity of 14th Street

Mattie loved walking the beach as much as we did.  It was a gorgeous, long stretch of sand that extended north to the base that we could barely see in the distance and south as far as the eye could see.

Our next stop for the afternoon was  Dutton Island Preserve, where we read that the trails are open to dogs with leashes, and there was a kayak launch. The afternoon had warmed beautifully, the winds abated a bit and the sun felt wonderful.

Kayak launch at Dutton Island

We found the kayak launch where some fishermen were working their lines, but the tide was out and the launch looked rather uninviting with all that mucky mud.  Kayaking in a salt marsh can be interesting, but not necessarily during mid afternoon in hot sun.  It didn’t excite either of us, and we decided to simply explore the preserve a bit, and save our kayaking for areas that might entrance us more than this one.

Look close. That is me at the base of that huge trunk, see the blue shirt?

I did love the huge old oaks at the park.  There were walk-in campsites, and a lovely pavilion for picnicking. Once again, wildlife was almost absent, and even in the muddy shoals we didn’t see any alligators and very few birds.

Fishing boardwalk at Dutton Island

On another day, we decided to drive north, using the St John Ferry to save 20 miles on the route toward Amelia Island.  I have heard of Amelia Island since forever, and am pretty sure I have read a few novels from the famous getaway.  Long ago I imagined it as a high end ritzy place that catered to wealthy easterners.  Lately I have read about the wild parts of Amelia Island, and thought it would be fun to see what it had to offer.

We decided to travel all the way to the north end, to Fort Clinch State Park, and take our time on the return trip checking out Little Talbot Island and Big Talbot Island, state parks that are all part of the Amelia Island Complex.

Traveling north along A1A, we were shrouded in the deep darkness of ancient oak forest, and the extremely high end houses on the east side of the road were only barely visible beyond the gates and signs for each “community”.  It definitely looked like a place where moneyed people choose to come and play, and we didn’t see much of the beach on the west side of the road either.

Once we arrived at Fort Clinch, however, we could see the charm of the beautiful beaches and lovely forest in the wilder part of the island. We had a picnic with the area entirely to ourselves before we left Mattie in shade with windows open enough that we didn’t have to worry about her as we entered the Visitor Center and the grounds of the fort.

We have visited a few forts from this era of our history, built before the Civil War. Amelia Island and Fort Clinch were considered strategic, and the fort was taken by the Union Army from 1862 until the end of the war.  It has been restored several times, and it was interesting seeing the old brick of the original fort compared to areas of the smaller new brick of the restoration efforts.

Union uniforms at Fort Clinch

The views of the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south were gorgeous, and the views to the northwest of the huge St John River harbor were impressive. The fort had that same lovely red brick, blue sky, black and white trim look that makes photographing them so much fun. 

We took a bit of a side trip in the park to check out the campground, and were somewhat disappointed.  With all that space, and all that gorgeous forest, the camp was located right on the sandy beach, in the wide open somewhat weedy spaces.  The sites were narrow and all crammed in tight with no breathing space at all between them.  Not something we would chose to do no matter how lovely the beach might be. Especially a beach that had a no dogs allowed sign on it!

We stopped on the return trip to view the Amelia Island lighthouse from the Egans Creek boardwalk, finding one lone great egret watching  fish jumping in the low water.

Egans Creek Overlook

I think what I loved most about Amelia Island were the huge oaks overhanging the roads.  They are so dark and mysterious, and even more so with their shrouds of gray Spanish moss.  Our route back to the base passed by both Big Talbot Island and Little Talbot Island, but the skies were darkening, and we decided that it was time to get on back home.  Both parks would be great for more hiking trails, but you must pay a separate fee for each park, and with our limited walking distances, it didn’t seem like a good choice.

That evening the rains came at supper time, and my plans for pulling out the BBQ went by the wayside and we drove the short distance back north toward the Mayport St John’s Ferry, where we had dinner at a place that came highly recommended.  The Safe Harbor Seafood Market and Restaurant was perfect.  One could choose fish from the case of fresh fish and have it cooked to order, or choose from the menu, or stock up on fresh fish for the home fridge.

We chose to sit on the covered porch and watch the pelicans and river boats while we ate a truly yummy supper.  Grilled haddock for Mo and blackened shrimp for me.  Gotta thank Laurel for introducing me to the yummy flavor of blackened shrimp.  What a treat!

Yesterday it was raining and thundering, but we needed to get out for a bit at least, and once again piled into the car with the dog to go exploring.  We chose this time to continue south toward Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach.  Along with Atlantic Beach, these places are listed in the “things to do” in this area.  It was an interesting drive, with the “beach” being completely obscured along the route by houses, condos, and development. 

A short side trip into the main area of Neptune Beach led us into an enclave of mostly restaurants.  There were a LOT of them.  We drove on south toward Jacksonville Beach which our pedicure person had extolled as a fabulous place to go.  Maybe it was the rain, but it wasn’t all that exciting either.  In Jacksonville Beach, the main draw seems to be the restaurants and bars and it was happy hour.  The bars were overflowing on the decks with young people drinking and partying and having a great time. 

By the time we headed back north, we both decided that visiting the beaches along A1A isn’t exactly on our high priority list of fun things to do.  We don’t like to eat out all the time, and walking beaches in the rain isn’t all that much fun either. 

We pulled out the BBQ for the steaks I had planned for Mo’s birthday dinner.  That dinner turned into indoor enchiladas due to rain, but I didn’t let the rain stop me last night.  I managed to get the steaks done before the worst of the rain hit and we enjoyed a great dinner to the sound of drumming rain.

Today we are traveling a short distance back to the other side of Jacksonville, to set up for another week in another Military Family Camp.  It will be interesting to compare JAX NAS to Mayport NS.

Over the Mountain

  Isn’t that somehow a metaphor for life in general? One mountain after another to climb, sometimes in search of entertainment, or warmer weather, or cooler weather, or to find what isn’t on this side that may be on the other side, to cross summits that seem insurmountable, and then suddenly there we are, over the mountain.  I’m old enough to remember that old song “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”, and I have been over many of them, both physically, spiritually, and metaphorically. It’s a climb, but the other side of the mountain usually has great treasures and rewards.  I am thinking of Sherry and David as I write this, climbing their own huge mountain, right there in Florida where there are supposedly none to climb.

  We went over the mountain last week, and even as lovely as the world is around Rocky Point, there was stuff on the other side that we wanted to experience.  For once it wasn’t just a much needed trip to Costco that drew us over the pass.  Not far west of Medford is the small historic town of Jacksonville, Oregon.  Jacksonville stands completely on its own merits, with lots of cute little shops on the picturesque streets, and neighborhoods full of cute little Victorian cottages and Craftsman bungalows.  If I chose to live on “the other side” I would choose Jacksonville, except of course everyone else has had the same idea, and I can’t possibly afford anything remotely near Jacksonville.  Beside, Josephine County and Grants Pass have the lowest tax rates in Oregon, much less than Jackson County and the Medford/Jacksonville world.  Someday we will move to the other side of the mountain for good, but in the mean time I appreciate every single minute of my mountain home. Snow, winter, mosquitoes and long treks to town notwithstanding.

  In addition to its lovely setting, Jacksonville is home to the Britt Festival, this year celebrating 50 seasons of concerts under the stars.  The shows run from June through early October every year and the lineups are often legendary. The music is eclectic with all sorts of genres represented and Mo and I try to see at least one show a year.  Often we choose blankets on the grass where we follow the tradition of a picnic pack filled with wine, cheese, crackers, and grapes.  This year we decided to see Melissa Etheridge, a crazy rocker lady I have always loved and Mo didn’t much care about. It was a great show and I had a great time and Mo even enjoyed Melissa’s incredible musical talent on the 12 string guitar and piano.  The audience was mostly on their feet during the last 1/4 of the show.

Of course, Jacksonville is maybe 90 minutes away from home, but what better chance to spend a little time in the MoHo.  We thought it would be a lot more fun to go home to the rig than drive over the mountain after wine and music so we planned a couple of days at Emigrant Lake just east of Ashland and not far from Jacksonville.  Paul and Nina reviewed this great Jackson County Park a few weeks ago in April when the crowds were still nowhere to be found.  When we thought of the idea, it was already too late to make a reservation so we decided to take our chances. 

The week beforehand was a long and crazy one, with a full fledged field review in progress for my survey.  I worked long days with Chris and the crew and then on Thursday Dave Smith, the regional leader in California (and my old boss) came up to visit with the Oregon crew.  It’s probably too complicated to explain all this, but there is a huge reorganization going on and the Klamath Falls office is to become part of a completely different region, one headed by Dave in California instead of the leader in Portland.  It is an administrative and technical nightmare coming up, supposedly put in place to save money, but no one has a clue how that will actually happen.  All to begin on October 1. 

But back to the trip to Britt.  I had the review going so Mo had to do all the loading and hooking up and packing since I was gone long hours.  Then, on Friday, I begged off the last day of the review because I had a quilt class…clear down at Tater Patch in Merrill (about 1/2 hour south of Klamath Falls).  Now this is a really big deal because I had to prepay for the class months ago, before the review was scheduled and long before we had tickets for the Britt.  No skipping this one!  The class fills up right away and the waiting list is long.  I had my three months of waiting and was really looking forward to it.

Confusion set in as we tried to figure out just how to manage being in three places at once.  Finally settled on a scheme, and I drove the Tracker and kayaks to Klamath and then to Merrill early in the morning, and Mo left for Emigrant Lake with the MoHo and the animals early enough in the day to get a site.  Or so we thought.  When I finished my class at 4pm, a message from Mo said the park was full, it was in the high 90’s so boondocking with the animals was out of the question, and she was settling in to Pear Tree RV Resort along the interstate…with full hookups, lots of pavement, and freeway noise.  Hmmm. The park served its purpose, but was so unexciting that I neglected to even take a single photo while we were there.

Now leaving Merrill at 4 meant I had just two hours to get to over the mountain to Ashland, find Mo and the RV park, change clothes, and then get to Britt by 7.  Whew!  It was one of those crazy kind of days that I remember from having teenagers who often had to be in two cities (Spokane and Coeur D Alene, and we lived in the middle) on the same day for different things. I am definitely out of practice for that kind of thing!

Somehow it all came together and we managed to be everywhere we needed to be when we had to.  After the show we meandered along Old Stage Road right back to our little waiting home and I slept like a rock in spite of the freeway noise.  The next morning we left the cat safely in the air conditioned MoHo and drove the few miles east to Emigrant Lake with the kayaks.  Ahhhhhh……..

The lake is one that is easily visible from the interstate when driving from California into Ashland, and I have seen it for years and never actually driven down to look at it up close.  In this part of the state, most of the lakes are reservoirs, but the water was still high enough that we didn’t have that ugly reservoir brown ring to look at.  We found a free launch site at the southwestern edge of the lake, and while a bit muddy, the launch was simple.  The lake was lovely, and that was actually a surprise to both of us.  We had glassy water in the beginning, but a slight breeze came up, just enough to keep us cool and blow away any bugs.

We paddled along the southern grassy end of the lake and then north to the campground so well reviewed by Nina.  On this day however, every site was full with most sites already reserved for the following weekend and some even for the weekdays.  We left the kayaks at the beach and walked the campground, checking out the various sites and the views and decided that a weekday visit might be fun and would give us a chance to check out the eastern arm of the lake that we didn’t feel like doing this time.

By the time we got back to the rig it was mid afternoon and the temperatures were hitting the high 90’s.  The park had a swimming pool, spa, club house and all sorts of other amenities, but the cool depths of the shady RV felt awfully good to us and we just settled in for naps and a movie and an easy supper.  I didn’t even have any knitting or a computer with me and had to really relax.  It is amazing to me just how relaxing it is to get away like this, as much as we enjoy our home and our space there, somehow cozying up in the MoHo is so different.  No chores, no schedule, nothing at all that we have to do except kick back.  ahhhhh……again.

We took our own sweet time getting back on the road Sunday morning, leaving the MoHo on the northern side of Medford while we ambled up to Grants Pass for another look at property.  Still hoping for that perfect site to build an RV shed and store the MoHo in the winter.  While we haven’t found anything yet to fit the bill perfectly, we have a ton of fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of the small southern Oregon town.  By the time we got home on late Sunday afternoon we felt as though we had actually “been away”.

Another week of work for me ahead, with quilting homework in the evenings, a day-long quilt class on Friday, and then we will head south into California next week for another nice little camping trip at Lake Oroville with friends and fun and kayaks.

I wrote most of this post last Sunday, and it is already Thursday afternoon and this blog is still waiting for photos.  I can hear Mo outside mowing while I am in here plunking around on the computer.  Sometimes I just have to get away from numbers and spreadsheets and maps and data and refresh my brain with a little bit of memory making.  So in go the photos and with the push of the “publish” button, up goes another memory.